INTRODUCTION

The superscription that introduces Psalm 90 reads: A Prayer of Moses the man of God.

A. The Uniqueness of the Psalm

Psalm 90 is a very unique psalm. For example, no statement in this psalm is taken from other psalms. Furthermore, it has no affinity with any of the other psalms, meaning that it does not cover any similar circumstances. It does have, however, similarity and affinity with one chapter that Moses wrote elsewhere, Deuteronomy 33. If you compare Deuteronomy 33 with Psalm 90, you will find several elements of comparison, similarity and affinity. Because Moses is the writer of this psalm, we know that this is the oldest of the 150 psalms. The others were written by men who lived much later than Moses.

B. The Timing and Historical Background

Moses wrote this psalm, as the context shows, at the end of the forty years of Wilderness Wanderings. By the time he writes this psalm, the "Exodus" generation had passed away, the judgment of the sin at Kadesh Barnea had run its course, and the "wilderness" generation is soon to enter the Land. So this psalm is written from the background of the sin of Kadesh Barnea. The judgment for this sin was that all those who came out of Egypt would have to continue wandering in the wilderness until a forty-year period was completed: forty years for the forty days the spies were in the Land. During those forty years everyone who came out of Egypt would die, except for the two good spies and those under the age of twenty.

The Exodus generation was under a sentence of physical death in the wilderness, meaning they would die outside the Land. Based upon the population numbers given in the Book of Numbers, this means that Moses saw the death of about 1,200,000 people in a period of thirty eight-years. This would be the entire adult population which left Egypt, those from age twenty upward. Having witnessed this tremendous death-toll, Moses reflects and writes Psalm 90. And to understand Psalm 90, we must understand this background: that Moses wrote it at the end of the forty years of Wilderness Wanderings and at the end of seeing a whole generation die away in the wilderness; members of his own family, including Aaron and Miriam.

C. The Three Divisions

This psalm has three main divisions.

I. THE ETERNALITY OF GOD
AND THE TRANSITORINESS OF MAN: Psalm 90: 1-6

A. The Immortal God

Verses 1-2 emphasize the eternal God.

1. God the Dwelling-Place

As Moses begins to discuss the eternality of God and the transitoriness of man, he begins with the divine side of the equation, the eternal God. Here, Moses said two things about God. The first is that God is the dwelling-place (v. 1). God has been Israel’s dwelling-place, not just sporadically, but in all generations. The word dwelling-place means "a protective shelter." God has been Israel’s protective shelter in all generations from the time of Abraham, the father of the Jewish people.

2. God the Eternal One

The second thing about God that Moses deals with is God as the Eternal One (v. 2), and he uses three descriptive terms to emphasize this. First: Before the mountains were brought forth. The mountains are the long-existing witnesses of God’s covenant with Israel. Second, God is even older than the mountains. He even pre-existed Genesis 1:1; for He had formed the earth and the world. The Hebrew word for earth means "the world in general." The Hebrew word for world means "the productive part of the world which is inhabited by man." Moses’ third descriptive phrase of God’s eternality is: from everlasting to everlasting; that is, from eternity past to eternity future. From before time was, until time shall be no more, he concludes: thou art God. This is the eternality of God, which he will now proceed to contrast with the transitoriness of man.

B. The Mortal Man

The transitoriness of man, the second part of the equation, is discussed in verses 3-6.

1. The Frailty of Man

In verse 3, Moses begins by dealing with the frailty of man. The Hebrew word used here for man emphasizes his human frailty, his weakness. The Hebrew word for destruction is a very strong word; it means "to be pulverized like dust." It is also a unique word, used only here in the Hebrew Old Testament. The point Moses is making is that man’s fate is to return to pulverized dust. This is in contrast to God’s deathlessness. Moses, then, points out that God says: Return, ye children of men. This is a call to repentance, because the purpose of divine judgment is always to bring one to repentance.

2. God’s Timelessness

In verse 4, Moses again focuses on God’s timelessness. His point is that time has no meaning with God. A thousand years with God is like only a night in the life of man. It is not even a full twenty-four hour day, only a twelve-hour night. The first comparison he makes is that a thousand years – a very long period from man’s perspective – is to God merely about twelve hours.

Moses then points out that twelve hours is even a bit too long, and the second phrase he uses to make his point is: as a watch in the night. In Moses’ time, the night was divided into three watches. In comparison to God’s eternality, man’s life is only one watch out of three, only a part of the night. Moses goes further, emphasizing that this is not four hours of the day but four hours of the night. While we are fast asleep, there is, in fact, no awareness of the passing of minutes and hours.

3. The Certainty of Death

In verse 5a, Moses emphasizes the certainty of death. He says: Thou carriest them away as with a flood [eventually death will take all]; they are as a sleep. The sleep here is the "sleep of death."

4. The Shortness of the Beauty of Life

To make it even a bit more pessimistic, he then writes that the beauty of life is shorter than life itself (vv. 5b-6). Moses makes three points. First, the whole thing is based upon the fact that the flowers of Israel have a very short life-span. In other words, the beauty of man’s life is also very short-lived. Secondly, the four hours of the life of man are still not the length of his productivity. No matter how long a man lives, not all of those years can be fully productive. The four hours of man have, therefore, been reduced even further, down to merely two or three hours of productivity. Thirdly, human life is frail and brief compared to God’s eternity. Because human life is brief, we must make it count for the Lord. Moses will move into that issue in the next segment, although he does make the application here. It is important that we carefully plan our lives to make them most productive for the Lord.

II. THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM:
HUMAN SIN: Psalm 90:7-12

Moses next deals with the reason behind human transitoriness. The source of the problem is human sin. There are three subdivisions in this particular section.

A. The Death of Man: Psalm 90:7-9

1. Man’s Untimely Death

In verses 7-9, Moses describes the essence of the death of man, with verse 7 dealing with untimely death. This is Moses’ recognition of the results of the sin at Kadesh Barnea: that many of these people could have lived a lot longer, but by God’s judgment, 1,200,000 had to die during a period of thirty-eight years.

2. The Reason for Man’s Judgment

In verse 8, Moses talks about the reason for the judgment; the reason was sin. He pictures the sins of man being set before God to be judged. Our secret sins might be hid from man, but they are not hid from God’s sight, and He does bring them to light for the purpose of punishment.

3. Man’s Whole Life is Under God’s Wrath

In verse 9, Moses points out that the whole life of man is under the wrath of God, to the extent, he says: For all our days are passed away in thy wrath. The point is that the hours of sunlight seem to get shorter because of the darkness caused by the wrath of God. Then, the termination comes: We bring our years to an end as a sigh. This describes the exhaling of the last breath, showing a feeling of weariness, but, ultimately, the exhaling of the last breath of death. Such is the death of man: untimely, a judgment caused by sin. And a judgment that comes finally to bring an end to lives that have been passed under the wrath of God.

B. The Life-Span of Man and the Wrath of God: Psalm 90:10-11

1. The Years of Man

Moses discusses the life-span of man and the wrath of God, with verse 10 focusing on the years of man. "What are the years of man?" "What is man’s life-span?" Moses says: The days of our years are [seventy]. That is a basic minimum, although many people live less than that. Then he says: Or even by reason of strength [eighty] years. That is a basic maximum, although some live longer. In other words, Moses gives us an average age-span of life, between seventy and eighty years.

Whether we go the basic minimum or the basic maximum, whether we live less or more, the writer says, regardless, it is all vanity. The vanity of it all is described as: Yet is their pride but labor and sorrow. All these years are often spent in travail and vanity: For it is soon gone, and we flyaway. In other words, what initially appears long to us, at the end is actually short, and life flies away like a fleeting bird.

2. The Wrath of God

"Why does this happen?" Verse 11 attributes it to the wrath of God. Here, Moses asks two questions: First: Who knows the power of thine anger? Second: And thy wrath according to the fear that is due unto thee? The lessons that Moses wants to bring home to us include, first, that there are only a few who truly appreciate the intensity of the divine wrath aroused by sinfulness. Few people understand and appreciate that much of their sufferings are due to the wrath of God. Secondly, in very few people does the wrath of God induce a sense of fear to turn away from sin. Even when tragedy hits, although a minority will turn to God in faith, the vast majority always fails to make the shift to faith in Him.

C. The Application to Number Our Days: Psalm 90:12

In the third subdivision, Moses gives the application of the lesson of Kadesh Barnea. So teach us to number our days, That we may get us a heart of wisdom. The lesson he wants to teach us is to number our days. We need to realize how few our days really are and that, again, not all of our days will be productive for God. We need to count the days that we have with a full understanding of the consequences of unworthy days. Keep in mind that the result of Kadesh Barnea was the killing of time for thirty-eight years with nothing positive accomplished. The purpose of counting our days, Moses says, is to get us a heart of wisdom. The Hebrew word for wisdom means "to gain skill in living." We are to gain skill in living our daily lives for God in righteousness and godly deeds. Godly deeds done with godly wisdom will continue into eternity. Moses wanted to make sure the new generation would not waste time like the old generation.

III. PRAYER FOR THE RETURN OF GOD’S FAVOR:
Psalm 90:13-17

A. Prayer for the Turning Away of God’s Wrath

Moses issues a prayer for the return of God’s favor. In verse 13, he prays for a turning away of God’s wrath: Return, O Jehovah; how long? His request, Return, means "turn away Your wrath." The question, How long? means "how long will You be angry?" Then Moses says: let it repent thee concerning thy servants. The word repent means to "change your mind." Not that God needs repentance for sin, obviously, but Moses’ plea is that God’s program would be different for the wilderness generation than it was for the Exodus generation.

B. Prayer to Remember God’s Covenant-Love

In verse 14, Moses asks God to remember His covenant-love, requesting: Oh satisfy us in the morning with thy lovingkindness. When he says: in the morning, he wants it to be done speedily. This is the morning after the troubles of the night. He is now looking forward to a new era of joy for Israel. The word he uses for lovingkindness is the word chesed, which means "covenant-faithfulness." Moses is asking God to now restore favor on the basis of God’s covenant with Israel, specifically, the Abrahamic Covenant. The reason and the result is: That we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

C. Prayer for Proportionate Restoration

In verse 15, he prays for proportionate restoration. The point is that after the restoration of God’s favor, may the enjoyment of abundant life be proportionate to the period suffered while the wrath of God burned against them. The wrath burned against them for forty years, and now may His favor be restored for forty years. Moses is asking for proportionate restoration.

D. The Contrast Between the Work of God and the Work of Man

As Moses concludes this psalm, he makes another contrast between the work of God and the work of man in verses 16-17.

1. The Work of God

Verse 16 states two things in emphasizing the work of God. First: Let thy work appear unto thy servants. In other words, the work of God’s providence is to be made evident in His work with the new generation, the wilderness generation. Likewise, the work of God’s providence is to remain evident in His dealings with our own lives. Secondly, Moses says: And thy glory upon their children. The word glory is not the usual Hebrew word for glory, but is another Hebrew word that means "beauty." It emphasizes the beauty of the Lord. In other words, let Israel have a demonstration of the beauty of the Lord by seeing the divine splendor as revealed in God’s saving power. Let them see the beauty of the Lord, in that, just as God is able to punish, He is also able to bless. When He says: upon their children, he is asking not only for the present-day wilderness generation, but also for subsequent generations to be able to experience the beauty of the Lord. For such is the work of God.

2. The Work of Man

In verse 17, Moses discusses the work of man, beginning with a request: And let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us. The Hebrew word for favor means "the pleasantness of God." He is not only asking God to display His beauty, he is also asking Him to display His pleasantness to Israel. Moses then concludes by emphasizing the means by which the favor of the Lord our God be upon us. He makes two statements which are repetitious but emphatic. The first point Moses makes is: And establish thou the work of our hands upon us. The work of our hands refers to our daily tasks, done in obedience and according to the will of God to glorify Him. In other words, the work of God described in verse 16 is done through the work of man. We need to learn to work skillfully, having wisdom or skillfulness in living daily for the work of the Lord. Then, Moses’ second statement is: Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. This is repetition for emphasis.

CONCLUSION

The whole point of this psalm, in application to us, is: First, we need to recognize that no matter how long we live, from a divine perspective, life is very short. Secondly, no matter how long we live, not all of our years – and only, in fact, those middle years – are productive. Even in those middle years, we can be sidelined through tragedy, illness and sickness, thus becoming less productive. Thirdly, we must be very conscious of how much time we have left in this world. Fourthly, we must plan our lives in such a way to be most productive for the Lord, doing His work.