Book Four
90
Psalm 90 – Hymn of Eternity
A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
1 Lord, you have been a home to us
one generation after another.
2 Before the mountains were born,
or the earth and the world were brought forth,
from everlasting to everlasting
you are God.
3 You bring us back to the dust,
you summon mortals to return.
4 For you see a thousand years
as the passing of yesterday,
as a watch in the night.
5 Your floods sweep them away;
they are like a dream,
or like grass which sprouts in the morning,
6 which blossoms and sprouts in the morning,
but by evening is cut and withered.
7 For your anger consumes us,
the heat of your wrath confounds us.
8 Our sins you have set before you,
our secrets in the light of your face.
9 For through your wrath our days are declining,
we bring our years to an end as a sigh.
10 The span of our life is seventy years,
or, if we are strong, maybe eighty;
yet is their breadth but empty toil,
for swiftly they go, and we fly away.
11 Who lays to heart the power of your anger?
Or who stands in reverent awe of your wrath?
12 O teach us to count our days
so our minds may learn wisdom.
13 Return, O Lord; why so long?
Relent on your servants.
14 Grant us your love to the full in the morning,
that all our days we may shout for joy.
15 Make us glad for the days you have humbled us,
for the evil years we have seen.
16 Let your servants see you in action,
show your majesty to their children.
17 Let the grace of the Lord our God be upon us,
uphold what our hands are striving to do.