Commentary - Psalm 90:1-2

Bird's-eye view

Psalm 90 is a prayer of Moses, the man of God, and it stands as one of the most profound meditations on the contrast between the eternal God and ephemeral man. The psalm is structured in two basic movements: a meditation on our mortal condition under God's wrath (vv. 1-11) and a petition for God's favor and mercy (vv. 12-17). Moses begins by establishing the bedrock reality of God's eternal nature and His role as the only true home for His people. Against this backdrop of God's everlasting stability, he portrays human life as transient and fleeting, like grass that withers, a dream that vanishes, a story that is quickly told. This brevity and toil is not a neutral fact of nature, but a direct consequence of God's righteous anger against our sin. The turning point of the psalm is the plea for wisdom to "number our days," which means to weigh them, to understand our frailty in light of God's eternity, and to live accordingly. The prayer concludes with a series of requests for God to return, to satisfy His people with His steadfast love, and to establish the work of their hands, a request that finds its ultimate answer only in the finished work of the incarnate Messiah.

This psalm, therefore, is not a morbid reflection on death, but a deeply realistic and theological assessment of our condition outside of Christ. It drives us to the only possible conclusion: our only hope is in the mercy of the eternal God. He who was our dwelling place from generation to generation must also be our salvation. The frailty of man and the wrath of God are the dark background against which the brightness of the gospel of grace shines most clearly.

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 90 is unique in the Psalter as the only psalm explicitly attributed to Moses. This places it chronologically much earlier than the Davidic psalms and roots it in the wilderness experience of Israel. It marks the beginning of Book IV of the Psalms (Psalms 90-106), a section that deals heavily with themes of God's kingship and Israel's history of rebellion and restoration. Psalm 90 sets a somber and foundational tone for this book. After the crisis and lament that concluded Book III (Psalm 89), which questioned God's covenant faithfulness to David, Psalm 90 takes us back behind David, behind the monarchy, to the very foundation of Israel's relationship with God in the wilderness. It reminds the reader that before there was a king or a temple, there was God Himself as the dwelling place of His people. It grounds Israel's hope not in the shifting sands of human history or the fate of a particular dynasty, but in the unchanging, eternal nature of God Himself. It is a call to return to the first principles of their faith.

Key Issues

The Man of God's Prayer

The superscription identifies this psalm as "A Prayer of Moses, the man of God." This is significant. Moses was the great mediator of the old covenant, the man who spoke with God face to face. He led a generation of Israelites who, because of their unbelief, were condemned to wander and die in the wilderness. He saw an entire generation, apart from a faithful remnant, perish under the judgment of God. This psalm is therefore born out of profound pastoral and historical experience. When Moses speaks of the brevity of life and the anger of God, he is not speaking in abstractions. He has seen it firsthand. He knows what it is to live among a people whose lives are spent under a divine curse. But he is also the "man of God," one who knows God intimately. And so, his prayer is not one of despair, but one that is firmly anchored in the character of the God he knows. He begins not with the problem of man, but with the reality of God. This is the starting point for all true theology and all true prayer.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Lord, You have been our dwelling place from generation to generation.

Moses begins with a massive declaration of faith. Before he says anything about the troubles of man, he establishes the central reality of God's faithfulness. The word for Lord here is Adonai, emphasizing His sovereign lordship. And what has this Lord been to His people? A dwelling place. A home. This is a rich metaphor. A home is a place of safety, provision, identity, and belonging. In a world where His people are pilgrims and sojourners, first in Egypt and now in the wilderness, God Himself is their fixed address. This is not a new arrangement; it has been true from generation to generation. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were wanderers, but they dwelt in God. The Israelites in the desert lived in temporary tents, but their true home was the Lord. This is a profound theological statement. Our ultimate security is not in a place, but in a Person. The Shekinah glory of God was present in the tabernacle in the midst of the camp, but Moses says that the entire camp was located within God Himself. He dwells in us, and we dwell in Him. This is the foundational truth that makes the subsequent lament bearable.

2 Before the mountains were born Or You brought forth the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

Having established God as our home, Moses now describes the foundation of that home. It is God's absolute eternality. He uses the powerful imagery of birth to describe the creation of the mountains, the most ancient and stable features of the created world. But God existed before them. He existed before He "brought forth" the earth, a word that evokes the labor of childbirth. The point is that creation has a beginning. It is a creature. But God has no beginning. He is from everlasting to everlasting. This phrase bookends all of time. Before time began, He was God. After time is no more, He will be God. He is not a being who exists within time, but the one who created time and stands outside of it. "You are God" is a simple, declarative statement of His eternal self-existence. He is the great "I AM." This is the God in whom we dwell. Our home is not subject to decay, to the ravages of time, or to the instability of the created order. Our home is the uncreated, unending, self-existent God. This is the ultimate ground of our confidence. Our lives are a fleeting mist, but the one who holds us is the everlasting rock.

Application

The first two verses of this psalm are a foundational lesson in how to approach God in prayer, especially in times of trouble. We are tempted to rush into God's presence with our list of complaints, our anxieties, and our fears. But Moses teaches us to begin with God. Before we consider our own frailty, we must first anchor our souls in the reality of God's eternity and faithfulness. Our problems, no matter how immense they seem to us, are put into their proper perspective when set against the backdrop of a God who existed before the mountains were born.

The central application here is to learn to see God as our true home. We live in a world obsessed with finding security in houses, careers, investments, and relationships. These things are not wrong in themselves, but they are all temporary shelters. They are all part of the created order that is, as this psalm will go on to say, passing away. To make any of them our ultimate "dwelling place" is to build our house on the sand. The gospel invites us into the only permanent home, which is God Himself, through His Son Jesus Christ. In Christ, we are brought into the very life of the Triune God. As Jesus prayed, "that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us" (John 17:21). This is our true address. When we feel the instability of the world, the brevity of life, and the weight of our own sin, we must preach these first two verses to our own souls. Our home is not this fleeting world; our home is the Lord, who is God from everlasting to everlasting. And that home is eternally secure.