Psalm 90

Commonplace –

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

“And let your beauty be upon me, establish the work of my hands” (Psalm 90:17).

The title of psalm 90 includes the subtitle “A prayer of Moses the man of God” (Psalm 90). Matthew Henry notes, “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 carcasses 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” (Henry 475). Further on, he notes, “Thought 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” (Henry 475).

What I appreciate most about Psalm 90 is that despite the punishment of being left to wander in the wilderness, Moses still asks God to teach him. He still asks God to reveal His beauty and to establish his work. Despite knowing he was going to be left to wander in the wilderness, Moses has hope that there is something left for him to do, even in the wilderness.

Verse 12, begins Moses’ appeals to God. Henry notes,

“The are the petitions of this prayer, grounded upon the foregoing meditations and acknowledgments [in verses 1-11], Is any afflicted? Let him learn thus to pray”. Four things they are here directed to pray for;

I. For a sanctified use of the sad dispensation they were now under…..

II. For the turning away of God’s anger….

III. For comfort and joy in the returns of God’s favour to them…

IV. For the progress of the work of God among them notwithstanding…” (Henry 478-479).

Works Cited

Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 90.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.

Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.

© 2025 Angela Hormberg