Thoughts on Psalm 90
Psalm 90A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. 90:1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place 3 You return man to dust 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; 12 So teach us to number our days The Holy Bible, English Standard Version™
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The 17 Psalms of Book 4 (Ps 90 - 106) are all anonymous, except for one credited to Moses (90) and two to David (101,103). The fact that Book 4 is introduced with a Psalm of Moses gives a clue to one of the themes of this book - that of the covenant not with David (which concludes Book3 - Ps 89), but with Abraham and Moses. One commentator has suggested that these 17 Psalms could have been used at the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev 23.39-43; Deut 31.9-13) as the people celebrated the exodus.
Is this the prayer of a pessimist or a realist? "All our days pass away under your wrath.". Our life is just toil and trouble, (sounds like Ecclesiastes). Even the people who lived as long as a thousand years (like the long-lived people before the flood), are still powerless in the face of God who sweeps them away. Most of us only live for 70 or maybe 80 years. And how can we deal with a God who knows all our secret faults, who sets our sins in front of him so he can see them, who brings us to an end in his anger and returns us to the dust from which we came? It does sound pretty pessimistic, or at least it describes the thoughts of a person who is up against it, whose life is difficult and full of trouble and toil. The heading of the psalm says it is a prayer of Moses, the man of God. Can we imagine Moses composing this prayer? Perhaps in Egypt while the people were toiling in slavery, these kinds of thoughts could come to mind. Many of us in the present time find our work or life situation difficult and often without hope of improvement. We can easily associate with the feelings expressed in the psalm. But it is not just a complaint or a lament. The psalm begins by reminding God about his past. He has always been the place where his people lived securely (as Isaac Watts paraphrased it - see Australian Hymn Book 46; Songs of Fellowship 415, or here on the web). He is God from everlasting to everlasting - in contrast to us who, even if we lived for a thousand years, would still occupy only an insignificant fraction of time. It is this contrast between God's greatness, power, and eternity and our smallness and fragility that redeems the pessimism. The prayer is spoken to the everlasting God who has always been the place where his people lived. There was never a time when his people did not live in his presence. That is what being his people means. And although much of the psalm reflects the danger of living in the presence of God - he sees our sins and brings his wrath on us - it also appeals to the same power and ownership of God to help his people. Like Job, the prayer asks God to relent, to turn back to us, to have mercy, to show compassion, to satisfy us with his love every morning. Moses the man of God has given us an example of what to do when things are bleak and difficult. Lamenting is good, but hope lies in calling on the God who has said he is our God. The psalm appeals to God to act, to help, to show favour, to make us glad. The prayer also asks for help in our understanding of time. Time is very important in the psalm, how long God exists for (from everlasting to everlasting), how long we live for (80 years if we are healthy), how long God thinks a thousand years are (not very long), especially how long the days of our life are. So we want to learn how to count our days. Not how to calculate our age or work out how much longer before we are 70, but rather to be able to account for our days. That is, to be able to have some explanation both for the shortness of our life and the trouble that fills it. If we can understand that then we will have a wise heart. And does the Psalmist understand it? How does he count his days? He knows we live a short life because we are made from the dust (unlike God), and he knows that we live in a world under God's judgment. But he knows his days are from God, and he knows that the God who gave him life from the dust is also able to make him happy. He knows that despite his sin, God is able to show mercy and compassion. He knows God is splendid and wonderful and can fill his days with love and blessing. He counts his days as days which can be filled not only with toil and trouble but with gladness and joy. Because he understand that, he wisely calls out to God. Dale |