Subject and Divisions. - Moses sings of the frailty of man, and the shortness of life, contrasting therewith the eternity of God, and founding thereon earnest appeals for compassion. The only division which will be useful separates the contemplation Psalm 90:1-11 from the prayer Psalm 90:12-17 : there is indeed no need to make even this break, for the unity is well preserved throughout.

Hints to Preachers

Psalm 90:1. - The near and dear relation between God and his people, so that they mutually dwell in each other.

Psalm 90:1. - The abode of the church the same in all ages; her relation to God never changes.

Psalm 90:1. -

I. The soul is at home in God.

1. Originally. Its birth-place - its native air - home of its thoughts, will, conscience, affections, desires.

2. Experimentally. When it returns here it feels itself at home: "Return unto thy rest," etc.

3. Eternally. The soul, once returned to this home, never leaves it: "it shall go no more out for ever."

II. The soul is not at home elsewhere. "Our dwelling place," etc.

1. For all men.

2. At all times. He is ever the same, and the wants of the soul substantially are ever the same. - G. R.

Psalm 90:2. - A Discourse upon the Eternity of God. S. Charnock. Works I. pp. 344-373, Nichol's Edition.

Psalm 90:2 (last clause). - The consideration of God's eternity may serve,

I. For the support of our faith; in reference to our own condition for the future; in reference to our posterity; and to the condition of God's church to the end of the world.

II. For the encouragement of our obedience. We serve the God, who can give us an everlasting reward.

III. For the terror of wicked men. - Tillotson's Sermon on the Eternity of God.

Psalm 90:3. -

I. The cause of death - "thou turnest."

II. The nature of death. - "return."

III. The necessities of death - reconciliation with God, and preparation to return.

Psalm 90:4. -

I. Contemplate the lengthened period with all its events.

II. Consider what he must be to whom all this is as nothing.

III. Consider how we stand towards him.

Psalm 90:5. - Comparison of mortal life to sleep. See William Bradshaw's remarks in our Notes on this verse.

Psalm 90:5, Psalm 90:6. - The lesson of the Meadows.

I. Grass growing the emblem of youth.

II. Grass flowering - or man in his prime.

III. The scythe.

IV. Grass mown - or man at death.

Psalm 90:7. -

I. Man's chief troubles are the effect of death.

1. His own death.

2. The death of others.

II. Death is the effect of Divine anger: "We are consumed by," etc.

III. Divine anger is the effect of sin. Death by sin. - G. R.

Psalm 90:8. -

I. The notice which God takes of sin.

1. Individual. "Our iniquities."

2. Universal notice. - "iniquities" - not one only, but all.

3. Minute, even the most secret sins.

4. Constant, "Set them before" him - "in the light," etc.

II. The notice which we should take of them on that account.

1. In our thoughts. Set them before us.

2. In our consciences. Condemn ourselves on account of them.

3. In our wills. Turn from them by repentance - turn to a pardoning God by faith. - G.

Psalm 90:9. -

I. Every man has a history. His life is as a tale - a separate tale - to be told.

II. Every man's history has some display of God in it. All our days, some may say, are passed away in thy wrath - all, others may say, in thy love - and others, some of our days in anger and some in love.

III. Every man's history will be told. In death, at judgment, through eternity. - G. R.

Psalm 90:10. -

I. What life is to most. It seldom reaches its natural limits. One half die in childhood, more than half of the other half die in manhood; few attain to old age.

II. What life is at most. "Threescore years," etc.

III. What it is to most beyond that limit. "If by reason," etc.

IV. What it is to all. "It is soon cut off," etc. - G. R.

Psalm 90:11. -

I. The anger of God against sin is not fully known by its effects in this life. "Who knoweth the power," etc. Here we see the hidings of its power.

II. The anger of God against sin hereafter is equal to our greatest fears. "According to thy fear," etc.; or, "the fear of thee," etc. - G. R.

Psalm 90:12. -

I. The Reckoning.

1. What their usual number.

2. How many of them are already spent.

3. How uncertain the number that remains.

4. How much of them must be occupied with the necessary duties of this life.

5. What afflictions and helplessness may attend them.

II. The use to be made of it.

1. To "seek wisdom" - not riches, worldly honours, or pleasures - but wisdom; not the wisdom of the world but of God.

2. To "apply the heart" to it. Not mental merely, but moral wisdom; not speculative merely, but experimental; not theoretical merely, but practical.

3. To seek it at once - immediately.

4. To seek it constantly - "apply our hearts," etc.

III. The help to be sought in it..."So teach us," etc.

1. Our own ability is insufficient through the perversion both of the mind and heart by sin.

2. Divine help may be obtained. "If any man lack wisdom," etc. - G. R.

Psalm 90:12. - The Sense of Mortality. Show the variety of blessings dispensed to different classes by the right use of the sense of mortality.

I. It may be an antidote for the sorrowful. Reflect, "there is an end."

II. It should be a restorative to the labouring.

III. It should be a remedy for the impatient.

IV. As a balm to the wounded in heart.

V. As a corrective for the worldly.

VI. As a sedative to the frivolous. - R. Andrew Griffin, in "Stems and Twigs," 1872.

Psalm 90:13. - In what manner the Lord may be said to repent.

Psalm 90:14 (first clause). - See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 513, "The Young Man's Prayer."

Psalm 90:14. -

I. The deepest yearning of man is for satisfaction.

II. Satisfaction can only be found in the realization of Divine mercy. - C. M. Merry, 1864.

Psalm 90:14. - "O satisfy us early with thy mercy," etc. Learn,

I. That our souls can have no solid satisfaction in earthly things.

II. That the mercy of God alone can satisfy our souls.

III. That nothing but satisfaction in God can fill our days with joy and gladness. - John Cawood, 1842.

Psalm 90:14. -

I. The most cheerful days of earth are made more cheerful by thoughts of Divine mercy.

II. The most sorrowful days of earth are made glad by the consciousness of Divine love. - G. R.

Psalm 90:15. -

I. The joy of faith is in proportion to the sorrow of repentance.

II. The proportion to suffering in affliction.

III. The joy of the returning smiles of God is in is in proportion to the terror of his frowns. - G. R.

Psalm 90:15. - The Balance of life, or the manner in which our joys are set over against our sorrows.

Psalm 90:16. -

I. Our duty - "work," and our desire about it.

II. Our children's portion - "glory," and our prayer in reference to it.

Psalm 90:17. - The Right Establishment, or the work which will endure - why it will endure and should endure. Why we wish our work to be of such a nature, and whether there are enduring elements in it.

Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings

Title

The correctness of the title which ascribes the Psalm to Moses is confirmed by its unique simplicity and grandeur; its appropriateness to his times and circumstances; its resemblance to the Law in urging the connection between sin and death; its similarity of diction to the poetical portions of the Pentateuch, without the slightest trace of imitation or quotation; its marked unlikeness to the Psalms of David, and still more to those of later date; and finally, the proved impossibility of plausibly assigning it to any other age or author. - J. A. Alexander.

Psalm 90:1

"Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." We must consider the whole Psalm as written for the tribes in the desert, and then we shall see the primary meaning of each verse. 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. Not 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. King's 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 New 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 condescensions 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.

Psalm 90:2

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13 Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.

14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.

16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.

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.

Psalm 90:12

"So teach us to number our days." Instruct us to set store by time, mourning for that time past wherein we have wrought the will of the flesh, using diligently the time present, which is the accepted hour and the day of salvation, and reckoning the time which lieth in the future to be too uncertain to allow us safely to delay any gracious work or prayer. Numeration is a child's exercise in arithmetic, but In order to number their days aright the best of men need the Lord's teaching. We are more anxious to count the stars than our days, and yet the latter is by far more practical. "That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Men are led by reflections upon the brevity of time to give their earnest attention to eternal things; they become humble as they look into the grave which is so soon to be their bed, their passions cool in the presence of mortality, and they yield themselves up to the dictates of unerring wisdom; but this is only the case when the Lord himself is the teacher; he alone can teach to real and lasting profit. Thus Moses prayed that the dispensations of justice might be sanctified in mercy. "The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ," when the Lord himself speaks by the law. It is most meet that the heart which will so soon cease to beat should while it moves be regulated by wisdom's hand. A short life should be wisely spent. We have not enough time at our disposal to justify us in misspending a single quarter of an hour. Neither are we sure of enough of life to justify us in procrastinating for a moment. If we were wise in heart we should see this, but mere head wisdom will not guide us aright.

Psalm 90:13

"Return, O Lord, how long?" Come in mercy to us again. Do not leave us to perish. Suffer not our lives to be both brief and bitter. Thou hast said to us, "Return, ye children of men," and now we humbly cry to thee, "Return, thou preserver of men." Thy presence alone can reconcile us to this transient existence; turn thou unto us. As sin drives God from us, so repentance cries to the Lord to return to us. When men are under chastisement they are allowed to expostulate, and ask "how long?" Our fault in these times is not too great boldness with God, but too much backwardness in pleading with him. "And let it repent thee concerning thy servants." Thus Moses acknowledges the Israelites to be God's servants still. They had rebelled, but they had not utterly forsaken the Lord; they owned their obligations to obey his will, and pleaded them as a reason for pity. Will not a man spare his own servants? Though God smote Israel, yet they were his people, and he had never disowned them, therefore is he entreated to deal favourably with them. If they might not see the promised land, yet he is begged to cheer them on the road with his mercy, and to turn his frown into a smile. The prayer is like others which came from the meek lawgiver when he boldly pleaded with God for the nation; it is Moses-like. He here speaks with the Lord as a man speaketh with his friend.

Psalm 90:14

"O satisfy us early with thy mercy." Since they must die, and die so soon, the Psalmist pleads for speedy mercy upon himself and his brethren. Good men know how to turn the darkest trials into arguments at the throne of grace. He who has but the heart to pray need never be without pleas in prayer. The only satisfying food for the Lord's people is the favour of God; this Moses earnestly seeks for, and as the manna fell in the morning he beseeches the Lord to send at once his satisfying favour, that all through the little day of life they might be filled therewith. Are we so soon to die? Then, Lord, do not starve us while we live. Satisfy us at once, we pray thee. Our day is short and the night hastens on, O give us in the early morning of our days to be satisfied with thy favour, that all through our little day we may be happy. "That we may rejoice and be glad all our days." Being filled with divine love, their brief life on earth would become a joyful festival, and would continue so as long as it lasted. When the Lord refreshes us with his presence, our joy is such that no man can take it from us. Apprehensions of speedy death are not able to distress those who enjoy the present favour of God; though they know that the night cometh they see nothing to fear in it, but continue to live while they live, triumphing in the present favour of God and leaving the future in his loving hands. Since the whole generation which came out of Egypt had been doomed to die in the wilderness, they would naturally feel despondent, and therefore their great leader seeks for them that blessing which, beyond all others, consoles the heart, namely, the presence and favour of the Lord.

Psalm 90:15

"Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil." None can gladden the heart as thou canst, O Lord, therefore as thou hast made us sad be pleased to make us glad. Fill the other scale. Proportion thy dispensations. Give us the lamb, since thou has sent us the bitter herbs. Make our days as long as our nights. The prayer is original, childlike, and full of meaning; it is moreover based upon a great principle in providential goodness, by which, the Lord puts the good over against the evil in due measure. Great trial enables us to bear great joy, and may be regarded as the herald of extraordinary grace. God's dealings are according to scale; small lives are small throughout; and great histories are great both in sorrow and happiness. Where there are high hills there are also deep valleys. As God provides the sea for leviathan, so does he find a pool for the minnow; in the sea all things are in fit proportion for the mighty monster, while in the little brook all things befit the tiny fish. If we have fierce afflictions we may look for overflowing delights, and our faith may boldly ask for them. God who is great in justice when he chastens will not be little in mercy when he blesses, he will be great all through; let us appeal to him with unstaggering faith.

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