Matthew Poole and continuators on Psalms 90

1 LORD, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations .

Although we and our Fathers for some Generations have had no certain and fixed Habitation, but have been strangers in a land that was not ours, and afflicted for four hundred years, according to thy Prediction, Gen. 15. 13. and although we now are and have been for some time, and still are like to continue in a vast howling Wilderness, having no Houses but dwelling in Tents and wandring from place to place we know not whither; yet thou, O Lord, hast fully supplyed this want, and hast been in stead of, and better than, a dwelling place to us, by thy watchful and gracious Providence over us in all places and exigences. And this is a very proper Preface to this Psalm to intimate that all the following miseries were not to be imputed to God but unto themselves who by their own sins had brought these mischiefs upon themselves.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 span]

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 .

Which he mentions as the most fixed and stable part of the Earth.

i. e. From Eternity; which is frequently described in this manner, as Prov. 8. 25, 26. Ioh. 17. 24. Eph. 1. 4. because there was nothing before the Creation of the World but Eternity. And thus the words here following do explain it. And this Eternity of God is here mentioned partly that men by the contemplation thereof might be wrought to a deeper sence of their own frailty and nothingness, which is the foundation of humility and of all true piety; and to a greater reverence and admiration of the Divine Majesty; and partly for the comfort of Gods people, who notwithstanding all their present miseries have a sure and everlasting refuge and portion.

Or, thou art the strong God. Thou hadst thy power and all thy perfections, not by degrees, as men have theirs, but from all Eternity. Or, thou art or wast, O God.

3 Thou turnest man to destruction , and sayest , Return ye children of men.

But as for man, his case is far otherwise, his time is short, and though he was made by thee an happy Creature, and should have been immortal, yet upon and for his sin thou didst make him mortal and miserable.

Or, didst say, i. e. pronounce that sad sentence here following, Return, O men, to the dust out of which you were taken, Gen. 3. 19. Psal. 146. 4. Eccles. 12. 7.

4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past , and as a watch in the night .

If we should now live so long as some of our Progenitors well-nigh did. As he compared mans duration with Gods in respect of its beginning, v. 2. so here he compareth them in respect of the end, or continuance.

In thy account, and therefore in truth; which is opposed to the partial and false judgment of men who think time long because they do not understand Eternity: Or, in comparison of thy endless duration.

Which is emphatically added; because time seems long when it is to come, but when it is past and men look backward upon it, it seems very short and contemptible, and men value one hour to come more than a thousand years which are past.

Which lasted but for three or four hours; for the night was antiently divided into three or four Watches. See Iudg. 7. 19. Mark 6. 48. and 13. 35. Luk. 12. 38.

Which also hath its weight: for the silence and slumbers of the night makes time seem shorter than it doth in the day.

Marginal references: 2 Pet. 3. 8.; Or, when he hath passed them.

5 Thou carriest them away as with a floud , they are as a sleep : in the morning they are like grass which groweth up .

i. e. Mankind, of whom he spake, v. 3.

Unexpectedly, violently and irresistibly, universally, without exception or distinction.

Short and vain, as sleep is, and not minded till it be past. Or, like a Dream when a man sleepeth, wherein there may be some real pleasure, but never any satisfaction, or some real trouble, but very inconsiderable, and seldom or never pernicious. Even such an idle and insignificant thing is humane life considered in it self without respect to a future state, in which there is but a meer shadow or dream of felicity, onely the calamities attending upon it are more real and weighty.

Heb. which is changed, either first for the worse, which passeth away, as some render the word. Which having generally affirmed here, he may seem more particularly to explain in the next Verse. Or rather secondly for the better, as this word is sometimes used, as Iob 14. 7. Isa. 40. 31. which sprouteth out of the Earth and groweth more apparent and green and flourishing. And this interpretation is confirmed from the next Verse, where this same word is used in this sence, where also the morning is again mentioned, and that as the time not of its decay, but of its flourishing.

Marginal references: Psal. 73. 20.; Psal. 103. 15.; Or, is changed.

6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth .

The whole space of mans life is compared to one day, and his prosperity is confined to a part of that day and ended in the close of it.

7 For we are consumed by thine anger , and by thy wrath are we troubled.

Either, 1. we men: or rather, 2. we Israelites in this wilderness.

Either naturally by the frame of our bodies, or violently by extraordinary judgments. Thou dost not suffer us to live so long as we might by the course of nature.

Caused by our sinful state and lives.

8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee , our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

Thou dost not now cover or blot out or pass by our sins, as thou hast usually done to thy people; but thou dost diligently search them out, and accurately observe them, as a severe, but righteous Judge, and art now calling us to an account for them.

Thou dost not onely punish us for our notorious and scandalous sins, which thine honour may seem to oblige thee to do, but even for our secret lusts, the murmuring and unbelief and Apostasie and Idolatry of our hearts; which though hid from the eyes of men, thou hast set before thine eyes and brought them to light by thy judgments.

Marginal references: Heb. at the luminary of thy countenance.

9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told .

Or, turn away themselves or their face from us. They do not continue with us, but quickly turn their backs upon us and leave us.

Which may a little affect us for the present, but is quickly ended and gone out of mind. Or, as a word, as Iob 37. 2. which in an instant is gone, and that irrevocably. Or, as a thought, or a sigh, or a breath. All which come to one sence.

Marginal references: Heb. turned away.; Or, as a meditation.

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 flee away .

Either 1. of the Israelites in the desart, who being twenty years old, and some thirty, some forty, some fifty years old when they came out of Egypt, and dying in the Wilderness, as all of that age did, Numb. 14. 29. a great number of them doubtless died in their seventieth or eightieth year, as is here implyed. Or rather 2. of the generality of mankind, and the Israelites no less than others, in that and all following Ages, some few persons excepted, amongst whom were Moses and Caleb and Ioshua, who lived an hundred and twenty years; which is therefore noted of them as a thing singular and extraordinary. This sence suits best with the following words, and with the scope of Moses; which was to represent the vain and transitory condition of men in this life, and how much mankind was now sunk below their Ancestors, who commonly lived many hundreds of years, and that the Israelites, though Gods peculiar people and endowed with many priviledges, yet in this were no better than other men. All which may be considered either as an argument to move God to pity and spare them, or as a motive to awaken and quicken the Israelites to serious preparations for death, by comparing this with v. 12.

Which time the antient Heathen Writers also fixed as the usual space of mens lives.

i. e. By the strength of their natural constitution; which is the true and common cause of longer life.

Their strongest and most vigorous old Age. Or, their excellency, or pride; that old age which is their glory, and in which men do commonly glory.

Filled with troubles and griefs from the infirmities of age, the approach of Death, and the contingences of humane life.

Either our age, or our strength.

It doth not now decline by many degrees and slow steps, as it doth in our young and flourishing age, but decayeth apace and suddenly fleeth away.

We do not now go to Death, as we do from our very Birth, nor run, but flee swiftly away like a Bird, as this word signifies.

Marginal references: Heb. as for the days of our years in them are seventy years.

11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger ? even according to thy fear , so is thy wrath :

Few or none sufficiently apprehend it or stedfastly believe it, or duly consider it, or are rightly affected with it. For all these things are comprehended under this word knoweth.

The greatness and force and dreadful effects of thine anger conceived against the Sons of men, and in particular against thine own people for their miscarriages.

i. e. According to the fear of thee, as my fear is put for the fear of me, Mal. 1. 6. and his knowledge for the knowledge of him, Isa. 53. 11. According to that fear or dread which sinful men have of a just and holy God. These fears of the Deity are not vain Bugbears, and the effects of ignorance and folly or Superstition, as Heathens and Atheists have sometimes said, but are just and built upon solid grounds and justified by the terrible effects of thy wrath upon mankind.

It bears full proportion to it, nay indeed doth far exceed it. It cannot be said of Gods wrath which is said of Death, that the fear of it is worse than the thing it self. But this Verse is by many both antient and later Interpreters rendred otherwise, and that very agreeably to the Hebrew Text, who knoweth the power of thine anger, and thy wrath according to thy fear? i. e. either 1. according to the fear of thee, or so as thou art to be feared, or answerably to thy terrible displeasure against sin and sinners. Or 2. so as to fear and dread thee in such manner and measure as sinful Creatures ought to fear the infinite and offended Majesty of God their Creator and Judge and Soveraign, and thereby to be moved to humble himself before thee and fervently to seek thy face and favour; which is the onely true wisdom, for which he prayeth in the next Verse.

12 So teach us to number our days , that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom .

By thy spirit and grace as thou hast already taught us by thy word. Or, Teach us rightly (as this word is used Numb. 27. 7. and 2 Kings 7. 9.) to number, &c. as it follows.

To consider the shortness and miseries of this life, and the certainty and speediness of Death, and the causes and consequences thereof.

That we may heartily devote our selves to the study and practice of true wisdom, which is nothing else but piety or the fear of God. And why so? Not that the Israelites might thereby procure a revocation of that peremptory sentence of death passed upon all that Generation; nor that other men might hereby prevent their death, both which he very well knew to be impossible, but that men might arm and prepare themselves for death, and for their great account after death, and might make sure of the happiness of the future life. Of which this Text is a plain and pregnant proof.

Marginal references: Psal. 39. 4.; Heb. cause to come.

13 Return, O LORD , how long ! and let it repent thee concerning thy servants .

To us in mercy; for thou seemest to have forsaken us and cast us off.

Understand, wilt thou be angry: or, will it be ere thou return to us.

i. e. Of thy severe proceedings against us, and change thy course and carriage to us.

14 O satisfie us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoyce, and be glad all our days.

Speedily, or seasonably before we be utterly consumed.

15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil .

Our afflictions have been sharp and long, let not our prosperity be small and short.

16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children .

Let that great and glorious work of giving thy people a compleat deliverance, which thou hast long since designed and promised, be at last accomplished and manifested unto us, and in the sight of the World.

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.

i. e. His favourable countenance and gracious influence and glorious presence.

Or, in us. Do not onely work for us but in us. And because the glorious work of thy hands is hindered by the evil works of our hands, be thou pleased by thy holy spirit to direct or establish (for this Hebrew word signifies both) the works of our hands, that we may cease to do evil and learn to do well, and turn and constantly cleave unto thee, and not revolt and draw back from thee, as we have frequently done to our own undoing.