Psalm 90

A prayer of Moses, the man of God.

1Lord, you have been our home, generation after generation.

2Before the mountains came to birth, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

3You turn mortals back into dust and say, “Go back, you human beings.”

4For in your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday once it has gone by, like one watch of the night.

5You carry them off like a flood; they are like sleep; in the morning they are like grass that sprouts anew.

6At dawn it blossoms and shoots up; by nightfall it droops and dries out.

7For your anger makes an end of us; your wrath fills us with terror.

8You have placed our guilty deeds in front of you, our hidden sins in the brightness of your face.

9For all our days decline under your fury; we finish our years like a sigh.

10The days of our years add up to seventy years, or eighty if we are strong; yet even their best is labor and sorrow, for it is cut off swiftly, and we fly away.

11Who understands how strong your anger is? Your fury matches the fear you deserve.

12Show us, then, how to number our days, so that we may acquire a wise heart.

13Come back, Yahweh! How long? Be moved with pity for your servants.

14Fill us full of your steadfast love in the morning, so that we may shout for joy and be glad through all our days.

15Give us gladness to match the days you afflicted us, the years in which we saw hardship.

16Let your servants see what you have done, and let their children see your majesty.

17May the goodwill of the Lord our God rest upon us; make the work of our hands secure for us—yes, make the work of our hands secure.