INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 90 A PRAYER OF MOSES THE MAN OF GOD. Here begins the fourth part of the book of Psalms, and with the most ancient psalm throughout the whole book, it being written by Moses; not by one of that name that lived in later times; nor by one of his posterity; nor by some one who com... [ Continue Reading ]
LORD, THOU HAST BEEN OUR DWELLING PLACE IN ALL GENERATIONS,.... Even when they had no certain dwelling place in the world; so their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, dwelt in tabernacles in the land of promise, as in a strange land; and their posterity for many years served under great afflictio... [ Continue Reading ]
BEFORE THE MOUNTAINS WERE BROUGHT FORTH,.... Or "were born" b, and came forth out of the womb and bowels of the earth, and were made to rise and stand up at the command of God, as they did when he first created the earth; and are mentioned not only because of their firmness and stability, but their... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU TURNEST MAN TO DESTRUCTION,.... Or to death, as the Targum, which is the destruction of man; not an annihilation of body or soul, but a dissolution of the union between them; the words may be rendered, "thou turnest man until he is broken" b; and crumbled into dust; thou turnest him about in th... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR A THOUSAND YEARS IN THY SIGHT ARE BUT AS YESTERDAY,.... Which may be said to obviate the difficulty in man's return, or resurrection, from the dead, taken from the length of time in which some have continued in the grave; which vanishes, when it is observed, that in thy sight, esteem, and accoun... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU CARRIEST THEM AWAY AS WITH A FLOOD,.... As the whole world of the ungodly were with the deluge, to which perhaps the allusion is; the phrase is expressive of death; so the Targum, "if they are not converted, thou wilt bring death upon them;'' the swiftness of time is aptly signified by the fl... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE MORNING IT FLOURISHETH AND GROWETH UP,.... That is, the grass, through the dew that lay all night on it, and by the clear shining of the sun after rain, when it appears in great beauty and verdure; so man in the morning of his youth looks gay and beautiful, grows in the stature and strength o... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE ARE CONSUMED BY THINE ANGER,.... Kimchi applies this to the Jews in captivity; but it is to be understood of the Israelites in the wilderness, who are here introduced by Moses as owning and acknowledging that they were wasting and consuming there, as it was threatened they should; and that as... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST SET OUR SINS BEFORE THEE,.... The cause of all trouble, consumption, and death; these are before the Lord, as the evidence, according to which he as a righteous Judge proceeds; this is opposed to the pardon of sin, which is expressed by a casting it behind his back, Isaiah 38:17, OUR SECR... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ALL OUR DAYS ARE PASSED AWAY IN THY WRATH,.... The life of man is rather measured by days than by months or years; and these are but few, which pass away or "decline" g as the day does towards the evening; see Jeremiah 6:4 or "turn away their face", as the word h may be rendered: they turn their... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DAYS OF OUR YEARS ARE THREESCORE YEARS AND TEN,.... In the Hebrew text it is, "the days of our years in them are", c. a which refers either to the days in which we live, or to the persons of the Israelites in the wilderness, who were instances of this term of life, in whom perhaps it first took... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO KNOWETH THE POWER OF THINE ANGER?.... Expressed in his judgments on men: as the drowning of the old world, the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, the consumption of the Israelites in the wilderness; or in shortening the days of men, and bringing them to the dust of death; or by inflicting punishment... [ Continue Reading ]
SO TEACH US TO NUMBER OUR DAYS,.... Not merely to count them, how many they are, in an arithmetical way; there is no need of divine teachings for that; some few instructions from an arithmetician, and a moderate skill in arithmetic, will enable persons not only to count the years of their lives, but... [ Continue Reading ]
RETURN, O LORD,.... Either from the fierceness of thine anger, according to Aben Ezra and Jarchi; of which complaint is made, Psalms 90:7, or unto us, from whom he had departed; for though God is everywhere, as to his being and immensity, yet, as to his gracious presence, he is not; and where that... [ Continue Reading ]
O SATISFY US EARLY WITH THY MERCY,.... Or "grace" g; the means of grace, the God of all grace, and communion with him, Christ and his grace; things without which, souls hungry and thirsty, in a spiritual sense, cannot be satisfied; these will satisfy them, and nothing else; namely, the discoveries o... [ Continue Reading ]
MAKE US GLAD ACCORDING TO THE DAYS WHEREIN THOU HAST AFFLICTED US,.... The days of affliction are times of sorrow; and days of prosperity make glad and joyful; and the psalmist here seems to desire an equal number of the one as of the other; not that an exact precise number of the one with the other... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THY WORK APPEAR UNTO THY SERVANTS,.... Either the work of Providence, in conducting the people of Israel through the wilderness, and bringing them into the land of Canaan; which God had promised to do for them, especially for their posterity, and therefore their "children" are particularly menti... [ Continue Reading ]
AND LET THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD OUR GOD BE UPON US,.... Either the grace and favour of God, his gracious presence vouchsafed in his ordinances, which makes his tabernacles amiable and lovely, and his ways of pleasantness; or the righteousness of Christ, which is that comeliness he puts upon his peopl... [ Continue Reading ]