THE PSALMS BOOK IV Psalms 90-106 This Psalm consists of three divisions. i. It is to Jehovah alone that Israel can appeal in their distress, though He seems to have forsaken them. He has proved Himself their refuge in each succeeding age: He alone is the Eternal God: the lives of men are at His... [ Continue Reading ]
_Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place_ The Psalmist addresses God not by the covenant Name Jehovah (Lord), but by the title which designates Him as the Ruler of the world. He not merely is, but has proved Himself to be, Israel's home, age after age, in all the vicissitudes of its history. The sam... [ Continue Reading ]
The Psalmist's confession that God is Israel's refuge; that He alone is the Eternal; that He is the sovereign Disposer of human life.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the mountains_ Named first because they were regarded as the most ancient parts of the earth. Cp. Deuteronomy 33:15; Proverbs 8:25; Habakkuk 3:6. _thou hadst formed_ Lit. _didst travail in birth with_. The LXX and some other Ancient Versions, startled perhaps by the boldness of the metaphor, read t... [ Continue Reading ]
The thought here is not merely that man's life is infinitely brief in contrast to the eternity of God, but that it is absolutely at His disposal. The Psalmist plainly refers to Genesis 3:19, though he chooses different words to emphasise his point: Thou makest mortal man return to atoms. _Enôsh_deno... [ Continue Reading ]
The precise connexion of the thought is obscure. Some commentators connect Psalms 90:4 with Psalms 90:2, treating Psalms 90:3 as a parenthesis. -Thou art eternal, for lapse of time makes no difference to Thee." But it seems preferable to connect Psalms 90:4 directly with Psalms 90:3. -Thou sweepest... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou carriest them away as with a flood_ A single word in the Heb. suffices to draw the picture. Man is compared to a building swept away by a sudden burst of rain such as is common in the East. Cp. Isaiah 28:2; Isaiah 30:30; Matthew 7:25; Matthew 7:27. _they are_as _a sleep_ As those who are aslee... [ Continue Reading ]
_it is cut down_ Or, _it fadeth_. Cp. Psalms 37:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
_For_&c. This is the Psalmist's reason for reminding God of the frailty of human life. We Israel have been consumed through thine anger, and through thy wrath have we been dismayed. He speaks of it not as a general truth but as an actual experience. _Dismayed_is a word specially used of the constern... [ Continue Reading ]
Human life is at best brief and uncertain; and Israel's life is being spent under the cloud of God's wrath for the punishment of its sins.... [ Continue Reading ]
Instead of -hiding His face" from their sins He sets them all before Him, and drags them all to light. Elsewhere -the light of God's countenance" denotes His favour; here a slightly different word, lit. _the luminary of Thy face_, is used to denote His Presence as a searching light from which nothin... [ Continue Reading ]
_are passed away_ Lit. _turn_or _decline_towards evening (Jeremiah 6:4). We are "a generation of thy wrath" (Jeremiah 7:29). Our life is drawing to a close under a cloud; there is no sign of -light at evening-tide." _we spend_&c. Lit. we consume our years as a sigh: they are past as quickly as a si... [ Continue Reading ]
The punctuation of A.V. is misleading. Render: The days of our years therein are threescore years and ten, And if we be of much strength, fourscore years: And their pride is but travail and misery, For it is swiftly past, and we have taken flight. Our lifetime (Genesis 47:8-9) is but short at b... [ Continue Reading ]
Who knoweth the power of thine anger, And thy wrath according to the fear that is due unto thee? (R.V.) Who understands or lays to heart the intensity of God's wrath against sin so as to fear Him duly with that reverence which is man's safeguard against offending Him? Cp. Psalms 5:7; Proverbs 3:7;... [ Continue Reading ]
_So teach_us] _So_then, as Thy fear (Psalms 90:11) which is "the beginning of wisdom" requires, _make_us _know_how &c.: give us that discernment which we lack. _that we may apply_&c. That we may get us an heart of wisdom (R.V.). The verb is used of garnering in the harvest. The second line combines... [ Continue Reading ]
A combined reminiscence of Exodus 32:12 and Deuteronomy 32:36. Cp. too Psalms 6:3-4. _Return_is the most obvious rendering; but the passage in Ex. suggests that the meaning may be, _Turn_from thy wrath; _how long_wilt thou be angry? Cp. Psalms 80:4. God's change of attitude is spoken of in Scripture... [ Continue Reading ]
Prayer for such a restoration of God's favour to His people as will gladden the members of it through the brief span of life. Perhaps the connexion with the preceding verses is the hope that Israel's resipiscence may prepare the way for Jehovah's return.... [ Continue Reading ]
O satisfy us in the morning with thy lovingkindness] Israel is still in the night of trouble. O may the dawn soon come! Cp. Psalms 30:5; Psalms 49:14; Psalms 143:8. _that we may rejoice_ Or, shout for joy, as Psalms 5:11, and often.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Make us glad according to the days_&c. Let the joy of restoration to Thy favour be proportioned to the depth of our humiliation. Cp. Isaiah 61:7. The form of the word for -days" (_y'môth_) occurs elsewhere only in Deuteronomy 32:7; and the word for _afflicted_is the same as that rendered _to humble... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let thy work appear_ Manifest Thy power on their behalf. God's _work_denotes especially the exertion of His saving Providence. Cp. Psalms 92:4; Deuteronomy 32:4; Habakkuk 3:2. _thy glory Thy majesty_, manifested in their deliverance. Cp. Psalms 111:3; Isaiah 40:5. The division of the clauses is of... [ Continue Reading ]
_the beauty_ Or, _pleasantness_: the gracious kindliness of Jehovah. Cp. Psalms 27:4; Proverbs 3:17. _the work of our hands_ A phrase characteristic of Deuteronomy, where it occurs seven times. All the ordinary undertakings of daily life are meant, not necessarily any particular enterprise. The Ps... [ Continue Reading ]