Ps. 90.7 (creation to judgment)

So all our days / pass by / in your wrath; 
we finish our years / like those who sigh. 

These lines are pregnant with meaning, and they strike me as very compactly written. The first thing to observe is the fact that the hidden sins that Yhwh has set ‘in the light of his face’ results in a continuous and total disposition toward his people. It is not that ‘some of our days’ pass by in his wrath, but all our days. The ‘problem’ is total. This alludes back to verse 7, where the psalmist declares that they are “consumed” and “overwhelmed” by Yhwh’s wrath. Their sins operate like a type of dark sun in the face of Yhwh. As ‘glaring’ as their hidden sins are to Yhwh is as constant as Yhwh’s wrath. Yhwh does not waver in his displeasure; there is no respite. 

This reality is crucial to reflect on in light of the first portion of the psalm. There, Yhwh’s utter and complete mastery over his creation, people and time, gave the impression of such dominance and superiority that he could almost be felt as oblivious or indifferent to moral matters. What is a single hidden sin to God, when a thousand years are like day that is already past? And yet, what we see here is that as superior as he is to creation is he as conscious toward his people sins, even their ‘hidden sins’. In other words, the ‘macro’ viewpoint of mastery in the first section is now matched by the ‘micro’ gaze of Yhwh in the second section. Everything that was either dwarfed by Yhwh in an impossible ‘before’ or in an ‘after’, is now intensely and utterly present. He is just as masterful over his people’s ‘morals’ as he is over creation itself. It is a terrifying thought—if the magnitude of Yhwh’s power over creation is made as present in judgment, then the result is one of a consuming and overwhelming wrath. The Flood would be a good analogy: just as powerful was Yhwh in creating the world was he in destroying it because of the sins of his people. That ‘original’ power is now put at the disposal of judgment. This is something that echoes throughout the Scriptures: when judgment falls it often falls in a 'de-creation' way (as in the Exodus, which itself resonates throughout); judgment and creation are intimately associated.

 Importantly, there is no account of Yhwh’s ‘inner disposition’ in the first section: nothing about his ‘loyal-love’ or his ‘kindness’. It is only here where the ‘inner I’ of Yhwh emerges and it comes about when the quality (or, lack thereof) of his peoples’ life emerges. This is the ‘light’ that makes Yhwh respond. This disposition is what will lend a ‘qualitative’ judgment to the creation. Further, these ‘days’ are now matched by finishing ‘our years’. As we have seen, the psalmist carefully aligns these two terms throughout the psalm. In the first section, the ‘days and years’ referred to Yhwh’s utter and complete mastery over his creation, his people and time itself (“for a thousand years in your eyes, are like a day that is past”). In all of those Yhwh stood ‘outside’ (so to speak): he was either ‘before’, ‘after’, or they were ‘past’. Here, Yhwh is ‘inside’ (so to speak). The actual duration of time and its quality are at issue. 

For this psalmist, the experience of time—the internal aspect—is one of misery because it is ‘aflame’ in Yhwh’s wrath.