Psalms 90:17

Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. -The Second division of the Second part. Prayer for God's mercy as the source to us of joy, and of the establishment of our work. Verse 13. RETURN - from the wrath which now lies upon us. So Exodus 32:12. HOW LONG? - how long wilt thou be angry with us? AND LET IT REPENT THEE CONCERNING THY SERVANTS. Parallel to the Pentateuch, "The Lord shall repent Himself for His servants;" on which rests Psalms 135:14. God is said to repent when, having first vindicated His justice in punishing sin, He then gives the sinner joy instead of sadness. The language is phenomenal, and relates to things as they appear to us. God is the sa...

12-17 Those who would learn true wisdom, must pray for Divine instruction, must beg to be taught by the Holy Spirit; and for comfort and joy in the returns of God's favour. They pray for the mercy of God, for they pretend not to plead any merit of their own. His favour would be a full fountain of future joys. It would be a sufficient balance to former griefs. Let the grace of God in us produce the light of good works. And let Divine consolations put gladness into our hearts, and a lustre upon our countenances. The work of our hands, establish thou it; and, in order to that, establish us in it. Instead of wasting our precious, fleeting days in pursuing fancies, which leave the possessors for ever poor, let us seek the forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance in heaven. Let us pray that the work of the Holy Spirit may appear in converting our hearts, and that the beauty of holiness may be s...

Verse Psalms 90:17. _AND LET THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD_] Let us have thy _presence, blessing_, and _approbation_, as our fathers had. _ESTABLISH THOU THE WORK OF OUR HANDS_] This is supposed, we have already seen, to relate to their _rebuilding the temple_, which the surrounding heathens and Samaritans wished to hinder. We have begun, do not let them demolish our work; let the top-stone be brought on with shouting, _Grace, grace_ unto it. _YEA, THE WORK OF OUR HANDS_] This repetition is wanting in _three_ of _Kennicott's_ MSS., in the _Targum_, in the _Septuagint_, and in the _AEthiopic_. If the repetition be genuine, it may be considered as marking great earnestness; and this earnestness was to get the temple of God rebuilt, and his pure worship restored. The pious Jews had this more at

AND LET THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD OUR GOD BE UPON US - The word translated “beauty” - נעם _nô‛am_ - means properly “pleasantness;” then, beauty, splendor; then grace or layout. The Septuagint renders it here, λαμπρότης _lamprotēs_, “splendor;” and so the Latin Vulgate. The wish is clearly that all that there is, in the divine character, which is “beautiful,” which is suited to win the hearts of people to admiration, gratitude, and love - might be so manifested to them, or that they might so see the excellency of his character, and that his dealings with them might be such, as to keep the beauty, the loveliness, of that character constantly before them. AND ESTABLISH THOU THE WORK OF OUR HANDS UPON US - What we are endeavoring to do. Enable us to carry out our plans, and to accomplish our purposes....

EXPOSITION THE ascription of this psalm in the title to Moses must be admitted to be very remarkable. No other psalm is so ascribed. Nor indeed is a date given to any other earlier than the time of David. The psalm itself, however, when examined, is found to accord with the traditional date. Professor Cheyne notes in it a "roughness," which is presumably a sign of antiquity. Ewald says of it, "The poem has in it something uncommonly striking, solemn, sinking into the depth of the Godhead. In contents and language it is throughout original and powerful; and, as it is undoubtedly very old, it would have been universally considered as correctly derived from Moses, had we known exactly the reasons which guided the collector." Hengstenberg, Kay, professor Alexander, and Dean Johnson accept unhesitatingly the Mosaic authorship. The psalm is termed, "A Prayer of Moses, the man of God." It is,...

AND LET THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD OUR GOD BE UPON US,.... Either the grace and favour of God, his gracious presence vouchsafed in his ordinances, which makes his tabernacles amiable and lovely, and his ways of pleasantness; or the righteousness of Christ, which is that comeliness he puts upon his people, whereby they become a perfection of beauty; or the beauty of holiness, which appears on them, when renewed and sanctified by the Spirit; every grace is beautiful and ornamental: or Christ himself may be meant; for the words may be rendered, "let the beauty of the Lord be with us" k; he who is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand altogether lovely, fairer than the children of men, let him appear as the Immanuel, God with us: AND ESTABLISH THOU THE WORK OF OUR HANDS UPON US; YEA, THE WORK OF OUR HANDS ESTABLISH THOU IT; or "direct it" l; though God works all works of grace for us...

Psalms 90:1 is entitled «A Prayer of Moses the man of God,» and it furnishes a suitable prayer for every man of God. Any men of God who have had experience as deep, and trying, and varied as that of Moses will be the better able to enter into the spirit of the Psalm. Psalms 90:1. _LORD thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations._ «This world in which we live is no home for our immortal spirits. Thou givest us habitations for our bodies, but they are no dwelling places for our spirits that are of a nobler order. We dwell in thee, O Lord; thou art our home. Beneath thy wide wings we find blessed shelter, and in communion with thee our hearts are kept in perfect peace. Lord, thou art the home of thy people in all generations; not only in the generations that are past, when Noah, and

IV. THE NUMBERS SECTION: BOOK FOUR: PSALM 90-106 The Ninetieth Psalm begins the fourth book of Psalms, corresponding in different ways with the book of Numbers. It opens with the only Psalm written by Moses in the wilderness when the people were dying on account of unbelief, and is followed by a Psalm which shows the second Man, the Lord as the head of a new creation. In this book are found numerous millennial Psalms, showing us prophetically when under Christ, in the day when all things are put under His feet, the wilderness experiences of His people end, glory comes to Israel, the nations and all the earth. Psalms 90:1 ; Psalms 91:1; Psalms 92:1;...

BOOK IV. PSS. XC.- CVI. XC. Man's Mortality and his Refuge in the Ever-living God. Psalms 90:1. The nothingness of man's life, the eternity of God's life. Psalms 90:7. It is the sinfulness of man which makes his life so short. Psalms 90:11 f. Man's lot should teach him reverence and wisdom. Psalms 90:13. Prayer for God's blessing in the future. PSALMS 90:1. DWELLING-PLACE: the thought is beautiful but irrelevant. The Psalmist is speaking of God's eternity, not of His dealing with Israel. Mo

GOD. Hebrew. _Elohim._ App-4....