Psalms 90
What Happens in This Chapter
This psalm contrasts God, who has no beginning or end, with human life, which is short and quickly gone. The prayer names God's anger over the people's sins, counts a human lifespan at about seventy or eighty years, and asks God to teach them to count their days wisely. It ends by asking God to turn back to them, to give them gladness matching the days of trouble, and to make the work of their hands last.
Lord, you have been our home in every generation.
1Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
The King James column prints "Lord" here in ordinary type but "LORD" in small capitals at verses 13, 16 and 17. That is a deliberate signal: "Lord" translates the Hebrew word *adonai*, "master," while "LORD" stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, four consonants usually written YHWH, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud. "Dwelling place" translates a word for a shelter or lair, the place a person or animal goes home to.
2Before the mountains were born, before you formed the earth and the world, from forever past to forever ahead, you are God.
2Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
"Brought forth" and "formed" both translate verbs of childbirth: the mountains are spoken of as being born, and the earth as brought to birth in labor. "From everlasting to everlasting" is Hebrew for stretching back before any beginning and forward past any end.
3You turn people back into dust, and you say, "Go back, children of Adam."
3Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
The Hebrew for "man" here is *adam*, which sounds like *adamah*, the word for soil or ground; "children of men" is literally "sons of Adam," meaning human beings in general rather than one family. The line echoes the sentence in Genesis that a person is dust and returns to dust. "Destruction" translates a rare word usually taken to mean crushed matter, that is, dust.
4To you, a thousand years are like yesterday once it has gone by, or like a few hours of watch during the night.
4For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Ancient armies and towns divided the night into watches, shifts, each a few hours long, during which one set of sentries stood guard before being relieved. A watch was a stretch of the night you slept through and never noticed passing.
5You sweep people away like a flood; they are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass that springs up.
5Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
This line is one of the hardest in the Hebrew Bible to construe; the words can be read as "you flood them away," "they become a sleep," or "they are asleep", ancient and modern translators divide over it. The plain rendering keeps the ambiguity rather than choosing.
6In the morning it blooms and grows; by evening it is cut down and dries up.
6In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
7Your anger wears us out, and your fury leaves us shaken.
7For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
8You have set our wrongs in front of you, and our hidden sins are lit up by your face.
8Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
"Countenance" means face. In Hebrew a person's face stands for their presence and their attention, so "the light of your face" is the idiom for being fully in view of someone, nothing left in shadow.
9All our days go by under your anger; we finish our years like a sigh.
9For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
"A tale that is told" is misleading to a modern ear. The Hebrew word means a murmur, a sigh, or a low moan, the sound of breath, not a story. The point of comparison is brevity and faintness.
10Our years add up to seventy, or eighty if we are strong. Even the best of them are hard work and sorrow, for they pass quickly, and we fly away.
10The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
A score is twenty, so "threescore years and ten" is seventy and "fourscore" is eighty. These are stated as the ordinary span of a life, not a promise or a limit. "Their strength" translates a word meaning pride or boast, the best and proudest part of those years.
11Who understands how strong your anger is? Your fury is as great as the fear you deserve.
11Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
This line is compressed and disputed in the Hebrew. It reads roughly "and like the fear of you, your wrath", usually taken to mean the anger matches the awe a person ought to have, though some read it as saying nobody fears it as much as it warrants.
12So teach us to count our days, so that we may gain a wise heart.
12So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
In Hebrew the heart is the seat of thought, memory and decision, closer to what English calls the mind, not chiefly the emotions. To "apply the heart to wisdom" is to get a mind that judges well.
13Come back, LORD! How long will this go on? Have pity on those who serve you.
13Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
In older English, "repent" said of God does not mean to confess wrongdoing. It translates a Hebrew verb meaning to relent, change course, or be moved to pity over a situation. "Return" here asks God to turn back toward the speakers, the same verb used in verse 3, where people are told to turn back to dust.
14Fill us in the morning with your faithful love, so we can sing and be glad every day we live.
14O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
"Mercy" translates *hesed*, a word for loyal, committed kindness, the steady goodwill owed within a binding relationship, not a one-off pardon. "Early" means at daybreak; in Hebrew poetry morning is the hour when a night of trouble ends and relief or a verdict arrives.
15Give us as many glad days as the days you made us suffer, as many as the years we saw trouble.
15Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
16Let those who serve you see what you do, and let their children see your greatness.
16Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
17Let the kindness of the Lord our God rest on us. Make what our hands do last; yes, make what our hands do last.
17And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
"Beauty" translates a word meaning pleasantness or favor, the kindly regard of a superior, rather than good looks. "Establish" means to make firm or set on a solid footing, so that what is built does not collapse after the builder is gone.
← → to turn the page · P for plain English · click a verse to select it