Psalms 90:1–17

The heading of Psalm 90 says that Moses wrote it, and that should catch our attention at once. It makes it fairly certain that this is the earliest of the psalms, written some hundreds of years before the rest. Moses is named here not as the prophet or the law-giver, but as the man of God. And it is called a prayer, though there is no request of any kind in the first eleven verses.

The psalm opens with a sublime appeal to Jehovah as the dwelling place of His people. The man of God looks back over all the generations of God's people. He sees Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as pilgrims and strangers with no settled home. He remembers the years of wandering in the wilderness, when Israel had no home and no country and faced danger on every side. Through all those generations he sees that Jehovah has been the home and refuge of His people.

Israel owns Adonai as its dwelling place in all generations. He is El, God from everlasting to everlasting, who turns weak man (enosh) to dust and says, Return, sons of men (Adam). He is the God of creation and of providence.

Though Israel did not realize who this really was, there is no doubt that Moses is speaking of Christ the Lord. He is the Creator, and verse 2 makes it very clear, "from eternity to eternity You are God." No other can ever claim this place. So the psalm that stresses how frail man is opens by stressing the eternal glory of the Lord Jesus.

"Lord, You have been a habitation for us, in all generations": not "our habitation," as the common version has it. For, sadly, man has not benefited from what God has kept always open to him. Paradise has indeed vanished from the earth. But the door of the Father's house, which man has left, has never been closed against him. By nature, God being the "Father of spirits," "we are also His offspring." "The Lord" here is not Jehovah, but the Ruler of the earth and men. He is always the Lord of life, and He is the Mighty and Eternal One. Here, then, is abundant resource: the Fountain of life always open, the link with eternity in the Eternal God Himself, never far from His creatures.

Psalm 90 is the Spirit of Christ in Israel appealing to these great truths in the time of their distress and humiliation, and out of it. Faith always counts on the unchanging faithfulness of God to Himself. So it counts on His faithfulness to the relationships He has, in grace, put Himself into with others. And so, whatever man's failure in his responsibilities, faith looks up out of that failure to what God is: "Jehovah, You have been our dwelling-place to all generations."

Psalm 91 opens by stating the blessing of the one who dwells in that dwelling place. If Psalm 90 describes the blessedness of the dwelling place, Psalm 91 presents the blessedness of the dweller.

Years, centuries, ages make no change in God. "Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations," said Moses in Psalm 90, for that dwelling place was never closed to the generations of God's people. He was, ever and always, their home. "So teach us," said the same psalmist, "to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom." No wisdom is like that. He is a wise and happy man who makes God his dwelling place.

"The Lord" here is not Jehovah, but the Ruler of the earth and men. He is always the Lord of life, and He is the Mighty and Eternal One: "Before the mountains were brought forth, or You had formed the earth and the world, and from age to age, You are, O Mighty" (El). Here then is abundant resource: the Fountain of life is always open. The link with eternity is in the Eternal God Himself, who is never distant from His creatures.

God is called the Father of eternity, and the eternal God. Scripture also says He inhabits eternity. We must take the word in its full unlimited bearing, as showing the infinity of Deity in regard to what we call time. We get lost when we try to think of eternity. Time, to us, is what comes between events our minds can take account of. Space is what we think of as the distance between bodies. There is no time with Him who is the First and the Last, who is, was, and is to come. There are no measurements of space with Him who fills heaven and earth.

The psalmist has stated the ground of his confidence in appealing to God. Now he draws a contrast between the eternal God and mortal man. God is the unchangeable God, the same before the world was as now. Creation may pass, yet God remains. The One who is our resource is everlasting and unchanging — "from everlasting to everlasting you are God."

Generation after generation would come and go; but there is One who has been Israel's dwelling-place and their refuge in all generations… In His hands are all men. And their mortality becomes clear as they die under His hand. But the race does not become extinct… Men then may pass away, but the Everlasting One remains. Time to Him is nothing. A thousand years — and no man has ever yet lived so long — are in His eyes only like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night. That is what God is — everlasting. That is what men are — fleeting mortal creatures.

Jehovah, as the Eternal One, is the true dwelling-place of His people in all ages. He goes on His steady way from eternity to eternity without the shadow of turning. In contrast to this, mortal man is turned to destruction. As children of Adam we lie under the original sentence, "you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

This mighty God, He who is "from everlasting to everlasting," has been revealed in Christ in perfect love. What He is in Himself shapes His movements in grace towards us. We can surely know and enjoy in our day what Moses said of God's earthly people — "The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms." … He leads in the "way everlasting," and at last He says, even to a wayward people, "I have loved you with an everlasting love."

The psalm looks at Him as from everlasting, and it traces Him to everlasting too. This is further proof that the Son is God, as Scripture says: "From everlasting to everlasting You are God." When the created heavens and earth have done their work, He who made them will fold them up and lay them aside, as men do a worn-out garment. For when the stream of time has run its course according to the divine counsels, eternity goes on.

Though Israel did not realise who this really was, there is no doubt that Moses is speaking of Christ the Lord. He is the Creator… No other can ever claim this place. So the psalm that stresses man's frailty begins with the eternal glory of the Lord Jesus.

The book opens with the ninetieth psalm, a genuine psalm of the wilderness. It is the lament over the generation dying out there under the wrath of God; but it is only the expression of the common doom. God who made man out of the dust is turning him back to it again. Yet He is surely man's dwelling place in all generations! What a strange disorder sin has brought in!

Adonai is acknowledged as Israel's dwelling place in all generations. He is El, from everlasting to everlasting. He turns weak man (enosh) to dust, and says, Return, sons of men (Adam). He is the God of creation and of providence.

In contrast to this, mortal man is turned to destruction. As children of Adam we lie under the original sentence, "You are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Gen. 3:19). In verse 3 of our Psalm the word "destruction" is literally "crumbling." Darby's translation renders it, "You make mortal man to return to dust, and say, Return, children of men." Man stands before us as a poor, feeble mortal creature. The point is that he is this by the express act of God.

Their mortality becomes apparent as they die under His hand. But the race does not become extinct. For the word goes forth from the Everlasting One, "Return, you children of men." That is how we understand the third verse, bearing in mind the term used for man. In the first clause it is Enosh — that is, mortal man — referring to their dying. In the second clause the Psalmist speaks of them as children of men, Adam — that is, the race. Men may pass away, but the Everlasting One remains.

But with the sentence of death upon them, God tells them, "Return, O children of men." Return to their former condition? Not at all, but return to God.

He is "the sovereign Lord of life and death." He kills; death is His black-winged messenger. It is He who "returns man to dust" and says, "Return, O children of man!" (Ps. 90:3), and who on "the last day" will make His voice heard by all who sleep in the grave. He "makes alive," and "brings up" from the grave. Resurrection is the sovereign act of His power.

He who created all things has the power, and is their God. It is by His anger they are consumed, not by man's power or will. He could say "return," when He turned to destruction... Nothing but divine power could restore them. Their cry gave all supreme glory to God, and was righteous in acknowledging His hand and their condition. The secret of God was with them, it was in their cry... "Return, O Jehovah, how long?"

The psalmist has already given the ground of his confidence in appealing to God. Now he draws a contrast between the eternal God and mortal man. God is the unchangeable God, the same before the world was as now. Creation may pass, yet God remains. The One who is our resource is everlasting and unchanging — "From everlasting to everlasting you are God."… In the sight of God there is no time as men count time.

Time to Him is nothing. A thousand years (and no man has ever yet lived so long) are in His eyes but as yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Such is God — everlasting. Such are men, fleeting mortal creatures.

In contrast with His feeble creatures, there remained that eternity of His which they never entered. The thousand years went beyond even the life of Methuselah, yet in His sight they were only the memory of yesterday, now past, and in its dark shadow, only "as a watch in the night."

Scripture uses the word yesterday for the previous day, as in Exodus 5:14, John 4:52 and Acts 7:28. It also uses it for past time in general, as in "a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday", and when it says the Lord Jesus is "the same yesterday and today and forever."

The heading of Psalm 90 gives Moses as its author, and that should catch our attention at once. It makes it fairly certain that this is the earliest of the psalms, written some hundreds of years before the rest. The heading calls Moses not the prophet or the law-giver but the man of God. It also calls the psalm a prayer, though the first eleven verses ask for nothing at all.

Geologists may demand millions of years for certain results to be produced. God can do in one day what we think, in our weak and very limited knowledge and mistaken ideas, should take millions of years to bring about. One thousand years may seem a long time to us. Generation after generation comes and goes. Dynasty after dynasty rises and vanishes. To God it is but a brief day.

So we have to face the fact, stated in verse 8, that God's ideas of time are very different from ours. A thousand years are as one day to Him, as Psalm 90:4 had already told us. One day is also as a thousand years, as verse 10 of our chapter shows. We must not therefore count Him slack if much time has elapsed to our way of thinking.

Take days and years out of their ordinary counting by time, and tie them instead to the Lord and His coming… then faith's reckonings become like His… This new way of counting lets us say, of this gap that seems so long and measures His absence, "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you."

Man was once appointed lord over the things of nature — even over the grass under his feet. Now those same things become images in which he may see himself. He has been brought down to the common level of what was only his kingdom, and under his rule. "Like grass which grows up: in the morning it flourishes and grows up; by the evening it is cut down and withers."

In contrast to this, mortal man is turned to destruction. As children of Adam we lie under the original sentence: "you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Gen. 3:19). In verse 3 of our Psalm the word "destruction" is literally "crumbling."… Man stands before us as a poor, feeble, mortal creature. And the point is this: he is what he is by the express act of God.

The cause of it is His anger, which is consuming us, His hot wrath, which distresses us. But why such anger? It is not the blind heat of passion. It is careful judgment, weighing everything in the fairest scales. "You have set our iniquities before You," and, with knowledge from which nothing can escape, "our secret sins in the light of Your presence."

He is cut down and withers as swiftly as a handful of grass. Seventy years were the ordinary measure of his days. This applied in a special way to the people among whom Moses moved in the wilderness. All those counted from twenty years old and upward came under that word: "your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness" (Num. 14:29)… It is remarkable that God used a man to declare seventy to be man's days. That man lived to one hundred and twenty, and when he died at that age he was still full of strength.

Every statement here about frailty, uncertainty and death is true of the whole human race. But even in this Psalm about the first man, with his sin and death, we must see the prophetic side. If verses 7-8 are true of those who died in the wilderness, they are also true of God's earthly people in the time of their trouble.

The wonderful Person portrayed in this Psalm is the Second Man, so different from all other men. He is holy in Himself, His life untainted and never forfeited. Yet He will go into death on behalf of the feeble dying men so vividly pictured in Psalm 90… No evil, and not even death, had any power over Him, because death had no claim on Him. He went into death because His love drove Him there.

Since our days are short, we need grace from God to number them. To number them is to keep them under close watch, so that we do not lose the lessons each day is meant to teach. That is the exercise by which we "get a heart of wisdom."

But why is man so frail, so mortal? Because he has fallen under the Divine displeasure. It is not an unreasonable accident that he is in this plight. He was not created thus. It is simply and only that anger and wrath from God lie upon him. This is a hard saying, but it is true. It is the only explanation of the sad state in which man is found.

Why should God's anger and wrath be against us, and terrify us? This is anger of a pure and righteous kind, not a loss of temper. But we usually have little sense of how great and terrible our sins are, both public and secret. Do we not ourselves have anger against anyone who would viciously harm our children for no reason? — or against children who would deliberately despise their parents? So if we harm others who are God's creatures, or if we despise God and His Word, is it not right for God to be angry with us?

"The appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire" — the word could also be translated "consuming." This was the glory of the Lord as He showed it to Israel at Sinai. In short, it was His holiness expressed in His righteous demands. But His people were sinners, so they could not meet those just demands. The result was that, under God's government based on the law, this glory became a "consuming fire" in the judgment that fell on Israel again and again because they kept breaking His law.

Psalm 90, which is a prayer of Moses, refers to this when he says, "All our days pass away under Your wrath … the years of our life are seventy …" This applied in a very literal way to the people we are looking at.

If Verses 7-8 are true of those who died in the wilderness, they are also true of God's earthly people in the time of their trouble.

Psalm 90 is the Spirit of Christ in Israel appealing to these great truths in the time of, and out of, their distress and humiliation. He who created all things has the power, and is their God. It is by His anger they are consumed, not by man's power or will.

Faith looks above the changing circumstances of time. Through all these things it sees the ways of God as He governs His people in line with His purpose. So there is the confession of sins, both open and secret — all of them are before God. And there is the awareness that sins rightly bring God's governing hand upon us. If we wither, if our days pass away, it is only what our deeds deserve. So in condemning ourselves we declare God right in His dealings with us.

There is a huge difference between being appointed to afflictions and being appointed to wrath. Afflictions are our lot, as we have seen. But wrath, thank God, is not.

Moses does not stop at this point however: he traces the matter back one further step. Why is man under the Divine displeasure? Why does wrath lie upon him? He gives us the answer in verse 8. That is it! Sin lies at the root of the mischief; and even if men sin in secret, it does no good. All stands out clear and distinct in the light of God's face.

The cause of it is His anger, which is consuming us, His hot wrath, which distresses us. But why such anger? It is not the blind heat of passion. It is judgment that weighs everything in the fairest scales, with knowledge from which nothing can escape.

God knows your most secret sin. As He sees when you shut your door to pray, and will reward your sincerity, so when you do it to sin in secret, He will reward your hypocrisy. The word tells you of an informer inside your own heart — conscience. It goes along with you and witnesses all your carefully laid plots. What it sees, it writes down, for it is a court of record… Consult the word. You will find that God usually has shamed in this world the very people who promised themselves the most secrecy in their sinning. So Gehazi played his part cleverly enough… yet this man is found out. For the clothes he got from Naaman by a lie, the Lord gave him another garment for his sin: leprosy.

Sins against grace are more serious than sins committed in ignorance of grace, and God deals with them accordingly. So Amos says: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." This is God's government of those in near relationship to Himself. Moses wrote Psalm 90. He had seen Israel's evil ways in the wilderness, and also the Lord's governmental chastening of the people… We must hold these two truths together in the soul to keep a proper balance.

Psalm 90 is in a special way Israel's cry for mercy and restoration in the last days after their long affliction… Faith lays hold of both the ways and the purposes of God in dealing with His people. For Israel it is felt as wrath, because they do not yet know reconciliation. We know it is love, but the truth of the dealing is the same, and we can apply it.

We have obvious sins and uncleannesses, and we are unaware of most of them. Even so, Christ has opened the way for us into the very glory of God. He has gone there before us with His own most precious blood. Now we can draw near with confidence… We can say the words of Psalm 90:8 without fear. We can say them because we know Christ is in the presence of God for us. His precious blood is in the very light of the glory of God on our behalf. The sins which reached to heaven have been covered, blotted out by that sprinkled blood.

Seventy years were the ordinary measure of man's days. This was true in a particular way of the people among whom Moses moved in the wilderness. Everyone counted from twenty years old and upward came under that word, "your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness" (Num. 14:29). So those who were in their prime at thirty when they left Egypt cannot have lived past seventy. Caleb and Joshua were the exceptions. It is remarkable that God used a man who lived to one hundred and twenty to declare seventy to be man's days. Moses was still full of strength when he died at that age.

But why is man so frail, so mortal? Because he has fallen under the divine displeasure. It is not an unreasonable accident that he is in this plight. He was not created like this. It is simply and only that anger and wrath from God lie upon him. This is a hard saying, but a true one. It is the only explanation of man's sad state.

The cause of it is His anger, which is consuming us, His hot wrath, which distresses us. But why such anger? It is not the blind heat of passion. It is careful judgment, weighing things in the most even balance. "You have set our iniquities before You," and, with knowledge from which nothing can escape, "our secret sins in the light of Your presence." So all our days pass away in overflowing wrath, which rests on us with steady persistence. "We spend our days as a thought" — or, rather, "a moan."

In the ninetieth you have what man is alone: "we bring our years to an end like a sigh." Man is born, he lives, his days are few and full of trouble, and he dies. All he can ask is, "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." When you come to the ninety-first, you have a beautiful contrast. It is not the first man, but the second. It is the one who "dwells in the shelter of the Most High" and "abides in the shadow of the Almighty."

We are only the feeble, dying children of Adam, and we gain much by recognising that fact. As long as we do not count our days properly, we imagine ourselves to be something other than what we are. Then we give our hearts to pleasure or money-making or sport or a hundred and one small things. When we count our days properly and realise the plight we are in, we give our hearts to wisdom. And the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. But we have to pray to God to teach us to do this, for we will not do it by ourselves.

The conclusion, then, is this. If we are living at the height of our heavenly calling, we will not regret how fast the years fly. Nor will we grieve at the prospect of death, if the Lord delays. But if we are not on our guard, the close of a year, with its reminder of times and seasons, may sink us to the level of the Old Testament believer. May the Lord help us instead to live so much in His presence, and to have Himself so filling our hearts, that "dying daily" we are already living beyond death the life of heaven.

Then comes the repeated statement of man's emptiness. The experience has now shrunk from near a thousand years to seventy or eighty. In that span man's pride, if it lasts that long, ends in hard labour. Soon cut off indeed, we fly away.

Seventy years were the ordinary measure of his days. This, we may notice, applied especially to the people among whom Moses moved in the wilderness. That word covered everyone counted from twenty years old and upward: "Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness" (Num. 14:29). So those who were in their prime at thirty when they left Egypt cannot have lived beyond seventy, apart from Caleb and Joshua. It is remarkable that God used a man who lived to a hundred and twenty to declare seventy to be man's days. When he died at that age he was still full of vigour.

Long afterwards — and there was wisdom in the arrangement — when man's age began to be shortened to its present limit, God made a written revelation. Faith sees divine wisdom where unbelief mocks. Do you not see? At the very point where Scripture says man's age was shortened to seventy years (Ps. 90), God first used Moses, the man of God, to write this word down.

It may be that through strength our years are stretched beyond the allotted span of seventy, but even then, the strength we are proud of, and the years we boast in, will only bring labour and emptiness.

God may give some the strength to live 80 years, yet the extra years come with "toil and trouble." In other words, nothing here encourages us to wish for a longer life. That is especially true for someone redeemed by the blood of Christ, who is glad at the prospect of entering the Lord's presence. At any rate, "they are soon gone, and we fly away." Some do live past 100, but however long life is, it is still short!

But why is man so frail, so mortal? Because he has fallen under God's displeasure. It is not an unreasonable accident that he is in this state. He was not created this way. It is simply and only that anger and wrath from God rest on him. This is a hard saying, but a true one. It is the only explanation of the sad condition man is in.

We are only the weak, dying children of Adam, and we gain much by simply recognising that fact. As long as we do not count our days correctly, we imagine ourselves to be something other than what we are. Then we give our hearts to pleasure or money-making or sport or a hundred and one things of little importance. When we count our days correctly and see the state we are in, we give our hearts to wisdom. And the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. But we have to ask God to teach us this, for we will not do it on our own.

The conclusion, then, is this. If we are living up to the height of our heavenly calling, we will not regret the swift flight of years. Nor will we grieve at the prospect of death, if the Lord delays. If we are not on guard, we can soon sink to the level of the Jewish saint when the close of a year reminds us of times and seasons. May the Lord help us instead to live in His presence, and to have Himself filling our hearts, so that, dying daily, we are already living beyond death the life of heaven.

God's wrath, too, they keenly feel. But who knows the power of His anger? None on earth have experienced that. Who, indeed, knows that wrath according to the fear that is due to God?

And first as to ways: "as his fear, so is his wrath." It is not arbitrary, but according to His own nature and character. Fear is knowing Him in truth. Then what He is judges, in holiness, everything inside the soul, so that nothing should displease Him or hinder fellowship with Him.

Verse 11, "even according to your fear, your wrath" — is it "the fear we have of you, so your wrath appears," or "as terror now, so wrath to come"?

One might think He had pressed it heavily on man — but how could He do less? Look, after all, at the folly bound up in man's heart! Man only tries to drive thought away, to "kill time," to push conviction aside, to do Satan's work for him as thoroughly as he can. And yet no thought can exceed the truth of God's anger against sin: even according to the fear of You is Your overflowing wrath.

So every attempt by man to beautify or purify himself is only a fight against God — unless he returns to God as Saviour, in the faith of the gospel. It is a practical refusal to admit that God is true and righteous in giving him this dishonoured place. And it only arms him as an enemy against the One who avenges His own name, according to the unknown power of His wrath (Ps. 90:11).

It is heavy to flesh and blood, but it is light to faith. It is light compared with sin; the one who feels sin heavy feels suffering light. Affliction is light compared with hell; what is persecution next to damnation? What is the fire of martyrdom to the fire of the damned? "Who knows the power of Your anger?" (Ps. 90:11). Affliction is light compared with glory; the weight of glory makes persecution light.

The power of God's anger goes beyond what man knows. If we take that serious lesson to heart, it will put a deep and reverent fear of God in us (v. 11). That leads to the right prayer: "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (v. 12). Our days are short, so we need grace from God to number them — to keep them under close watch, so that we do not lose the lessons each day is meant to teach.

Let us not run from the way things really are, he asks. Let us gain by it: "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." Here is the "beginning of wisdom," because here is the "fear of the Lord," and the fear of the Lord is that beginning. Here the soul finds how much it needs Him, turns to Him, and seeks to have Him turn to it.

Verse 12 gives us the first request which, it is easy to see, exerts a controlling influence on all the rest. We are only the feeble dying children of Adam, and much is gained if we simply recognise that fact. As long as we do not number our days rightly, we imagine ourselves to be something other than what we are. So we apply our hearts to pleasure or money-making or sport or a hundred and one things of small importance. When we number our days rightly and see the plight we are in, we apply our hearts to wisdom. And the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

Since our days are short, we need grace from God to number them, that is, to keep them under close observation, so that we do not lose the lessons each day is intended to teach. It is such exercise by which we "gain a heart of wisdom."

In how many ways is God begging man to consider his own condition, if nothing else! In how many languages is this "Adam, where are you?" repeated to the present day! ... And here is Wisdom crying in the streets, even where there is no speech and no word: "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." Man never does this until God teaches him.

I call attention to the way a spiritual man numbers his days. I refer to Caleb, a man who wholly follows the Lord, a man of God who can count his days by the thousand. Another man has to say, "Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life" — he had lived 130 years when he spoke. I refer to Jacob. As he looked back, how many days there were in which he had no contact with God — lost days, not to be numbered. Solemn, in the light of the day of God, to lose days.

When God turned Adam and Eve out of Eden for their sin, He set angels at the entrance to the garden, with a flaming sword turning every way to guard the way to the tree of life. There was both mercy and judgment in this. It was mercy, that he might know his feebleness and frailty, and learn so to number his days as to apply his heart to wisdom. ... How can such a feeble creature fail to turn with true repentance to the only One in whom help and mercy can be found?

But to avert His judgment is comparatively a little thing. The heart truly touched longs after Himself. How can a creature be satisfied apart from his Creator? "Satisfy us in the morning with Your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." How rarely do we find joy in God like this!

Verses 12-17 contain all the petitions that make up the prayer. The earlier verses describe in very graphic fashion the plight man is in, and that plight leads to the petitions. We see man stripped of all the false glory he surrounds himself with: a poor, fallen, dying creature.

Note, there is known mercy. The word is not "come," but "return." That does not mean God had left them. (As to His ways, it is true of Israel — He hides His face from the house of Jacob.) But we look for His returning as known present mercies and the enjoyment of His favour.

With the fear of God, and the confession of sin, there comes confidence in God. So at once the man of God appeals to Jehovah for His blessing. The thief on the cross did the same. He had the fear of God in his heart and the confession of sins on his lips. So he could turn at once with confidence to the Lord and say, "Lord remember me."

Faith recognizes that it is God's purpose to bless His people. So faith knows there must be an end to the time of affliction and sorrow in the way God governs His people. That is why faith says "How long?" This is the language of faith and hope — of faith in the purpose of God to bless, and hope that reaches out to the coming blessing.

Here the soul finds its need of Him. It turns to Him, and seeks to have Him turn to it. So the psalmist says, "Return, Jehovah." He does not say simply "Lord" now, but uses the nearer name of covenant-goodness: "and let it repent you concerning your servants." For as soon as man repents, God has declared that He will repent of the evil He thought to do to them (Jer. 18:8). The story of Jonah and Nineveh is a precious illustration of His mercies in this way.

Psalm 90 is in a special way Israel's cry for mercy and restoration in the last days after their long affliction. But we will apply its principles as usual. It looks at two things in the government of God: discipline, properly speaking, and satisfying mercy. For Israel God's dealing is felt as wrath, because they do not yet know reconciliation. We know it is love. The truth of the dealing is the same, and we can apply it.

The psalm ends with a prayer: "Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent you concerning your servants;" but it gives no ground for such repentance until we come to the following psalm.

Every request that makes up the prayer comes in verses 12-17. The earlier verses paint man's trouble in vivid terms, and that trouble is what leads him to make these requests. We see man stripped of all the false glory he wraps around himself — a poor, fallen, dying creature.

When God drove our first parents out of Eden for their sin, He placed cherubim at the entrance to the garden, with a flaming sword turning every way to guard the way to the tree of life. There was both mercy and judgment in this. It was mercy, so that man might know his weakness and frailty, and learn to number his days and gain a heart of wisdom. How can such a feeble creature fail to turn with true repentance to the only One in whom help and mercy can be found?

Faith knows His purpose is to bless, to give delight and joy to His people, and to do it by His own favour. It knows He delights in them, and it counts on this: "Satisfy us in the morning." What a bold word to say to God! But now it is confidence. The soul is restored in His love, the love He delights in. This joy is looked at as lasting too. "Rejoice and be glad all our days," it says. Why should faith not expect that from the God of goodness?

Faith looks to God, not to failing men or passing circumstances, to give everlasting satisfaction. Still, faith knows that a guilty sinner can only be satisfied on the ground of grace. So the cry is, "Satisfy us in the morning with Your steadfast love."

But turning aside His judgment is a small thing in comparison. The heart that is truly touched longs for God Himself. How can a creature be satisfied apart from his Creator? "Satisfy us in the morning with Your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." How rarely is joy in God found like this! Our days usually come dressed far more plainly than this prayer implies. And yet this is nothing less than what we may all have, and should have.

How true this would be if we sought the Lord early! Then our days would not be spent as days that "pass away" under God's wrath. But there is recovery, and the psalmist longs for it and for its gladness, in contrast to all the days of God's wrath.

Hope, then, is not quite extinguished, so the Psalm closes with prayer: "O satisfy us early with Your mercy that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, and the years in which we have seen evil." A large request indeed!

Lasting security is assured to the one who dwells in the shelter of the Most High. He will enjoy long life too, and God will show him His salvation (Psalm 91:14-16). How full an answer this is to the prayer in Psalm 90:13-17!

Psalm 90 is in a special way Israel's cry for mercy and restoration in the last days, after their long affliction. But we will apply its principles as usual. It looks at two things in God's government: discipline in the strict sense, and satisfying mercy. Israel feels it as wrath, because they do not yet know reconciliation. We know it is love, but the truth of the dealing is the same, and we can apply it.

But there is recovery, longed for with its gladness, in contrast to all the days of God's wrath. We will know it in the measure that we recognise the work of God appearing to us. It has indeed appeared wonderfully in the great sacrifice of Christ on Calvary. But it will not appear to Israel until the day they bow the knee to the Lord Jesus.

The soul taught by God in His wonderful ways of grace claims compensation. It claims it even for the affliction it has already known. Think of compensation from a judge for a just judgment inflicted! But rather it is a Father's heart that is free to show itself in wiping away the tears that for a time did good.

Faith looks to God, not to failing men or passing circumstances, to give everlasting satisfaction. Still, faith realises that a guilty sinner can receive satisfaction only on the ground of grace.

So they look to Jehovah to return for deliverance, with the word of faith — how long? And they ask, for His servants, that His work might appear, since the affliction came from Him.

Discipline is the proof of the Lord's love, the evidence of our sonship: His scourging is the road to being received. The end is sharing in His holiness.

She looked back on her long days of affliction, and on the long years in which she had seen evil. Then she looked forward and saw the answer to her prayer close at hand: "MAKE US GLAD for as many days as you have afflicted us."

So lasting security belongs to anyone marked out in this way. He will enjoy length of days too, and God will show him His salvation (14-16). How full an answer this is to the prayer in Psalm 90:13-17!

All four of his requests centre on God. Since man is what he is, there is no hope in him and nothing to expect from him. God's mercy, God's work, God's glory, God's beauty were his desire.

If God acts in grace, it must be on the ground of His own work. So at once there is the prayer, "Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your majesty to their sons." The power of His work rests on the majesty of His Person. To stain the majesty of His Person is to make little of the power of His work.

But faith looks at God's thoughts and purposes in blessing. It goes beyond mercies that return and mercies that hold back judgment. God has purposes in His love, and He works to carry them out. So they ask not only to be satisfied with His mercy, but for His work to appear. God's own work will make blessing good, and how good it will be! It will be shown to their honour and delight. So it is with us, for our souls. We seek not only restoring mercy, but on top of it the positive work of God producing blessing, bringing us nearer to Himself. It is then never merely restoration; it is a soul better able to appreciate God, and God more fully revealed to it.

To turn away His judgment is a comparatively small thing. The heart truly touched longs after Himself. How can a creature be satisfied apart from his Creator?… The soul taught by God in His wonderful ways of grace even claims compensation for the affliction it has known. Think of compensation from a judge for a just judgment carried out! Instead it is a Father's heart, free to show itself in wiping away the tears that for a time did good. It was a discipline. He now prays that it may prove effective — that the "work" may appear, and His "glory" shine out after the storm has passed. Yes, and even "upon the children" afterwards.

There will be heavenly and earthly scenes, but all is new creation. The Lamb's wife, the heavenly city, will carry the glory of God in her; but Israel and the earthly city will know that glory too. It will shine on them, if not in them: "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you" (Isa. 60:1). All will enjoy it, though not with the same power. So this is the intelligent cry of a man of God, though with earthly hopes, looking on to the kingdom. … This language tells us that Israel speaks in this psalm, though it speaks of man as such. Man was tested in Israel, and Israel's fall is the witness of human frailty.

It is good to accept the pledge. It is better still not to rest there, but to wait for the full blessing that Christ alone can give. Then the LORD's work will appear to His servants, and His glory upon their children.

All four of his requests are centred in God. Man being what he is, there is no hope in him and nothing to be expected from him. God's mercy, God's work, God's glory, God's beauty were his desire.

Her name appears to mean "pleasantness" or "sweetness," especially the gracious manner that goes with spiritual beauty. The psalmist uses the word when he writes about seeing the "beauty (pleasantness, graciousness) of the LORD" (Ps. 27:4), and again, of his desire that this "beauty" may be upon His people (Ps. 90:17).

There is but one answer to such questions. It was by inspiration of the Spirit of God. God had a design as great as that in mind for His saints. In due time, when His mercy, His work and His glory had appeared, He laid the basis for it and brought it to light... Being accepted in the Beloved means this: we stand before God in all His favour, and the beauty of the Beloved is upon us. No greater beauty than that could possibly be ours. Moses' request was a bold one, but not too bold. It has had an abundant answer.

The beauty is in Him, not in Israel, though Israel will reflect that beauty as jewels reflect the light. Psalm 90:17 confirms this: "Let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us." It was His beauty that David longed to see in the house of the LORD (Ps. 27:4).

Though the nation has never before known the preciousness of verse 17, at that time they will be invested with "the beauty of the LORD," just as believers today are seen by God to be "in Christ," for His beauty is put upon us in place of the ugliness of sin.

In the end the beauty of the LORD will be upon us. The Christian can say it another way: "Conformed to the image of His Son." Then, once grace has secured the blessing, we shall find that the work of our hands is established. The works of self-righteousness will pass, but the works that flow from grace will be established. Not a cup of cold water given for Christ's sake will be forgotten.

Work of this sort is outside the range of the man of the world. He cannot touch it. He applies his hands to work of many varieties, yet it all decays. His empires, his pyramids, his skyscrapers, his giant businesses, his grand scientific theories — all of them, and much more besides, add up to exactly nothing.

Everything comes from Him, from the power of His Holy Spirit, from the virtue of His death. He is the one who directs the work. He gives the means to do it. He fills the hearts of His own with a sense of their own inability. He establishes the work of their hands (Ps. 90:17).