Labour and sorrow - The word rendered "labour" - עמל ‛âmâl - means properly "toil;" that is, wearisome labor. Moses himself lived longer than this, but his was the exception not the rule: in his day life had come to be very much the same in duration as it is with us. California - Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Psalm 90 is a prayer written by … What toiling to move! The word rendered "sorrow" - און 'âven - means properly "nothingness, vanity;" Isaiah 41:29; Zechariah 10:2; then, nothingness as to worth, unworthiness, iniquity - which is its usual meaning; Numbers 23:21; Job 36:21; Isaiah 1:13; and then, evil, adversity, calamity; Proverbs 22:8; Genesis 35:18. Take out of the remainder a third part for sleep, wherein like blocks we lie senseless, and how short is it then? Exodus 2:4). The time of our life is threescore years and ten (saith Moses), or set it upon the tenters, and rack it to fourscore, though not one in every fourscore arrives to that account, yet can we not be said to live so long; for take out, first, ten years for infancy and childhood, which Solomon calls the time of wantonness and vanity ( Ecclesiastes 11:1-10 . If we have a strong constitution, we could live to see 80 but that last 10 years could involve fighting against various illnesses, as if we’re just delaying the inevitable, because when all is said and done we’re going to “fly away” just the same. His words are more nearly rendered, "He drives us fast and we fly away;" as the quails were blown along by the strong west wind, so are men hurried before the tempests of death. The background for Psalm 90 is Israel's wanderings for forty years in the desert and the perishing of a generation as a result of its disobedience. The suffix is here either gen. Georg. Psalm 5:8; Exodus 20:20; Deuteronomy 2:25) more natural, and here designates the knowledge which is so rarely found, as that which is determined by the fear of God, as a truly religious knowledge. Psalm 90 verse 10 says that people could hope to live to 70 years old, but that occasionally a person might live to be 80. For a moment and while it is within, it is unharmed by the wintry blast, but this brief season of happiness over, it returns to that wintry blast whence it came, and vanishes from thy sight. The word used here - גז gāz - is commonly supposed to be derived from גזז gâzaz, to cut, as to cut grass, or to mow; and then, to shear, sc. It will scarcely be doubted that in such cases the second judgment, if not absolutely just, is the more just in comparison. If their very strength, which is their best, be labour and grief, what is their worst? Of great importance is Moses’ emphasis to “number our days.” These are the first 5 books of the Bible. Ep. Psalms 90:10. 1 Samuel 23:17, where כּן ידע signifies "he does not know it to be otherwise, he is well aware of it," shows how כּן is meant. What panting for breath! Virgil. Like the Psalmist, we should call out to God for deliverance from our enemies, rely on His restoration when attacked, and depend on His sufficient grace to help in time of need. Psalm 90:10 goes on to say, "and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." Psalms 90:10 . (a) "in ipsis", Pagninus, Montanus; "in quibus vivimus", Tigurine version, Vatablus. (i) Meaning according to the common state of life. Eleg. I wonder if it means that the rapture will likely occur before the last generation exceeds 70 years (1948+70=2018) but that it may last up to 10 years longer (2028) as verse 10 says “by reason of strength”. There is, at that time of life, as well as at other times, great danger lest that which we have received from God, and which is in no manner to be traced to ourselves, may be an occasion of pride, as if it were our own, or as if it were secured by our own prudence, wisdom, or merit. Moses here in the original writes in a disconnected manner, as if he would set forth the utter insignificance of man's hurried existence. And again the third time, man's life was shortened by almost another half, viz., about the year of the World 2,500, in Moses' time. The old man is constantly in the condition of one who is weary; whose powers are exhausted; and who feels the need of repose. א תְּפִלָּה֘ לְמֹשֶׁ֪ה אִֽישׁ־הָֽאֱלֹ֫הִ֥ים אֲֽדֹנָ֗י מָע֣וֹן אַ֖תָּה הָ֘יִ֥יתָ לָּ֜֗נוּ בְּדֹ֣ר וָדֹֽר:: A prayer of Moses: Moses recited all the eleven psalms from here to (ch. (b) Laertius in Vita Solon. apud Clement. l. 4. c. Hist. Verse 10. --Bede's Chronicle. Clarke's Psalms 90:10 Bible Commentary Psalm 90:10Threescore years and ten - See the note on the title of this Psalm 90 (note). And if by reason of strength ... - If there be unusual strength or vigor of natural constitution; or if the constitution has not been impaired or broken by toil, affliction, or vicious indulgence; or if the great laws of health have been understood and observed. The account is utterly insignificant, their full tale is but seventy.". These are "words that Moses prayed". of How little desirable is it for a man to reach extreme old age! --John Edwards. as a shadow does, or as a bird with wings; out of time into eternity; from the place of our habitation to the grave; from a land of light to the regions of darkness: it is well if we fly away to heaven and happiness. What a failing of the senses! Verse 10. The psalm focuses on God's eternal nature and man's finite nature. Psalm 90:10 . Can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink? The word, however, may be more properly regarded as derived from גוז gûz, which occurs in but one other place, Numbers 11:31, where it is rendered "brought," as applied to the quails which were brought or driven forward by the east wind. Psalm 90:1-10. Yet is life long enough for virtue and piety, and all too long for vice and blasphemy. So it means here, that life is soon passed over, and that we flee away, as if driven by the wind; as if impelled or urged forward as chaff or any light substance is by a gale. The theme of Book 4 is one of a new exodus. Herodotus, l. 1. sive Clio, c. 32. It is obvious to remark that man has enough to do to fill up the time of his life; that life to man is too precious to be wasted. This latter seems to be the meaning here. Old age, we say, is a good guest, and should be made welcome, but that he brings such a troop with him; blindness, aches, coughs, & c.; these are troublesome, how should they be welcome? The days of our years are threescore years and ten. For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. --Thomas Adams. And take out yet besides, our times of wilful sinning and rebellion, for while we sin, we live not, but we are "dead in sin", and what remaineth of life? 8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. What it is to all. Properly, the pride of the days of our life is labour and sorrow -- i.e., our days at their best. The verb ידע in Psalm 90:11, just as it in general denotes not merely notional but practically living and efficient knowledge, is here used of a knowledge which makes that which is known conduce to salvation. For he sets the bounds of man's life thus: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." From (verses 7-12), we may judge that it was written at the end of the 38 years of wandering in the wilderness. It seldom reaches its natural limits. Psalm 90:10 describes typical life spans of today but many live longer, so I wonder if its meaning may be more relevant to something else – namely the last generation and the rapture. Some commentators think this was not the same famous and familiar Moses, but the evidence is much stronger for believing that this was indeed the great leader of Israel. The strength of old age, its very prime and pride, are but labour and sorrow; what must its weakness be? Other students think that later writers used words and ideas from "the Books of Moses". Most commonly old age is a feeble estate; the very grasshopper is a burden to it. Are threescore years and ten - Not as life originally was, but as it has been narrowed down to about that period; or, this is the ordinary limit of life. --From a Sermon by Robert Wilkinson, entitled "A Meditation of Mortalitie, preached to the late Price Henry, some few daies before his death", 1612. 7 For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. (c) Vat. Eighty years is the utmost limit he sets man's life at, i.e., in the most ordinary and common account of man's life. This Psalm could not have been written by Moses, because the term of human life was much more extended when he flourished than eighty years at the most. Such is old age. 1 A prayer of Moses, the man of God. Verse 10. 12. it is … cut off—or, "driven," as is said of the quails in using the same word (Nu 11:31). l. 6. p. 685, 686. So of man. His conclusion, of course, is that man and God look at time from entirely different perspectives. Take out yet besides the time of our carking and worldly care, wherein we seem both dead and buried in the affairs of the world, and how short is it then? With בּהם in Psalm 90:10 the sum is stated: there are comprehended therein seventy years; they include, run up to so many. to bring in," viz., into the barn, 2 Samuel 9:10, Hagg. --Barth's "Bible Manual". p. 36. To get what Psalm 90:10 means based on its source text, scroll down or follow these links for the original scriptural meaning , biblical context and relative popularity. What a crushing sense of weakness! Epist. For he sets the bounds of man's life thus: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." Yet is their strength - Hebrew, "Their pride." The unusual strength which overleaps the bound of threescore and ten only lands the aged man in a region where life is a weariness and a woe. The days of our years are three score years and ten. This is not our rest. It is probable that human life was gradually diminished until it became fixed at the limit which now bounds it, and which is to remain as the great law in regard to its duration upon the earth. But when it is remembered, that, in the second year of the pilgrimage in the wilderness, as related in Numbers 14:28-39 , God declared that all those who had been recently numbered at Sinai should die in the wilderness, before the expiration of forty years, the lamentation of Moses on the brevity of human life becomes very intelligible and appropriate; and the Psalm itself acquires a solemn and affecting interest, as a penitential confession of the sins which had entailed such melancholy consequences on the Hebrew nation; and as a humble deprecation of God's wrath; and as a funeral dirge upon those whose death had been preannounced by the awful voice of God. As Barzillai said to David, "I am this day fourscore years old: and can I discern between good and evil? In the space of a few years man's life was again cut shorter by almost half, if not a full half. We read that Abraham lived but one hundred and seventy-five years, so that man's age ran very low then. It is a paradox, and yet, like many other paradoxes, a truism also, to say that death generally alters, sometimes reverses, the whole estimate of a life. The tendency to pride in man does not die out because a man grows old. Are they worth mentioning? A wise heart is the fruit which one reaps or garners in from such numbering of the days, the gain which one carries off from so constantly reminding one's self of the end. : according to the fear that is due to Thee, which in itself is at once (cf. Copyright © 2020, Bible Study Tools. "Threescore years", etc. It is soon cut off, and we fly away. Verse 10. In view of this certain and speedy end, life is full of sorrow. But הביא is not to be taken, with Ewald and Hitzig, in the signification of bringing as an offering, a meaning this verb cannot have of itself alone (why should it not have been ונקריב?). The Story of Psalm 90. In his article entitled “Work and Meaning,” Marc Kolden reminds us that, “work and other activities can be seen to be important but not of ultimate value, … Their strength is labour and sorrow. This is the Jewish interpretation. obj. for it is in them that such a number of years is arrived unto; or "in them", that is, in some of them; in some of mankind, their years amount hereunto, but not in all: "and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years"; through a good temperament of body, a healthful and strong constitution, under a divine blessing, some may arrive to the age of eighty; there have been some instances of a strong constitution at this age and upwards, but not very common; see Joshua 14:11, for, generally speaking, such who through strength of body live to such an age. Psa 1:6; the produce of the field, and in a general way gain or profit, is hence called תּבוּאה. That does not mean that Moses wrote the psalm. 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