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Psalm 90 is attributed to Moses, the only psalm written by Moses. It speaks of the fear of the Lord, brought out by experience. The psalm speaks of the wrath of God and verse 5 refers to sweeping men away, something that was witnessed at the parting of the Red Sea. From the NIV translation of the Bible verse 11 says, “Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear due to you.” There was plenty that Moses witnessed first hand that showed God’s wrath and how he should be feared. A key verse as Moses asks for the reversal is verse 15 which says, “Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble.” The short of this could be that we can ask for many days and many years of gladness or aspects of gladness. The reason for the request is simply that we would be glad. How many requests for help in prayer are posited to ask for days and years. There is also the possible restorative element to this which would correlate with verses in other sections of the Bible. The Lord can give back days and years, give more years, more days. Verse 16 says, “May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children.” This verse speaks to the sometimes spectacular presence of the Lord, which for the servants of the Lord becomes visible and knowable. Verse 17 says, “May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us, establish the work of our hands for us, yes, establish the work of our hands. “ This verse has Promised Land connotations. The favor of the Lord resting relates to what can be established. In business and any area of life, lots of things can be found to be illusory and just not hold. This can even be at the national level. A country is established but nothing is guaranteed, the favor of the Lord can be withdrawn on any nation, on any person, on any situation. At the same time, this verse indicates Moses, who was the greatest fill in the gap intercessor of his time, specifically asks that God’s favor rests upon us and that this would be established. The Egyptians had witnessed God’s wrath in multiple ways and multiple times. They persisted into this wrath and it seemed preordained but you might speculate they could have given up and not gone further into the storm of God’s wrath and followed the freed people to the Red Sea. Verse 13 says, “Relent, O Lord, How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants” Moses believes that the turnaround comes from the compassion of the Lord, which then leads into his favor. You wonder if the story and the movie could have been somewhat different, even for example had the Egyptians read into the first plague or two and given up on keeping the people in bondage. This psalm ends on an optimistic note, interesting for the position of Moses, for all his troubles personally and his burdens and from what he experienced. In verse 1 and 2, it says,” Lord, you have been our dwelling place, throughout all generations, before the mountains were born, and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Moses, who. met the Lord on the mountain, speaks of the everlasting presence of the Lord, preceding the birth of the mountains and all that was created. The Lord is from his perspective our dwelling place and this dwelling place wasn’t the mountain even though he met the Lord there in a specific time and place, but a place that is ultimately in his eternal presence including through all generations.
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