Psalms 90:1-17 - Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

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the Message of the Passing Years

Psalms 90:1-17

The majestic music of this great psalm separates it from all the rest. It is like the deep bass stop of a mighty organ. Moses' authorship is stamped upon it. It is worthy of the man who had seen God face to face.

Psalms 90:1-6. The transitoriness of human life is contrasted with the stability of God. He is the asylum and home of all the generations of mankind, Deuteronomy 33:27. The earth and its mountains the universe and its worlds, were born of Him; but He Himself had no origin, no beginning. Time is but a sigh, a breath, the swift rush of the mountain-torrent, a tale told by the camp-fire at night, the grass of a morning's growth.

Psalms 90:7-12. A wail is borne in these verses from the forty years of wanderings. The ceaseless succession of graves was the bitter harvest of Israel's rebellions. Oh, that we might apply our hearts to wisdom that we may not fail of God's rest!

Psalms 90:13-17. In the closing words Moses utters a sublime prayer which includes us all. Let us seek to do some good work before we go, and may our children be a nobler generation than ourselves! But all beauty of character and permanence of work must emanate from God.

Related Commentaries of Psalms 90:1

Psalms 90:1-17

1 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

7 For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.

8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.

10 The daysa of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

12 So teach us to number our days, that we may applyb our hearts unto wisdom.

13 Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.

14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.

16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.

17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.