Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 90:1

Clarke's Commentary

PSALM XC

The eternity of God, 1, 2;

the frailty of the state of man, 3-9;

the general limits of human life, 10;

the danger of displeasing God, 11;

the necessity of considering the shortness of life, and of

regaining the favour of the Almighty, 12;

earnest prayer for the restoration of Israel, 13-17.

NOTES ON PSALM XC

The title of this Psalm is, A Prayer of Moses the man of God. The Chaldee has, "A prayer which Moses the prophet of the Lord prayed when the people of Israel had sinned in the wilderness." All the Versions ascribe it to Moses; but that it could not be of Moses the lawgiver is evident from this consideration, that the age of man was not then seventy or eighty years, which is here stated to be its almost universal limit, for Joshua lived one hundred and ten years, and Moses himself one hundred and twenty; Miriam his sister, one hundred and thirty; Aaron his brother, one hundred and twenty-three; Caleb, four-score and five years; and their contemporaries lived in the same proportion. Psalms 90:4. Therefore the Psalm cannot at all refer to such ancient times. If the title be at all authentic, it must refer to some other person of that name; and indeed איש אלהים ish Elohim, a man of God, a divinely inspired man, agrees to the times of the prophets, who were thus denominated. The Psalm was doubtless composed during or after the captivity; and most probably on their return, when they were engaged in rebuilding the temple; and this, as Dr. Kennicott conjectures, may be the work of their hands, which they pray God to bless and prosper.

Verse Psalms 90:1. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place — מעון maon; but instead of this several MSS. have מעוז maoz, "place of defence," or "refuge," which is the reading of the Vulgate, Septuagint, Arabic, and Anglo-Saxon. Ever since thy covenant with Abraham thou hast been the Resting-place, Refuge, and Defence of thy people Israel. Thy mercy has been lengthened out from generation to generation.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 90:0 Making the most of a short life

God alone is permanent and enduring, and therefore the only true security is found in him (1-2). Human life, by contrast, is short and uncertain, and is brought to an end as God decides and when he chooses. No matter how long a person lives, even to a thousand years, the number of years is insignificant compared with the timelessness of God (3-6).
Sin has spoiled human life and brought God’s judgment upon people in the form of life’s troubles and finally death (7-10). The ungodly live to please themselves. They do not fear God and do not consider that they are spending their lives building up God’s judgment against them. Those who love God should therefore seek God’s wisdom, so that they might use their short lives in the best way possible (11-12). Since the psalmist wants to live his life wisely, he asks for God’s help. Then sorrow will be replaced by joy, and his life will become one of fruitful service for God (13-17).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

THE MEDITATION

"Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction, And sayest, Return ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight Are but as yesterday when it is past, And as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: In the morning they are like grass that groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; In the evening it is cut down and withereth."

No more eloquent comment upon the wretched fate of the human race was ever made. God had warned Adam that, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." And, as the great lawgiver of Israel thought upon the dying generations of the human family, the Spirit of God spoke through Moses in these precious words. It must have been a sad experience indeed for Moses to watch an entire generation of the Chosen People die in the wilderness.

"Our dwelling place in all generations" This was true in two ways. In the nation of Israel itself, their faith in God dated back to the patriarchs. The years of Egyptian slavery had not destroyed their knowledge of the Lord. Even the mid-wives of Egypt knew enough about the God of the Hebrews that through fear of God they refused to follow strictly Pharaoh's order to destroy all the male children. "The `God' of this passage is `The Lord,' the covenant God of the Hebrews; and "None can ignore those generations of faithful believers in the developing nation from the days of Abraham, all of whom made the Lord their dwelling place."H. C. Leupold, p. 642.

It is true in another sense. From the beginning of Adam's race, God has been the only security of the human family. The discerning souls of all generations found their only hope in God, the only exceptions being the "fools" who said in their hearts that, "There is no God" (Psalms 14:1).

An adaptation of these words was used by William Croft for the title of his famous chant (Called St. Anne), "Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past."Great Songs of the Church, No. 460. Kyle Yates made this the title of Psalms 90.Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, Old Testament, p. 528.

"From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God" The eternity of God, his prior existence as the First Cause, the God of Creation, the Maker and Sustainer of All Things is eloquently extolled and honored in this sentence, which we have chosen as an appropriate heading for this magnificent psalm.

"Return, ye children of men" "For dust thou art, and to the dust shalt thou return" (Genesis 3:19). Moses' comment here is plainly a reference to this passage from Genesis.

"A thousand years… as yesterday… as a watch in the night" This contrasts the dying generations of mankind with the eternity of God. The Apostle Peter quoted this verse (2 Peter 3:8), warning Christians not to forget it, a warning which some have not heeded. Making "God's days" to be 24 hours long is nothing but a human conceit, contrary to God's specific word and its accompanying warning not to forget it.

It should be noted that "a thousand years" with God are also as a few hours (a watch in the night). It would be impossible to make it any plainer that God's `days' or God's `years' cannot be restricted to the limitations of the human understanding of those terms.

"Thou carriest them away as a flood… as a sleep" Like the succeeding waves of the sea, the generations of men rise and fade away. As the hours pass away when one is asleep, the lives of men fly away (Psalms 90:10). This writer has read these beautiful words at funerals throughout a period of sixty-four years in the ministry of the gospel of Christ.

"Like grass… in the morning it flourisheth… in the evening… withereth" This simile is also used repeatedly in the New Testament. Christ used it in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:30); James utilized it in James 1:10-11; and the Apostle Peter developed it in 1 Peter 1:24.

It would be difficult to imagine a simile more expressive of the fleeting, ephemeral nature of human life.

THE LAMENT

Some have referred to these verses as "a complaint," but to us, the word "lament" is better. We do not believe that Moses "complained" about God's established order; but he certainly did grieve that it was the way it is.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Lord - Not יהוה Yahweh here, but אדני 'Adonāy. The word is properly rendered “Lord,” but it is a term which is often applied to God. It indicates, however, nothing in regard to his character or attributes except that he is a “Ruler or Governor.”

Thou hast been our dwelling-place - The Septuagint renders this, “refuge” - καταφυγἡ kataphugē. So the Latin Vulgate, “refugium;” and Luther, “Zuflucht.” The Hebrew word - מעון mâ‛ôn - means properly a habitation, a dwelling, as of God in his temple, Psalms 26:8; heaven, Psalms 68:5; Deuteronomy 26:15. It also means a den or lair for wild beasts, Nahum 2:12; Jeremiah 9:11. But here the idea seems to be, as in the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Luther, “a refuge”; a place to which one may come as to his home, as one does from a journey; from wandering; from toil; from danger: a place to which such a one naturally resorts, which he loves, and where he feels that he may rest secure. The idea is, that a friend of God has that feeling in respect to Him, which one has toward his own home - his abode - the place which he loves and calls his own.

In all generations - Margin, “generation and generation.” That is, A succeeding generation has found him to be the same as the previous generation had. He was unchanged, though the successive generations of men passed away.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

1O Lord! thou hast been our dwelling-place. In separating the seed of Abraham by special privilege from the rest of the human family, the Psalmist magnifies the grace of adoption, by which God had embraced them as his children. The object which he has in view in this exordium is, that God would now renew the grace which he had displayed in old time towards the holy patriarchs, and continue it towards their offspring. Some commentators think that he alludes to the tabernacle, because in it the majesty of God was not less conspicuous than if he had dwelt in the midst of the people; but this seems to me to be altogether out of place. He rather comprehends the whole time in which the Fathers sojourned in the land of Canaan. As the tabernacle had not yet continued for the space of forty years, the long duration here mentioned —our dwelling-place from generation to generation — wouldnot at all be applicable to it. It is not then intended to recount what God showed himself to be towards the Israelites from the time that he delivered them from Egypt; but what their fathers had experienced him to be in all ages, even from the beginning. ⁽⁵⁶⁵⁾ Now it is declared that as they had always been pilgrims and wanderers, so God was to them instead of a dwelling-place. No doubt, the condition of all men is unstable upon earth; but we know that Abraham and his posterity were, above all others, sojourners, and as it were exiles. Since, then, they wandered in the land of Canaan till they were brought into Egypt, where they lived only by sufferance from day to day, it was necessary for them to seek for themselves a dwelling-place under the shadow of God, without which they could hardly be accounted inhabitants of the world, since they continued everywhere strangers, and were afterwards led about through many windings and turnings. The grace which the Lord displayed in sustaining them in their wanderings, and shielding them with his hand when they sojourned among savage and cruel nations, and were exposed to injurious treatment at their hands — this grace is extolled by Moses in very striking terms, when he represents God as an abode or dwelling-place to these poor fugitives who were continually wandering from one place to another in quest of lodgings. This grace he magnifies from the length of time during which it had been exercised; for God ceased not to preserve and defend them for the space of more than four hundred years, during which time they dwelt under the wings of his protection.

(565) “The earth and the world. The latter of those words properly means, the habitable world; that part of the earth which, by its fertility, is capable of supporting inhabitants.” — Walford.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 90:1-17 is a psalm of Moses. Now Moses was also a writer and he wrote psalms and songs, and this is one of the psalms of Moses.

LORD [or Jehovah], thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God ( Psalms 90:1-2 ).

Declaring the eternal nature of God. Before the world ever existed, from everlasting to everlasting.

The word everlasting is an interesting Hebrew word. It is a word that literally means the vanishing point. To understand it, think back as far as you can think back. Now the sun, they say, is losing about... been a while since I've read how much it's losing... something like 200 million tons per second of mass. At that rate, in ten billion years it will no longer be able to support life upon the earth. So if you want something to worry about, think about that.

So because the sun is losing this much mass, the sun could not have always existed. Because if you added that much mass to the sun back to infinity, it would have meant that the sun at one time filled the entire universe. If you kept adding it would. So the sun is gradually reducing. It's like Herschel Genes, the scientist said that the earth is like a giant clock that was wound up and is slowly winding down. The first and second laws of thermodynamics, laws of entropy, and the gradual erosion and wearing down of the material world.

So you have to think of a time when the earth didn't exist if you go back far enough. So in your mind go back just as far as you can possibly think back. Now as you go back in your mind, as far as you can go back, there comes a point, it's sort of a vanishing point. In other words, you just can't think of anything before that. It sort of fades out into a vanishing point. That's this Hebrew word everlasting, from this vanishing point.

Now in your mind think forward as far as you can think on into eternity. Now they say that if a little bird will go down here to Huntington Beach and take a drop of water in its beak out of the surf there, and every morning as the sun would rise, would take one hop towards New York. And when the little bird arrived in New York, it would drop that water in New York harbor. And then start back a hop a day towards Huntington Beach again. By the time that little bird emptied the Pacific Ocean into the Atlantic Ocean, the first day of eternity would just be getting its start. So think of out in the future to the vanishing point, you know. You think out so far and then it just vanishes. So the Hebrew word has that as its meaning. Actually, literally from the vanishing point as far as I can think until my mind just hits the vanishing point, to as far out as I can think this way, till my mind hits the vanishing point, you're God. You've existed. You will exist.

There is even a Hebrew word that is stronger than that. It is beyond the vanishing point. You know, when I get to the vanishing point, and then out beyond that. And that's the strongest word in Hebrew for the eternity. It's beyond the vanishing point. But vanishing point is far enough for me. From everlasting to everlasting God has existed.

You turn man to destruction; and you say, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night ( Psalms 90:3-4 ).

So the relativity of time. A thousand years is just like a day as far as the Lord is concerned. Now Peter tells this in talking to us about the coming again of Jesus Christ. He said, "In the last days, there will be scoffers that will come saying, 'Oh, where is the promise of His coming? Since our fathers have fallen asleep, everything continues as they were from the beginning.'" ( 2 Peter 3:3 , 2 Peter 3:4 ) God's not going to come. You know, where is it? Where is the promise? He is not here. And Peter said you've got to realize that a thousand years is as a day unto the Lord and a day is as a thousand years. So time is only relative to us. We think in the terms of time. We always think in terms of linear time. Here's the beginning; here's the end. Here's my birth; here's my death. Time in a linear way.

But that's because we are involved in matter. But if we weren't matter, then time wouldn't matter. Time only matters to matter. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, actually, time doesn't exist. Only except in matter. And so time can be stretched if you're going fast enough. So, in according to his theory, that if you can accelerate yourself to the speed of light, time would stand still. So if you could accelerate yourself to the speed of light and head out for the Andromeda galaxy, about... oh, let's not go to the Adromeda galaxy, that's too far. Let's go to Proxima, or Alpha Centauri. They're our closest solar neighbors. Traveling on this ray of light you could get to Centauri, Alpha Centauri, you could get there in four-and-a-half years. You could make the round-trip in nine years. But when you got back though, you would be the same age. Time would have stood still for you because of the speed at which you were traveling. When you got back, the earth would be nine years older. Your wife would be nine years older than you are at this point. Now, if you went further, if you did go to Andromeda galaxy, one million five hundred thousand light years out there, you'd come back in three million years. Now the whole earth would be different by that time. You'd look around you wouldn't find any of your friends. But you would only be, you know, a matter of hours older, because time would have stood still because of the speed you were traveling. Because if you travel that fast, you're going to turn into energy, and because you have no materials, you're just energy at that point, then time ceases to exist. This is the idea of the relativity, Einstein's theory of relativity. And so there's no way that we can really prove it. So you just have to accept it because he was a smart man.

But it is interesting that the Bible does hint to relativity of time as far as God is concerned. "A thousand years in Your sight is like yesterday when it's past." And, as Peter said, "A day is as a thousand years to the Lord, a thousand years is as a day."

Now that is interesting in the light of in the book of Hosea, he speaks of Israel sort of being out of the land, dispersed for two years. And he said, "And in the third year, I will raise her up and she will dwell in the land." Or, "for two days," rather, "and in the third day... " "After two days He will revive us, and in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight" ( Hosea 6:2 ). And so Israel was destroyed and dispersed from the land for about two thousand years. And now they've been raised up again. And so, a thousand years is as a thousand years to the Lord... a day is as a thousand years.

So you say, "Oh, but the Lord's waiting so long to come back." Yeah, a couple days. Relativity of time.

You carry them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which grows up. In the morning it flourishes, it grows up; in the evening and it cuts down, and withers ( Psalms 90:5-6 )

So life is just so temporal.

We are consumed by your anger, and by your wrath we are troubled. You have set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins are in the light of your countenance. For all of our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told ( Psalms 90:7-9 ).

Now, not only is time relative, and this is where we really come into trouble understanding this, because it really begins to get weird at this point. When you are released from this linear timeframe that we are existing in, and you can enter into the timelessness of eternity, there is then no past and or no future, but everything is present, because now you're released from time. And in time, we know past, present, future. But released from the linear time zone, then the past or the future do not exist; everything is now in the present. Now the writer of Eccleciastes tried to describe that and he only made it more confusing. But, of course, our minds can't grasp it anyhow, so it would just boggle our minds to try to conceive it.

But that which is past, he said, is now. And that which shall be has already been. And God requires that which is past. So figure that one out and you've got eternity wired. Everything happening now, so that in this relativity of time, in reality, our lives are spent like a story that's already been told. We're like a re-run as far as God is concerned, because God living outside of the time dimension can see the whole picture at once.

As James said, "You know the end from the beginning." Or James said actually, "Known unto Him are all things from the beginning," because He is outside of the linear timeframe. Thus, as God looks down, He sees the whole picture, where we are looking at it from day to day, and today and yesterday and tomorrow, God sees the whole thing. He sees the end from the beginning. And as far as God is concerned, we're just in a re-run. It's just something He can already see, the whole scene, the end results, and the whole thing on out.

He knows the end from the beginning. Now there would be fantastic advantages to be able to be released from our linear timeframe references and to become, to come outside of timeframe and be able to see as God sees, the whole thing. John had that experience, the book of Revelation. He said, "I, John, was in the spirit unto the day of the Lord." God took him in the time chamber and he took him on out past the day in which we're even living. And the Lord showed to John the things that are going to be taking place on the earth after the church is taken out and the earth is undergoing the Great Tribulation period. And John saw events that are going to take place on the earth. Described the events as he saw them in this time chamber that God just released him from the timeframe, linear timeframe that we experience and took him outside of it. And John was able to see down the road and he described in the book of Revelation things that yet have not happened, but surely will happen, for God released him outside of the timeframe reference.

So God existing out of the timeframe reference knows. He knows your life. He knows the end of your life. He knows the whole score. You spend your life like a story that's already been told. It's just like watching USC play Washington today on television when they replayed the game. It's already over; it's already done. The score's already been established. You're just watching something that already happened. And that's the way God looks at your life, is like it's already happened. He knows already what the score is.

So those whom He foreknew, "those whom He foreknew, He did also predestinate. And those that he predestinated, He also chose" ( Romans 8:29-30 ). So God chose you in Christ when? After you were born and after you came forward? No, God chose you in Christ before the foundations of the world, because He is outside of the timeframe zone and He could look down and He could see the whole end. He could see your life and the whole end of your life and on out, and He sees out because time doesn't exist with God. He lives outside of time. So on the basis of this ability of being outside of the linear timeframe reference, God then made His choices. All right! He chose me! Isn't that neat?

Having that kind of wisdom, He'd never choose a loser. So the fact that God has chosen me, that automatically writes me in. I'm a winner. For what God has begun in me, He's going to finish. Now we have difficulty with the concept of pre-destination and election, chosen in Him and so forth. We have difficulty with that because we only think, and we can only think, we're limited in our thinking, to this linear timeframe reference. And that's what makes it hard to understand, "Well, how could God choose me? That isn't fair God choose me," and so forth. Oh, if He wants to choose me, that's all right. I'm not going to argue. I'm only going to rejoice. Chosen in Him.

So I spend my life like a story that's already been told. God knows the end of it. He knows the final chapter. I don't know that yet. I'm coming into it, you know, and I'm discovering the things that God has already known. Anything I ever discover is something that God has already known. I'm only discovering things that God has. I'm not discovering new truth. New truth doesn't exist. God has already known all these things. They are unfolding to me as I go along. But God... and so I love this whole concept that Moses gets into of the nature of God, the eternal nature of God from everlasting to everlasting. Outside, so our lives are as a tale that has been told.

The days of our years ( Psalms 90:10 )

Now here I am in this linear timeframe, and I'll spend seventy years in this linear timeframe, perhaps.

And if I go to eighty, it will be with great labor and sorrow; and I can be sure that I'm soon going to be cut off, and fly away ( Psalms 90:10 ),

When you get up there.

Who knows the power of your anger? even according to your fear, so is your wrath. So teach us, Lord, to number our days ( Psalms 90:11-12 ),

Now I'm living in this time zone so, God, teach me to number my days that I might really use the time that I am here to the best advantage. God has given me an allotted span of time. God has given me, in this timeframe, an allotted span of time. In this front timeframe, there's a line down here that God knows, I don't know it yet, but there's a line down here that God says that's the end of Chuck as far as his existence in the timeframe reference. God knows the day in which my soul and spirit are going to leave this body. God knows the day that I'm going to depart from this body. He already knows the day; He already knows the circumstances by which my soul and spirit will depart from the body. He already knows that. He's already made the appointment for me. It's a date down here, there's a time down here that God knows. I don't know it. I'm coming into it. I live by progressive revelation, but God already knows. He's already established. I don't know when it might be. It might be much sooner than what I'm anticipating. I may not even get to the threescore and ten. I personally don't think I will have lost anything if I don't. But God help me to use wisely each day. Lord, teach me to number my days, because I don't know when the day of opportunity of my serving God is going to come to an end. So Lord, teach me to number my days that I might incline my heart to wisdom, that I might use wisely the time that I'm here. Use it to its best advantage for God.

Oh, we waste so much precious time in front of that stupid television. An evil device that is designed to rob you of precious time, making men very shallow because it's filling their minds with emptiness. God, teach me to number my days.

that I might apply my heart to wisdom. Return, O LORD, how long? let it repent thee concerning your servants. O satisfy us early with your mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days ( Psalms 90:12-14 )

I don't know how many days I have but, God, I want to live a happy life, rejoice and be glad.

Make us glad according to the days wherein you've afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children ( Psalms 90:15-16 ).

And then the prayer of Moses I think is absolutely gorgeous.

Let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish it ( Psalms 90:17 ).

The prayer, though, "Let the beauty of the Lord be upon my life." We used to sing a chorus years ago when I was a little kid, "Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. All of His wonderful passion and purity. O Thou Spirit divine. All mine nature refine, till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me."

Oh, let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, beauty of God might be seen in our lives and through our lives and through the works of our lives. Let God's beauty show forth to this needy world.

Shall we stand.

May God be with you and watch over you during the week and God help us that we might number our days, incline our hearts to wisdom. Use the time that God has given us this week to serve Him, to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. And may the Spirit of God work in your heart and life conforming you into the image of Christ, that the beauty of the Lord our God might be seen by others as you walk with Him this week. God bless you, keep His hand upon you. In Jesus' name. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Moses began by attributing eternality to Yahweh. All generations of believers have found Him to be a protective shelter from the storms of life. God existed before He created anything, even the "world" (Heb. tebel, lit. the productive earth). This Hebrew word is a poetic synonym for "earth" (Heb. ’eres, i.e., the planet).

God outlasts man. He creates him and then sees him return to "dust" (Heb. dakka, lit. pulverized material). From God’s eternal perspective 1,000 years are as a day is to us (2 Peter 3:8). This does not mean that God is outside time. Time simply does not bind or limit Him as it does us. All events are equally vivid to Him. Time is the instrument we use to mark the progression and relationship of events. God’s personal timeline has no end, whereas ours stretches only about 70 years before we die.

Human life is therefore quite brief compared to God’s eternality. A watch in the night was about four hours long. The years of our lives sweep past, as something a flood might carry off, before we can retrieve them. Our lifetime is similar to one day from God’s perspective or as a flower that only blooms for one day. Life is not only brief but frail.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

1. The transitory nature of human life 90:1-12

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

IV. BOOK 4: CHS. 90-106

Moses composed one of the psalms in this section of the Psalter (Psalms 90), and David wrote two of them (Psalms 101, 103). The remaining 14 are anonymous. Book 4 opens with a psalm attributed to Moses, and it closes with one in which Moses is the dominant figure. Prominent themes in this book include the brevity of life, Yahweh’s future reign on the earth and proper human response to that hope, and Yahweh’s creative and sustaining power. So one might think of Book 4 as the book of Moses, but perhaps a better title would be "the book of the King."

Psalms 90

The psalmist asked God to bless His people in view of life’s brevity. This "one of the most magisterial of the psalms" [Note: Brueggemann, p. 110.] has been called a communal psalm of trust.

"The psalms of trust are written for the express purpose of declaring the psalmist’s trust in God. . . . A second element of the psalms of trust or confidence is the invitation to trust issued to the community. . . . A third element of this group of psalms is the basis for trust. . . . A fourth element in the psalms of trust is petition. . . . Given the nature of the psalmist’s faith, it is not surprising that in at least two instances a fifth element enters the psalm. The worshiper makes a vow or promise to praise the Lord (Psalms 16:7; Psalms 27:6 b; Psalms 115:17-18). . . . The sixth element, and next to the declaration of trust, the most frequent component of the psalms of trust, is the interior lament. It is not a lament as such, but the remnant of one." [Note: Bullock, pp. 168-70.]

Bullock considered Psalms 115, 123-26 as other community psalms of trust. [Note: Ibid., p. 169.] The superscription attributes the authorship of this psalm to Moses (cf. Deuteronomy 33:1). It is evidently the only one he wrote that God preserved in the Psalms. The content suggests that he may have written it during the wilderness wanderings, possible at Pisgah (Deuteronomy 34). In any case, it is probably one of the oldest of the psalms if not the oldest. Brueggemann believed that this psalm was attributed to Moses but not necessarily written by him. [Note: Brueggemann, p. 110.]

"In an age which was readier than our own to reflect on mortality and judgment, this psalm was an appointed reading (with 1 Corinthians 15) at the burial of the dead: a rehearsal of the facts of death and life which, if it was harsh at such a moment, wounded to heal. In the paraphrase by Isaac Watts, ’O God, our help in ages past’, it has established itself as a prayer supremely matched to times of crisis." [Note: Kidner, Psalms 73-150, pp. 327-28.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations,.... Even when they had no certain dwelling place in the world; so their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, dwelt in tabernacles in the land of promise, as in a strange land; and their posterity for many years served under great affliction and oppression in a land that was not theirs; and now they were dwelling in tents in the wilderness, and removing from place to place; but as the Lord had been in every age, so he now was the dwelling place of those that trusted in him; being that to them as an habitation is to man, in whom they had provision, protection, rest, and safety; see

Psalms 31:2 so all that believe in Christ dwell in him, and he in them, John 6:56, they dwelt secretly in him before they believed; so they dwelt in his heart's love, in his arms, in him as their head in election, and as their representative in the covenant of grace from eternity; and, when they fell in Adam, they were preserved in Christ, dwelling in him; and so they were in him when on the cross, in the grave, and now in heaven; for they are said to be crucified, buried, and risen with him, and set down in heavenly places in him, Galatians 2:20, and, being converted, they have an open dwelling in him by faith, to whom they have fled for refuge, and in whom they dwell safely, quietly, comfortably, pleasantly, and shall never be turned out: here they have room, plenty of provisions, rest, and peace, and security from all evils; he is an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm. Some render the word "refuge"; a such is Christ to his people, being the antitype of the cities of refuge; and others "helper", as the Targum; which also well agrees with him, on whom their help is laid, and is found.

z Huillus Patriarch. in Origen. apud Hieron. adv. Ruffin. l. 1. fol. 67. L. a מעון "refugium", V. L. Vatablus; "asylum", Gejerus.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

A Prayer of Moses the man of God.

      1 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.   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.   3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.   4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.   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.

      This psalm is entitled a prayer of Moses. Where, and in what volume, it was preserved from Moses's time till the collection of psalms was begun to be made, is uncertain; but, being divinely inspired, it was under a special protection: perhaps it was written in the book of Jasher, or the book of the wars of the Lord. Moses taught the people of Israel to pray, and put words into their mouths which they might make use of in turning to the Lord. Moses is here called the man of God, because he was a prophet, the father of prophets, and an eminent type of the great prophet. In these verses we are taught,

      I. To give God the praise of his care concerning his people at all times, and concerning us in our days (Psalms 90:1; Psalms 90:1): Lord, thou hast been to us a habitation, or dwelling-place, a refuge or help, in all generations. Now that they had fallen under God's displeasure, and he threatened to abandon them, they plead his former kindnesses to their ancestors. Canaan was a land of pilgrimage to their fathers the patriarchs, who dwelt there in tabernacles; but then God was their habitation, and, wherever they went, they were at home, at rest, in him. Egypt had been a land of bondage to them for many years, but even then God was their refuge; and in him that poor oppressed people lived and were kept in being. Note, True believers are at home in God, and that is their comfort in reference to all the toils and tribulations they meet with in this world. In him we may repose and shelter ourselves as in our dwelling-place.

      II. To give God the glory of his eternity (Psalms 90:2; Psalms 90:2): Before the mountains were brought forth, before he made the highest part of the dust of the world (as it is expressed, Proverbs 8:26), before the earth fell in travail, or, as we may read it, before thou hadst formed the earth and the world (that is, before the beginning of time) thou hadst a being; even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God, an eternal God, whose existence has neither its commencement nor its period with time, nor is measured by the successions and revolutions of it, but who art the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, without beginning of days, or end of life, or change of time. Note, Against all the grievances that arise from our own mortality, and the mortality of our friends, we may take comfort from God's immortality. We are dying creatures, and all our comforts in the world are dying comforts, but God is an everliving God, and those shall find him so who have him for theirs.

      III. To own God's absolute sovereign dominion over man, and his irresistible incontestable power to dispose of him as he pleases (Psalms 90:3; Psalms 90:3): Thou turnest man to destruction, with a word's speaking, when thou pleasest, to the destruction of the body, of the earthly house; and thou sayest, Return, you children of men. 1. When God is, by sickness or other afflictions, turning men to destruction, he does thereby call men to return unto him, that is, to repent of their sins and live a new life. This God speaketh once, yea, twice. "Return unto me, from whom you have revolted," Jeremiah 4:1. 2. When God is threatening to turn men to destruction, to bring them to death, and they have received a sentence of death within themselves, sometimes he wonderfully restores them, and says, as the old translation reads it, Again thou sayest, Return to life and health again. For God kills and makes alive again, brings down to the grave and brings up. 3. When God turns men to destruction, it is according to the general sentence passed upon all, which is this, "Return, you children of men, one, as well as another, return to your first principles; let the body return to the earth as it was (dust to dust,Genesis 3:19) and let the soul return to God who gave it," Ecclesiastes 12:7. 4. Though God turns all men to destruction, yet he will again say, Return, you children of men, at the general resurrection, when, though a man dies, yet he shall live again; and "then shalt thou call and I will answer (Job 14:14; Job 14:15); thou shalt bid me return, and I shall return." The body, the soul, shall both return and unite again.

      IV. To acknowledge the infinite disproportion there is between God and men, Psalms 90:4; Psalms 90:4. Some of the patriarchs lived nearly a thousand years; Moses knew this very well, and had recorded it: but what is their long life to God's eternal life? "A thousand years, to us, are a long period, which we cannot expect to survive; or, if we could, it is what we could not retain the remembrance of; but it is, in thy sight, as yesterday, as one day, as that which is freshest in mind; nay, it is but as a watch of the night," which was but three hours. 1. A thousand years are nothing to God's eternity; they are less than a day, than an hour, to a thousand years. Betwixt a minute and a million of years there is some proportion, but betwixt time and eternity there is none. The long lives of the patriarchs were nothing to God, not so much as the life of a child (that is born and dies the same day) is to theirs. 2. All the events of a thousand years, whether past or to come, are as present to the Eternal Mind as what was done yesterday, or the last hour, is to us, and more so. God will say, at the great day, to those whom he has turned to destruction, Return--Arise you dead. But it might be objected against the doctrine of the resurrection that it is a long time since it was expected and it has not yet come. Let that be no difficulty, for a thousand years, in God's sight, are but as one day. Nullum tempus occurrit regi--To the king all periods are alike. To this purport these words are quoted, 2 Peter 3:8.

      V. To see the frailty of man, and his vanity even at his best estate (Psalms 90:5; Psalms 90:6): look upon all the children of men, and we shall see, 1. That their life is a dying life: Thou carriest them away as with a flood, that is, they are continually gliding down the stream of time into the ocean of eternity. The flood is continually flowing, and they are carried away with it; as soon as we are born we begin to die, and every day of our life carries us so much nearer death; or we are carried away violently and irresistibly, as with a flood of waters, as with an inundation, which sweeps away all before it; or as the old world was carried away with Noah's flood. Though God promised not so to drown the world again, yet death is a constant deluge. 2. That it is a dreaming life. Men are carried away as with a flood and yet they are as a sleep; they consider not their own frailty, nor are aware how near they approach to an awful eternity. Like men asleep, they imagine great things to themselves, till death wakes them, and puts an end to the pleasing dream. Time passes unobserved by us, as it does with men asleep; and, when it is over, it is as nothing. 3. That it is a short and transient life, like that of the grass which grows up and flourishes, in the morning looks green and pleasant, but in the evening the mower cuts it down, and it immediately withers, changes its colour, and loses all its beauty. Death will change us shortly, perhaps suddenly; and it is a great change that death will make with us in a little time. Man, in his prime, does but flourish as the grass, which is weak, and low, and tender, and exposed, and which, when the winter of old age comes, will wither of itself: but he may be mown down by disease or disaster, as the grass is, in the midst of summer. All flesh is as grass.