¹Lord, you have always been our eternal home,

our hiding place from generation to generation.

²Long before you gave birth to the earth

and before the mountains were born,

you have been from everlasting to everlasting,

the one and only true God.

³When you speak the words “Life, return to me!”

man turns back to dust.

⁴One thousand years pass before your eyes

like yesterday that quickly faded away,

like a night’s sleep soon forgotten.

^5-6One day we will each be swept away into the sleep of death.

We glide along through the tides of time—

so quickly gone, like a dream that fades at dawn,

like glistening grass that springs up one day

and is dry and withered the next, ready to be cut down!

⁷Terrified by your anger, confined beneath the curse,

we live our lives knowing your wrath.

⁸For all of our faults and flaws are in full view to you.[#90:8 The Septuagint reads “The laws we have broken all stand before you.”]

Everything we want to hide, you search out

and expose by the radiance of your face.

⁹We are banished to live in the shadow of your anger.

Our days soon become years until our lifetime comes to an end,

finished with nothing but a sigh.

¹⁰You’ve limited our life span to a mere seventy years,

yet some you give grace to live still longer.

But even the best of years are marred by tears and toils

and in the end are nothing more than a gravestone in a graveyard!

We’re gone so quickly, so swiftly;

we pass away and simply disappear.

¹¹Lord, who fully knows the power of your passion

and the intensity of your emotions?

¹²Help us to remember that our days are numbered,

and help us to interpret our lives correctly.

Set your wisdom deeply in our hearts

so that we may accept your correction.

¹³Return to us again, O God!

How much longer will it take until you show us

your abundant compassion?

¹⁴Let the sunrise of your love end our dark night.

Break through our clouded dawn again!

Only you can satisfy our hearts,

filling us with songs of joy to the end of our days.

¹⁵We’ve been overwhelmed with grief;

come now and overwhelm us with gladness.

Replace our years of trouble with decades of delight.

¹⁶Let us see your miracles again, and let the rising generation

see the glorious wonders you’re famous for.

¹⁷O Lord our God, let your sweet beauty rest upon us.[#90:17 Or “favor.”]

Come work with us, and then our works will endure;

you will give us success in all we do.