39184987 psalm-90-commentary

TARY
Written and edited by Glenn Pease
PREFACE
I quote many authors in making this Psalm understandable and valuable. If any do not
wish their wisdom shared in this way they can let me know and I will remove it. My e-mail
is glenn_p86@yahoo.com
I

1. “This is the oldest of the Psalms, and stands between two books of Psalms as a
composition unique in its grandeur, and alone in its sublime antiquity. “A prayer of
Moses.” Moses may be considered as the first composer of sacred hymns. - Samuel Burder.
it is one of the oldest poems in the world. Compared with it Homer and Pindar are (so to
speak) modern, and even King David is of recent date. That is to say, compared with this
ancient hymn the other Psalms are as much more modern as Tennyson and Longfellow are
more modern than Chaucer. In either case there are nearly five centuries between. - James
Hamilton.
2. Barnes, “We know, from not a few places in the Pentateuch, that Moses was a poet as
well as a lawgiver and statesman; and it would not be improbable that there might have
been some compositions of his of this nature which were not incorporated in the five books
that he wrote, and which would be likely to be preserved by tradition. This psalm bears
internal evidence that it may have been such a composition. The phrase, “the man of God,”
in the title, is given to Moses in Deu_33:1; Jos_14:6; Ezr_3:2; as a title especially
appropriate to him, denoting that he was faithful to God.
It seems, then, not improper to regard this psalm as one of the last utterances of Moses,
when the wanderings of the Hebrew people were about to cease; when an entire
generation had been swept off; and when his own labors were soon to close. The main
subject of the psalm is the brevity - the transitory nature - of human life; the
reflections on which seem designed to lead the soul up to God, who does not die. The
races of people are cut down like grass, but God remains the same from age to age.
One generation finds him the same as the previous generation had found him -
unchanged, and as worthy of confidence as ever.

one of these changes can affect him,
and there is in each age the comforting assurance that he will be found to be the
refuge, the support, the “dwelling-place” of his people.”

3. Henry, “This psalm was penned by Moses (as appears by the title), the most ancient
penman of sacred writ. We have upon record a praising song of his (Ex. 15, which is
alluded to Rev_15:3), and an instructing song of his, Deu. 32. But this is of a different
nature from both, for it is called a prayer. We have the story to which this psalm seems
to refer,

um. 14. Probably Moses penned this prayer to be daily used, either by the
people in their tents, or, at lest, by the priests in the tabernacle-service, during their
tedious fatigue in the wilderness.
4. Gill, “It is more generally thought that it was penned about the time when the spies
brought a bad report of the land, and the people fell a murmuring; which provoked the
Lord, that he threatened them that they should spend their lives in misery in the
wilderness, and their carcasses should fall there; and their lives were cut short, and
reduced to threescore years and ten, or thereabout; only Moses, Joshua, and Caleb,
lived to a greater age; and on occasion of this Moses wrote this psalm, setting forth the
brevity and misery of human life; so the Targum, "a prayer which Moses the prophet
of the Lord prayed, when the people of the house of Israel sinned in the wilderness.''
5. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “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.”
6. Bob Deffinbaugh, “Psalm 90 deals with the dark side of life, one we don’t like to focus on.
Given the choice of Psalm 90 or Psalm 91, we would gladly choose Psalm 91, for its message
is one of confidence. This is the other side of the coin. There is also a dark side of life. Just
as we find it difficult to look into the brightness of the sun’s rays, we find it equally
unpleasant to dwell on the dark side of life. Psalm 90 tells us there is a place for pessimism,
a very important lesson to learn.

otice, as well, that even in its somber thoughts, God is
described as Israel’s dwelling place. Psalm 90 is unique in that it is the only psalm
attributed to Moses. Conservative scholars accept Moses’ authorship; others do not. They
see the Psalm written much later after the era of Moses. I understand it to be written by
Moses. As such it makes a unique contribution in what it tells us about Moses himself,
something we do not see anywhere else.”
6B. Deffinbaugh differs from many on the time of Moses writing this Psalm. “In light of
these difficulties I suggest that this psalm was not written after the exodus, but before it. I
believe Moses wrote it during his 40 years exile from Egypt while tending the flocks of his
father-in-law (cf. Exod. 2:15-25). The suffering to which Moses refers is due primarily to
Israel’s sin. We may, at first, think this hardly appropriate to the sufferings of Israel in the
land of Egypt. However, Ezekiel (20:7-9) speaks of the period of Israel’s sojourn in Egypt
as one that was marked by sin and idolatry. It was sin that brought Israel to Egypt (for

example, the sin of Joseph’s brothers, Genesis 37). It was sin, in part, that kept Israel in
Egypt. Ezekiel speaks of Israel’s sin after the exodus as that which they brought with them
from Egypt (23:8,9,27; cf. also Exod. 20:4-6). The time of Israel’s sojourning in Egypt was a
time of sin and the consequences of it, suffering.

o historical time fits Psalm 90 better than
the period just preceding the exodus. God had been silent for a long time and had not
recently revealed His mighty arm. God’s answer in part, to the petitions of Moses in this
psalm, was the exodus. God did reveal His mighty arm and great power through Moses.
Psalm 90 therefore tells us something about the heart of Moses. When we look at Moses
standing before the burning bush, there seems to be no reason for God’s selection of him to
lead His people out of captivity and into Canaan. Suppose this psalm was written a week
before Moses was arrested by the sight of the burning bush. God would then have spoken
to Moses from the burning bush, “Moses I heard your prayer. Go deliver your people!” If
this is what happened, then God answered Moses’ prayer through him. Such a historical
setting is at least a possibility. It helps me understand the agony of soul with which Moses
wrote the psalm, as well as the appropriateness of God’s selection of Moses to deliver His
people.”
7. “The Psalm is called 'a psalm of Moses' Spurgeon has said of this psalm that in order to
understand it aright we need to understand its dark border and we need to remember what
it must have been like for Moses when he saw a whole generation perish in the wilderness.
Spurgeon has graphically said that ' he digged the desert till it became a cemetery, for he
lived amid forty years of funerals'. In the 38 years that they were wandering a generation
of 600,000 men perished. That must have meant an average of 42 or 43 funerals a day, not
to mention the women There is much in this psalm that indicates to us the hardships and
the difficulties that Moses had to face in those days But there is also evidence in this psalm
that Moses was old and near the end of his life and if that is the case then Moses would also
have known that the children were soon going to enter into the promised land and though
he was not going to be among them yet the people were going to have the privilege of seeing
the promise of the Lord fulfilled among them and they were going to possess the
possessions that God had long promised to Abraham Isaac and to Jacob. So while we can
perhaps detect the sense of weariness with the struggles of life in this psalm yet when he
turns to make requests to God he is not reluctant to make bold requests and to ask great
blessings and there is certainly no sense that they had been defeated. They had just
endured a long period of the chastisement of the Lord upon them. It would be natural for
someone who had seen what Moses had just seen to be utterly cast down and weary but
Moses was a spiritual man and he knew the value of prayer and he knew how to make bold
requests of His God. Spurgeon has called this a Moses-like prayer because it was so bold in
its requests. Moses was never afraid to ask great things of God.” unknown author
8. Spurgeon, “A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Many attempts have been made to prove
that Moses did not write this Psalm, but we remain unmoved in the conviction that he did
so. The condition of Israel in the wilderness is so preeminently illustrative of each verse,
and the turns, expressions, and words are so similar to many in the Pentateuch, that the
difficulties suggested are, to our mind, light as air in comparison with the internal evidence

in favor of its Mosaic origin. Moses was mighty in word as well as deed, and this Psalm we
believe to be one of his weighty utterances, worthy to stand side by side with his glorious
oration recorded in Deuteronomy. Moses was peculiarly a man of God and God's man;
chosen of God, inspired of God, honored of God, and faithful to God in all his house, he
well deserved the name which is here given him. The Psalm is called a prayer, for the
closing petitions enter into its essence, and the preceding verses are a meditation
preparatory to the supplication. Men of God are sure to be men of prayer. This was not the
only prayer of Moses, indeed it is but a specimen of the manner in which the seer of Horeb
was leant to commune with heaven, and intercede for the good of Israel. This is the oldest
of the Psalms, and stands between two books of Psalms as a composition unique in its
grandeur, and alone in its sublime antiquity. Many generations of mourners have listened
to this Psalm when standing around the open grave, and have been consoled thereby, even
when they have not perceived its special application to Israel in the wilderness and have
failed to remember the far higher ground upon which believers now stand.”
A prayer of Moses the man of God.
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place
throughout all generations.
1. In him we live and move and have our being. There is no escape from God, for he is
everywhere, and so we dwell in him as in the atmosphere, but this is a specific dwelling, and
a refuge from the realm of life where all live. It is dwelling in God in the sense that we live
in an awareness of his presence and providential guidance. This was specially the case with
Moses in leading his people. He was fully aware of God each step of the way, and he would
not want to make another step without the assurance of God's presence. They lived in tents,
but they also dwelt in God who hovered over them in their journey to the Promised Land.
1B. “The first word of the psalm is "Lord." "Adonai" in Hebrew. Adonai means the one
who rules history and creation. The God who is Lord, who is King, who is governor over all
things in heaven and on earth -- he is our dwelling place. Moses wrote this about the
Israelites who were wandering in the desert. Whom God had condemned to 40 years in the
wilderness because of their rebellion against Him. Despite the fact they had no permanent
address on earth, despite that they were wanderers and children of a wandering Aramean
(as Abraham called himself), yet he said: the Lord's people had a dwelling place, a
permanent address: the Lord, the eternal God.” author unknown
1C. Spurgeon, “The mighty Jehovah, who filleth all immensity, the Eternal, Everlasting,
Great I Am, does not refuse to allow figures concerning himself. Though he is so high that
the eye of angel hath not seen him, though he is so lofty that the wing of cherub hath not
reached him, though he is so great that the utmost extent of the travels of immortal spirits

have never discovered the limit of himself—yet he does not object that his people should
speak of him thus familiarly, and should say, "Jehovah, thou hast been our dwelling-place."
1D. The Jews wandered 40 years in the desert and they were the largest homeless group in
history, and yet Moses says that they had a permanent address, for they had a home that
never changed. That home was God. They were homeless, and yet were always at home, for
God was everywhere with them providing for them. What a paradox. Homeless people who
never left home.
2. Barnes, “a refuge”; a place to which one may come as to his home, as one does from a
journey; from wandering; from toil; from danger: a place to which such a one naturally
resorts, which he loves, and where he feels that he may rest secure. The idea is, that a friend
of God has that feeling in respect to Him, which one has toward his own home - his abode -
the place which he loves and calls his own.”
3. Clarke, “Ever since thy covenant with Abraham thou hast been the Resting-place,
Refuge, and Defence of thy people Israel. Thy mercy has been lengthened out from
generation to generation.
3B. Martin Luther, “Almost in the same strain Paul speaks, when he says to the Colossians,
"Your life is hid with Christ in God." For it is a much clearer and more luminous
expression to say, Believers dwell in God, than that God dwells in them. He dwelt also
visibly in Zion, but the place is changed. But because he (the believer), is in God, it is
manifest, that he cannot be moved nor transferred, for God is a habitation of a kind that
cannot perish. Moses therefore wished to exhibit the most certain life, when he said, God is
our dwelling place, not the earth, not heaven, not paradise, but simply God himself.”
3C. Stedman, “This statement declares that God has been man's home ever since man has
been on the earth. In all the generations of man it is where he continually lives. You will
recognize that this is the same truth Paul uttered when he addressed the Athenians on Mars
Hill. He said to them, God is not far from any of us (even pagans, he points out), for "in
him we live and move and have our being," {Acts 17:28}. God exists as a home for man.”
4. Gill, “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 affliction and oppression in a land that was not theirs; and
now they were dwelling in tents in the wilderness, and removing from place to place; but as
the Lord had been in every age, so he now was the dwelling place of those that trusted in
him; being that to them as an habitation is to man, in whom they had provision, protection,
rest, and safety; see Psa_31:2 so all that believe in Christ dwell in him, and he in them,
Joh_6:56, they dwelt secretly in him before they believed; so they dwelt in his heart's love,
in his arms, in him as their head in election, and as their representative in the covenant of
grace from eternity; and, when they fell in Adam, they were preserved in Christ, dwelling
in him; and so they were in him when on the cross, in the grave, and now in heaven; for

they are said to be crucified, buried, and risen with him, and set down in heavenly places in
him, Gal_2:20, and, being converted, they have an open dwelling in him by faith, to whom
they have fled for refuge, and in whom they dwell safely, quietly, comfortably, pleasantly,
and shall never be turned out: here they have room, plenty of provisions, rest, and peace,
and security from all evils; he is an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the
storm. Some render the word "refuge"; (a) such is Christ to his people, being the antitype
of the cities of refuge; and others "helper", as the Targum; which also well agrees with him,
on whom their help is laid, and is found.
5. Henry, “Egypt had been a land of bondage to them for many years, but even then God
was their refuge; and in him that poor oppressed people lived and were kept in being.

ote,
True believers are at home in God, and that is their comfort in reference to all the toils and
tribulations they meet with in this world. In him we may repose and shelter ourselves as in
our dwelling-place.”
6. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “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.”
7. “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations – from everlasting to
everlasting, you are God.” Isaac Watts’ hymn captures the essence of this Psalm – there is a
sobering recognition of the fleetingness of life. But there is also a freedom, and a great hope
that God gives both for now and for all eternity. “O God our help in ages past, our hope for
years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home.” Here is low-cost,
high-class housing. You are never good enough to live here, but God makes you good
enough. This is the natural habitat of the believer. We have a divine dwelling. A man’s
home is his castle indeed when a man’s home is God. Every sinner has a homeless soul, and
is a spiritual orphan without father or home, but here is a holy dwelling available to all
without rent. Jesus is the door into this home where all is furnished.” unknown author
8. Wesley, "Dwelling place -- Although we and our fathers, for some generations, have had
no fixed habitation, yet thou hast been instead of a dwelling-place to us, by thy watchful
and gracious providence. And this intimates that all the following miseries were not to be
imputed to God but themselves.
He that hath made his refuge God,
Shall find a most secure abode,
Shall walk all day beneath his shade,
And there at night shall rest his head.
Jesus had not where to lay his head, save in His Father’s hand. Here is a house of solid
rock built to last forever.

o flood can sweep us from this haven of rest. Byron expressed
longing for such a rest in his poem: “I fly like a bird of the air, In search of a home and
rest; A balm for the sickness of care, A bliss for a bosom unblessed.”
From the slums of sin to the palace of God. God alone is the only changeless one in the

universe. All else comes and goes and time only has value because of His eternity.
In heavenly love abiding,

o change my heart shall fear;
For safe is such confiding,
For nothing changes here.
Isa. 57:15 - For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I
dwell in the high and holy place with him that is of a contrite and a humble spirit."
9. “Our home” -- or 'our dwelling-place.' This image seems to have a particular reference
to the unsettled condition of the Israelites before their establishment in the Land of
Promise. 'Strangers and pilgrims as we have hitherto been, in every succeeding generation,
from the days of Abraham; first sojourners in Canaan; then bondsmen in Egypt; now
wanderers in this dreary waste; we nevertheless find the comforts of a home and settlement
in thy miraculous protection.'" -- Horsley.
10. “Dr. Victor Shepherd, "The psalmist is wiser than this. In stead of trying to deny the
human condition (fragility, vulnerability, transitoriness), only to have the denial break
down anyway, he recognizes it and owns it. Life is fleeting; our plans do fragment; we can't
fashion something permanent and impregnable in which we can then take refuge. The
psalmist owns all of this, and is able to own it, just because he looks to God eternal. "Lord,
you have been our dwelling place in all generations; from everlasting to everlasting you are
God." "Before the mountains were brought forth, or even you had formed the earth and
world, you are God." The human condition doesn't find its resolution in any creaturely
entity (the earth and the world); it doesn't find its resolution even in something which
appears as old and stable and immoveable as the mountains. The human condition finds its
resolution in God and only in God. We cannot alter the human condition, despite our
efforts to do so and our self-deception at having done so. We can only look to him who has
made us for himself and therefore is himself our only dwelling place.
Moses tells them on the eve of his death that not only is their ultimate dwelling place not
the wilderness (they were never tempted to think this); it isn't even the promised land (they
are tempted to think this). "The eternal God is your dwelling place", says Moses, "and
underneath are the everlasting arms". It's a summons to repent. The summons to repent is
reinforced by the psalmist's awareness that God himself "turns us back to dust". God does
not let us forget, ultimately, that we are finite, fragile creatures. We came from dust, and to
dust we shall return. We are not superhuman; we are not gods; we are not immortal; we
are "frail creatures of dust", as the hymn writer reminds us."
11. Bob Deffinbaugh, “Verses 1 and 2 depict the greatness of God as Israel’s dwelling place.
The Berkeley Version translates this, “Lord, Thou hast been our home …” It is interesting
to refer to God in this way; He is also called man’s dwelling place in Psalm 91:9. Moses, the
author of this psalm, is a man without a country. Moses was a fugitive from Egypt and he
died without entering Canaan. Israel also was a people without a country. The Israelites

had not yet possessed the land of Canaan when this Psalm was written. Therefore one
would expect Moses to have described the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, as Israel’s
dwelling place. Yet Moses knew that ultimately man’s dwelling is not a place but a Person.
It is God who is our Dwelling Place and in Him we find security, safety and peace. God is
described this way throughout all generations (v. 1). Literally the text reads “in generation
and generation,” or as the Berkeley Version translates it, “in successive generations.”139
When Moses came on the scene of history a number of generations had already existed,
beginning with Abraham (or should I say Adam?). It is therefore fitting that he said “from
one generation to the next God has been our dwelling place.” This verse speaks historically
of Israel’s experience with God as her dwelling place. It also speaks prophetically of Israel’s
future security. In verse 2 God’s eternity is emphatically described. While God has proven
to be Israel’s dwelling place throughout the generations of her existence, verse 2 assures
Israel that her security is as lasting as God’s existence. He is from everlasting to everlasting.
Israel’s dwelling place is God and God is eternal. Therefore Israel has a dwelling place that
is both certain and continuous.”
12. Spurgeon, “Moses, in effect, says—wanderers though we be in the howling wilderness,
yet we find a home in thee, even as our forefathers did when they came out of Ur of the
Chaldees and dwelt in tents among the Canaanites. To the saints the Lord Jehovah, the self
existent God, stands instead of mansion and rooftree; he shelters, comforts, protects,
preserves, and cherishes all his own. Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests,
but the saints dwell in their God, and have always done so in all ages.

ot in the tabernacle
or the temple do we dwell, but in God himself; and this we have always done since there
was a church in the world. We have not shifted our abode. Kings' palaces have vanished
beneath the crumbling hand of time—they have been burned with fire and buried beneath
mountains of ruins, but the imperial race of heaven has never lost its regal habitation. Go
to the Palatine and see how the Caesars are forgotten of the halls which echoed to their
despotic mandates, and resounded with the plaudits of the nations over which they ruled,
and then look upward and see in the ever living Jehovah the divine home of the faithful,
untouched by so much as the finger of decay. Where dwelt our fathers a hundred
generations since, there dwell we still. It is of

ew Testament saints that the Holy Ghost has
said, "He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in God and God in him!" It was a
divine mouth which said, "Abide in me", and then added, "he that abideth in me and I in
him the same bringeth forth much fruit." It is most sweet to speak with the Lord as Moses
did, saying, "Lord, thou art our dwelling place", and it is wise to draw from the Lord's
eternal condescension reasons for expecting present and future mercies, as the Psalmist did
in the next Psalm wherein he describes the safety of those who dwell in God.”
13. What a paradox it is when you remember that Jesus had not where to lay his head, and
as a child had to be laid in a manger. God's people marched a lifetime in the desert without
a roof over their heads, and the father of the race, Abraham, was called away from his city
and home to live in tents. Homeless people are what God's people have often been, and yet
they are people with the best of dwellings, for they dwell in God who has ever been the
home of the homeless.
14. Our dwelling place. God created the earth for beasts to inhabit, the sea for fishes, the air

for fowls, and heaven for angels and stars, so that man hath no place to dwell and abide in
but God alone.—Giovanni della Mirandola Pico, 1463-1494.
15. Spurgeon writes of the security of dwelling in God. “What does the man do at home?
He can lay bare his breast, and do and say as he pleases; it is his own house, his dwelling-place;
and is he not master there? Shall he not do as he will with his own? Assuredly; for he
feels himself at home. Ah! my beloved, do you ever find yourself in God to be at home?
Have you been with Christ, and told your secrets in his ear, and found that you could do so
without reserve? We do not generally tell secrets to other people, for it we do, and make
them promise that they will never tell them, they will never tell them except to the first
person they meet. Most persons who have secrets told them, are like the lady of whom it is
said she never told her secrets except to two sorts of persons—those that asked her and
those that did not. You must not trust men of the world; but do you know what it is to tell
all your secrets to God in prayer, to whisper all your thoughts to him? You are not ashamed
to confess your sins to him with all their aggravations; you make no apologies to God, but
you put in every aggravation, you describe all the depths of you baseness. Then, as for your
little wants, you would be ashamed to tell them to another; before God you can tell them
all. You can tell him your grief that you would not whisper to your dearest friend. With
God you can be always at home, you need be under no restraint. The Christian at once
gives God the key of his heart, and lets him turn every thing over. He says, "There is the
key of every cabinet; it is my desire that thou wouldst open them all. If there are jewels,
they are thine; and if there be things that should not be there, drive them out. Search me,
and try my heart." The more God lives in the Christian, the better the Christian loves him;
the oftener God comes to see him, the better he loves his God. And God loves his people all
the more when they are familiar with him. Can you say in this sense, "Lord, thou hast been
my dwelling place?"
16. Jim Stephenson, “He is the Abode of the Saints. In what ways is God our “abode?”
Home is a place where you find love and acceptance. In his poem The Death of the Hired
Man, Robert Frost said, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to
take you in.” You’re accepted at home. If you know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then
you are accepted by God despite all your screw-ups and failures. Like the place called
“home” He takes us in - whatever our condition. He does that for us because of what Jesus
did. Home is where you find peace and provision and protection. In fact, the word for
“dwelling place” has been translated “refuge” in some versions. “God is our refuge and
strength, an ever- present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1)
17. O Lord, thou art our home, to whom we fly,
and so hast always been, from age to age;
Before the hills did intercept the eye,
Or that the frame was up of earthly stage,
One God thou wert, and art, and still shall be;
The line of time, it doth not measure thee.
Both death and life obey thy holy lore,

And visit in their turns as they are sent;
A thousand years with thee they are no more
Than yesterday, which, ere it is, is spent:
Or as a watch by night, that course doth keep,
And goes and comes, unawares to them that sleep.
Thou carriest man away as with a tide:
Then down swim all his thoughts that mounted high;
Much like a mocking dream, that will not bide,
But flies before the sight of waking eye;
Or as the grass, that cannot term obtain,
To see the summer come about again.
At morning, fair it musters on the ground;
At even it is cut down and laid along:
And though it shared were and favor found,
The weather would perform the mower's wrong:
Thus hast thou hanged our life on brittle pins,
To let us know it will not bear our sins.—Francis Bacon.
18. Original Trinity Hymnal, #287
Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place
In ev'ry generation;
Thy people still have known thy grace,
And blessed thy consolation:
Through ev'ry age thou heard'st our cry
Through ev'ry age we found thee nigh,
Our Strength and our Salvation.
Our cleaving sins we oft have wept,
And oft thy patience proved;
But still thy faith we fast have kept,
Thy

ame we still have loved;
And thou hast kept and loved us well,
Hast granted us in thee to dwell,
Unshaken, unremoved.

o, nothing from those arms of love
Shall thine own people sever;
Our Helper never will remove,
Our God will fail us never.
Thy people, Lord, have dwelt in thee,
Our dwelling place thou still wilt be
For ever and for ever.

2 Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
1. Barnes, “Before the mountains were brought forth - Before the earth brought forth or
produced the mountains. In the description of the creation it would be natural to represent
the mountains as the first objects that appeared, as emerging from the waters; and,
therefore, as the “first” or “most ancient” of created objects. The phrase, therefore, is
equivalent to saying, Before the earth was created. The literal meaning of the expression,
“were brought forth,” is, in the Hebrew, “were born.” The mountains are mentioned as the
most ancient things in creation, in Deu_33:15. Compare Gen_49:26; Hab_3:6. Or ever thou
hadst formed - literally, “hadst brought forth.” Compare Job_39:1.
The earth and the world - The word “earth” here is used to denote the world as
distinguished either from heaven Gen_1:1, or from the sea Gen_1:10. The term “world” in
the original is commonly employed to denote the earth considered as “inhabited,” or as
capable of being inhabited - a dwelling place for living beings. Even from everlasting to
everlasting - From duration stretching backward without limit to duration stretching
forward without limit; that is, from eternal ages to eternal ages; or, forever.
Thou art God - Or, “Thou, O God.” The idea is, that he was always, and ever will be, God:
the God; the true God; the only God; the unchangeable God. At any period in the past,
during the existence of the earth, or the heavens, or before either was formed, he existed,
with all the attributes essential to Deity; at any period in the future - during the existence of
the earth and the heavens, or beyond - far as the mind can reach into the future, and even
beyond that - he will still exist unchanged, with all the attributes of Deity. The creation of
the universe made no change in him; its destruction would not vary the mode of his
existence, or make him in any respect a different being. There could not be a more absolute
and unambiguous declaration, as there could not be one more sublime, of the eternity of
God. The mind cannot take in a grander thought than that there is one eternal and
immutable Being.
1B. We have a B. C. for there was a time on earth when it was before Christ, but we have
no B. G., for there is no time that there was a before God. There was no such possibility, for
God is eternal, infinite, and everlasting. There cannot be anything before God because he is
the reason there is anything at all. If God was not, nothing would be, for he is Creator of all
that we see.
2. Clarke, “Before the mountains were brought forth - The mountains and hills appear to
have been everlasting; but as they were brought forth out of the womb of eternity, there
was a time when they were not: but Thou hast been ab aeternitate a parte ante, ad

aeternitatem a parte post; fram the eternity that is past, before time began; to the eternity
that is after, when time shall have an end. This is the highest description of the eternity of
God to which human language can reach.”
2B. We have another description of God's eternity in Psalm 102:25-27. The
psalmist wrote,
"In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are
the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear
out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be
discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end."
2C. Mr. Richard Pinelli, "

ow what does all this mean? Well, it shows that before God
created the universe, time did not exist. Time relates to creation, to the physical universe.
God created time when He created the universe. We must understand is that God is not
bound by time. He transcends it. Louis Berkhof writes, (Systematic Theology p. 60)
"Our existence is marked off by days and weeks and months and years; not so the existence
of God. Our life is divided into a past, present and future, but there is no such division in
the life of God. He is the eternal 'I am.' His eternity may be defined as that perfection of
God whereby He is elevated above all temporal limits and all succession of moments, and
possesses the whole of His existence in one indivisible present."
2D. Hermann Bavinck writes, (The Doctrine of God, p. 157) "In and by itself, moreover,
time is not able to exist or to endure: it is a continuous becoming, and must needs rest in an
immutable essence. It is God, who, by virtue of his everlasting power, bears the time, both
in its entirety and in its separate moments. In every second the pulsation of his eternity is
felt. God stands in definite relation to time; with his eternity he fills time; also for him time
is objective; by virtue of his eternal consciousness he knows time in its entirety and in the
succession of all its moments. The fact that time is objective for him does not make him
temporal, however. He never becomes subject to time, measure, number: he remains
eternal, and inhabits eternity. But he uses time as a means for the manifestation of his
eternal thoughts and excellencies; he makes time subservient to eternity, and thereby
proves himself to be the 'King of the ages,' 1 Tim. 1:17."
2E. Stedman, “He is the God of history. He is the God of creation. But beyond all that, he is
the God of eternity. This is far different from any pagan concept of God. Plato, the great
Greek philosopher, was the only one of whom we have record in the ancient world who held
some concept of the timelessness of God. In the eyes of others, the pagan gods all had a
beginning. Read the pagan myths and you will find that all the gods started somewhere.
But here is a God who never begins, a timeless endless God who is beyond and above his
creation, and beyond and above all the events of history. That mighty God, that
tremendous Being, who is so far different, above, and "other" than ourselves, is now
brought close to us in the rest of the psalm.”

3. Gill, “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 antiquity: hence we read of the ancient
mountains and everlasting hills, Gen_49:26, for they were before the flood, and as soon as
the earth was; or otherwise the eternity of God would not be so fully expressed by this
phrase as it is here, and elsewhere the eternity of Christ, Pro_8:25, or "ever thou hadst
formed the earth and the world"; the whole terraqueous globe, and all the inhabitants of it;
so the Targum; or "before the earth brought forth; or thou causedst it to bring forth" (c)
its herbs, plants, and trees, as on the third day:
even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God; and so are his love, grace, and mercy
towards his people, and his covenant with them; and this is as true of Jehovah the Son as of
the Father, whose eternity is described in the same manner as his; see Pro_8:22, and may
be concluded from his name, the everlasting Father; from his having the same nature and
perfections with his Father; from his concern in eternal election, in the everlasting
covenant of grace, and in the creation of all things; and his being the eternal and
unchangeable I AM, yesterday, today, and for ever, is matter of comfort to his people.”
4. Henry, “before thou hadst formed the earth and the world (that is, before the beginning of
time) thou hadst a being; even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God, an eternal God,
whose existence has neither its commencement nor its period with time, nor is measured by
the successions and revolutions of it, but who art the same yesterday, today, and for ever,
without beginning of days, or end of life, or change of time.

ote, Against all the grievances
that arise from our own mortality, and the mortality of our friends, we may take comfort
from God's immortality. We are dying creatures, and all our comforts in the world are
dying comforts, but God is an everliving God, and those shall find him so who have him for
theirs.”
5. “The psalm begins with a great magnitude - the eternalness of God. Who is able to
comprehend such a measure? God is from "everlasting to everlasting". There is no
beginning, no end with him. He is the uncreated creator, the unoriginated originator. All
things come from him; he comes from no power prior to himself or greater than himself.
Our finite minds are incapable of reckoning with such things. Yet we rejoice that the
revelation of God in the Bible is of one who is from everlasting, unchangeable, the same
yesterday, today and forever.” unknown author
6. A. W. Tozer, “The biblical truth of the eternity of God is a very practical doctrine when
we grasp that we have been created for eternity, formed and framed to enjoy eternal
blessings from the hand of the eternal One. When the Lord of glory breathed into the first
parents the very breath of God, man was separated from animal, and the time-bound
creature became an eternal soul. Do not misunderstand. We all will die, but we will not
cease to exist. It is a solemn truth to consider; indeed, everyone who has ever lived exists

eternally, whether it is in heaven or in hell. Therefore, only that which we build into
people's souls, our own and others, will endure for eternity. Man strives to be remembered:
politicians seek to have their names inscribed upon a bridge or building, athletes by the
records they have broken, and businessmen by the financial empire they have established.
Yet it is futile to live for things of this world. The Scriptures warn us that the world and all
the works that are in it will be consumed by fire, 2 Pet. 3. 10. We, who are Christians, have
something far better to live for than the temporal things of this world. Therefore,
Christians must live their lives with eternity in view. The moments we spend in the
presence of ‘the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity’ are an investment toward 'an
entrance that shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’, 2 Pet. 1. 11. Earnest seasons of prayer spent before the
throne of grace, crying out to God for the salvation of the souls of men, will yield an
abundant eternal reward. Laboring in the gospel and pointing lost souls to the Savior is a
rich investment made upon earth, which will only be fully realized in eternity.”
7. C. H. Mackintosh writes, ‘The only real life is to live in the light of eternity – to use all we
possess for the promotion of God's glory and with an eye to the everlasting mansions. This,
and only this, is life in earnest’.2 Because God is eternal, then no endeavour on earth has
higher priority than knowing Him and loving him, worshipping Him, and serving Him. The
earnest follower of Christ would do well to keep the Christian maxim before him, ‘Only
one life, t'will soon be past; only what is done for Christ will last’.
8. Spurgeon, “Before the mountains were brought forth. Before those elder giants had
struggled forth from nature's womb, as her dread firstborn, the Lord was glorious and self
sufficient. Mountains to him, though hoar with the snows of ages, are but new born babes,
young things whose birth was but yesterday, mere novelties of an hour. Or ever thou hadst
formed the earth and the world. Here too the allusion is to a birth. Earth was born but the
other day, and her solid land was delivered from the flood but a short while ago. Even from
everlasting to everlasting, thou art God, or, "thou art, O God." God was, when nothing else
was. He was God when the earth was not a world but a chaos, when mountains were not
upheaved, and the generation of the heavens and the earth had not commenced. In this
Eternal One there is a safe abode for the successive generations of men. If God himself
were of yesterday, he would not be a suitable refuge for mortal men; if he could change and
cease to be God he would be but an uncertain dwelling place for his people. The eternal
existence of God is here mentioned to set forth, by contrast, the brevity of human life.”
9. Martin Luther, “Such a God (he says) have we, such a God do we worship, to such a God
do we pray, at whose command all created things sprang into being. Why then should we
fear if this God favors us? Why should we tremble at the anger of the whole world? If He is
our dwelling place, shall we not be safe though the heavens should go to wrack? For we
have a Lord greater than all the world. We have a Lord so mighty that at his word all
things sprang into being. And yet we are so fainthearted that if the anger of a single prince
or king, nay, even of a single neighbor, is to be borne, we tremble and droop in spirit. Yet in
comparison with this King, all things beside in the whole world are but as the lightest dust
which a slight breath moves from its place, and suffers not to be still. In this way this

description of God is consolatory, and trembling spirits ought to look to this consolation in
their temptations and dangers.”
10. A Christian classic site has this description of God's eternity.“There is a threefold being.
Such as had a beginning; and shall have an end; as all sensitive creatures, the beasts, fowls,
fishes, which at death are destroyed and return to dust; their being ends with their life. 2.
Such as had a beginning, but shall have no end, as angels and the souls of men, which are
eternal a parte post; they abide for ever. 3. Such as is without beginning, and without
ending, and that is proper only to God. He is semper existens, from everlasting to
everlasting. This is God's title, a jewel of his crown. He is called 'the King eternal' I Tim
1:17. Jehovah is a word that properly sets forth God's eternity; a word so dreadful, that the
Jews trembled to name or read it and used Adonai, Lord, in its place. Jehovah contains in it
time past, present, and to come. Rev 1:1. 'Which is, and which was, and which is to come,’
interprets the word Jehovah; (which is) he subsists of himself, having a pure and
independent being; (which was) God only was before time; there is no searching into the
records of eternity; (which is to come) his kingdom has no end; his crown has no
successors. Heb 1:1. 'Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.’ The doubling of the word
ratifies the certainty of it, as the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream. I shall prove that God only
could be eternal, without beginning. Angels could not; they are but creatures, though
spirits; they were made; and therefore their beginning may be known; their antiquity may
be searched into. If you ask, when were they created? Some think before the world was; but
not so: for what was before time was eternal. The first origin of angels reaches no higher
than the beginning of the world. It is thought by the learned, that the angels were made on
the day on which the heavens were made. Job 38:8. 'When the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy.’ St Jerome, Gregory, and venerable Bede
understand it, that when God laid the foundation-stone of the world, the angels being then
created, sang anthems of joy and praise. It is proper to God only to be eternal, without
beginning. He is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. Rev 1:1.

o creature can write
itself Alpha, that is only a flower of the crown of heaven. Exod 3:14. 'I am that I am,’ that
is, He who exists from and to eternity.”
3 You turn men back to dust,
saying, "Return to dust, O sons of men."
1. Barnes, “Thou turnest man to destruction - In contradistinction from his own
unchangeableness and eternity. Man passes away; God continues ever the same. The word
rendered “destruction” - דכא dakkâ' - means properly anything beaten or broken small or
very fine, and hence, “dust.” The idea here is, that God causes man to return to dust; that
is, the elements which compose the body return to their original condition, or seem to

mingle with the earth. Gen_3:19 : “dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” The
word “man” here, of course, refers to man in general - all people. It is the great law of our
being. Individual man, classes of people, generations of people, races of people, pass away;
but God remains the same. The Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate render this, “Thou
turnest man to “humiliation;” which, though not the sense of the original, is a true idea, for
there is nothing more humiliating than that a human body, once so beautiful, should turn
back to dust; nothing more humbling than the grave.
And sayest, Return, ye children of men - Return to your dust; go back to the earth from
which you came. Return, all of you without exception; - kings, princes, nobles, warriors,
conquerors; mighty people, captains, and counselors; ye learned and great, ye honored and
flattered, ye beautiful and happy, ye youthful and vigorous, and ye aged and venerable;
whatever is your rank, whatever are your possessions, whatever are your honors, whatever
you have to make you lovely, to charm, to please, to be admired; or whatever there is to
make you loathsome and detestable; ye vicious, ye profane, low, grovelling, sensual,
debased; go all of you alike to “dust!’ Oh, how affecting the thought that this is the lot of
man; how much should it do to abase the pride of the race; how much should it do to make
any man sober and humble, that he himself is soon to turn back to dust - unhonored,
undistinguished, and undistinguishable dust!”
1B. “Do you remember the story of the little girl who learned in Sunday school that man came
from the dust and eventually returns to the dust. She looked under her bed one morning and
said, “Mother, mother, come! There’s someone under my bed, but I don’t know whether he’s
coming or going!”
2. Gill, “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 the world, and through a course of
afflictions and diseases, and at last by old age, and however by death, returns him to his
original, from whence he came, the dust of the earth, which he becomes again, Gen_3:19
the grave may be meant by destruction:
and sayest, return, ye children of men, or "Adam"; from whom they all sprung, and in
whom they all sinned, and so became subject to death; to these he says, when by diseases he
threatens them with a dissolution, return by repentance, and live; and sometimes, when
they are brought to the brink of the grave, he returns them from sickness to health, delivers
them from the pit, and enlightens them with the light of the living, as he did Hezekiah: or
this may refer to the resurrection of the dead, which will be by Christ, and by his voice
calling the dead to return to life, to rise and come to judgment; though some understand
this as descriptive of death, when by the divine order and command man returns to his
original dust; thus the frailty of man is opposed to the eternity of God. Gussetius
understands all this of God's bringing men to repentance, contrition, and conversion; and
takes the sense to be, "thou turnest till he becomes contrite, and sayest, be ye converted, ye

sons of Adam;'' which he thinks (c) best agrees with the mind of the Apostle Peter, who
quotes the following passage, 2Pe_3:8. Some, as Arama observes, connect this with the
following verse; though men live 1000 years, yet they are but as yesterday in the sight of
God.
3. Henry, “To own God's absolute sovereign dominion over man, and his irresistible
incontestable power to dispose of him as he pleases (Psa_90:3): Thou turnest man to
destruction, with a word's speaking, when thou pleasest, to the destruction of the body, of
the earthly house; and thou sayest, Return, you children of men. 1. When God is, by sickness
or other afflictions, turning men to destruction, he does thereby call men to return unto
him, that is, to repent of their sins and live a new life. This God speaketh once, yea, twice.
“Return unto me, from whom you have revolted,” Jer_4:1. 2. When God is threatening to
turn men to destruction, to bring them to death, and they have received a sentence of death
within themselves, sometimes he wonderfully restores them, and says, as the old translation
reads it, Again thou sayest, Return to life and health again. For God kills and makes alive
again, brings down to the grave and brings up. 3. When God turns men to destruction, it is
according to the general sentence passed upon all, which is this, “Return, you children of
men, one, as well as another, return to your first principles; let the body return to the earth
as it was (dust to dust, Gen_3:19) and let the soul return to God who gave it,” Ecc_12:7. 4.
Though God turns all men to destruction, yet he will again say, Return, you children of
men, at the general resurrection, when, though a man dies, yet he shall live again; and
“then shalt thou call and I will answer (Job_14:14, Job_14:15); thou shalt bid me return,
and I shall return.” The body, the soul, shall both return and unite again.”
4. Spurgeon, “Thou turnest man to destruction, or "to dust." Man's body is resolved into its
elements, and is as though it had been crushed and ground to powder. And sayest, Return,
ye children of men, i.e., return even to the dust out of which ye were taken. The frailty of
man is thus forcibly set forth; God creates him out of the dust, and back to dust he goes at
the word of his Creator. God resolves and man dissolves. A word created and a word
destroys. Observe how the action of God is recognised; man is not said to die because of the
decree of faith, or the action of inevitable law, but the Lord is made the agent of all, his
hand turns and his voice speaks; without these we should not die, no power on earth or hell
could kill us.”
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
1. Henry, “To acknowledge the infinite disproportion there is between God and men,

Psa_90:4. Some of the patriarchs lived nearly a thousand years; Moses knew this very well,
and had recorded it: but what is their long life to God's eternal life? “A thousand years, to
us, are a long period, which we cannot expect to survive; or, if we could, it is what we could
not retain the remembrance of; but it is, in thy sight, as yesterday, as one day, as that which
is freshest in mind; nay, it is but as a watch of the night,” which was but three hours. 1. A
thousand years are nothing to God's eternity; they are less than a day, than an hour, to a
thousand years. Betwixt a minute and a million of years there is some proportion, but
betwixt time and eternity there is none. The long lives of the patriarchs were nothing to
God, not so much as the life of a child (that is born and dies the same day) is to theirs. 2. All
the events of a thousand years, whether past or to come, are as present to the Eternal Mind
as what was done yesterday, or the last hour, is to us, and more so. God will say, at the great
day, to those whom he has turned to destruction, Return - Arise you dead. But it might be
objected against the doctrine of the resurrection that it is a long time since it was expected
and it has not yet come. Let that be no difficulty, for a thousand years, in God's sight, are
but as one day. *ullum tempus occurrit regi - To the king all periods are alike. To this
purport these words are quoted, 2Pe_3:8.”
1B. “As to a very rich man a thousand sovereigns are as one penny; so, to the eternal God,
a thousand years are as one day.”—John Albert Bengel, 1687-1752.
2. Kyle, “The night-time is the time for sleep; a watch in the night is one that is slept away,
or at any rate passed in a sort of half-sleep. A day that is past, as we stand on the end of it,
still produces upon us the impression of a course of time by reason of the events which we
can recall; but a night passed in sleep, and now even a fragment of the night, is devoid of all
trace to us, and is therefore as it were timeless. Thus is it to God with a thousand years:
they do not last long to Him; they do not affect Him; at the close of them, as at the
beginning, He is the Absolute One ( אֵ ל ). Time is as nothing to Him, the Eternal One. The
changes of time are to Him no barrier restraining the realization of His counsel - a truth
which has a terrible and a consolatory side. The poet dwells upon the fear which it
produces.”
3. Barnes, “For a thousand years in thy sight - Hebrew, “In thy eyes;” that is, It so appears
to thee - or, a thousand years so seem to thee, however long they may appear to man. The
utmost length to which the life of man has reached - in the case of Methuselah - was nearly
a thousand years Gen_5:27; and the idea here is, that the longest human life, even if it
should be lengthened out to a thousand years, would be in the sight of God, or in
comparison with his years, but as a single day.
Are but as yesterday when it is past - Margin, “he hath passed them.” The translation in
the text, however, best expresses the sense. The reference is to a single day, when we call it
to remembrance. However long it may have appeared to us when it was passing, yet when it
is gone, and we look back to it, it seems short. So the longest period of human existence
appears to God.
And as a watch in the night - This refers to a portion of the night - the original idea
having been derived from the practice of dividing the night into portions, during which a
watch was placed in a camp. These watches were, of course, relieved at intervals, and the

night came to be divided, in accordance with this arrangement, into parts corresponding
with these changes. Among the ancient Hebrews there were only three night-watches; the
first, mentioned in Lam_2:19; the middle, mentioned in Jdg_7:19; and the third, mentioned
in Exo_14:24; 1Sa_11:11. In later times - the times referred to in the

ew Testament - there
were four such watches, after the manner of the Romans, Mar_13:35. The idea here is not
that such a watch in the night would seem to pass quickly, or that it would seem short when
it was gone, but that a thousand years seemed to God not only short as a day when it was
past, but even as the parts of a day, or the divisions of a night when it was gone.
4. Clarke, “For a thousand years in thy sight - As if he had said, Though the resurrection of
the body may be a thousand (or any indefinite number of) years distant; yet, when these
are past, they are but as yesterday, or a single thatch of the night. They pass through the
mind in a moment, and appear no longer in their duration than the time required by the
mind to reflect them by thought. But, short as they appear to the eye of the mind, they are
nothing when compared with the eternity of God! The author probably has in view also
that economy of Divine justice and providence by which the life of man has been shortened
from one thousand years to threescore years and ten, or fourscore.
5. Gill, “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 account of God, a thousand years are but as one day; and
therefore, should a man lie in the grave six or seven thousand years, it would be but as so
many days with God; wherefore, if the resurrection is not incredible, as it is not, length of
time can be no objection to it. Just in the same manner is this phrase used by the Apostle
Peter, and who is thought to refer to this passage, to remove an objection against the second
coming of Christ, taken from the continuance of things as they had been from the
beginning, and from the time of the promise of it: see 2Pe_3:4, though the words aptly
express the disproportion there is between the eternal God and mortal man; for, was he to
live a thousand years, which no man ever did, yet this would be as yesterday with God, with
whom eternity itself is but a day, Isa_43:13, man is but of yesterday, that has lived the
longest; and were he to live a thousand years, and that twice told, it would be but "as
yesterday when it is past"; though it may seem a long time to come, yet when it is gone it is
as nothing, and can never be fetched back again: and as a watch in the night; which was
divided sometimes into three, and sometimes into four parts, and so consisted but of three
or four hours; and which, being in the night, is spent in sleep; so that, when a man wakes, it
is but as a moment with him; so short is human life, even the longest, in the account of
God; See Gill on Mat_14:25.”
6. Bob Deffinbaugh, “If Moses is thinking of the history of mankind as it was recorded (by
him) in the Book of Genesis, it is interesting that he uses the term “a thousand years” in
Psalm 90:4. Why a thousand? In Genesis 5 we read about the “golden age of man” after the
fall. Men lived longer then than at any other time in history. Methuselah lived 969 years
(Gen. 5:27). I understand this thousand years, as Kirkpatrick does,

to be a reference to the days of Methuselah. Moses is saying that even if man and his life
span are looked upon in his greatest span of years, it is only a thousand years. That
thousand year period which Methuselah almost broke is a very short span to God. Man is
finite, God is infinite. So we have a reference to creation in verse 2, one to the fall in verse 3,
and an allusion to the long life of man in verse 4. I also observe a reference to the flood in
verse 5: “You sweep men away in the sleep of death.”
7. Spurgeon, “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past. A
thousand years! This is a long stretch of time. How much may be crowded into it,—the rise
and fall of empires, the glory and obliteration of dynasties, the beginning and the end of
elaborate systems of human philosophy, and countless events, all important to household
and individual, which elude the pens of historians. Yet this period, which might even be
called the limit of modern history, and is in human language almost identical with an
indefinite length of time, is to the Lord as nothing, even as time already gone. A moment yet
to come is longer than "yesterday when it is past", for that no longer exists at all, yet such
is a chiliad to the eternal. In comparison with eternity, the most lengthened reaches of time
are mere points, there is in fact, no possible comparison between them. And as a watch in
the night, a time which is no sooner come than gone. There is scarce time enough in a
thousand years for the angels to change watches; when their millennium of service is
almost over it seems as though the watch were newly set. We are dreaming through the long
night of time, but God is ever keeping watch, and a thousand years are as nothing to him. A
host of days and nights must be combined to make up a thousand years to us, but to God,
that space of time does not make up a whole night, but only a brief portion of it. If a
thousand years be to God as a single night watch, what must be the life time of the Eternal!
8. Stedman, “There is suggested in Verse 4 the thought that God had originally intended a
greater span of life for man. In connection with his word about the limits of life, the
Psalmist says, "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as
a watch in the night." In reading that I have often wondered if a thousand years was God's
originally intended limit for the life of man. That is, incidentally, the length of the
Millennium. According to Revelation 20, the coming Golden Age of earth will be a
thousand years long. That this suggestion may be true is strengthened by the fact that early
man, as recorded in Genesis, lived almost a thousand years. The oldest man who ever lived,
Methuselah, lived 969 years. Before sin began to spread through the earth it is quite likely
that God intended that man should live a thousand years. But even a thousand years, even
the longest possible lifetime of man, compared with the greatness of God is "but as
yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night."
5 You sweep men away in the sleep of death;
they are like the new grass of the morning-

1. Moses is writing this Psalm after seeing over a million people die in the wilderness. All of
those who came out of Egypt were condemned to die for their rebellion against God's plan
to enter the Promised Land. They had to wander until all except the two faithful spies died.
So Moses saw that whole generation being swept from the earth, and a new generation
born to carry on the plan of God to take the land.
1B. Thou carriest them away as with a flood. Let us meditate seriously upon the swift
passage of our days, how our life runs away like a stream of waters, and carrieth us with it.
Our condition in the eyes of God in regard of our life in this world is as if a man that knows
not how to swim, should be cast into a great stream of water, and be carried down with it,
so that he may sometimes lift up his head or his hands, and cry for help, or catch hold of
this thing and that, for a time, but his end will be drowning, and it is but a small time that
he can hold out, for the flood which carries him away will soon swallow him up. And surely
our life here if it be rightly considered, is but like the life of a person thus violently carried
down a stream. All the actions and motions of our life are but like unto the strivings and
struggles of a man in that case: our eating, our drinking, our physic, our sports, and all
other actions are but like the motions of the sinking man. When we have done all that we
can, die we must, and be drowned in this deluge.—William Bradshaw.
1C. “They are like grass. In this last similitude, the prophet compares men to grass, that as
grass hath a time of growing and a time of withering, even so has man. In the morning it
flourisheth, and groweth up. In which words Moses compares the former part of man's life,
which is the space of thirty-three years, to the time of growing of grass, and that is
accounted the time of the perfection of man's strength and age; at which age, according to
the course of nature, man flourisheth as grass doth; that is the time of a man's prime and
flourishing estate. But in the evening; that is, when the grass is ripe, and ready to be cut
down, it withereth. Even so man, being once at his strength, and ripest age, doth not stand
at a stay, nor continueth long so; but presently begins to decay, and to wither away, till old
age comes, and he is cut down by the scythe of death.

ow, in that Moses useth so many
similitudes, and all to show how frail this life of man is, we are taught, that the frailty,
vanity, and shortness of man's life is such, that examples will scarcely shew it. Death comes
as a flood, violently and suddenly; we are as a sleep; we are as grass; our life is like a
dream; we spend our days as a tale that is told, Ps 90:9. All these similitudes Moses hath in
this Psalm, as if he wanted words and examples, how to express the vanity, frailty, and
shortness thereof.”—Samuel Smith.
2. Henry, “To see the frailty of man, and his vanity even at his best estate (Psa_90:5,
Psa_90:6): look upon all the children of men, and we shall see, 1. That their life is a dying
life: Thou carriest them away as with a flood, that is, they are continually gliding down the
stream of time into the ocean of eternity. The flood is continually flowing, and they are
carried away with it; as soon as we are born we begin to die, and every day of our life
carries us so much nearer death; or we are carried away violently and irresistibly, as with a
flood of waters, as with an inundation, which sweeps away all before it; or as the old world

oah's flood. Though God promised not so to drown the world
again, yet death is a constant deluge. 2. That it is a dreaming life. Men are carried away as
with a flood and yet they are as a sleep; they consider not their own frailty, nor are aware
how near they approach to an awful eternity. Like men asleep, they imagine great things to
themselves, till death wakes them, and puts an end to the pleasing dream. Time passes
unobserved by us, as it does with men asleep; and, when it is over, it is as nothing. 3. That it
is a short and transient life, like that of the grass which grows up and flourishes, in the
morning looks green and pleasant, but in the evening the mower cuts it down, and it
immediately withers, changes its colour, and loses all its beauty. Death will change us
shortly, perhaps suddenly; and it is a great change that death will make with us in a little
time. Man, in his prime, does but flourish as the grass, which is weak, and low, and tender,
and exposed, and which, when the winter of old age comes, will wither of itself: but he may
be mown down by disease or disaster, as the grass is, in the midst of summer. All flesh is as
grass.
3. Barnes, “Thou carriest them away as with a flood - The original here is a single verb
with the suffix - זרמתם zerametâm. The verb - זרם zâram - means, to flow, to pour; then, to
pour upon, to overwhelm, to wash away. The idea is, that they were swept off as if a torrent
bore them from the earth, carrying them away without regard to order, rank, age, or
condition. So death makes no discrimination. Every day that passes, multitudes of every
age, sex, condition, rank, are swept away and consigned to the grave - as they would be if a
raging flood should sweep over a land.
They are as a sleep - The original here is, “a sleep they are.” The whole sentence is
exceedingly graphic and abrupt: “Thou sweepest them away; a sleep they are - in the
morning - like grass - it passes away.” The idea is that human life resembles a sleep,
because it seems to pass so swiftly; to accomplish so little; to be so filled with dreams and
visions, none of which remain or become permanent.
In the morning they are like grass which groweth up - A better translation of this would
be to attach the words “in the morning to the previous member of the sentence, “They are
like sleep in the morning;” that is, They are as sleep appears to us in the morning, when we
wake from it - rapid, unreal, full of empty dreams. The other part of the sentence then
would be, “Like grass, it passeth away.” The word rendered “groweth up,” is in the margin
translated “is changed.” The Hebrew word - חלף châlaph - means to pass, to pass along, to
pass by; to pass on, to come on; also, to revive or flourish as a plant; and then, to change. It
may be rendered here, “pass away;” and the idea then would be that they are like grass in
the fields, or like flowers, which soon “change” by passing away. There is nothing more
permanent in man than there is in the grass or in the flowers of the field.
4. Clarke, “Thou carriest them away as with a flood - Life is compared to a stream, ever
gliding away; but sometimes it is as a mighty torrent, when by reason of plague, famine, or
war, thousands are swept away daily. In particular cases it is a rapid stream, when the
young are suddenly carried off by consumptions, fevers, etc.; this is the flower that
flourisheth in the morning, and in the evening is cut down and withered. The whole of life is
like a sleep or as a dream. The eternal world is real; all here is either shadowy or
representative. On the whole, life is represented as a stream; youth, as morning; decline of
life, or old age, as evening, death, as sleep; and the resurrection as the return of the flowers

in spring. All these images appear in these curious and striking verses, Psa_90:3-6.
5. Gill, “ 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 flowing gliding stream of a flood, by the rolling
billows and waves of it; so one hour, one day, one month, one year, roll on after another:
moreover, the suddenness of death may be here intended, which comes in an hour unlooked
for, and unaware of, as a flood comes suddenly, occasioned by hasty showers of rain; as also
the irresistible force and power of it, which none can withstand; of which the rapidity of a
flood is a lively emblem, and which carries all before it, and sweeps away everything that
stands in its course; as death, by an epidemic and infectious disease, or in a battle, carries
off thousands and ten thousands in a very little time; nor does it spare any, as a flood does
not, of any age or sex, of any rank or condition of life; and, like a flood, makes sad
destruction and devastation where it comes, and especially where it takes off great
numbers; it not only turns beauty to ashes, and strength into weakness and corruption, but
depopulates towns, and cities, and kingdoms; and as the flowing flood and gliding stream
can never be fetched back again, so neither can life when past, not one moment of time
when gone; see 2Sa_14:14, besides this phrase may denote the turbulent and tempestuous
manner in which, sometimes, wicked men go out of the world, a storm being within and
without, as in Job_27:20, "they are as a sleep"; or dream, which soon passeth away; in a
sound sleep, time is insensibly gone; and a dream, before it can be well known what it is, is
over and lost in oblivion; and so short is human life, Job_20:8 there may be, sometimes, a
seeming pleasure enjoyed, as in dreams, but no satisfaction; as a man in sleep may dream
that he is eating and drinking, and please himself with it; but, when he awakes, he is
hungry and empty, and unsatisfied; and so is man with everything in this life, Isa_29:8, and
all things in life are a mere dream, as the honours, riches, and pleasures of it; a man rather
dreams of honour, substance, and pleasure, than really enjoys them. Wicked men, while
they live, are "as those that sleep"; as the Targum renders it; they have no spiritual senses,
cannot see, hear, smell, taste, nor feel; they are without strength to everything that is
spiritually good; inactive, and do none; are subject to illusions and mistakes; are in
imminent danger, and unconcerned about it; and do not care to be jogged or awaked, and
sleep on till they sleep the sleep of death, unless awaked by powerful and efficacious grace;
and men when dead are asleep, not in their souls, but in their bodies; death is often in
Scripture signified by a sleep, under which men continue until the resurrection, which is an
awaking out of it:
in the morning they are like grass, which groweth up or "passeth away", or "changeth"
(d); or is changed; some understand this of the morning of the resurrection, when there will
be a change for the better, a renovation, as Kimchi interprets the word; and which, from
the use of it in the Arabic language, as Schultens observes (e), signifies to be green and
flourishing, as grass in the morning is; and so intends a recovery of rigour and strength, as
a man after sleep, and as the saints will have when raised from the dead. The Targum
refers it to the world to come, "and in the world to come, as grass is cut down, they shall be
changed or renewed;'' but it is rather to be understood of the flourishing of men in the

morning of youth, as the next verse shows, where it is repeated, and where the change of
grass is beautifully illustrated and explained.”
6. Dr. Shepherd, “How fragile are we? How transitory are we? How quickly do we pass off
the scene? Three times over the psalmist tell us. We are like a leaf floating on a stream; in
thirty seconds the leaf has passed downstream out of sight. We are like a dream; as soon as
the sleeper awakes and gets on with the day, the dream is forgotten. We are like grass; lush
and green in the morning, but after one day's heat brown and withered by nightfall. The
psalmist doesn't keep on reminding us of our short span on earth to depress us. He wants
only to render us realistic about ourselves. We aren't here for very long, and in whatever
time we are here life is uncertain.
7. Spurgeon, “Thou carriest them away as with a flood. As when a torrent rushes down the river
bed and bears all before it, so does the Lord bear away by death the succeeding generations of
men. As the hurricane sweeps the clouds from the sky, so time removes the children of men.
They are as a sleep. Before God men must appear as unreal as the dreams of the night, the
phantoms of sleep.

ot only are our plans and devices like a sleep, but we ourselves are such.
"We are such stuff as dreams are made of." In the morning they are like grass which groweth
up. As grass is green in the morning and hay at night, so men are changed from health to
corruption in a few hours. We are not cedars, or oaks, but only poor grass, which is vigorous
in the spring, but lasts not a summer through. What is there upon earth more frail than we!
8. Lucian takes a Greek proverb, “A man is a bubble,” and says many born only to sink
immediately. Some float up and down for a while and then disappear. “The change not being
great, it being hardly possible that a bubble should be more a nothing than it was before.”
A good rain in the East can turn a brown and parched desert into a field of green blades
which come up that fast, but hot wind leaves them withered again before the day is over.
So passeth, in the passing of an hour,
Of moral life, the leaf, the bud, the flower.
“Our birth is nothing but our death begun.”
Stout and strong today,

Tomorrow turn to clay,
This day in His bloom,
The next, in the tomb.
Author unknown
6 though in the morning it springs up new,
by evening it is dry and withered.
1. Barnes, “In the morning it flourisheth - This does not mean that it grows with any special
vigor or rapidity in the morning, as if that were illustrative of the rapid growth of the
young; but merely that, in fact, in the morning it is green and vigorous, and is cut down in
the short course of a day, or before evening. The reference here is to grass as an emblem of
man. And groweth up - The same word in the Hebrew which is used in the close of the
previous verse.
In the evening it is cut down, and withereth - In the short period of a day. What was so
green and flourishing in the morning, is, at the close of the day, dried up. Life has been
arrested, and death, with its consequences, has ensued. So with man. How often is this
literally true, that those who are strong, healthy, vigorous, hopeful, in the morning, are at
night pale, cold, and speechless in death! How striking is this as an emblem of man in
general: so soon cut down; so soon numbered with the dead. Compare the notes at
Isa_40:6-8; notes at 1Pe_1:24-25.”
1B. “They are like grass. In this last similitude, the prophet compares men to grass, that as
grass hath a time of growing and a time of withering, even so has man. In the morning it
flourisheth, and groweth up. In which words Moses compares the former part of man's life,
which is the space of thirty-three years, to the time of growing of grass, and that is
accounted the time of the perfection of man's strength and age; at which age, according to
the course of nature, man flourisheth as grass doth; that is the time of a man's prime and
flourishing estate. But in the evening; that is, when the grass is ripe, and ready to be cut
down, it withereth. Even so man, being once at his strength, and ripest age, doth not stand
at a stay, nor continueth long so; but presently begins to decay, and to wither away, till old
age comes, and he is cut down by the scythe of death.

ow, in that Moses useth so many
similitudes, and all to show how frail this life of man is, we are taught, that the frailty,
vanity, and shortness of man's life is such, that examples will scarcely shew it. Death comes
as a flood, violently and suddenly; we are as a sleep; we are as grass; our life is like a
dream; we spend our days as a tale that is told, Ps 90:9. All these similitudes Moses hath in
this Psalm, as if he wanted words and examples, how to express the vanity, frailty, and
shortness thereof.—Samuel Smith.

Stout and strong today,
Tomorrow turned to clay.
This day in his bloom,
The next, in the tomb.
2. Gill, “ 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 of his body, and in the endowments of his mind; and it
may be also in riches and wealth; it is well if he grows in grace, and in the knowledge of
Christ:
in the evening it is cut down, and withereth; the Targum adds, "through heat"; but it
cannot be by the heat of the sun, when it is cut down at evening; but it withers in course,
being cut down. This respects the latter part of life, the evening of old age; and the whole
expresses the shortness of life, which is compared to grass, that now is in all its beauty and
glory, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, Mat_6:30. This metaphor of grass, to set forth
the frailty of man, and his short continuance, is frequently used; see Psa_37:2, 1Pe_1:24. It
may be observed, that man's life is represented but as one day, consisting of a morning and
an evening, which signifies the bloom and decline of life.
3. Spurgeon, “In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up. Blooming with abounding
beauty till the meadows are all besprent with gems, the grass has a golden hour, even as
man in his youth has a heyday of flowery glory. In the evening it is cut down, and
withereth. The scythe ends the blossoming of the field flowers, and the dews at flight weep
their fall. Here is the history of the grass—sown, grown, blown, mown, gone; and the
history of man is not much more.

atural decay would put an end both to us and the grass
in due time; few, however, are left to experience the full result of age, for death comes with
his scythe, and removes our life in the midst of its verdure. How great a change in how
short a time! The morning saw the blooming, and the evening sees the withering.”
7 We are consumed by your anger
and terrified by your indignation.
1. Barnes, “For we are consumed by thine anger - That is, Death - the cutting off of the race
of man - may be regarded as an expression of thy displeasure against mankind as a race of
sinners. The death of man would not have occurred but for sin Gen_3:3, Gen_3:19;
Rom_5:12; and all the circumstances connected with it - the fact of death, the dread of

death, the pain that precedes death, the paleness and coldness and rigidity of the dead, and
the slow and offensive returning to dust in the grave - all are adapted to be, and seem
designed to be, illustrations of the anger of God against sin. We cannot, indeed, always say
that death in a specific case is proof of the direct and special anger of God “in that case;”
but we can say that death always, and death in its general features, may and should be
regarded as an evidence of the divine displeasure against the sins of people.
And by thy wrath - As expressed in death.
Are we troubled - Are our plans confounded and broken up; our minds made sad and
sorrowful; our habitations made abodes of grief.
2. Clarke, “We are consumed by thine anger - Death had not entered into the world, if men
had not fallen from God. By thy wrath are we troubled - Pain, disease, and sickness are so
many proofs of our defection from original rectitude. The anger and wrath of God are
moved against all sinners. Even in protracted life we consume away, and only seem to live
in order to die.
“Our wasting lives grow shorter still,
As days and months increase;
And every beating pulse we tell
Leaves but the number less.”
3. Gill, “ 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 an effect of the divine anger and
displeasure occasioned by their sins; see

um_14:33. Death is a consumption of the body;
in the grave worms destroy the flesh and skin, and the reins of a man are consumed within
him; hell is a consumption or destruction of the soul and body, though both always
continue: saints, though consumed in body by death, yet not in anger; for when flesh and
heart fail, or "is consumed", "God is the strength of their hearts, and their portion for
ever", Psa_73:26, their souls are saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, and their bodies will
rise glorious and incorruptible; but the wicked are consumed at death, and in hell, in anger
and hot displeasure: and by thy wrath are we troubled; the wrath of God produces trouble
of mind, whenever it is apprehended, and especially in the views of death and eternity; and
it is this which makes death the king of terrors, and men subject to bondage in life through
fear of it, even the wrath to come, which follows upon it; nothing indeed, either in life or at
death, or death itself, comes in wrath to the saints; nor is there any after it to them, though
they have sometimes fearful apprehensions of it, and are troubled at it.”
4. Henry, “Moses had, in the foregoing verses, lamented the frailty of human life in general;
the children of men are as a sleep and as the grass. But here he teaches the people of Israel
to confess before God that righteous sentence of death which they were under in a special
manner, and which by their sins they had brought upon themselves. Their share in the

common lot of mortality was not enough, but they are, and must live and die, under
peculiar tokens of God's displeasure. Here they speak of themselves: We Israelites are
consumed and troubled, and our days have passed away.
I. They are here taught to acknowledge the wrath of God to be the cause of all their
miseries. We are consumed, we are troubled, and it is by thy anger, by thy wrath (Psa_90:7);
our days have passed away in thy wrath, Psa_90:9. The afflictions of the saints often come
purely from God's love, as Job's; but the rebukes of sinners, and of good men for their sins,
must be seen coming from the anger of God, who takes notice of, and is much displeased
with, the sins of Israel. We are too apt to look upon death as no more than a debt owing to
nature; whereas it is not so; if the nature of man had continued in its primitive purity and
rectitude, there would have been no such debt owing to it. It is a debt to the justice of God,
a debt to the law. Sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Are we consumed by decays of
nature, the infirmities of age, or any chronic disease? We must ascribe it to God's anger.
Are we troubled by any sudden or surprising stroke? That also is the fruit of God's wrath,
which is thus revealed from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.”
5. “For we are consumed by thine anger, etc. Whence we may first of all observe, how they
compare their present estate in the wilderness, with the estate of other nations and people,
and shew that their estate was far worse than theirs: for others died now one, and then one,
and so they were diminished; but for them, they were hastily consumed and suddenly swept
away by the plague and pestilence which raged amongst them. Hence we may observe, first
of all—That it is a ground of humiliation to God's people when their estate is worse than
God's enemies'.Moses gathers this as an argument to humble them, and to move them to
repentance and to seek unto God; viz., that because of their sins they were in a far worse
case and condition than the very enemies of God were. For though their lives were short,
yet they confess that theirs was far worse than the very heathen themselves, for they were
suddenly consumed by his anger. When God is worse to his own church and people than he
is to his enemies; when the Lord sends wars in a nation called by his name, and peace in
other kingdoms that are anti Christian; sends famine in his church, and plenty to the
wicked; sends the plague and pestilence in his church, and health and prosperity to the
wicked; oh, here is matter of mourning and humiliation; and it is that which hath touched
God's people to the quick, and wounded them to the heart, to see the enemies of the church
in better condition than the church itself.”—Samuel Smith.
6. Spurgeon, “This mortality is not accidental, neither was it inevitable in the original of
our nature, but sin has provoked the Lord to anger, and therefore thus we die. For we are
consumed by thine anger. This is the scythe which mows and the scorching heat which
withers. This was specially the case in reference to the people in the wilderness, whose lives
were cut short by justice on account of their waywardness; they failed, not by a natural
decline, but through the blast of the well deserved judgments of God. It must have been a
very mournful sight to Moses to see the whole nation melt away during the forty years of
their pilgrimage, till none remained of all that came out of Egypt. As God's favor is life, so
his anger is death; as well might grass grow in an oven as men flourish when the Lord is
wroth with them. "And by thy wrath are we troubled", or terror stricken. A sense of divine

anger confounded them, so that they lived as men who knew that they were doomed. This is
true of us in a measure, but not altogether, for now that immortality and life are brought to
light by the gospel, death has changed its aspect, and, to believers in Jesus, it is no more a
judicial execution. Anger and wrath are the sting of death, and in these believers have no
share; love and mercy now conduct us to glory by the way of the tomb. It is not seemly to
read these words at a Christian's funeral without words of explanation, and a distinct
endeavor to shew how little they belong to believers in Jesus, and how far we are privileged
beyond those with whom he was not well pleased, "whose carcasses fell in the wilderness."
To apply an ode, written by the leader of the legal dispensation under circumstances of
peculiar judgment, in reference to a people under penal censure, to those who fall asleep in
Jesus, seems to be the height of blundering. We may learn much from it, but we ought not
to misapply it by taking to ourselves, as the beloved of the Lord, that which was chiefly true
of those to whom God had sworn in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest.
When, however, a soul is under conviction of sin, the language of this Psalm is highly
appropriate to his case, and will naturally suggest itself to the distracted mind.

o fire
consumes like God's anger, and no anguish so troubles the heart as his wrath. Blessed be
that dear substitute,
"Who bore that we might never
His Father's righteous ire."
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
1. Barnes, “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee - Thou hast arrayed them, or brought
them forth to view, as a “reason” in thy mind for cutting us down. Death may be regarded
as proof that God has brought before his mind the evidence of man’s guilt, and has passed
sentence accordingly. The fact of death at all; the fact that anyone of the race dies; the fact
that human life has been made so brief, is to be explained on the supposition that God has
arrayed before his own mind the reality of human depravity, and has adopted this as an
illustration of his sense of the evil of guilt.
Our secret sins - literally, “our secret;” or, that which was concealed or unknown. This
may refer to the secret or hidden things of our lives, or to what has been concealed in our
own bosoms; and the meaning may be, that God has judged in the case not by external
appearances, or by what is seen by the world, but by what “he” has seen in the heart, and
that he deals with us according to our real character. The reference is, indeed, to sin, but
sin as concealed, hidden, forgotten; the sin of the heart; the sin which we have endeavored
to hide from the world; the sin which has passed away from our own recollection.
In the light of thy countenance - Directly before thee; in full view; so that thou canst see
them all. In accordance with these, thou judgest man, and hence, his death.

2. Clarke, “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee - Every one of our transgressions is set
before thee; noted and minuted down in thy awful register!
Our secret sins - Those committed in darkness and privacy are easily discovered by thee,
being shown by the splendours of thy face shining upon them. Thus we light a candle, and
bring it into a dark place to discover its contents. O, what can be hidden from the allseeing
eye of God? Darkness is no darkness to him; wherever he comes there is a profusion of
light - for God is light!
3. Gill, “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, Isa_38:17,
our secret sins in the light of thy countenance; the Targum and Jarchi interpret it of the
sins of youth; the word is in the singular number, and may be rendered, "our secret sin"
(f); which has led some to think of original sin, which is hidden from, and not taken notice
of by, the greatest part of the world, though it is the source and spring of all sin. It is not
unusual for the singular to be put for the plural, and may intend all such sins as are secretly
committed, and not known by other men, and such as are unobserved by men themselves;
as the evil thoughts of their hearts, the foolish words of their mouths, and many infirmities
of life, that are not taken notice of as sins: these are all known to God, and will be brought
to light and into judgment by him, and will be set in "the light of his countenance"; which
denotes not a gracious forgiveness of them, but his clear and distinct knowledge of them,
and what a full evidence they give against men, to their condemnation and death; and
intends not only a future, but the present view the Lord has of them, and his dealings with
men in life, and at death, according to them.”
4. Henry, “They are taught to confess their sins, which had provoked the wrath of God
against them (Psa_90:8): Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, even our secret sins. It was
not without cause that God was angry with them. He had said, Provoke me not, and I will
do you no hurt; but they had provoked him, and will own that, in passing this severe
sentence upon them, he justly punished them, 1. For their open contempts of him and the
daring affronts they had given him: Thou hast set our iniquities before thee. God had herein
an eye to their unbelief and murmuring, their distrusting his power and their despising the
pleasant land: these he set before them when he passed that sentence on them; these
kindled the fire of God's wrath against them and kept good things from them. 2. For their
more secret departures from him: “Thou hast set our secret sins (those which go no further
than the heart, and which are at the bottom of all the overt acts) in the light of thy
countenance; that is, thou hast discovered these, and brought these also to the account, and
made us to see them, who before overlooked them.” Secret sins are known to God and shall
be reckoned for. Those who in heart return into Egypt, who set up idols in their heart, shall
be dealt with as revolters or idolaters. See the folly of those who go about to cover their
sins, for they cannot cover them.”
5. Spurgeon, “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee. Hence these tears! Sin seen by God
must work death; it is only by the covering blood of atonement that life comes to any of us.

When God was overthrowing the tribes in the wilderness he had their iniquities before him,
and therefore dealt with them in severity. He could not have their iniquities before him and
not smite them. Our secret sins in the fight of thy countenance. There are no secrets before
God; he unearths man's hidden things, and exposes them to the light. There can be no more
powerful luminary than the face of God, yet, in that strong light, the Lord set the hidden
sins of Israel. Sunlight can never be compared with the light of him who made the sun, of
whom it is written, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." If by his countenance is
here meant his love and favour, it is not possible for the heinousness of sin to be more
clearly manifested than when it is seen to involve ingratitude to one so infinitely good and
kind. Rebellion in the light of justice is black, but in the light of love it is devilish. How can
we grieve so good a God? The children of Israel had been brought out of Egypt with a high
hand, fed in the wilderness with a liberal hand, and guided with a tender hand, and their
sins were peculiarly atrocious. We, too, having been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and
saved by abounding grace, will be verily guilty if we forsake the Lord. What manner of
persons ought we to be? How ought we to pray for cleansing from secret faults? It is to us a
wellspring of delights to remember that our sins, as believers are now cast behind the
Lord's back, and shall never be brought to light again: therefore we live, because, the guilt
being removed, the death penalty is removed also.”
6. Stedman, “God knows our inner sins, our secret inner thoughts. The Scriptures never
teach that a passing thought is a sin. A thought that comes to your mind unbidden, remains
there for a moment tempting you to do something wrong, is only a normal exposure to
temptation. Even the Lord Jesus experienced it. But here the Psalmist refers to thoughts
that we harbor, that we mull over and play with, that we take great pleasure in and often
summon up ourselves if they do not come to us unbidden. God is aware of these inner
defilements of life, and they are all contributing to the tragic sense of life.”
7. “It is a well known fact that the appearance of objects, and the ideas which we form of
them, are very much affected by the situation in which they are placed in respect to us, and
by the light in which they are seen. Objects seen at a distance, for example, appear much
smaller than they really are. The same object, viewed through different mediums, will often
exhibit different appearances. A lighted candle, or a star, appears bright during the absence
of the sun; but when that luminary returns, their brightness is eclipsed. Since the
appearance of objects, and the ideas which we form of them, are thus affected by
extraneous circumstances, it follows, that no two persons will form precisely the same ideas
of any object, unless they view it in the same light, or are placed with respect to it in the
same situation.
Apply these remarks to the case before us. The psalmist addressing God, says, Thou hast
set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. That is, our
iniquities or open transgressions, and our secret sins, the sins of our hearts, are placed, as it
were, full before God's face, immediately under his eye; and he sees them in the pure, clear,
all disclosing light of his own holiness and glory.

39184987 psalm-90-commentary

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (17)

Similar to 39184987 psalm-90-commentary

Similar to 39184987 psalm-90-commentary (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

39184987 psalm-90-commentary