Psalm 90 - Relent LORD!

Read: Psalm 90 vs 1-17

Moses is one of the foundational characters in the Bible. We meet him in Exodus 2 when as a newborn child his mother hid him in a basket among the bulrushes of the River Nile. He grew up as a prince in the Egyptian court and then from out of a burning bush in the desert God called him to become the reluctant leader who would confront Pharaoh and lead the children of Egypt out of slavery in Egypt. For 40 years Moses led Israel in the wilderness, tough and extraordinarily demanding years and yet years when God provided for His people in many miraculous ways. From Egypt, to the Red Sea, to Mount Sinai, to the borders of the Promised Land, Moses’ story is an incredible story of experiencing God in the most amazing ways, and yet also experiencing people and their unending capacity to trust God and disown God, to remember God and to forget God, all within remarkably short periods of time.

Deuteronomy 33:1 sums up Moses’ legacy in these words; he was a ‘man of God’. Numbers 12:3 describes him as the most humble man on the face of the earth, someone whose horizons were filled with a realistic picture of himself (and those around him) and a very big picture of God.

Psalm 90 is the only Psalm written by Moses. This is a big picture Psalm, written by this unique ‘man of God’. He praises God as the dwelling place of His people throughout all generations (vs 1). A thousand years in God’s sight are like a day that goes by in the blink of an eye (vs 4). Even lives lived to 70 or 80 are so fleeting (vs 10) and time again these lives are marked by a failure to live God’s way in God’s world. Reading through Exodus to Deuteronomy we come away a very realistic view of people and their failing before the holiness of God. 

So Moses speaks for all generations: ‘Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.’ (vs 12). These ancient words awaken us to the truth that true satisfaction on life’s fleeting journey is found in God alone (vs 14). Gladness comes when His favour rests on us, and for that more than anything Moses prays. (vs 17).  

Prayer: Father how incredible it is that these words, written thousands of years ago by Moses, are available to me today. May these words, born out of incredible experiences of You, lead me us in prayer that Your favour may rest upon us as we live today, following You. In Jesus’s Name. Amen.