A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM XC.
_Moses, setting forth God’s providence, complaineth of human fragility, divine chastisements, and brevity of life.—He prayeth for the knowledge and sensible experience of God’s good providence._ A prayer of Moses, the Man of God. LORD, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou _art_ God. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight _are but_ as yesterday when it is past, and _as_ a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are _as_ a sleep: in the morning _they are_ like grass _which_ groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret _sins_ in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale _that is told_. 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.
Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, _so is_ thy wrath. So teach _us_ to number our days, that we may apply _our_ hearts unto wisdom. Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days _wherein_ thou hast afflicted us, _and_ the years _wherein_ we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. 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. This Psalm contains a very great and important doctrine; in which Moses teaches what is the origin and cause of that death to which the whole human race is subject, and the reason why so horrible a punishment was inflicted on the whole race of mortals: the Psalmist saith, it was on account of sin: and the guilt and desert of sin are greater than can be conceived by the human mind, unless God touch the heart with a knowledge of it; and yet, in this sin and guilt, and under this wrath, all the sons of Adam are born.
Moses here opens widely this punishment of sin, and this horrible misery; setting forth the proof of it in the shortness and uncertainty of human life; which life, in addition to this its shortness and uncertainty, is subject also to all kinds of calamity: and, in verse 11, Moses saith that this very unspeakable misery—death, and all other human calamities, as parts of that death, tend, or should lead us, to seek the grace and mercy of God, who alone can deliver us from all these evils,—sin, the slavery of the devil, and death. Hence all the calamities and afflictions of life, and even death itself, the punishment of sin, work together for good unto the elect, and unto those that fear God; that they may, by all things, be humbled, broken down, and crucified, and so, thirst after grace. “So teach us that we must die,” says Moses, “that we may become wise:” that is, that we may learn to know God and his will aright; for this is what Moses calls “becoming wise.” The wicked, and fools, who are not exercised with afflictions, who number not their days, nor think of death, nor meditate on the misery of life, but remain unexperienced and ignorant of all spiritual things, and are wrapped up in their own hypocrisy, never rightly know God, nor truly seek his help and mercy.
Moses then closes his Psalm with a divinely concluding prayer, “Let thy work appear unto thy servants,” or “Show us thy work, O Lord.” Here, by the work of God, he means deliverance from sin and death; and, in a word, all that deliverance that our fathers expected from that blessed seed, which we have revealed to us in Christ. And again, saith Moses, “O satisfy us early with thy mercy:” and he twice repeats, “Prosper thou the works of our hands:” that is, for the time that we live, direct and prosper thou our whole life: preserve thy true religion and the good government of our nation: guard us from heresies, errors, wars, seditions, and all such evils. This Psalm, therefore, is a short but a most spiritual prayer.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.