Eternity and Frailty | Psalm 90

INTRODUCTION

In Psalm 90, Moses talks of the frailty of man and the shortness of life, contrasting there with the eternity of God, and therefore appealing to God for compassion. The Psalmist is praying for wisdom to make the most of our time on earth.[1]

A prayer of Moses the man of God.

¹Lord, you have been our dwelling place

throughout all generations.

²Before the mountains were born

or you brought forth the whole world,

from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

³You turn people back to dust,

saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”

⁴A thousand years in your sight

are like a day that has just gone by,

or like a watch in the night.

⁵Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—

they are like the new grass of the morning:

⁶In the morning it springs up new,

but by evening it is dry and withered.

⁷We are consumed by your anger

and terrified by your indignation.

⁸You have set our iniquities before you,

our secret sins in the light of your presence.

⁹All our days pass away under your wrath;

we finish our years with a moan.

¹⁰Our days may come to seventy years,

or eighty, if our strength endures;

yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,

for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

¹¹If only we knew the power of your anger!

Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.

¹²Teach us to number our days,

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

¹³Relent, Lord! How long will it be?

Have compassion on your servants.

¹⁴Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,

that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

¹⁵Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,

for as many years as we have seen trouble.

¹⁶May your deeds be shown to your servants,

your splendor to their children.

¹⁷May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;

establish the work of our hands for us—

yes, establish the work of our hands.

Psalm 90: Title: A prayer of Moses, the man of God.

This is a title given to Moses in Deut., Joshua, & Ezra. This denotes that Moses was faithful to God, Moses was approved by God.[2]

This Psalm was written by Moses near the close of the wanderings in the wilderness. The Hebrew people were about to enter the promised land.; the generations that came out of Egypt were passing away; Moses himself felt that he was near the end of his course. So these are probably the last words of Moses. Listen carefully, there is wisdom in it.

OUTLINE

Ps. 90:1-2: The Eternity of God

Ps. 90:3-11: The Frailty of Man

Ps. 90:12: Wisdom’s Cry

Ps. 90:13-17: Appeal for God’s Compassion[3]

Ps. 90:1-2: The Eternity of God

Now come to, Psalm 90:1-2

¹Lord, you have been our dwelling place

throughout all generations.

²Before the mountains were born

or you brought forth the whole world,

from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Lord, you have been our dwelling place. This can also mean ‘God is our refuge.’ God always has been and will be refuge of his people. It is like someone embarking on a long journey, wandering, and toiling and finally coming back to his home. He is our home. It is like going to a friend, a place where he calls his own.

This God is the creator; v2

God created mountains and the sea. This same God created us and all the living creatures.

God is eternal; v2

God is form everlasting to everlasting. From eternal ages past to eternal ages ahead he is God.

God is unchangeable, v2

God is unchanging. From eternity past to eternity to come, God is the same. Song: He is the same unchanging Jesus… He alone is God.

God is always God. The true God. The unchangeable God. He is the only God. He is the one eternal and immutable being. This God is our refuge.

Generations of Hebrews have experienced the faithfulness of God. Moses joins his ancestors who have experienced God’s faithfulness in the past and says God is his refuge.[4] If God is our refuge (Ps. 91:10-11) no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. So you can depend on this God.

Transition: First, We saw the eternity of God. Secondly:

Ps. 90:3-11: The Frailty of Man

Psalm 90:3

You turn people back to dust,

saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”

God is eternal. God is unchangeable. He continues to be the same.

But, man passes away. God causes man to return to dust.

God said to Adam: Genesis 3:19

“By the sweat of your brow

you will eat your food

until you return to the ground,

since from it you were taken;

for dust you are

and to dust you will return.”

Kings, presidents, prime ministers, technicians, teachers, and engineers all will return to the dust. Learned and great, honored and flattered, beautiful and handsome, youth and vigorous, aged and vulnerable; whatever is your honor, whatever is your rank or position, we will all return to the earth.

Oh! how much this should abase the pride of race; make a man sober and humble because he himself is to return back to dust unhonored, undistinguished, and undistinguishable dust.

Psalm 90:4

A thousand years in your sight

are like a day that has just gone by,

or like a watch in the night.

The longest-living human being was Methuselah who lived 969 years. In comparison to God’s time, it is just like a day or a watch at night. So the longest period of a human’s existence is just about a portion of night or to the maximum a day for God.

Psalm 90:5-6

⁵Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—

they are like the new grass of the morning:

⁶In the morning it springs up new,

but by evening it is dry and withered.

The idea is of a flood that comes and sweeps people to death, we die. Every day that passes, multitudes of every age, sex, condition, and rank are swept away to the grave. The dead are asleep. There is nothing more permanent in humans than there is in the grass or the flowers in the field.

Psalm 90:7

We are consumed by your anger

and terrified by your indignation.

The death of man would not have occurred but for sin (Gen. 3:19; Rom. 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.). Death is God’s displeasure against the sins of men.

Psalm 90:8

You have set our iniquities before you,

our secret sins in the light of your presence.

ILLUSTRATION

Think of a courtroom where all evidence is laid bare before the judge. Nothing is hidden.

Similarly, our iniquities are arrayed or displayed before God. Our secret sins, our heart, our real character, the sin which we hide from the world, and our sins that we have forgotten is in full view before our Lord.

Psalm 90:9

All our days pass away under your wrath;

we finish our years with a moan.

Our life passes away rapidly as a thought. Thought is no sooner come than is gone. Imagine a candle burning down to its wick. No matter how long it burns, the end is inevitable. So rapid, so fleeting, so unsubstantial is life.

Psalm 90:10-11

¹⁰Our days may come to seventy years,

or eighty, if our strength endures;

yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,

for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

¹¹If only we knew the power of your anger!

Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.

ILLUSTRATION

Tibetan monks create intricate sand mandalas from colored sand over several days or even weeks. Once the beautiful art is done, they sweep them away, symbolizing the impermanence of life. Like the mandala, our lives are beautiful but fleeting, underscoring the importance of living with purpose.

God has reduced the life span of man from 969 of Methuselah and fixed it at an average of 70 or 80 and some even 100, within this range. In this short period man must accomplish all that he is to do in this world, and this work has to be done to prepare him for the world to come. That means we have to make the most of our time, time is too precious to be wasted.

Life in the Bible

James 4:14

What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Isaiah 40:6

All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.

Psalm 39:4,6

Life passes swiftly, fleeting.

Days are a handbreadth.

Everyone is a breath.

Phantom – Something that seems to be real, but it is not real.

Job 8:9; Ps. 102:11; Ps. 109:23; Ps. 144:4 – Shadow

Job 9:25-26

²⁵“My days are swifter than a runner;

they fly away without a glimpse of joy.

²⁶They skim past like boats of papyrus,

like eagles swooping down on their prey.

Ps. 90:12: Wisdom’s Cry

Wisdom? Wisdom is that backward glance looking at life from the perspective of those who have already lived it.

Psalm 19:12

Teach us to number our days,

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Somewhere near the end of his long life, Moses the man of God writes this Psalm and at the core of this Psalm, is a prayer for wisdom. One of the main thing a wise heart knows is that our days are numbered.

Everyone knows that our days are numbered, that we will not live forever on this earth. We know it, but does that knowledge make us wise? Do we put that understanding to good use? Or do we try to put that idea out of our minds, so we can live as if there will always be a tomorrow?

The psalmist is praying for an understanding of how short our lives are and how quickly they pass, so that we may gain wisdom to know that our days are limited and will end soon. This understanding will guide us to make the most of our time.

Make good use of our time. Do not procrastinate. “Tomorrow I can put my finances in order. Tomorrow I can make things right with the people in my life. Maybe, tomorrow I can break this habit. Tomorrow I can tell my friend about Jesus. Oh, tomorrow I can pay attention to my soul. Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow.” But wisdom says there may not be a tomorrow. Your days are numbered. Plan your time. Redeem your time.

Wisdom declares our days are numbered and there number is few.

• So, make the most of your time.
• Wisdom also says, those days are hard; v10. They are full of trouble and sorrow.

Psalms 39:5

You have made my days a mere handbreadth;

the span of my years is as nothing before you.

Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.

Ps. 90:13-17: Appeal for God’s Compassion

Psalm 90:13

Relent, Lord! How long will it be?

Have compassion on your servants.

This is an appeal for God’s compassion. None of us can demand any favour from God, we can only appeal for his mercy and compassion.

Moses is praying: Relent, Lord! How long will it be?

Probably this Psalm was written during a time of pestilence that was threatening to sweep the people away in the wilderness.

Have compassion on your servants.

God has taken the Israelites to be his own people and they, in turn, were to be his servants. God has delivered them from Egypt, now they are in the wilderness. This probable pestilence is threatening to destroy the entire Israelites. Moses is crying for compassion.

God has taken us to be his own through Jesus, in turn, we are to be his servants. Therefore, we can implore God to show compassion on us.

Something is changing in this song rather than sorrow and trouble. “Lord, have compassion on us, satisfy us, make us glad, your favour rest on us, establish us.” Moses now speaks of favour and gladness instead of dust and death and withered desert grass. He is speaking of the rising of the sun and the glory of God shining on our children.

How does that work?

How do we get from a brief and bitter life wandering in the wilderness under the judgment of God to the bounty of God’s blessing in the sunshine of his faith?

Moses is now concluding this Psalm. The says that God is eternal but man is mortal. His days are 70 or 80 but of trouble and sorrow. Our days are numbered and the days will be difficult. But there is hope. Life can be different. It can be better if God wills. If God will have compassion on us.

Moses realizes that our sins have made life miserable, but he prays for compassion, forgiveness.

Psalms 90:13

Relent, Lord! How long will it be?

Have compassion on your servants.

When God is compassionate towards us and forgives us; we can be glad.

Psalms 90:14-15

¹⁴Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,

that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

¹⁵Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,

for as many years as we have seen trouble.

Yes, our days on earth are numbered and their number is few and they are brief and sometimes bitter but our God reign. Our God reigns and his kingdom has come through Jesus. We can enter His Kingdom. But one day this Kingdom will be established in all its glory. Moses prayed that they will not be perished but enter the promised land. We too will not perish.

Job 19:25-26

I know my redeemer lives…

And after my skin has been destroyed,

Yet in my flesh I will see God.

But today we can be citizens of the kingdom of God, members of God’s household, sons and daughters of the living God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Which means we can actually be at home with God. We can actually dwell with Him even in these days of trouble and sorrow and as we do that, we can experience a measure of the love and the joy and the peace of God’s kingdom to come, and God will also make our lives fruitful.

I love the ending of Psalm 90:

Psalm 90:17

May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;

establish the work of our hands for us—

yes, establish the work of our hands.

What Makes This Short Hard Life Worth Living?

I know I will enter the promised land and I will dwell with my Lord forever. But we have a promise for this world as well:

According to this prayer of Moses, even the work we do now in this brief and sometimes bitter life, that work can make life worth living. Our Lord will establish the work of our hands. He will cause our work to take root and to grow and to bear good fruit. What we do in this life can also be deeply, even eternally meaningful. What we do when we raise a family. What we do when we build a community. What we do when we care for this planet God has given us. What we do when we work justice in this world.

Just think of the life Moses lived, the work he did leading the people of God, those 40 years in the wilderness. Think of the laws he wrote and the stories he told, which are recorded in the first five books of our Bible. The Torah, which has become the theological and historical foundation of the people of God for thousands of years. I cannot think of the work of any single human being, which has been more established, more fundamental and fruitful than this man’s work, with the exception of the brief and bitter life of Jesus.

See, our days are numbered. They are few and often filled with trouble, and the wise know that very well. But the wise also know that God is eternal and the eternal God can make our futures secure, and he can make our futures bright. He can fill our days with good work, good work that can be a foretaste of the kingdom to come, if we will repent of our sins and commit ourselves to the work of his kingdom in this life, and if we will put our hope fully and finally in him.

When we recognize the Creator and submit to his purpose, God can make our lives joyful and more productive.

ILLUSTRATION

It is the story about a man who had a very foolish servant. One day in exasperation, the master said to his servant, I think you are the most foolish man I have ever met. You’re dismissed. But before you go, I want you to do something for me. I want you to take my staff and carry it with you wherever you go and if you ever find a man more foolish than you are, give him that staff. Then that day the master and servant parted ways and through the years the servant met many, many people he thought might be more foolish than himself, but he was never quite sure. So he kept the staff.

Then one day the servant came back to the master’s village and the master wanted to see him because unbeknownst to the servant, the master was sick unto death. When they at long last met, the master finally said to his servant, I’m going on a long journey from which I will never return. Well, when will you be coming back, sir? said the servant. Well like I said, I don’t expect to come back. But this is the most important journey in my life. I’m sure of it. Well, have you made preparations then? The servant asked, no the master replied, I have not. I have been too busy or at least I thought I was too busy, too concerned about other things. Well could you have made preparations Sir, Yes I could have.

The truth is I had a life time to prepare for this journey, I knew it was coming but I just never managed to get prepared. So pausing for some time the servant slowly replied, let me see if I understand what you are telling me. You are going on a journey from which you will never return and it is the most important journey in your life and you could have made preparations for it. You have known about this journey all your life, but you have failed to prepare for it and with that the servant took the staff and he handed it back to his master. I have finally met a man more foolish than myself. “Teach us to number our days right that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Not only our lives, but the world is passing away, but who does the will of God remains forever.

1 John 2:16-17

¹⁶For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

Jesus lived every day with urgency about doing the will of the Father that day, to finish the work the Father had given Him to do (John 4:34, 9:4-5).  He knew that the only way to finish the work the Father had given Him for His life was to make sure He did the work the Father gave Him to do each day. When there is a deadline for something to get done, the work needing to get done each day is crucial to meet the deadline.  We all have an eternal deadline to meet. How we need to be like Jesus, to use each day to make sure we finish the work He has given us to do, so that we will have no regrets at our last breath. I think that is the essence of “teach us to number our days to gain a heart of wisdom.” How we need that wisdom: perhaps the most common and deadly sin is time-wasting!

LIFE APPLICATION POINTS

Recognize the Brevity of Life:

Understand that life is short and unpredictable. Reflect on how you spend your time and prioritize what truly matters. Make the most of every moment.

Seek God’s Wisdom:

Pray for a heart of wisdom. Allow God’s Word to guide your decisions and actions, ensuring they align with His eternal purposes.

Depend on God’s Mercy and Love:

Trust in God’s unfailing love and seek His compassion in times of trouble. Let His love be your source of joy and gladness, even amidst life’s challenges.

Live with an Eternal Perspective:

Focus on what has eternal significance. Invest your time and resources in relationships, serving others, and building God’s kingdom.

Commit to Meaningful Work:

Ask God to establish the work of your hands. Seek to make a lasting impact through your efforts, whether in your family, community, or vocation.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

How does the brevity of life influence your daily choices and priorities?

How can you better rely on God’s unfailing love during times of trouble or sorrow?

What changes can you make to live with a more eternal perspective?

How can you ensure that the work you do today has a lasting, positive impact on future generations?

_________________

Works Consulted:

Barnes, Albert. Notes, Critical, Explenatory, and Practical on the Book of Psalms. Vol. III. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1869.

Spurgeon, Charles H. The Treasury of David Ps. 90-106. 3 vols. Texas: Piligrim Publications, 1983.

Wintle, Brian. South Asia Bible Commentary. Udaipur, India: Open Door Publications, 2015.

[1] Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David Ps. 90-106 (Texas: Pilgrim Publications, 1983), 3.

[2] Albert Barnes, Notes, Critical, Explenatory, and Practical on the Book of Psalms, vol. III (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1869), 1.

[3] Brian Wintle, South Asia Bible Commentary (Udaipur, India: Open Door Publications, 2015), 711.

[4] Wintle, 711.