BOOK 4

From Everlasting to Everlasting, You Are God

¹Lord, You have been our dwelling place from generation to generation.[#90:1 Or hiding place , help ; some ancient mss place of refuge]

²Before the mountains were born

Or You brought forth the earth and the world,

Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

³¶You turn man back into dust

And say, “Return, O sons of men.”

⁴For a thousand years in Your sight

Are like yesterday when it passes by,

Or as a watch in the night.

⁵You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep;[#90:5 Or flooded; #90:5 Lit become asleep]

In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.

⁶In the morning it blossoms and sprouts anew;[#90:6 Or passes away]

Toward evening it withers away and dries up.

⁷¶For we have been consumed by Your anger

And by Your wrath we have been dismayed.

⁸You have set our iniquities before You,

Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.

⁹For all our days have declined in Your fury;

We have finished our years like a sigh.

¹⁰As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,[#90:10 Lit years; #90:10 Lit in them are]

Or if due to might, eighty years,

Yet their pride is but labor and wickedness;

For soon it is gone and we fly away.

¹¹Who knows the power of Your anger

And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?

¹²So teach us to number our days,[#90:12 Lit Cause us to know how to number our days]

That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

¹³¶Return, O Yahweh; how long will it be ?

And be sorry for Your slaves.

¹⁴O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness,

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

¹⁵Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us,[#90:15 Or as many days as]

And the years we have seen evil.

¹⁶Let Your work appear to Your slaves

And Your majesty to their sons.

¹⁷Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;

And establish for us the work of our hands;

Establish the work of our hands.