My reflections on Psalms 90:
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.
7 For we are consumed by thine anger, And by thy wrath are we troubled.
8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: We spend our years as a tale that is told.
10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, Yet is their strength labour and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
12 So teach us to number our days, That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
13 Return, O LORD, how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; That we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, And the years wherein we have seen evil.
16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, And thy glory unto their children.
17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: And establish thou the work of our hands upon us; Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
Why would the psalmist want us to ask the Lord to “teach us to number our days”? (verse 12)
At a minimum, the implication of this numbering is that our days on earth are finite. The heading of this psalm is “A Prayer of Moses the man of God.” Strangely, Moses lived 120 years, but the psalmist declares that man’s assigned lifetime is 70, or perhaps 80 years. At my current age of 73, this admonition carries a bit more urgency than in my earlier years. What is the reason given for applying such consideration? The psalmist says, “That we may get us a heart of wisdom.”
Is there something important about someone gaining a heart of wisdom? If so, what is the correlation between numbering our days to get a heart of wisdom? The book of Proverbs seems to indicate that “Lady” Wisdom is to be pursued from the earliest years of a young man’s life. Yet, rarely does a young man consider that his days are numbered. This requires the father’s hand of training…ah, the advanced wisdom of one who has gone before…one who has, themselves, been trained by their father, from whom blessings are to be dispensed. Hence, this prayer of Moses requests, “Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, And Thy glory upon their children” (V.16). With this prayer, we may be reminded of Deuteronomy 33: And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. The meaningfulness of these blessings was wrapped in the prophetic aspect of Moses’s declarations for each individual tribe of Israel. Moses was speaking into existence the futures that he saw for each son of Jacob. What application might this have for us today?
EXAMPLE:
In 2022, I was given a book from a dear friend entitled, Rethinking Forgiveness by Michael O’Shields. While the first part of the book is concerned with the topic of forgiveness, the second part of the book is entitled, “The Book of Blessings.” The author provided a list of 1001 individual blessings. Many of these blessings were paraphrases of scriptures from the Bible.
For some reason not fully apparent to me, I went to a local bookstore and bough 5 small journals, having each distinctive journal embossed with one of my five grandchildren’s name. Since my disposition is one of a journal writer throughout my entire adult life, I decided to write a page on one designated day per week to each of the five children. At this, I am grateful that my grandchildren are learning how to read and write cursive because that is the mode of my entries. At the time of this article, I am writing my consecutive 113th week of journal entries which I started the first week of January 2023.
With each entry, I conclude with a unique blessing to the child. This was inspired by O’Shield’s book referenced above. In the early weeks, I just extracted one of that book’s 1001 blessings to supplement the topic of my entry. For some time, now, I just write my own blessings to the kids which, many times, are based on scriptural references or just desires I express toward them for their good. These blessings typically are characterized as “May you…” or “May He…” statements. I can only hope that, one day, they will be read by my grandchildren and that maybe some of those blessings also prove to be wrapped in the prophetic Holy Spirit inevitability and demonstration of fulfillment.
CONCLUSION:
There are so many other themes in Psalms 90 upon which I have not addressed in this brief article such as:
- The declaration of God’s “infiniteness” (everlasting) wherein the people of God had dwelt, even, before the Lord had formed the earth and the world.
- The reminder that a thousand years are but as yesterday to the Lord, while providing the constant appeal to His people to “Return, ye children of men” as we are in need to do so frequently.
- How our secret sins and iniquities are set in full view of the light of His countenance, deserving of His wrath.
- Yet, He satisfies mankind with His daily mercies, making us glad in His Presence.
- Then, the understanding that He is able to establish upon us the work of His hands AND also establish the work of our hands…His image-bearers.
May the Lord teach us to number our days at an early age so that God’s wisdom may marinate for long years prior to reaching our allotment of time on this earth. May our children and grandchildren constantly return to the Lord in the face of this world’s constant distractions. May the everlasting blessings of Moses’ prayer be conveyed not only to the natural children of Israel, but also to those who are the engrafted and adopted children of Israel. – Amen
[1] The Cambridge Paragraph Bible: Of the Authorized English Version (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1873), Ps 90:title–17.
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