BOOK 4
(Psalms 90—106)
A prayer of Moses the man of God
90:Title It is certain that a man of God will be a man of prayer. In the book of Psalms this is the only one attributed to Moses. This is one of the oldest poems in existence, being written about 3,400 years ago. In subject matter and choice of words it is weighty and solemn, much like the other writings of Moses we have.⚜
90
📚Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
90:1 Moses and the people of Israel were in the wilderness living in tents. They were coming from a land not their own to a land they had not possessed. They were like pilgrims and strangers on earth. But they had a fixed and permanent dwelling place – the Lord God Himself. \fp This is true also of believers in this New Testament era (John 17:21; Col 3:3; 1 John 4:15). When God is our home we have no business envying the rich for their mansions, or the kings for their palaces. Long after those mansions, those palaces crumble to dust the true home of believers, the living God, will still be there. Now if believers must inhabit poor huts and hovels or wander about in tents or seek refuge in caves (Heb 11:37-38), they should never forget that their present home and their eternal habitation is God.⚜
2 📚Before the mountains were brought
forth,
or before you had formed
the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting,
you are God.
3 📚You turn man to dust, and say,
“Return, you children of men”.
4 📚For a thousand years
in your sight are
like yesterday when it is past,
and like a watch in the night.
90:4 2 Pet 3:8. For us time drags by and we feel a hundred years to be a long time. With God even a thousand years is like a day – even less. A “watch” was a four hour period. Since there are six such “watches” in a twenty four period, in God’s eyes man’s recorded history is only a day long, and the lifetime of an individual is only a few minutes. History to us seems like a film shown in very slow motion. To God it is otherwise. From His point of view, the point of view of eternity, it is as if Adam sinned very early in the morning and Christ came the same day and died for Adam and for all of us, and is prepared to come again the same day at midnight. It may be, as others have suggested, that God lives in the eternal “now” – where there is no passage of time, and all events are so clear to Him that it is as if they were happening together in rapid succession.⚜
5 📚You carry them away like a flood.
They are like a sleep.
In the morning they are like
grass growing up;
90:5 God lives on forever, but mankind, generation after generation, passes away like foam and bubbles on the top of a swiftly flowing river.⚜
6 📚In the morning it flourishes
and grows up,
in the evening it is cut down
and withers.
90:2-6 Moses now contrasts God’s eternity with man’s brief, frail life.⚜
7 📚For we are consumed
by your anger and are dismayed
by your wrath.
90:7 Observe that the reason that men fade and wither away like grass and die is God’s anger, and not merely some inevitable process of nature.⚜
8 📚You have set our evil deeds
before you,
our secret sins in the light
of your countenance.
90:8 Here the reason for God’s anger is stated. God has His holy, searching gaze on all the sins of men, their inner, secret sins as well as their outward, obvious transgressions.⚜
9 📚For all our days are passed
away in your wrath.
We spend our years as a tale
that is told. 📖
90:9 Notice Moses’ strong expression “all our days”. But is it possible that God’s people dwell in God and at the same time are surrounded by His anger? Indeed, yes. Dwelling in God means being in the bosom of God’s holy nature, and this holy nature always burns like fire against all sin, all wrong. So believers are at the very heart of infinite anger against the evil that is in men. Their safety is in the love and grace which are also there.⚜
10 📚The days of our lives are
seventy years,
and if because of strength
they are eighty years,
still their prime 📖 is
labour and sorrow;
for it is soon cut off, and we fly
away.
90:10 This life span falls far short of the age of the ancients who lived nearly a thousand years (Genesis chapter 5). But still long enough for suffering believers. And too long for unrepentant sinners who, the longer they live, the more they store up wrath and punishment for themselves (Rom 2:4-5).⚜
11 📚Who knows the power of
your anger?
For your wrath is in accordance
with the fear of you.
90:7-11 In these verses Moses sets forth the reasons why man’s life is so brief, so full of trouble, so sorrowful. It is all the result of God’s anger against man’s sin. Remember that Moses was leading the people of Israel in the desert. Because of their unbelief and rebellion the whole generation that came out of Egypt who were 20 years of age and over were destroyed. We read of God’s anger repeatedly coming on them (notes on His anger at Num 25:3 and Deut 4:25). Since God’s anger was on His own people we can be sure it is on all the rest of mankind in its sin and unbelief (John 3:36; Rom 1:18).
But is God’s anger on believers in this age of grace? God is always angry with sin wherever it is found. It is perfectly true that believers have been delivered from the wrath of God that will burn against all unbelievers in hell (Rom 5:9; 1 Thess 1:10; 5:9). But God is certainly angry with the sin that is in believers and with the sins they commit, and sometimes shows His anger in very clear ways (Eph 5:6; 1 Cor 11:27-30). Immorality, selfishness, deceit, lying, greed, envy, malicious gossip – such sins are no less hateful to God in believers than in unbelievers. God will always hate sin and fight against sin no matter where it is found.⚜
90:11 God’s anger is so great, so fierce against sin that no man can know it or understand it. It is revealed in terrible words in some parts of the Bible (see Lev 26:14-39; Deut 4:25; 28:15-68; Isa 24:1-6; 30:33; Mark 9:42-49; Luke 16:19-31; 2 Thess 1:6-10; Rev 14:9-11; 16:1-21; 20:11-15; 21:8). But the power of God’s anger is never exaggerated. In fact, it is impossible to exaggerate it. No words can really describe how terrible, how awe inspiring, how fearful is God’s anger. Think of the folly of men who do not fear it, who count it a light thing, or who even deny it altogether!⚜
12 📚So teach us to number
our days,
that we may gain hearts of wisdom.
90:12 In the light of all the above our one great concern should be to have wisdom (to know God and to have the true fear of God), to understand how brief our life is, and to make sure that our eternal dwelling will be God Himself.⚜
13 📚Return, O LORD, how long?
And relent concerning your servants.
14 📚Oh, satisfy us early
with your mercy,
so that we may rejoice and be glad
all our days.
15 📚Make us glad according to the days
in which you have
afflicted us,
and the years in
which we have seen evil.
90:14-15 But are satisfaction, gladness, and joyful singing possible when the truth of vs 7-11 is recognized? Moses evidently thought so. He well knew that even though the dark clouds of God’s wrath hang above sin, the bright beams of love, mercy, compassion and grace shine through them. He knew, as all believers now know, that there is forgiveness of sins and there is a joy that comes when the conscience is clear, when God’s face shines on them (Ps 5:11; 16:11; 30:5; 32:11; 35:27; 42:4; 51:8; 132:9, 16).
Though believers dwell in the midst of God’s holy anger against sin, they dwell in the heart of His holy joy also.
Observe that Moses knew that when Israel was afflicted it was God who afflicted them, and when they rejoiced it was God alone who enabled them to rejoice.⚜
16 📚Let your work 📖 appear to
your servants,
and your glory to their children.
17 📚And let the beauty of the LORD
our God be upon us;
and establish the work of our hands
for us;
yes, establish the work of
our hands.
90:12-17 Here is the beginning of the prayer of Moses. All else is leading up to this.⚜
90:17 As a servant of God he wanted to accomplish a work that would endure, that would have the stamp of God’s blessing on it. Should not we? (John 15:16; 1 Cor 3:13-15; Rev 22:12). Then let us earnestly pray as he did.⚜