Bible Study - Psalm 90

The introduction to Psalm 90 indicates that it was written by Moses, making it most likely the earliest of the psalms we have in the Bible. This is a “prayer” of Moses, speaking very seriously of the reality of sin and its consequence, death, and yet giving hope to people through the mercy and love of God.

Moses often had to pray to God for this mercy because the people of Israel were so often rebellious against him as their leader and against God Himself. Read just one example of this in Numbers 14:1-4, 10, when “all the congregation” wanted to stone Moses and choose a new leader to take them back to Egypt. They even blamed the Lord for bringing them into the promised land “to die by the sword.” The Lord threatened to disinherit them, but Moses “the man of God” (Deuteronomy 33:1 and Joshua 14:6) pleaded for mercy for them. God pardoned them, but warned of His wrath if people continued “to put Him to the test and not obey His voice.” They would not enter the promised land at all (Numbers 14:11-23).

Psalm 90 is a similar psalm, in which Moses gives a strong warning to us all, but also prays for the Lord to pity us and give us His steadfast love and a heart of wisdom, as He works in our lives.

Moses begins by reminding us, in Psalm 90:1-2, that God our Lord is “from everlasting to everlasting.” He has always existed and always will exist for us. He is the Creator of all things, including majestic mountains, symbols of His great power, though He can do away with them, too, if he chooses. (See Deuteronomy 33:15 and yet also Habakkuk 3:6.) God created us human beings, male and female, also, and wishes us to find in Him “our dwelling place.”

See, for example, Psalm 91:1-2 and 9-16. You might remember that the devil quoted a part of this passage, trying to tempt Jesus and get Him to worship him. The devil left out, of course, the part about having the Lord, alone, as our dwelling place, our refuge (Psalm 91:9-10). Jesus knew His Heavenly Father, though, and His Name (v.14) and obeyed Him and resisted the devil, and in that way was “trampling that serpent underfoot” (v.13), doing perfectly what we have failed to do, and showing us His salvation for us” (v.16).

In contrast, we human beings, starting with Adam and Eve, have all sinned and rebelled against God and are under His wrath and judgment if left on our own. Sin and its consequences and results are described in dramatic ways, as we go back to Psalm 90, v.3-11. God had warned Adam and Eve that they would die and return to dust if they did what He asked them not to do. (Genesis 2:17 and 3:16-19 and Psalm 90:3). We have all inherited that sinful nature and choose to sin, too, with the same results. See Job’s words in Job 4:17-21 and the words of Psalm 104:29, about God’s judgment for sin.

All this is to say that for the everlasting God, a thousand years are like one day (Psalm 90:4 and other Scriptures, like 2 Peter 3:8). In contrast, we sinful human beings struggle through life because of our sins, and don’t live long compared with God. Look at some of the picture images given in Psalm 90:5ff. We are sometimes swept away, “as with a flood.” Think of the floods going on right now in California, and tsunamis and hurricanes and on and on. Sometimes we are “like a dream.” Dreams come and go quickly and can be good or bad. Dreams can be shattered, and so can we, in this sinful world.

We are also “like grass, which can grow up quickly, but then “fades and withers.” Think of how often this imagery is used in the Bible, in Isaiah 40:6-8, 1 Peter 1:24, Psalm 103:15-16, and other places. All these images are used in Psalm 90:5. Another is used in Psalm 90:9: “We bring our years to an end like a sigh,” like one last breath, and we are gone. And of the years we have, even if they are 70 or 80 years, their “span” (literally in the Hebrew, their “pride”) is “but toil and trouble; they are soon gone and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10). Even Shakespeare quoted from this passage because it reflects reality, too often.

Why is all this happening? This is the part that many people try to avoid talking about, but is exactly what Moses needed to remind his people (and us) about. The problem is sin, the sin of others and our own sin. “Sin is lawlessness,” says 1 John 3:4. It is going against the words and will of our Holy God, who knows what is best for us all. Sin hurts us and others. That brings “anger” and “wrath” and judgment from God, as Psalm 90:7-11 says repeatedly. Three times the wrath of God is mentioned, and twice, God’s anger about sin. Psalm 90:8 also reminds us that God knows about every sin, even our “secret sins” that we try to hide from Him and others. See Psalm 19:12 and 40:12, for example. These sins are all directly “before God… in the light of His Presence” (Psalm 90:8).

Even the New Testament says the same thing. What do we earn for our own sins? “The wages of sin is death,” says Romans 6:23. Romans 5:12 reminds us, “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” The fact that everyone dies and will die, until Jesus returns, tells us that we are all sinners. “Through the law of God comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20), and “the law brings wrath” (Romans 4:15) because we do not obey that law as we should. All this is the Law spoken in its strongest form, and that is what Moses needed to warn people, including us, about, so that we would recognize our own sins and be honest with God about them and know how much we need our Savior.

But that is not all that Moses wanted talk about in his prayer. He also had words of hope and new life for us in our Lord. He prayed in Psalm 90:12 that the Lord would teach us to “number our days” and get “hearts of wisdom” from Him. See passages like Proverbs 1:7, which tells us that “the beginning of wisdom starts with fear of the Lord,” recognizing as true what Moses already has said. Then see passages like Psalm 39:4–8 and Hosea 14:9, where growing wisdom about God takes us to the Lord for His mercy. In spite of our sins, the Lord does “have pity on us, His servants” and wants to forgive and satisfy us with His steadfast love” (Psalm 90:13-14).

Our hope and confidence come not from looking at ourselves and our troubled world, but from looking to the Lord and the help He can and does give us. Jesus put it very simply in Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” It is not our righteousness, but God’s righteous and merciful work for us that gives us help and forgiveness and strength. Notice how Moses keeps praying for God’s intervention on our behalf. “Have pity.” Psalm 90, v. 13. “Satisfy us… with Your steadfast love.” (v. 14) “Make us glad…” (v.15) “Let Your work be shown… Your glorious power…” (v.16) “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us… Establish the work of our hands…” (v. 17)

The great Good News of the New Testament is that the pity and steadfast love of God did come to us most clearly in the gift of God’s Son, Jesus. “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already” (unless of course, he or she does eventually come to trust in Jesus) (John 3:17-18).

Paul tells us in Romans 4:6-8 “of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from his works: Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sins.” That full and free forgiveness comes through Jesus’ perfect life in our place, His death on the cross in payment for all of our sins, and His glorious resurrection from the dead. See a description of all that in Romans 5:1-10.

All this gives us great confidence for our future, as we trust, by God’s grace and mercy, in Jesus and what He has already done for us. Even the sorrows of this life and the death of loved ones and our own impending death become more bearable (even though they are still very hard to deal with), because of God’s promises in Jesus and His presence and help for us. Paul writes, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” in heaven” (Romans 8:18).

See also 2 Corinthians 4:16-18: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient (as Moses describes very well), but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Think about Moses himself, the author of Psalm 90. Sin has consequences, and Moses sinned, too. Eventually he died and was not able to set foot in the promised land he had been leading people to for 40 years (Deuteronomy 34:4-5). Yet Scripture interprets Scripture, and we know that Moses did also receive eternal life in heaven, by God’s grace and forgiveness, and he even had the great privilege of appearing with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. See Matthew 17:1-9. His appearance, and above all, the glory of Jesus, helped the disciples later on, after the resurrection of Jesus.

Through Jesus our Savior, then, we can “rejoice and be glad all our days” and have strength and hope, even in times of affliction, as the Lord grows our “heart of wisdom”(Psalm 90:12,14). The Lord can also “establish the work of our hands,” even in this difficult, sinful world we live in, as the Lord helps and blesses us. We can do things that honor our Lord Jesus and help others who struggle, even as we do. That is part of “numbering our days” and using them as “wisely” as we can (Psalm 90:12).

See passages like Ephesians 2:8-10, 2 Thessalonians 3:11-13, and 1 Timothy 6:17-21. Through our hopeful living in Christ, we might even have a chance to witness to some hopeless people all around us and help some of them also to find hope in Jesus, through God’s grace. See 1 Peter 3:13-15. In these ways, God can truly “establish the work of our (weak) hands” and our (imperfect) “hearts” and bring blessings through us (Psalm 90:12,17).

The Lord’s continued blessings in Christ our Savior to you all!