Psalms, 90

BOOK FOUR

(Psalms 90 – 106)

A prayer of Moses, the man of the [true] God.

¹ O Jehovah,^*1 you yourself have proved to be a real dwelling for us During generation after generation.

² Before the mountains themselves were born, Or you proceeded to bring forth as with labor pains the earth and the productive land,^*1 Even from time indefinite to time indefinite you are God.^*2

³ You make mortal man^*1 go back to crushed matter,^*2 And you say: “GO back, YOU sons of men.”^*3

⁴ For a thousand years are in your eyes but as yesterday when it is past, And as a watch during the night.

⁵ You have swept them away; they become a mere sleep; In the morning [they are] just like green grass that changes.

⁶ In the morning it puts forth blossoms and must change; At evening it withers and certainly dries up.

⁷ For we have come to an end in your anger, And by your rage we have been disturbed.

⁸ You have set our errors right in front of you, Our hidden things before your bright face.^*1

⁹ For all our days have come to their decline in your fury; We have finished our years just like a whisper.

¹⁰ In themselves the days of our years are seventy years; And if because of special mightiness they are eighty years, Yet their insistence is on trouble and hurtful things; For it must quickly pass by, and away we fly.

¹¹ Who is there knowing the strength of your anger And your fury according to the fear of you?

¹² Show [us] just how to count our days in such a way That we may bring a heart of wisdom in.

¹³ Do return, O Jehovah! How long will it be? And feel regret over your servants.

¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your loving-kindness,^*1 That we may cry out joyfully and may rejoice during all our days.

¹⁵ Make us rejoice correspondingly to the days that you have afflicted us, The years that we have seen calamity.

¹⁶ May your activity appear to your own servants And your splendor upon their sons.

¹⁷ And let the pleasantness of Jehovah^*1 our God prove to be upon us, And the work of our hands do you firmly establish upon us. Yes, the work of our hands, do you firmly establish it.