Psalms 90

God’s Eternity and Human Frailty

¹O Lord, you have been our help in all generations.[#Or “dwelling place”; #Literally “in a generation and a generation”]

²Before the mountains were born

and you brought forth the earth and the world,

even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

³You return man to the dust,

saying, “Return, O sons of man.”

⁴For a thousand years in your eyes

are like yesterday when it passes,

or like a watch in the night.

⁵You sweep them away like a flood.

They fall asleep.

In the morning they are like grass that sprouts anew.

⁶In the morning it blossoms and sprouts anew;

by evening it withers and dries up.

⁷For we are brought to an end by your anger,

and we hasten off by your wrath.

⁸You have put our iniquities before you,

our hidden sins into the light of your countenance.

⁹For all of our days dwindle away in your rage;

we complete our years like a sigh.

¹⁰As for the days of our years, within them are seventy years

or if by strength eighty years, and their pride is trouble and disaster,

for it passes quickly and we fly away.

¹¹Who knows the strength of your anger,

and your rage consistent with the fear due you?

¹²So teach us to number our days

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

¹³Return, O Yahweh. How long?[#Or “Turn back your wrath”]

And have compassion on your servants.

¹⁴Satisfy us in the morning with your loyal love,

that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

¹⁵Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,

for as many years as we have seen calamity.

¹⁶Let your work be visible to your servants,

and your majesty to their children.

¹⁷And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,

and establish for us the work of our hands,

yes, the work of our hands, establish it.