Psalms 90

General context

The speakers say the Lord has been our dwelling place in all generations, and that before the mountains were brought forth or the earth and world formed, from everlasting to everlasting, he is God. God turns man to destruction and says, Return, ye children of men; a thousand years in his sight are as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. He carries people away as with a flood; they are as a sleep, like grass that grows up in the morning and is cut down and withers in the evening. The speakers say they are consumed by God's anger and troubled by his wrath, their iniquities and secret sins set in the light of his countenance, their days passed in his wrath and their years spent as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten, or fourscore by reason of strength, yet their strength is labour and sorrow, soon cut off. Who knows the power of God's anger? They ask to be taught to number their days so as to apply their hearts to wisdom. They ask the Lord to return, how long, and to repent concerning his servants; to satisfy them early with mercy so they may rejoice all their days; to make them glad according to the days of affliction and the years they have seen evil; to let his work appear to his servants and his glory to their children; and to let the beauty of the Lord be upon them and establish the work of their hands, repeated twice.

Cited passages: Psalms 90:1, Psalms 90:2, Psalms 90:3, Psalms 90:4, Psalms 90:5, Psalms 90:6, Psalms 90:7, Psalms 90:8, Psalms 90:9, Psalms 90:10, Psalms 90:11, Psalms 90:12, Psalms 90:13, Psalms 90:14, Psalms 90:15, Psalms 90:16, Psalms 90:17

Psalms 90 (KJV)

This page shows the King James Version. In the app, reading opens in the Berean Standard Bible unless you have chosen another translation. The reader includes five translations: the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), the King James Version (KJV), the World English Bible (WEB), the Bible in Basic English (BBE), and the American Standard Version (ASV). Search covers three of them: Berean Standard, King James, and World English. Basic English and American Standard readers search the King James words.

Historical context

This source prints no superscription; the psalm begins with Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. The speakers are plural throughout, our, we, us, and call themselves thy servants. The affliction is described as God's anger and wrath over our iniquities and secret sins, and as days and years in which we have seen evil, without naming an enemy, a place or an occasion. The lifespan figures are stated in the text: threescore years and ten, and fourscore by reason of strength. The contrast the psalm draws is between everlasting to everlasting and a thousand years that pass like yesterday or a night watch on God's side, and grass, sleep, a flood and a tale that is told on the human side. The word return is used twice, once as God's command to the children of men and once as the people's plea to God. There is no Selah in this psalm. The prayer is not reported as answered.

Cited passages: Psalms 90:1, Psalms 90:13, Psalms 90:8, Psalms 90:15, Psalms 90:10, Psalms 90:2, Psalms 90:3

Literary context

The poem is arranged by scale. It begins with God before the mountains and ends with the work of our hands, and between those poles it measures time in units that shrink: everlasting, a thousand years, a night watch, a morning and evening, seventy or eighty years, a tale that is told. Grass supplies the central image, growing in the morning and cut down by evening, and the flood and sleep add other pictures of being carried off. The verb return is exchanged between God and the people, and the phrase all our days answers the earlier all our days are passed away in thy wrath. The request to number our days converts the arithmetic of the first half into a discipline. The final verse repeats its petition, establish thou the work of our hands, so a psalm about how little human effort lasts ends by asking for exactly that effort to be made to stand.

Cited passages: Psalms 90:2, Psalms 90:17, Psalms 90:4, Psalms 90:6, Psalms 90:9, Psalms 90:14, Psalms 90:12, Psalms 90:5

Key moments

1. Our dwelling place (Psalms 90:1). The speakers call the Lord their dwelling place in all generations.
2. Everlasting to everlasting (Psalms 90:2). God is declared God before the mountains and the earth were formed.
3. A thousand years as yesterday (Psalms 90:4). Time on God's side is compared to a day past and a night watch.
4. Grass cut down by evening (Psalms 90:6). Human life is pictured as grass that flourishes in the morning and withers.
5. Threescore years and ten (Psalms 90:10). The psalm gives the span of a life and calls its strength labour and sorrow.
6. Teach us to number our days (Psalms 90:12). The speakers ask for wisdom from counting their days.
7. Establish the work of our hands (Psalms 90:17). The closing petition is repeated twice.

For reflection

After counting a life as seventy or eighty years of labour and sorrow, the speakers ask God to make the work of their hands stand. What would it mean to want that, having just said how quickly the grass is cut down?

People in this chapter

• Moses