Ps. 90.13 (turning Yhwh)

Turn back / O Yhwh how long?
change your mind / about your servants. 

At this point we may want to point out an interesting aspect to this psalm that has gone unremarked. The superscription to the psalm says that this is a “Moses-prayer”. And there are, in fact, a lot of resemblances in this psalm to Moses. For example, there are resemblances within the psalm to the ‘song of Moses’. For our purposes as it pertains to this verse, however, there is the interesting observation that only Moses ever tells Yhwh to change his mind. There are many situations where Yhwh does do so, or alludes to it changing, but only Moses actually directs him to do it. (Exodus 32.14). From the mind of wisdom the psalmist now turns to the ‘mind of Yhwh’. The turn is important. The psalmist has requested that Yhwh teach him how to number his days so that he can have a ‘mind of wisdom’. Here, with a type of confidence that is rather shocking, he does not simply request that Yhwh change his mind, but he directs him to do so. But before we proceed further, there is a more pronounced allusion going on here. In the opening section of the psalm Yhwh is described as ‘speaking-man’s-mortality’: “You turn human beings back to dust saying, “Turn back you mortals!”’ (vs. 3). The ‘turn’ there was from life to death. Here, the psalmist tells Yhwh to ‘turn back’ from wrath to blessing. 

One is tempted to say, ‘precisely the opposite’. That, however, is not the case and there is a crucial difference between the two turns. The first turn-toward-death, is not one that the psalmist is attempting to change; he is not asking Yhwh to turn away from man’s ‘ordered mortality’. Again, he is not asking Yhwh to change the quantity of life. Rather, he is asking Yhwh to turn from his ‘wrath’—he is asking Yhwh to change his mind as to the quality of life bestowed on his people.  And I think it is at this point that we can return to the observation regarding the ‘mind of wisdom’ and the ‘mind of Yhwh’. Man can, with fear of Yhwh, acquire (or, be taught) the ‘mind of wisdom. Man’s mind can, in other words, change. Likewise, Yhwh’s ‘mind of wrath’ can change to mercy. This strengthened by another observation: we recall that the source of Yhwh’s wrath is his “placing before his face” “our waywardness and hidden sins”. (vs. 8). Both of these involve ‘acts of the will’: Yhwh’s (he places them before himself) and man’s (his waywardness and sin). The point is that Yhwh can ‘turn from’ what he has put in front of his face, in a similar way that man can ‘learn wisdom’ and turn from folly. In this psalm, this is the ‘drama’, the ‘turning’ of Yhwh and man.

Ps. 90.12 (a glimpse at wisdom)

Teach us / how to number our days
that we may obtain / a mind of wisdom. 

This is a rather fascinating petition. And I think, at this initial moment, I want to draw attention to something I have found rather important in most other psalms—that in the face of injustice or suffering the petitioner does not ask Yhwh to help him ‘understand’ what is going on. He doesn’t want an ‘answer’. He wants deliverance. He wants Yhwh to act, to change the situation, and to rectify things. He doesn’t want to live with evil; he wants it destroyed. It has been, to me, a very important and revealing insight on a lot of levels. And yet here, it appears as if the psalmist has moved into that realm, at least in some fashion. Before he launches into the petition proper, where he does ask Yhwh to act and change the situation, he asks Yhwh for wisdom and teaching. It is important to see, I believe, what draws forth this petition. As we saw yesterday there are twin pressures exerted on the psalmist. On the one hand, he is completely aware of his mortality and the brevity of life. He is aware, in other words, of the ‘quantity’ of his life. On the other hand, he is simultaneously aware that the ‘quality’ of his life is now lived in the ‘wrath of Yhwh’ and, as such, it is full of ‘toil and trouble. Importantly, both of these realities are laden with mystery and sense of incomprehensibility. Although man’s ‘toil and trouble’ are a result of his sinfulness, he is unable to perceive that sinfulness to anywhere near the degree that Yhwh can. Similarly, the psalmist cannot fathom the extent of Yhwh’s authority over his creation. It simply dwarfs every attempt. It is, I think, these two realities that lead to today’s petition for wisdom. 

This is why: so long as injustice and suffering are easily identifiable, they can be ‘petitioned to Yhwh’. A proper petition can be fashioned such that Yhwh will ‘hear it’ and respond. However, what happens when man is a mystery to himself, and he is unable to perceive the depth of his fault? He cannot fashion a proper petition. This is a very different situation than, for example, Psalm 51 where, even though David says he was ‘born in sin’, the ‘problem’ lies much more within his purview. This is one aspect. Now, the psalmist also knows that his life is ‘fleeting’. The ‘quantity’ of his life is running out, and it is only in ‘life’ where goodness is achieved. It is here where ‘wisdom’ emerges: when the psalmist is surrounded by a mystery and a tragedy that he cannot comprehend he seeks to find a way to ‘live properly in the moment given him’. In other words, he wants to know how to ‘number his days’, so that he can, with what he has, live well, make smart choices, and see things with wisdom and prudence. It is, of course, absolutely essential that the psalm will, following this verse, move into petition, where the psalmist will, in fact, ask Yhwh to ‘turn to his people’. Yet, this brief request, before that petition is incredibly revealing. 


There is another important level to all of this. We are aware that ‘the fear of Yhwh is the beginning of all wisdom’. The immediately preceding verse asked who knew the power of Yhwh’s wrath, according to the fear due him. The fact that we now immediately transition into a verse about ‘wisdom’ should be revealing. In a sense, the psalmist has ‘positioned’ himself properly to receive ‘wisdom’; he has acknowledged the magnitude of fear appropriate to Yhwh through indirection (“who could know the proper amount…?”). This recognition of Yhwh’s wrath, in response to man’s sins, is, for him, what puts him in the necessary place of a student to Yhwh—“Teach us…”. In other, within the particular pressures this palmist is experiencing, the previous verse operates as a type of ‘introduction to wisdom’ or a prerequisite. 

Ps. 90.11 (before the rhetorical question)

Who knows / the power of your anger
and your wrath / according to the fear do you. 

There are several things we need to note in these two questions. The first one is the fact that these are clearly rhetorical questions. No one knows the power of Yhwh’s anger. This sense of being utterly incapable of comprehending Yhwh is similar to the opening verses affirmation of Yhwh’s astonishing superiority, and priority, to every aspect of his creation. When the psalmist contemplates both of these aspects to Yhwh he is completely caught up short. What this signals here is important—that Yhwh’s wrath, his ‘moral displeasure’, is just as ‘deep’ as his creation-power. It extends into a realm that man is unable to enter because of its complete transcendence, its ‘always more’ than what could be grasped. Man can perceive Yhwh’s creation-power, and he can perceive Yhwh’s wrath; he cannot comprehend (or, encompass) either. The ‘superiority’ of Yhwh’s wrath, however, unlike creation, obtains its depth in tandem with man. What I mean is this: man is incapable of perceiving his own moral reality. Yhwh’s people has ‘hidden sins’. Yet, it is those hidden realities that ignite Yhwh’s wrath; it is those hidden sins that stand as ‘light’ to Yhwh. The people’s historical experience of ‘toil and trouble’ stands as an expression of this mystery and as a reality they are simultaneously aware that they have caused and that they are unable to rectify. 

We should see how much mystery pervades this psalm, the mystery of Yhwh and the mystery of man. Creation and history are the recipients and enactment of that mystery. Man’s life, as lived within that reality, is comic (in a tragic way). Which, is why, from that reality, there emerges this rhetorical question. It is as if the psalmist were saying to Yhwh, “We are aware our lives’ toil and trouble is our own doing, but we will never know ourselves as well as you. We can never overtake ourselves. Our sins will forever be before you, because you are forever before us.”

Ps. 90.10 (the quality of life)

The number of our years / may be seventy,
or eighty / if we are strong
yet their span / is toil and trouble
soon gone / and we fly away!   

This verse represents what I believe is the heart of the psalm; everything pivots around this verse. Its formal arrangement makes the argument. I will call the first two lines “A” and the second two lines “B”. “A” speaks about the length of man’s life. Or, perhaps more accurately said, the brevity of man’s life. This reality is something that has already been established in verses 2-6, particularly verses 5-6. This is simply a reality of man. His life is not ony ‘mortal’ but, compared to Yhwh, it is shockingly brief. “B” however places that brevity in the context of man’s life lived in the wrath of Yhwh. In other words, “B” focuses on the reality of verses 7-9 where Yhwh places man’s hidden sins in front of his face like some dark sun, perpetually igniting Yhwh’s wrath. Now, I do not believe that “B” causes “A”, meaning, I do not believe that, in this psalm, the brevity of man’s life is due to man’s sinfulness. Rather, it is the ‘toil and trouble’ that Yhwh’s people now live in that is the result of their sinfulness and Yhwh’s wrath. This is important as the petition section of the psalm is not going to ask for Yhwh to lengthen their lives but, rather, to ‘fill them’ with joy, or to ‘balance’ them as he says later in verse 15. Man’s mortality is not the ‘problem’; if that were the problem, the psalm would arguably be incoherent as verses 2-6 would not make any sense. In other words the verse contemplates not the quantitative aspect of man’s life (how long it lasts) but the qualitative aspect (how ‘good’ it is). And, when man’s hidden sins ignite Yhwh’s wrath, his life is ‘filled’ (or, “consumed” and “overwhelmed”; vs. 7) with toil and trouble. The reality of man’s life in the face of Yhwh’s wrath is one of vanity, or futility I understand that that term may not be precise, but I think what we see here is that the aim of man’s life is thwarted in and by Yhwh’s wrath. Time becomes ‘empty’ and drudgery (it feels similar in this way to Ecclesiastes although it clearly contemplates time being ‘filled’ when Yhwh shows mercy). 

There is a deeper level to this that confirms these insights. We saw in the opening verse how Yhwh’s “help” is one that ‘establishes the work of our hands’. Yhwh’s help, in other words, invests man’s work with the type of ‘perpetuity’ that is Yhwh’s; it lifts man’s work into the ‘forever’ of Yhwh and extends it ‘from generation to generation’. With that insight, what we can hypothesize here is that this ‘toil and trouble’ is the ‘work of man’s hands’ without Yhwh’s help (or, in his wrath)—it is the work of man’s hands as subjected to wrath and vanity; it doesn’t last and it doesn't 'hit its mark'. 

This points to a final point: man’s existence is either in ‘wrath’ or ‘joy’. There is no neutral middle-ground. I think this is why this psalm does not actually use the word ‘vanity’ to describe man’s situation but ‘wrath’. It is not that this is ‘man without God’. It is ‘man in Yhwh’s wrath’. ‘Toil and trouble’ is not the ‘natural state of creation’. It is not ‘creation on its own’. It is, rather, something more like ‘time as accursed’ or 'time-in-wrath'. It is something, in other words, very similar to the account in Genesis, following man's expulsion from Eden. This casts a light (or, shadow) over the psalm and brings up something we mentioned before--that the 'wrath' of Yhwh is ignited by the hidden sins of his people. It is precisely the sins they are not aware of that causes their lives to be full of 'toil and trouble'. What we see is that, unlike other writers in the Scriptures (for example, Ecclesiastes), attributes the futility and the 'toil' of man's existence to man's own sinfulness. There is the sense here of a deep, and deeply hidden, problem. The interesting thing to note, though, is that the psalmist places this reality 'in history'. What I mean is that as much as this may point to a general 'state of being' on man's part, it is something that is not constant. I get the impression from this psalm that man's life as 'toil and trouble' is one that is occurring in a particular time and that this psalm was composed for those 'times' (whether exile or not). 

And, to fully reveal my hand--I have wondered throughout, for various reasons, whether this psalm is most fully understood in the context of the rebuilt Temple, the Temple being the 'work of our hands' that they want Yhwh to 'establish' (the image of 'construction') and what will give their children the 'majestic vision' of Yhwh. If that is the case, then the rebuilt Temple will be the new Eden wherein they will 'walk with God' without 'toil and trouble'.