Psalm 90 is the oldest Psalm because it was written
by Moses. It’s the only one that he had written and in it he implored God to be
merciful to us, His people. This is the first Psalm in book four of the Psalms.
It gives us three clear demarcations: (1) verses 1-2 describe God’s eternalness,
(2) verses 3-12 describe man’s transitory life; (3) and verses 13-17, describe a
plea for mercy.
In verses 7-12, we see Moses’ recollection of God’s
anger in the wilderness wandering. Hence we surmise that his prayer was essentially
for the new generation of people that was born in the wilderness. Due to their
disobedience, the old generation all perished in the wilderness. They were the
generation that came out of Egypt who had hardened their hearts in rebellion.
They did not obey God in spite of the many wonders God had granted them in
their journey from Egypt and through the wilderness. Moses must have written
this Psalm at the end of their 38 years of wandering, when the new generation was
about to enter the Promised Land. By extension this prayer is also for all of
us believers, who as frail human beings confined to live in this sin-cursed
universe since the fall of Adam.
Moses began by talking about God. Unlike us created
being, God existed before time. He had always been there. He is here now, and
will be here even when the old earth is folded. Hence Moses said that He is God
from everlasting to everlasting. From the lofty view of God, Moses then soberly
described the plight of transient fallen men. Here the description of man and
his experience is set in the backdrop of the eternalness of God. And in
comparison with God, man’s existence is transient and brief. Unlike God, our
one day is made up of 24 hours, whereas God’s is a thousand year. Our life is also
compared to a watch in the night. In the Bible, a day is made up of four blocks
of three-hour watches. Moses saw the span of man as only as short as just one
watch i.e. a three hour span. Of course this is a hyperbole to prove a point.
His implication is clear. If a thousand years is like a day, or a night-watch to
God, then the length of a man’s life is certainly like a mist. He further said
that man’s life is so small a smidgeon that it is easily swept away by a flood.
Man’s temporal nature is also likened to a blade of grass, though it sprouts up
anew each day, but withers and dies by evening.
In
verses 7-10, obviously Moses was referring to the wilderness wandering of the people.
For forty years Moses saw death practically every day. He saw the whole generation
perished in the wilderness under the fury of God’s anger. He knew how petrifying
God’s wrath could be, that a whole generation of people should perish in the wilderness
before Him. Certainly no one could be more qualified to talk about death than Moses.
In this Psalm Moses hinted that the average life span of a person is about 70
years, or 80 years if he or she is stronger. But even while living that short
duration, man’s life consists of labor and sorrow before he expires.
In
verses 11-17 Moses then pleaded with God for wisdom for His people and to grant
them another opportunity to do His work. In this context he was asking for the
opportunity to take the Promised Land. The take away from this Psalm is: that the
only secure place in this evil world is found under the divine protective hedge
of God. All of us are under the sentence of death since Adam’s fall. But now in
Christ and His resurrection, we have an eternal refuge with God. We also need to
be aware that time usually passes us by unobserved. We are often like sleeping
man who is not aware of how quickly time passes us by. Be sure that the time that
slipped us by can never be retrieved. So while waiting for the moment when we
transit into our eternal home, we, like Moses, must seek the wisdom of God. We must
ask that He will teach us to number our days aright, and help us make each day
count. We want to be able to present before God a heart of wisdom! So let’s seize
the day!
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