Psalm 90:1-12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Book IV
(Psalms 90–106)
Psalm 90
God’s Eternity and Human Frailty
A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place[a]
in all generations.(A)
2 Before the mountains were brought forth
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.(B)
3 You turn us[b] back to dust
and say, “Turn back, you mortals.”(C)
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are like yesterday when it is past
or like a watch in the night.(D)
5 You sweep them away; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning;(E)
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.(F)
7 For we are consumed by your anger;
by your wrath we are overwhelmed.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your countenance.(G)
9 For all our days pass away under your wrath;
our years come to an end[c] like a sigh.(H)
10 The days of our life are seventy years
or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span[d] is only toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.(I)
11 Who considers the power of your anger?
Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.(J)
12 So teach us to count our days
that we may gain a wise heart.(K)
Psalm 90
The Message
90 1-2 God, it seems you’ve been our home forever;
long before the mountains were born,
Long before you brought earth itself to birth,
from “once upon a time” to “kingdom come”—you are God.
3-11 So don’t return us to mud, saying,
“Back to where you came from!”
Patience! You’ve got all the time in the world—whether
a thousand years or a day, it’s all the same to you.
Are we no more to you than a wispy dream,
no more than a blade of grass
That springs up gloriously with the rising sun
and is cut down without a second thought?
Your anger is far and away too much for us;
we’re at the end of our rope.
You keep track of all our sins; every misdeed
since we were children is entered in your books.
All we can remember is that frown on your face.
Is that all we’re ever going to get?
We live for seventy years or so
(with luck we might make it to eighty),
And what do we have to show for it? Trouble.
Toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard.
Who can make sense of such rage,
such anger against the very ones who fear you?
12-17 Oh! Teach us to live well!
Teach us to live wisely and well!
Come back, God—how long do we have to wait?—
and treat your servants with kindness for a change.
Surprise us with love at daybreak;
then we’ll skip and dance all the day long.
Make up for the bad times with some good times;
we’ve seen enough evil to last a lifetime.
Let your servants see what you’re best at—
the ways you rule and bless your children.
And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us,
confirming the work that we do.
Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson