Psalms

Chapter 90

From Everlasting to Everlasting

This prayer of Moses sets fragile human life against the everlasting being of God. It moves from praise of the Lord as the dwelling place of his people through generations into meditation on mortality, divine anger against sin, and the brevity of life under judgment. Yet the psalm does not end in resignation. It turns that realism into petitions for wisdom, compassion, gladness, and enduring fruit from the work of human hands under God's favor.

Psalm 90 is the Psalter's great meditation on time, mortality, and divine eternity. By placing human brevity beneath the gaze of the everlasting God, it teaches reverent wisdom and prayerful dependence rather than self-importance or despair.

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Psalms 90

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vv. 1-17

From Everlasting to Everlasting

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A¹ prayer of Moses the man of God. ²Before the mountains were born ³You return man to dust, ⁴For in Your sight a thousand years ⁵You sweep them away in their sleep; ⁶in the morning it springs up new,

⁷For we are consumed by Your anger ⁸You have set our iniquities before You, ⁹For all our days decline in Your fury; ¹⁰The length of our days is seventy years — ¹¹Who knows the power of Your anger?

¹²So teach us to number our days,

¹³Return, O LORD! How long will it be? ¹⁴Satisfy us in the morning with Your loving devotion, ¹⁵Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, ¹⁶May Your work be shown to Your servants, ¹⁷May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us;

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01vv. 1-17From Everlasting to EverlastingThe psalm opens by naming the Lord as the dwelling place of his people through all generations and by confessing that before creation itself God already was from everlasting to everlasting. It then reflects on how human beings return to dust, how a thousand years are nothing before God, and how life passes like grass under the pressure of divine anger against sin. Out of that sobering vision comes the request to number our days rightly, followed by pleas for God to return in compassion, satisfy his servants with steadfast love, balance affliction with gladness, reveal his work, and establish the work of their hands.