Tap any verse number for what that verse means.
1Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
2Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
3Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
4For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
5Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
6In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
7For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
8Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
9For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
10The 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.
11Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
12So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
13Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
14O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
16Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
17And 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.
Understand This
Psalm 90, explained
What Psalm 90 is saying
The only psalm attributed to Moses, Psalm 90 opens Book IV with a meditation on divine eternality versus human transience. The psalm contrasts God's timelessness—a thousand years are like a watch in the night—with human mortality, describing lives that sprout and wither like grass in a single day. The prayer 'teach us to number our days' seeks not longer life but wisdom. Moses' appeal to God as Israel's dwelling place across all generations reestablishes divine permanence as the foundation of hope.
The background behind it
The attribution to Moses, if historical, makes this the oldest psalm in the Psalter. Its placement at the opening of Book IV is theologically strategic: after the crisis of the Davidic covenant in Psalm 89, Moses' voice redirects hope from the earthly monarchy to God's eternal dwelling presence—the pre-monarchic foundation.
Themes running underneath
The psalm's theology of time distinguishes between God's infinite perspective and the brevity of human existence lived under divine wrath. The grass metaphor and the seventy/eighty years lifespan establish mortality as the fundamental human condition. The prayer for wisdom to number one's days connects mortality awareness with practical wisdom. The closing petition for God's beauty and the establishment of human work suggests that meaningful legacy is possible within mortal limits.
Why it still matters
Psalm 90 invites honest reckoning with mortality as the path to wisdom. It challenges the illusion of unlimited time and reorients life toward what endures—God's eternal faithfulness and the work He establishes.
Scripture text: King James Version — public domain.