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The foregoing psalm is supposed to have been penned as late as the captivity in Babylon; this, it is plain, was penned as early as the deliverance out of Egypt, and yet they are put close together in this collection of divine songs. This psalm was penned by Moses (as appears by the title), the most ancient penman of sacred writ. We have upon record a praising song of his (Ex 15:1-21, which is alluded to Re 15:3), and an instructing song of his, De 32:1-47 But this is of a different nature from both, for it is called a prayer. It is supposed that this psalm was penned upon occasion of the sentence passed upon Israel in the wilderness for their unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion, that their carcases should fall in the wilderness, that they should be wasted away by a series of miseries for thirty-eight years together, and that none of them that were then of age should enter Canaan. This was calculated for their wanderings in the wilderness, as that other song of Moses (De 31:19,21) was for their settlement in Canaan. We have the story to which this psalm seems to refer, Nu 14:1-45 Probably Moses penned this prayer to be daily used, either by the people in their tents, or, at lest, by the priests in the tabernacle-service, during their tedious fatigue in the wilderness. In it, I. Moses comforts himself and his people with the eternity of God and their interest in him, Ps 90:1,2. II. He humbles himself and his people with the consideration of the frailty of man, Ps 90:3-6. III. He submits himself and his people to the righteous sentence of God passed upon them, Ps 90:7-11. IV. He commits himself and his people to God by prayer for divine mercy and grace, and the return of God's favour, Ps 90:12-17. Though it seems to have been penned upon this particular occasion, yet it is very applicable to the frailty of human life in general, and, in singing it, we may easily apply it to the years of our passage through the wilderness of this world, and it furnishes us with meditations and prayers very suitable to the solemnity of a funeral.

This psalm is one of the most remarkable in the whole collection. It is said, in the title, to be "A Prayer of Moses, the man of God;" or, as it is in the margin, "being a Psalm of Moses." The original word - תפלה tephillâh - means properly

(1) intercession, supplication for anyone;

(2) prayer or supplication in general;

(3) a hymn or inspired song.

Gesenius, Lexicon. In Psalm 72:20, the word is applied to the whole preceding part of the Book of Psalms - "The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended." The word "prayer" would better represent the nature of the contents of this psalm than the word "psalm," or "hymn."

If the author was Moses, then this is the only one of his compositions which we have in the Book of Psalms. We know, from not a few places in the Pentateuch, that Moses was a poet as well as a lawgiver and statesman; and it would not be improbable that there might have been some compositions of his of this nature which were not incorporated in the five books that he wrote, and which would be likely to be preserved by tradition. This psalm bears internal evidence that it may have been such a composition. There is no local allusion which would make it necessary to suppose that it was written at a later period; there is nothing inconsistent with the sentiments and style of Moses in the Pentateuch; there is much that is in accordance with his style and manner; and there were numerous occasions when the sentiments of the psalm would be exceedingly suitable to the circumstances in which he was, and to the train of thoughts which we may suppose to have passed through his mind. The following remarks of Prof. Alexander seem to me to be eminently just and appropriate: "The correctness of the title which ascribes the psalm to Moses is confirmed by its unique simplicity and grandeur; its appropriateness to his times and circumstances; its resemblance to the law in urging the connection between sin and death; its similarity of diction to the poetical portions of the Pentateuch, without the slightest trace of imitation or quotation; its marked unlikeness to the Psalms of David, and still more to those of later date; and finally the proved impossibility of plausibly assigning it to any other age or author." As a relic thus of most ancient times - as coming down from the most remarkable man in the Jewish history, if not in the world - as well as for its own instructive beauty and appropriateness to all times and lands - it is a composition of great interest and value.

This psalm is placed at the beginning of the fourth book of the Psalter, according to the ancient traditional division of the Psalms. Or, perhaps, the author of the arrangement - probably Ezra - designed to place this "by itself" between the two great divisions of the book, containing respectively the earlier and the later psalms. It may be regarded, therefore, as "the heart or center of the whole collection," suggesting thoughts appropriate to the entire current of thought in the book.

The phrase, "the man of God," in the title, is given to Moses in Deuteronomy 33:1; Joshua 14:6; Ezra 3:2; as a title especially appropriate to him, denoting that he was faithful to God; that he was a man approved by God. The title is indeed given to others, Judges 13:6, Judges 13:8; 1 Samuel 2:27; 1 Samuel 9:6-8; 1 Kings 12:22, et al.; but there was a special appropriateness in the title as given to Moses on account of his character, his eminent rank, and his influence in founding the Hebrew commonwealth.

It is impossible, of course, now to determine the time when the psalm was composed, but it may not improbably be supposed to have been near the close of the wanderings in the wilderness. The Hebrew people were about to enter the promised land; the generation that came out of Egypt was passing away; Moses himself felt that he was near the end of his course, for he had been apprized that he could not enter the land of promise to the borders of which he had conducted the people. These things were eminently suited to suggest such views of the shortness of human life, and of its frailty, as are here presented. At the same time, all these circumstances were suited to suggest the reference to the future, and the prayer in respect to that future, with which the psalm so beautifully closes. It seems, then, not improper to regard this psalm as one of the last utterances of Moses, when the wanderings of the Hebrew people were about to cease; when an entire generation had been swept off; and when his own labors were soon to close.

The main subject of the psalm is the brevity - the transitory nature - of human life; the reflections on which seem designed to lead the soul up to God, who does not die. The races of people are cut down like grass, but God remains the same from age to age. One generation finds him the same as the previous generation had found him - unchanged, and as worthy of confidence as ever. None of these changes can affect him, and there is in each age the comforting assurance that he will be found to be the refuge, the support, the "dwelling-place" of his people.

The psalm consists of the following parts:

I. The fact that God is unchanging; that he is the refuge of his people, and always has been; that from the eternity past to the eternity to come, he is the same - he alone is God, Psalm 90:1-2.

II. The frailty of man - the brevity of human life - as contrasted with this unchanging nature - this eternity - of God, Psalm 90:3-11. Man is turned to destruction; he is carried away as with a flood; his life is like a night's sleep; the human race is like grass which is green in the morning and is cut down at evening; - human existence is like a tale that is told - brief as a meditation - and narrowed down to threescore years and ten.

III. A prayer that the living might be able so to number their days - to take such an account of life as to apply the heart to wisdom; - to make the most of life, or to be truly wise, Psalm 90:12.

IV. A prayer for those who were to follow - for the coming generation - that God would continue his favors; that though the present generation must die, yet that God, who is unchanging and eternal, would meet the next generation, and all the generations to come, with the same mercies and blessings, enjoyed by those who went before them - prolonging these to all future time, Psalm 90:13-17.

The psalm, therefore, has a universal applicability. Its sentiments and its petitions are as appropriate now as they were in the time of Moses. The generations of people pass away as certainly and as rapidly now as they did then; but it is as true now as it was then, that God is unchanging, and that he is the "dwelling-place" - the home - of his people.

The eternity of God, Psalm 90:1, Psalm 90:2; the frailty of the state of man, Psalm 90:3-9; the general limits of human life, Psalm 90:10; the danger of displeasing God, Psalm 90:11; the necessity of considering the shortness of life, and of regaining the favor of the Almighty, Psalm 90:12; earnest prayer for the restoration of Israel, Psalm 90:13-17.

The title of this Psalm is, A Prayer of Moses the man of God. The Chaldee has, "A prayer which Moses the prophet of the Lord prayed when the people of Israel had sinned in the wilderness." All the Versions ascribe it to Moses; but that it could not be of Moses the lawgiver is evident from this consideration, that the age of man was not then seventy or eighty years, which is here stated to be its almost universal limit, for Joshua 54ed one hundred and ten years, and Moses himself one hundred and twenty; Miriam his sister, one hundred and thirty; Aaron his brother, one hundred and twenty-three; Caleb, four-score and five years; and their contemporaries lived in the same proportion. See the note on Psalm 90:4 (note). Therefore the Psalm cannot at all refer to such ancient times. If the title be at all authentic, it must refer to some other person of that name; and indeed איש אלהים ish Elohim, a man of God, a divinely inspired man, agrees to the times of the prophets, who were thus denominated. The Psalm was doubtless composed during or after the captivity; and most probably on their return, when they were engaged in rebuilding the temple; and this, as Dr. Kennicott conjectures, may be the work of their hands, which they pray God to bless and prosper.

INTRODUCTION TO Psalm 90

A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Here begins the fourth part of the book of Psalms, and with the most ancient psalm throughout the whole book, it being written by Moses; not by one of that name that lived in later times; nor by one of his posterity; nor by some one who composed it, agreeably to his words and doctrines, and called it by his name; but by that Moses by whom the Lord brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, led them through the wilderness to the borders of Canaan's land, and by whom he delivered to them the lively oracles; and who is described as the man of God, a title given to Moses, Deuteronomy 33:1, so called, not as a creature of his make, so all men are; nor as a man of grace, born of God, so is every saint; but a man of more than ordinary gifts received from the Lord, a prophet of the Lord, and the chief of the prophets, and a type of the great Prophet; so inspired men and prophets under the Old Testament bear this name, and ministers of the Gospel under the New, 1 Kings 17:18. It is a conceit of Bohlius, that this prayer of his (so it is called, as several other psalms are, see Psalm 17:1) was made by him when he was about seventy years of age, ten years before he was sent to Pharaoh, while he was in Midian, which he gathers from Psalm 90:10; others think it was written towards the end of his life, and when weary of it, and his travels in the wilderness; but it is more generally thought that it was penned about the time when the spies brought a bad report of the land, and the people fell a murmuring; which provoked the Lord, that he threatened them that they should spend their lives in misery in the wilderness, and their carcasses should fall there; and their lives were cut short, and reduced to threescore years and ten, or thereabout; only Moses, Joshua, and Caleb, lived to a greater age; and on occasion of this Moses wrote this psalm, setting forth the brevity and misery of human life; so the Targum,

"a prayer which Moses the prophet of the Lord prayed, when the people of the house of Israel sinned in the wilderness.''

Jarchi and some other Jewish writers (z) not only ascribe this psalm to Moses, but the ten following, being without a name; but it is certain that Psalm 95 was written by David, as appears from Hebrews 4:7 and Psalm 96 is his, compared with 1 Chronicles 16:23 and in Psalm 99 mention is made of Samuel, who lived long after the times of Moses.

Book IV.

XC.

Notwithstanding the unanimous rejection of the Mosaic title of this psalm by the ancient and mediaeval Christian commentators, it has found supporters among modern critics. It is urged that the transitoriness of human life was a theme peculiarly suited to the leader of a race doomed to wander in the wilderness till the sinful generation had died out, and that the general train of thought and feeling is worthy of Moses standing on the threshold of hopes he was not to be allowed to realise. It is a slender thread to support what, if we must regard it as more than a rabbinical conjecture, was probably the vaguest of traditions. (See General Introduction on the titles.) The subject of the brevity and vanity of life has occupied reflective minds in all periods and countries. Only a Hebrew could have handled it as it is handled here; but the contrast drawn between human frailty and Divine immutability is more suited to a later age of Israel than an early one. The very first verse seems to take a far more extended retrospect than was possible to Moses, while the pathetic cry, “How long?” in Psalm 90:13, suggests, as we have seen in the case of other psalms, even the Maccabæan age (but see title).

In one view it would be a misfortune to be able to fix on the precise moment when this poem was composed, and the voice that first spoke it. For it is what it has been well called “the funeral hymn of the world,” and it belongs not to one race or age, but to the sorrows and the hopes of all the successive generations, who at the open grave have derived, or shall derive, consolation and faith from its Divine words. There is no definite verse structure. The rhythm is subordinated to the feeling.

Title.—Moses is called “the man of God,” as in Deuteronomy 33:1; Joshua 14:6; 1Chronicles 23:14; 2Chronicles 30:16; Ezra 3:2.

The Mosaic authorship is a question depending in a great measure on the view held as to the date of the later part of Deuteronomy, to which there are resemblances in many points of style and some points of detail. Those who bring the composition of that work down to the eighth century before Christ will unhesitatingly refer this psalm to a date as late, if not later. (For more, see Introduction.)

THE PSALMS

BOOK IV

Psalms 90-106

This Psalm consists of three divisions.

i. It is to Jehovah alone that Israel can appeal in their distress, though He seems to have forsaken them. He has proved Himself their refuge in each succeeding age: He alone is the Eternal God: the lives of men are at His sovereign disposal (Psalm 90:1-6).

ii. The brief and uncertain span of life is being spent by the Psalmist and his contemporaries under the cloud of Jehovah’s wrath for their sins. Few indeed lay the lesson to heart: O that He would teach them wisdom (Psalm 90:7-12).

iii. O that He would relent and return to His people, and once more manifesting Himself in His saving Majesty, bless them with renewed prosperity (Psalm 90:13-17).

The first two divisions of the Psalm lead up to the prayer for the restoration of God’s favour to Israel, which is its main purpose. The brevity of human life—appearing still more brief in comparison with Divine Eternity—is pleaded, as in Psalm 89:46 ff., as a ground for the speedier exhibition of mercy. Must generation after generation pass away without seeing the proofs of God’s love? But with all its plaintive tone of sadness, the Psalm betrays no trace of murmuring or impatience. It breathes a spirit of perfect submission to the Will of God. The faith which appeals unwaveringly to the God Who is chastening Israel for their sins; the resignation which accepts the transitoriness of human life as God’s decree, while it ventures tacitly to accentuate its sadness by contrasting it with His Eternity; the deep humility of the confession that it is for its sins that Israel is suffering; the earnestness of the prayer for the dawn of a brighter day in the renewal of God’s favour; all combine to stamp the Psalm as the utterance of a poet-seer who had learnt profound lessons of spiritual truth through the discipline of suffering.

Can that poet-seer have been Moses, as the title seems to affirm? The Psalm is worthy of him, and at first sight its contemplation of the transitoriness of human life, its acknowledgement of suffering as the punishment of sin, and its prayer for the restoration of God’s favour, seem appropriate enough to a time towards the close of the Wandering in the wilderness, and a natural utterance for the leader who had watched one generation of Israelites after another dying out for their faithless murmuring. But a closer consideration of the Psalm makes it difficult if not impossible to suppose that it was actually written by Moses. No weight is to be attached to the argument that the average length of life spoken of in Psalm 90:10 is not that of the Mosaic age, for the longer lives of Moses and other leaders may have been exceptional; and the absence of distinct reference to the circumstances of the Israelites in the prayer of Psalm 90:13-17 might be accounted for by the general character of poetical language. But the author appears to look back upon a long period of national existence (Psalm 90:1); and it is difficult to imagine that the leader of a great nation, at the outset of its national existence, when it was on the point of taking possession of the inheritance promised to it, could possibly have expressed himself in the language of Psalm 90:13-17. Its subdued tone is not that of one who is looking forward to a future rich in vast possibilities.

It has been urged in defence of the Mosaic authorship of the Psalm that it presents many points of resemblance in thought and language to the Book of Deuteronomy. The argument would not be conclusive, even if the Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy were undisputed, for the resemblances might be fully accounted for by the Psalmist’s familiarity with that book. But if, as is now generally held, Deuteronomy in its present form is far later than the time of Moses, the Deuteronomic language of the Psalm points to a later date than the Mosaic age.

To what period then may it be assigned? Probably to the time of the Exile. Its position in the Psalter is in favour of this view. It breathes the feelings of that period as they are expressed in Psalm 89:46 ff., and it finds a striking parallel in Lamentations 5:16-21.

How then came it to have the name of Moses prefixed to it? Possibly this was done by the compiler, who noticed the resemblance of the Psalm to Deuteronomy, and thought, as many have thought since, that it suited the situation of the Israelites in the wilderness. Possibly, as even Delitzsch admits is conceivable, it was written by some gifted poet to express what he conceived to be Moses’ feelings. This he might have done in all good faith, without any intention of claiming the authority of Moses for his own composition: and in doing it, he may have, consciously or unconsciously, reflected the circumstances and expressed the feelings of his own times.

Happily the sublimity and pathos of this Psalm are wholly independent of the question of its date and authorship. Its use in the Burial Service gives it an additional solemnity of association; and it will not be forgotten that one of the finest hymns in the English language—Dr Watts’s “O God, our help in ages past,”—is based upon it.

For the title A Prayer cp. the titles of 17; 86; 102; 142; and the subscription to 72; and see Introd. p. xv. Man of God is a title of honour, applied to Moses (Deuteronomy 33:1; Joshua 14:6), and to other prophets and messengers of God, to express the close relation of fellowship in which they stood to Him.

Ps 90:1-17.

Contrasting man's frailty with God's eternity, the writer mourns over it as the punishment of sin, and prays for a return of the divine favor. A Prayer [mainly such] of Moses the man of God--

(De 33:1; Jos 14:6);

as such he wrote this (see on

Ps 18:1,

title, and

Ps 36:1,

title).

1. dwelling-place--home (compare

Eze 11:16),

as a refuge

(De 33:27).

Lord - Not יהוה Yahweh here, but אדני 'Adonāy. The word is properly rendered "Lord," but it is a term which is often applied to God. It indicates, however, nothing in regard to his character or attributes except that he is a "Ruler or Governor."

Thou hast been our dwelling-place - The Septuagint renders this, "refuge" - καταφυγἡ kataphugē. So the Latin Vulgate, "refugium;" and Luther, "Zuflucht." The Hebrew word - מעון mâ‛ôn - means properly a habitation, a dwelling, as of God in his temple, Psalm 26:8; heaven, Psalm 68:5; Deuteronomy 26:15. It also means a den or lair for wild beasts, Nahum 2:12; Jeremiah 9:11. But here the idea seems to be, as in the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Luther, "a refuge"; a place to which one may come as to his home, as one does from a journey; from wandering; from toil; from danger: a place to which such a one naturally resorts, which he loves, and where he feels that he may rest secure. The idea is, that a friend of God has that feeling in respect to Him, which one has toward his own home - his abode - the place which he loves and calls his own.

In all generations - Margin, "generation and generation." That is, A succeeding generation has found him to be the same as the previous generation had. He was unchanged, though the successive generations of men passed away.