BOOK 19 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Psalms 90

Psalms book home•Chapter 90 of 150•17 verses

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Psalms 90 Overview

God is Israel's dwelling place from everlasting, while human generations return to dust; Moses asks for wisdom to number days, mercy after wrath, and God's beauty upon human work.

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90Chapter

17Verses

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Before you read Psalms 90

Coming from

Psalm 89 centered on the davidic covenant tested by apparent royal collapse. Psalms is an anthology rather than a continuous chronological story, so the connection here is canonical and thematic.

In this chapter

God is Israel's dwelling place from everlasting, while human generations return to dust; Moses asks for wisdom to number days, mercy after wrath, and God's beauty upon human work.

Leads into

Psalm 91 turns to confidence under the protection of the most high, continuing the Psalter’s arranged movement without requiring that the two psalms describe consecutive historical events.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Psalm 90 belongs to Book IV of the Psalter (Psalms 90–106). Psalm 90 opens Book IV and is titled a prayer of Moses, shifting attention from the troubled Davidic monarchy to God's eternal kingship. Its position opens Book IV, so its themes contribute to a new major section of the Psalter.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Central truth

Moses teaches mortality under the eternal God.

Wisdom truth

In Psalm 90, godly wisdom evaluates life by the LORD’s revealed moral order rather than by appearances alone.

Lament truth

In Psalm 90, biblical faith brings grief, fear, confusion, and need directly to God rather than hiding them.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Wisdom connection

Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10 likewise place true wisdom under the fear of the LORD. This connection helps frame Psalm 90.

Lament connection

Hebrews 4:15-16 invites believers to come boldly for mercy and grace in need. This connection helps frame Psalm 90.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep wisdom in context

Do not turn a wisdom contrast in Psalm 90 into a mechanical formula that guarantees immediate earthly outcomes in every case.

Keep lament in context

Do not mistake every anguished sentence in Psalm 90 for the psalmist’s settled theological conclusion; lament often voices how the crisis feels before faith answers it.

Read Psalms 90 watching for…

everlasting to everlasting.

return to destruction.

thousand years.

number days.

establish work.

Chapter outline3 sections

1-6Moses praises the eternal God and contrasts him with man’s brief life 7-11Human life is consumed under God’s anger because of iniquity 12-17Moses asks for wisdom, mercy, gladness, beauty, and establishment of the work of their hands

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.

STUDY THIS VERSE

Psalms 90:2

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