Embrace the Word for Wednesday, July 15, 2026

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Psalm 90 is a prayer of intercession from Moses: “A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.” While the superscription does not provide any historical context for Psalm 90, its placement here at the outset of Book 4 of the Psalter, helps to grasp the significance of this Psalm. Book 1 tracked David’s ascendency to the throne amid much affliction, while Book 2 covered David’s reign continuing amid much affliction. Book 3 transitions to Solomon and subsequent kings from the line of David and it ends with the Temple destroyed, Jerusalem in ruins, and the Davidic line in crisis. Book 4 explores themes pertinent to the nation in exile and the anticipation of a restoration of the Davidic king. Book 4 runs from Psalm 90 to Psalm 106, opening with a Psalm that is explicitly attributed to Moses and concluding with a Psalm that references events and history that occurred during Moses’ life. Book 4, with it’s introduction of Moses, at the very least, suggests a parallel between Israel’s present experience of exile and their previous experience of wanderings in the wilderness. This present Babylonian exile is the new wilderness wanderings and the intercessory prayers of Moses that were instrumental in Israel’s preservation (see Exodus 32 and Numbers 14) are back, and serve as a reminder of continued preservation. Since Moses is inseparably associated with Israel’s first exodus, it also seems fitting to have Moses reintroduced as Israel awaits a new exodus. Psalm 90 begins with a confession of sorrow concerning the difficulty and brevity of life (90:1-11), and concludes with a series of requests concerning wisdom for life (90:12-17).

Psalm 90 opens with a sense of amazement as Moses acknowledges that the eternal God is an abiding home to His people: “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (90:1-2). The city of God lay in ruins, the Temple has been burnt to the ground, and the future of the Davidic line is in question, but there was still a source of true security and blessing for the LORD’s people. In fact, long before there was a designated city, a physical Temple, or a human king, there was God. Furthermore, even still longer—before Moses, before the mountains were created, before God made the earth, the Lord was ruler over all. Moses stated this truth while the Israelites were still in the wilderness: “The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (See Deuteronomy 33:27). There has never been a time when God was not, and so for all time and eternity, God is to be considered the real constant home to His people. No amount of wilderness wanderings nor any experience of exile altars what is always and forever true—no matter  the time or location, regardless of the circumstances or situation, God is meant to be the dwelling place of His people.

What Moses is declaring is to simply be a central operating realization if life is to be lived with reality and meaning. This truth is especially necessary in light of the brevity of life: “You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers” (90:3-6). A dwelling place with the eternal God is so desperately needed because life is first of all so precarious. Man was made from the dust and man will return to the dust: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (See Genesis 3:19). So Moses states that the son of Adam will return to the dust. This outcome occurs, not when man decides but when God does. No human knows that day and no human can control that day. All of mankind is simply at God’s disposal. When God says that’s it, that’s it. Not only is life precarious, it is brief. Even if life last a thousand years (Methuselah made it to 969), to God it is still just like yesterday or the watch lasting just a part of the night. Compared to the eternality of God, neither decades or even centuries, are really all that long. In addition to the precariousness of life and its brevity, life will come to an end—for death is an inescapable act of judgment. All but one small family was quickly wiped out by the flood. No one else escaped, which is a sober reality concerning human mortality.

Moses uses his statements about life and death to press further in explaining why things are the way they are: “For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh” (90:7-9). Humanity is “brought to an end,” and life comes “to an end,” because of two layers of explanation. First, death occurs because of God’s anger. The wrath of God is upon all of humanity as “all our days pass away” or unfold: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (See Romans 1:18a). But second, and inseparably related, death occurs because of human sin. The forewarned punishment of sin is death: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (See Genesis 2:16b-17). The fitting punishment for sin is death: “For the wages of sin is death” (See Romans 6:23a). God’s wrath consumes all sinners. There is no circumventing this justice from God, for there is no means by which sin can be hidden from God. All is open and laid bare before God: “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (See Hebrews 4:13). Because of human sinfulness as well as God’s holy and just wrath, life is not only precarious and brief, it is also hard: “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?” (90:10-11). Life is short but full—full of sufferings, sin, toil, trouble, struggle and sorrow. And then comes death. It is only as this reality is reckoned with, can the need for a proper fear of God begin to make sense. 

Moses, who simply quoted Jacob as he was introduced to Pharaoh, captures the reality of life when he stated: “Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life” (See Genesis 47:9). In light of this reality, Moses’ response is to pray. He offers a series of prayers, certainly for himself, as he also models how to pray about navigating a precarious, brief, and difficult life. Moses starts with an awareness of the need for wisdom: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (90:12). Moses’ request is not that he would decipher how many days he has left—this is not about knowing how long he might live—but that he might realize that every day he has is a gift from God, and therefore, every day he would have the wisdom to know how to make each day count. Note the connection here in verse 12 with the aforementioned fear of God in verse 11, and remember that it is the fear of the LORD that is the beginning of wisdom (See Proverbs 1:9). As Moses continues offering up his requests, we should simply note how the content of what he prays for is exclusively God-centered: “Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” (90:13-17). Moses is demonstrating his own understanding of how central the LORD is to be in his life and what he demonstrates is to be emulated. Moses is conscious of his need for the LORD to turn toward him in compassion and comfort. Moses is cognizant of the fact that real satisfaction in life must come from the love of the LORD and penetrate his heart so that he can experience gladness and joy, even in the moments of affliction and evil. Moses has a conviction that he needs help in being able to see the glorious power of the LORD’s works as they are on display before him. And Moses is convinced that the LORD’s grace must be upon him if his human endeavors will account for anything. Life is unpredictable, it is short and difficult; but a life lived dependently upon the LORD, which is evidenced through prayer, is a gifted life, worthy to be lived.

As we reflection on Psalm 90, we can consider how Christ rescues His people from living empty lives enabling us to serve Him in ways that will count for all eternity. All who come to Christ not only receive full pardon, which qualifies them to be in the presence of God throughout the eternal state, but they also receive new purpose and a new power to pursue that new purpose for this present state of life: “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!…to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God” (See Ephesians 4:17-24). Christ endows His people with true liberty, but the meaning of that liberty is defined by the beautiful reality of living life freely serving Christ: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (See Galatians 5:1). With their eternal destiny certain, all who live in Christ can and must now live above the vanity of an unpredictable, short and difficult life: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (See 1 Corinthians 15:58).

That’s all for Embrace the Word for Wednesday, July 15, 2026. I look forward to being back with you for the Friday, July 17, 2026 episode of Embrace the Word as we take a look at Psalm 91.