Psalm 90

Psalm 90

This Psalm is unique.

Most of the Psalms were written by David.

But this Psalm was written by...

Moses!

This Psalm is a Prayer of Moses!

Verse 1

 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

Moses sees God as his dwelling place. . .

and the ultimate dwelling place of all generations

who bend the knee to the God of all Creation.

Moses was 40 years old when he killed an Egyptian for beating a Hebrew slave.

After he killed the Egyptian, Moses spent the next 40 years of his adult life basically wandering in the desert.
(Exodus 2:11-15 - Acts 7:23-30.)

When Moses was 80,
God sent him to deliver the Hebrews from the Egyptians.

Moses led the Hebrews into the desert -
and Moses was again
wandering in the desert for 40 years
under the command of God.

It appears to me as though Moses never felt like he had a real home and permanent residence.

He didn't feel that he belonged in the palace. And when he was in the desert he was always on a journey - around and around as he grew spiritually. 

Moses probably thought a lot about

the beautiful truth

that

God is our true dwelling place.

Verse 2

Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever thou hadst formed the earth
and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting,
thou art God.

God always has been. He always will be. God is eternal.

God is a Trinity.
He is three persons in one being.
God is
Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit -

And each always was and always will be.

God the Trinity is eternal.

(Jesus being called the Son of God is not meant to indicate that Jesus has lived less time than Father God.  It indicates their role within the Trinity.)

Most of the time when someone says "God",

they are referring to

God the Father.

Nevertheless,

Jesus and the Holy Spirit

are God

just as much as the Father is God.

They all have the same power and attributes.

God is All Powerful. 

God is Present Everywhere.

God is All knowing. 

When Jesus came to earth, he voluntarily lay down some of his divine abilities. For example at that time, he was NOT present everywhere but was now in a body on earth.

Click to understand the Trinity better and help others understand the Trinity better: Here

Verse 3

Thou turnest man to destruction;
and sayest,
Return, ye children of men.

God is eternal but man had a beginning in time.

Psalm 103:15-16 NLT says,

Our days on earth are like grass;
    like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
The wind blows, and we are gone—
    as though we had never been here.

Man is frail and mortal.

And all of us

will

one day leave this earth and face God.

And while we are on this earth,

we are in desperate need of a shepherd.

Note that:

God sometimes compares man to a sheep

because we

-  like sheep - 

need a shepherd

to protect us and guide us.

We never see a sheep living by himself in the wild. 

Sheep must have a shepherd to survive. 

Even if we don't know it - the truth is that we need

Jesus - the Good Shepherd.

See our page on Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

Verse 4

For a thousand years in thy sight

are but as yesterday when it is past,

and as a watch in the night.

We also see this concept in 2 Peter 3:8 NIV...

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends:

With the Lord

a day is like a thousand years,

and a thousand years are like a day.

Why did God compare a thousand years to a day? 

Many people talk about the fact that God sees time
differently than we do.
Even senior citizens see time differently than young people. 

But I personally do not believe that the above explanation is the only thing God is trying to get across.

Let's look more closely...

To those who look closely and dig deeper,  I personally think that God is giving us a clue to information about the approximate time
when
Jesus will come back for the rapture and
for the second coming
where he
sets up the millennium kingdom in Jerusalem. 

If you are interested in end time speculation,
watch the fictional movie below
to understand
how God may be telling us
to compare a day to a thousand years
in order
to give us
a clue to how long
man will be on earth
before Jesus comes back in the clouds of glory.

If you want to

skip

right to the point -

skip to

30 minutes 22 seconds. 

(Or 35 minutes 24 sections if you can follow from that point) 

End of the Harvest

Some of the Scriptures from the movie:

Hosea 6:2 - Speaking of Israel - God's chosen nation... after 2 days (or 2 thousand years?) God will revive them (Israel) ... And God did revive them after 2,000 years. in 1948.

Exodus 19:11 - The Hebrew people were to meet with God on the the third day.  (That could be after 2,000 years and shortly into the next thousand years..... this might be a clue to the time of Jesus coming back.)

Matthew 17:1  - After 6 days  (6 thousand years?) - This was the Transfiguration, and it could foreshadow the receiving of glorified bodies after 6,000 years.

The time from Adam and Eve to Jesus is 4,000 (or 4 days?) and from Jesus to today is about 2,000 years (or 2 days?). 

If you are interested in more on this perspective,

the video below is thought-provoking.

https://youtu.be/4AG_nJNcTjM

Verse 5

 Thou carriest them away as with a flood;
they are as a sleep:
in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

The NLT version says:

    You sweep people away

like dreams that disappear.

They are like grass that springs up in the morning.

This verse continues the thought of verse 4 -

Life is short.

This verse reminds us that death can come suddenly and carry us away from the earth.

We need to realize that...

We are not always alert and awake

concerning the important things in life.

We are birthed and grow up and soon are gone. 

This verse is related to - and reminds me - of verse 12 ( Teach me to number my days so...)  Scroll down to see that section.

Verse 6

In the morning
it flourisheth, and groweth up;
in the evening
it is cut down, and withereth.

In this verse, our life is pictured in a day. We grow up in strength and vitality and as our life draws to a close, we wither  (grow frail) and then die.

Our life is brief and uncertain.

God is the anchor of our life - 

bringing stability and peace

to those who seek him.

Verse 7-8

For we are consumed by thine anger,
and by thy wrath are we troubled. 

Thou hast set our iniquities before thee,
our secret sins
in the light of thy countenance.

Before we repent

and ask forgiveness of our sins -

our sins are there

glaring at the Lord who is pure and holy.

In these verses, God reminds us that even sins that we think are secret sins are exposed before the Lord.

After we repent,

God puts our sins as far as the east is from the west.

Psalm 103:12 says,

As far as the east is from the west,

so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Some people incorrectly teach

that God

literally

cannot remember our sins.

I will explain below

why that interpretation is incorrect.

Number 1

If that interpretation were so, then God could never help us

with our addictions and repeated sin patterns.

Number 2

If that interpretation were so, then God wouldn't be God.

He wouldn't KNOW everything.

Number 3

If that were so,

then you could remember things that God couldn't.

Number 4

If that were so,

then God could not know

all your thoughts.

(Psalm 139 says he knows ALL our thoughts.)

If God literally could not remember your sins,

then

when YOU think about your past sins,

God couldn't hear those thoughts.

And on and on.

What God means

is

that

he does not set our sins before his eyes

in judgment

if

we have repented of our sins to him.

-

Repentance brings peace with God.

Verse 9

For all our days are passed away in thy wrath:

we spend our years as a tale that is told.

The TLB version says,

No wonder the years are long and heavy here

beneath your wrath.

All our days are filled with sighing. 

We live under the curse of Genesis.

For example...

Man must work hard with the sweat of his brow.
(Genesis 3:17 and 19)

Women have pain in childbirth. (Genesis 3:16)

Roses have thorns. (Genesis 3:18)

I believe that the crown of thorns on the head of Jesus on the cross, symbolized the curse.

And I believe there are other results of the curse such as turbulent weather.

The curse brought trouble and difficulty in the world.

There is now evil in the world.

There are demonic forces that want to hinder us on every side. 

By the way, the word translated "wrath" in this verse is only spelled this way once in the Bible. The grammatical implications of this verse are not clear. 

Verse 10

 The 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.

Verse 10 NKJV...

The days of our lives are seventy years;

And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,

Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;

For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

Interestingly,

even in the time of Moses,

the average age was

70

and with extra physical strength

80.

Even though Moses himself lived to 120.

(Deuteronomy 34:7)

God gave Moses extra miraculous abilities to live long.

The oldest man to ever live is Methuselah
and he lived 969 years.

Note:
Methuselah has the word "selah" in it.
And "selah" means "to pause and think about that."

To be more precise, the word "Selah" is a bit of a mystery, but most people think it means "to pause and think about that."

Verse 10 in TLB says...

Seventy years are given us!

And some may even live to eighty.

But even the best of these years

are often empty and filled with pain;

soon they disappear, and we are gone. 

Long life in Genesis...

No one knows for sure why the people before the flood lived hundreds of years and after the flood the longevity began to go down. 

Some have purposed that during the flood, God  collapsed some kind of water canopy around the earth that shielded us from some of the harmful rays of the sun. 

Some have noted that all the clouds in the sky on any day are not enough to produce a worldwide flood. So the canopy idea is an interesting one.

Also note Genesis 7:11 tells us that the fountains under the earth were broken up and water burst forth from under the earth. So much of the water of the flood came from underground water.

Genesis 7:19-20 tells us that the tallest mountains were covered by multiple feet during the flood. So water covered every bit of land.

Verse 11

Who knoweth the power of thine anger?

even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

Who appropriately understands

God's intense anger toward sin?

Verse 11 TBL says...

Who can realize the terrors of your anger?

Which of us can fear you as he should? 

When we consider the intensity of

God's wrath against sin,

it reminds us to give God proper reverence.

Sin separates us from God.

Repentance unites us to God.

The Red Sea

dividing

is an example of the

POWER of God.

Verse 12

So teach us to number our days,

that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

This is one of the

Crown Jewel verses in the Bible.

This verse teaches us to

take time

to consider

how short our time on earth is -

so that

we will begin to realize

the benefits of

living our life by the wisdom of God.

The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Proverbs 9:10

To understand the Fear of the Lord...  Click Here

We need to make a

priority

of getting to know God

(by reading his word and praying)

and spending our days serving him.

Two of the scariest verses

in the whole Bible

are

Matthew 7:13-14.

In those verses...

Jesus said most people will not go to heaven.

Matthew 7:13-14

Jesus said...

13 “Enter through the narrow gate.

 For wide is the gate and broad is the road

that leads to destruction,

and many enter through it. 

14 But small is the gate and

narrow the road

that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Most people will live their life in the now

never thinking

about eternity - 

never thinking about the truths of the Bible

and

never repenting of their sins and living for Jesus.

Some people will

dabble in the Bible and church

but never will give their whole heart to Jesus.

Another scary set of verses is:

“Not everyone who says to Me, 

‘Lord, Lord,’

shall enter the kingdom of heaven,

but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 

22 Many will say to Me in that day,

‘Lord, Lord, have we not

prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name,

and done many wonders in Your name?’ 

23 And then I will declare to them,

‘I never knew you; 

depart from Me,

you who practice lawlessness!’

Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV

Lawlessness is living any way you want to. 

Lawlessness is the opposite of living for God.

A person can be

lawless

and

go to church and do some good things

in order to get

praise from men

or feel good about yourself,

BUT

the heart 

of the lawless person does not love God.

Jesus spoke about these people in

Matthew 15:8 NKJV

‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth,

And honor Me with their lips,

But their heart is far from Me.

LOVE

God loves everyone.

You don't get to heaven because God loves you.

You get to heaven because you love God.

Which means you repent of your sins and live for him.

In John 14:15,

Jesus said,

"If you love me, you will obey my commands."

Also See - 

First John 2:4-6

If you are not sure that you are right with God,

click - Explaining Salvation 

Verse 13 - 17

Short thoughts on the last 5 verses.

13 Return, O Lord, how long?

and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.

The NLT translation reads,

O LORD, come back to us!

How long will you delay? Take pity on your servants! 

Meaning...

Turn from your wrath. How long will you be angry?

Next Psalm 90

verse 14

14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy;

that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Satisfy us early...

I see that as a call for us

and our loved ones

to come to the Lord early in life

so that

we can rejoice and enjoy God

and reap the benefits of godly living -

all throughout our life. 

Next Psalm 90

verse 15

15 Make us glad

according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us,

and the years

wherein we have seen evil.

Some Bible verses have their fulfillment in heaven.

Nevertheless,

many verses including

Hebrews chapter 11

tell us

that we will not get ALL the fulfillment

of the Bible promises on earth.

Yet,

God does give many blessings

of fulfillment

to us on earth.

Note:

He gives more if we are following him closely

and if we ask him to bless us.

For example,

Isaiah 1:19 has an "If" in it.

The verse before it (verse 18)

talks about the beauty

of a person who is right with God.

I will write Isaiah 1:18-19 below...

18  Come now, and let us reason together,

saith the Lord:

though your sins be as scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

And now I highlight verse 19

19   If   ye be willing and obedient,

ye shall eat the good of the land:

An example of this verse being fulfilled on earth

is seen in the life of Job.

Job was given abundant blessings on earth

to make up for the suffering he did.

Next Psalm 90

verse 16

16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants,

and thy glory unto their children.

I really like this verse so I am going to put many translations.

CSB version says,

Let your work be seen by your servants,

and your splendor by their children.

*

The TLB version says,

Let us see your miracles again;

let our children see glorious things,

the kind you used to do.

*

The NLT version says,

Let us, your servants, see you work again;

let our children see your glory.

*

The Good News Translation says,

Let us, your servants, see your mighty deeds;

let our descendants see your glorious might.

Moses saw more

stupendous miracles than any other man....

But...

Moses is still calling out to God for more.

So do not let yourself be hindered by thinking that

God has given you so much that you will not ask for more.

We are to be thankful for what we have -

and yet we can always come boldly to God

- in love and respect,- 

ask him for more.

Next Psalm 90

verse 17

 

17 And 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.

The TLB version says,

Let the Lord our God favor us

and give us success.

Beauty of God be upon us...

That phrase makes me think of
the beauty of God
growing in us
as we
grow the
Fruit of the Spirit
in our life.

As we grow in the Fruit of the Spirit,

we become more and more like Jesus

and more and more inwardly beautiful.

 

Establish the work of our hands...

That reminds me that

only with God

can our toiling in work

be fruitful and be seen as successful.

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