Posted: 10/04/06
BaptistWay Bible Series for October 15
Living a life that matters a day at a time
• Psalm 90
By David Wilkinson
Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth
On New Year’s Day, our family gathered for a time of Scripture reading and prayer in anticipation of the year ahead. We read Psalm 90 together. Then each of us went to separate places to meditate, pray and journal about our thoughts. We returned an hour later to share our reflections on the psalm. It was a tender and meaningful time as we talked about our hopes and dreams for the year ahead and then prayed for each other.
Whatever the time of year or stage of life, Christians can turn to Psalm 90 as a helpful resource for taking stock of our lives and prayerfully considering how God wants us to live.
A prayer to God
Psalm 90 presents a poetic contrast between the eternal nature of God and the mortality of humankind. The form of the psalm is a prayer offered by the worshipping community. It begins with a brief hymn addressed to the “Lord” (Hebrew, ’adonay), the title for God as Lord or master of a servant people. This attitude is reinforced by references to God’s people as “servants” (vv. 13, 16).
In God, the people of Israel found their “dwelling place” (or “refuge” in some manuscripts). Recall that Psalm 84, a celebration of worship, began similarly: “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts” (v. 1). As a nomadic people who had known captivity, conflict and desert wanderings, Israel at its best affirmed that their ultimate home was in God and God alone.
This opening hymn is a celebration of God’s constancy. In a world of change, God is our one constant. In a world bound by the limits of mortality and rocked by the vicissitudes of life, the eternal God is in control.
Further, the hymn is a reminder that the worship of God is not dependent on our circumstances or mood. The psalmist will soon turn to the painful realities of life that are given voice in the form of a lament. But the psalm begins with praise in recognition of who God is and always has been: “From everlasting to everlasting, you are God” (v. 2).
God, of course, doesn’t need the reminder. We do.
Our human predicament
Verses 3-10 comprise the second of the psalm’s three sections. Parts two and three (vv. 13-17) are connected by two pivotal transition sentences (vv. 11-12).
In this second section, the psalmist bemoans the brevity and fragility of life. In recognition of this painful predicament, the transitional sentence of verse 12 asks God for wisdom to make the most of our lives.
The final section turns to the history of Israel’s relationship with God and pleas for a change from present lives filled with affliction and mourning to future lives blessed with satisfaction and gladness borne in God’s steadfast love. If our days are numbered, says the psalmist, then our prayer is that we may be given wisdom so each day is lived in the light of God’s grace rather than the shadow of God’s anger.
This second section is rich with poetic devices. In verse 3, the psalmist employs double entendre in the reminder that humankind inevitably returns to the “dust” from which we were created. This “back to dust” description of humanity’s mortality is reminiscent of the language of Genesis: “you are dust,” God tells Adam, “and to dust you shall return” (3:19).
The same Hebrew word translated “dust” is used elsewhere in Scripture to communicate contrition and repentance. In the same sentence, the psalmist speaks of humanity in both an individual sense (’enosh) and as a species (bene ’adam), again echoing the language of Genesis. Life’s brevity is both a particular and universal reality shared by “me” and “us.”
Verse 4 builds on this contrast between the Creator and creation and eternity and mortality. For the God of all time and space, a thousand years “are like yesterday when it is past” or “a watch in the night.” Compared to God’s eternal nature, our lives are like grass that flourishes in the coolness of the morning and then quickly withers in the afternoon heat and is blown away (vv. 5-6; see also Psalm 103:15-16). Even a strong life that spans 70 or 80 years is all too brief, coming inexorably to an end “like a sigh” (v. 9). Our lives—whether lived well or poorly, filled with ease or toil, or showered by blessings or troubles—“are soon gone” and, like blades of grass, we too “fly away” (v. 10).
No wonder this psalm often is read at funerals, since there is nothing like a funeral to remind us of our mortality. Yet funerals also can be occasions for reassessing our lives, and that is the turn this congregational prayer takes in the transitional sentences of verses 11-12. Echoing the wisdom theme of many of the psalms and Proverbs, lament turns to supplication: If our days are numbered, then teach us to live wisely, making the most of each day we have.
True wisdom is not related to the quantity of our days but to the quality with which we live them.
A turn towards hope
The final section is a plea for God to balance the scales. The psalmist does not reveal the particular circumstances that may have prompted the prayer. But he does plead for compassion, asking God to even up life’s ledger with credits of good days filled with the satisfaction of God’s “steadfast love” in place of days that have seen only “affliction” and “evil” (vv. 13-15).
Having turned from despair over life’s brevity and hardship, the prayer concludes with a note of hope. However long we may live, the psalmist prays, whatever the number of our days may be, may each day be lived in the light of God’s love and in the strength of God’s power.
Discussion questions
• Can you recall a time when you felt like asking God to “balance the scales” with some good days? How does this psalm speak to that feeling?
• What experiences have helped “put things in perspective” and prompted you to take stock of your life?
• Describe someone whose faith has enabled them to “gain a wise heart” as God’s servant.
We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.
Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.