BOOK IV

Psalm 90

¹Lord, you have been our help,

generation after generation.

²Before the mountains were born,

before you birthed the earth and the inhabited world—

from forever in the past

to forever in the future, you are God.

³You return people to dust,

saying, “Go back, humans,”

⁴because in your perspective a thousand years

are like yesterday past,

like a short period during the night watch.

⁵You sweep humans away like a dream,

like grass that is renewed in the morning.

⁶True, in the morning it thrives, renewed,

but come evening it withers, all dried up.

⁷Yes, we are wasting away because of your wrath;

we are paralyzed with fear on account of your rage.

⁸You put our sins right in front of you,

set our hidden faults in the light from your face.

⁹Yes, all our days slip away because of your fury;

we finish up our years with a whimper.

¹⁰We live at best to be seventy years old,

maybe eighty, if we’re strong.

But their duration brings hard work and trouble

because they go by so quickly.

And then we fly off.

¹¹Who can comprehend the power of your anger?

The honor that is due you corresponds to your wrath.

¹²Teach us to number our days

so we can have a wise heart.

¹³Come back to us, LORD !

Please, quick!

Have some compassion for your servants!

¹⁴Fill us full every morning with your faithful love

so we can rejoice and celebrate our whole life long.

¹⁵Make us happy for the same amount of time that you afflicted us—

for the same number of years that we saw only trouble.

¹⁶Let your acts be seen by your servants;

let your glory be seen by their children.

¹⁷Let the kindness of the Lord our God be over us.

Make the work of our hands last.

Make the work of our hands last!