Them, i.e. mankind, of whom he spake, Psalms 90:8. As with a flood; unexpectedly, violently and irresistibly, universally, without exception or distinction. As a sleep; short and vain, as sleep is, and not minded till it be past. Or like a dream, when a man sleepeth, wherein there may be some real pleasure, but never any satisfaction; or some real trouble, but very inconsiderable, and seldom or never pernicious. Even such an idle and insignificant thing is human life considered in itself, without respect to a future state, in which there is but a mere shadow or dream of felicity, only the calamities attending upon it are more real and weighty. Which groweth up, Heb. which is changed, either, first, for the worse, which passeth away, as some render the word; which having generally affirmed here, he may seem more particularly to explain in the next verse: or rather, secondly, for the better, as this word is sometimes used, as Job 14:7 Isaiah 40:31, which sprouteth out of the earth, and groweth more apparent, and green, and flourishing. And this interpretation is confirmed from the next verse, where this same word is used in this sense; where also the morning is again mentioned, and that as the time, not of its decay, but of its flourishing.
Related Commentaries of Psalms 90:5
Psalms 90:5
5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.