RRB notes on Psalm 90
Psalms 90 KJV
A Prayer of Moses the man of God.
1. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place [1] in all generations. [a]
[1] Notice three senses. The first is geographic only. Since God fills Heaven and earth, all saved and unsaved are inside Him in that sense. You can be His “offspring” without being one of His “children” (Rom. 8:14-16). The second sense is in the sense of a servant (vss. 13-14) who has an actual, practical, day-by-day relationship with God in the sense of believing He’s there, seeking His face, and having fellowship with Him. The third and final sense is the New Birth where you become part of Him (Eph. 5:30; Col. 2:9-10). This is not the sense of Psalm 90:1-2.
[a] This psalm begins volume four of the Psalms, which contains seventeen psalms. Only chapters 90, 101, and 103 are ascribed to writers.
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. [b]
[b] Gen. 1:1.
3. Thou turnest man to destruction; [2] and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
[2] The first half of the verse is illustrated in Joshua 11:20; Exodus 9:14-15; Acts 7:39-42, and Romans 11:8-10. In all cases where God “turned them,” He commanded them to repent and get right (Exod. 9:13-17; Judg. 11:12-20; 1 Kings 13:1-3). You are “turned to destruction” to see your need for repenting and getting right (Rom. 2:4-6).
4. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday [c] when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
[c] 2 Pet. 3:8.
5. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
6. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. [d]
[d] 1 Pet. 1:24-25.
7. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
8. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. [e]
[e] Eccl. 12:14; Rom. 2:16.
9. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. [3]
[3] “A tale” can be a long story, a short story, an exciting story, a dull story, or a horror story. A good tale would have the right plot, the right author, the right hero, the right beginning, the right ending, the right purpose, and obtain a right response.
10. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, [4] yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
[4] Certainly not Moses’ years; he lived to be 120 (Deut. 34:7). It might be an average age; see David (2 Sam. 5:4; 1 Kings 2:11). David is “old and stricken in years” at 70 (1 Kings 1:1). Barzillai the Gileadite matches the “fourscore years” in this verse (2 Sam. 19:35).
11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
12. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
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. [5]
[5] The years would start about Exodus 1 (which Bullinger dates at 1571 B.C.) and supposedly would end at Deuteronomy 1 with Israel’s entrance into the land before Moses died; that total time was 119 years (according to Bullinger). I rather think the verse goes beyond this into prophecy; in which case the evil years would be 606 B.C. to A.D. 2008 and beyond.
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. [f]
[f] Vss. 16-17 are a prayer for the Second Advent.
