What does it mean that God is our dwelling place (Psalm 90:1)?

(v. 1) 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, as it were, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, as pilgrims and strangers without any certain dwelling place; he recalls the years of the wilderness wanderings when Israel was without a home and without a country, exposed to dangers and perils, and, throughout all these generations, he sees that Jehovah has been the home and refuge of His people.

How dependent man is seen from the beginning! Their only real refuge (or dwelling place) that has ever been theirs is the Lord Himself (v. 1). Wonderful as is the truth of this, man does not appreciate it, preferring to wander in his own way, deviating from one bypath to another. But the fact of his dependence does not change. For who is his Lord? One who existed before the mountains were brought forth, before He saw fit to form the earth and the world. 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. Thus, the psalm that emphasizes man's frailty begins with emphasizing the eternal glory of the Lord Jesus.

"Lord, Thou hast been a habitation for us, in all generations": not, as in the common version; "our habitation"; for, alas, man has not profited by that which God has kept ever open to him. Paradise indeed has vanished from the earth, but the door of the Father's house, which he has left, — for naturally, God being the "Father of spirits," "we are also His offspring" (Heb. 12:9; Acts 17:28), — has never been closed against him. "The Lord" — not here Jehovah, but the Ruler of the earth and men — is always the Lord of life and He is the Mighty and Eternal One: "Before the mountains were brought forth, or Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, and from age to age, Thou art, O Mighty" (El). Here then is abundant resource, the Fountain of life ever open; the link with eternity in the Eternal God Himself, never distant from His creatures. How has it availed for man? how, after all, has he profited by it?

(v. 1) The 90th Psalm opens by announcing the great fact that the Lord has been the dwelling place of His people in all generations. This psalm opens by stating the blessedness of the one who dwells in the dwelling place. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. If Psalm 90 describes the blessedness of the dwelling place, Psalm 91 presents the blessedness of the dweller.

Jehovah, as the Eternal One, is the true dwelling-place of His people in all ages. He pursues His even way from eternity to eternity without the shadow of turning. In contrast to this mortal man is turned to destruction, for as children of Adam we lie under the original sentence, "Dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return" (Gen. 3:19). In verse 3 of our Psalm the word "destruction" is literally "crumbling." In the New Translation it is rendered, "Thou makest mortal man to return to dust, and sayest, Return, children of men." Man stands before us a poor, feeble mortal creature; and the point is, that he is this by the express act of God.

This Psalm is evidently a singular one. It seems to be the stability of the faithfulness in which they were originally called in. Moses pleaded by the Spirit, in the recognition of the long desolation in which as men - dying men - they had been involved, still saying in faith, "Thou hast been our dwelling-place from generation to generation," and noting it, i.e., themselves, therefore on the everlasting, and therefore immutable character of their Lord, "I am the same, I change not, therefore, O house of Israel, ye are not consumed," for He was their dwelling-place after all. It is, intrinsically, a Jewish Psalm.

Let us take these Psalms in detail successively. 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. He could say "return," when He turned to destruction. It is the appeal of faith in the enlightening power of the Spirit of Christ, righteous in its reference to God, and going on the ground of His Almighty power, which indeed was the source of the whole blessing to come in. It was real humiliation for them. Nothing but divine power could restore them, ascribing all supreme glory to God, and righteous in owning His hand and their estate. The secret of God was with them, was in their cry; it was the cry of prophetic faith, consequently that which can draw all from God's power as above our evils supremely. "Return, O Jehovah, how long?" Faith always reckons also on the unchangeable fidelity of God to Himself, and therefore to the relationships He has by grace put Himself into with others; and therefore, whatever the failure of man in his responsibilities, looks up out of this to what God is: "Jehovah, thou hast been our dwelling-place to all generations."

Great and many would be the vicissitudes of the nation. Generation after generation would come and go; but there is One who has been Israel's dwelling-place and their refuge in all generations. That One is here called Adonai — i.e. Lord. Who is He? From all eternity He is the everlasting God. In His hands are all men. And 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, ye children of men." So we understand the third verse, bearing in mind the term used for man. In the first clause it is Enosh, — i.e. mortal man — referring to their dying. In the second clause the Psalmist speaks of them as children of men, Adam — i.e. the race. 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 but as yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Such is God — everlasting. Such are men, fleeting mortal creatures.

It is "A prayer of Moses the man of God." This is the suited introduction and finds its place here rather than in any other among the 150, Historically it would precede all probably; for there is no substantial ground for doubting that Moses was the writer according to its title. Adonai is owned as Israel's dwelling-place in all generations, from everlasting to everlasting El, turning weak man (enosh) to dust, and saying, Return, sons of men (Adam). He is the God of creation and of providence. But faith, that owns man's transient littleness and the power of the divine displeasure, can also say, Return, Jehovah: how long? Their prayer rises that Jehovah's work may appear to His servants; and His majesty on their sons.

Faith in Abel apprehended the broken relationship with God, but that it could be re-established on another ground, and, blessed be God, an abiding ground. You can well understand how Satan would like to silence the voice of Abel's testimony, that there was a way back to God, and that God could bear witness that Abel was righteous, not innocent; but one who has known evil, practises righteousness in coming to God by sacrifice. This testimony Satan seeks to obliterate by inciting Cain to kill his brother; but "he being dead yet speaks." The testimony abides that there is a way back to God—the blessed God against whom man had sinned. The God who had passed the sentence of death on man, and who had made the thorn and briar to grow, is the One to whom man can turn by sacrifice, and find himself counted righteous before God, so that all his hopes should be in the blessed God Himself. God becomes the refuge and dwelling-place of faith. So Moses prayed, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations … from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." It was in the character of his offering that Abel's faith appears, and the blessed God bore witness to his gifts, the fruit of his faith.