1 A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass away, until all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Let us see what this generation is, of which Christ speaks.
Basil of Caesarea · AD 379 Therefore, "God is our refuge and strength." To him who is able to say, "I can do all things in him," Christ, "who strengthens me," God is strength. Now, it is the privilege of many to say, "God is our refuge," and "Lord, you have been our refuge." But to say it with the same feelings as the prophet is the privilege of few.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 The resurrection of the Lord is our hope, the Lord's ascension our glorification. Today, you see, we are celebrating the feast of the ascension. So if we are to celebrate the Lord's ascension in the right way, with faith, with devotion, with reverence as God-fearing people, we must ascend with him and lift up our hearts. In ascending, however, we must not get above ourselves.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
Jerome · AD 420 Before the mountains were made, and the earth and the world were formed. At this place a heresy creeps in: If he was made a refuge for us before the mountains were made and the earth and the world were formed, then souls existed before the world came to be. For what does Scripture say?
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 He adds, how He became our refuge, since He began to be that, viz. a refuge, to us which He had not been before, not that He had not existed before He became our refuge: "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made: and from age even unto age You are" [Psalm 90:2].
3 You turn man to destruction; and say, Return, you children of men.
Jerome · AD 420 Turn not man away into lowliness. Moses prays on behalf of man, and what does he say? Do not suffer to perish him whom you fashioned in your image. Turn not man away into lowliness. Consider not the vileness of the body, but the dignity of the soul.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 But as our life here is exposed to numerous and great temptations, and it is to be feared lest we may be turned aside by them from that refuge, let us see what in consequence of this the prayer of the man of God seeks for.
4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Jerome · AD 420 And as a watch in the night. The night has four watches, marked off in periods of three hours each, as it is said in the Gospel, "In the fourth watch of the night" Jesus "came to them," which is understood to be about cockcrow. This, then, is what he says: a thousand years with you are to be compared not only to the shortness of a day, but to the span of three hours.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday, which is past by" [Psalm 90:4]: hence we ought to turn to Your refuge, where You are without any change, from the fleeting scenes around us; since however long a time may be wished for for this life, "a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday:" not as tomorrow, which is to come: for all limited periods of time…
5 You carry them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which grows up.
Jerome · AD 420 Their years shall be counted as nothing. What he says is this: since man from the beginning of the world lived nearly a thousand years, and a thousand years before God are as a watch in the night. Nay, I have said enough: the ages of men are as nothing in comparison with the divine eternity. Do you wish to know more fully how human life is nothing? Hear what follows.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Whatever is in the world fades away, passes away. What is this life, except what the Psalm says: "In the morning it passes away like grass, in the morning it blooms and passes: in the evening it falls, hardens, and withers?" This is all flesh.
6 In the morning it flourishes, and grows up; in the evening it is cut down, and withers.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "In the evening," it means after they come, "let it fall, and be dried up, and withered" [Psalm 90:6]. It is "to fall" in death, be "dried up" in the corpse, "withered" in the dust. What is this but flesh, wherein is the accursed lust of fleshly things?
Bonaventure · AD 1257 Adam passed over from truth to vanity. "A phantom only, man goes his ways; like vapor only are his restless pursuits; he heaps up stores, and knows not who will use them.
7 For we are consumed by your anger, and by your wrath are we troubled.
Jerome · AD 420 For we have failed in your anger, and in your wrath we have been troubled. Formerly we used to live nine hundred and thirty years, we had reached up to a thousand: behold, our life has been contracted to a brief span.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Making no secret that this fate is a penalty inflicted for sin, he adds at once, "For we consume away in Thy displeasure, and are troubled at Thy wrathful indignation" [Psalm 90:7]: we consume away in our weakness, and are troubled from the fear of death; for we are become weak, and yet fearful to end that weakness.
8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
Jerome · AD 420 Our age in the light of your countenance. All that we live, or that we do, is not hidden from your eyes: the very darkness is not concealed from you.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "You have set our misdeeds before You" [Psalm 90:8]: that is, You have not dissembled Your anger: "and our age in the light of Your countenance." "The light of Your countenance" answers to "before You," and to "our misdeeds," as above.
9 For all our days are passed away in your wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
Dionysius of Alexandria · AD 264 For in the most general sense it holds good that it is apparently not possible for any person to remain altogether without experience of ill.
Jerome · AD 420 For all our days have failed. Our lifetime has run its course: and while we are unaware, it slips away, we perish; and this very thing that we are speaking is part of death, and we do not understand. Our years will be pondered like a spider. See what he says.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 And so the human race was lying under a just condemnation, and all men were the children of wrath. Of which wrath it is written: "All our days are passed away in Thy wrath; we spend our years as a tale that is told." Of which wrath also Job says: "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble." Of which wrath also the Lord Jesus says: "He that believeth on the…
10 The days of our years are sixty years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be eighty years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Jerome · AD 420 For mildness has come upon us, and we shall be chastened. What is this mildness, through which we are chastened? "Remember, Lord, David and all his mildness." What is this mildness? "Learn that I am mild and humble of heart." Mildness has come upon us.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "The days of our age are threescore years and ten; and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years, yet is more of them but labour and sorrow" [Psalm 90:10]. These words appear to express the shortness and misery of this life: since those who have reached their seventieth year are styled old men.
11 Who knows the power of your anger? even according to your fear, so is your wrath.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "For who knows the power of Your wrath: and for the fear of You to number Your anger?" [Psalm 90:11]. It belongs to very few men, he says, to know the power of Your wrath; for when Thou dost spare, Your anger is so far heavier against most men; that we may know that labour and sorrow belong not to wrath, but rather to Your mercy, when You chasten and teachest those whom You lov…
12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
Jerome · AD 420 Make known your right hand, and those fettered in heart in wisdom. In some manuscripts it says "the learned," in others it says "the fettered." "Learned" means one thing, "fettered" means another. What then does he say: Make known your right hand? Why so long do you draw back your right hand, O God? "Why do you turn away your hand into your bosom?" it says in another psalm.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Make Your right hand so well known" [Psalm 90:12]. This is the reading of most of the Greek copies: not of some in Latin, which is thus, "Make Your right hand well known to me." What is, "Your right hand," but Your Christ, of whom it is said, And to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed?
Desert Fathers · AD 500 A hermit said, 'If you lose gold or silver, you can find something as good as you lost. But the man who loses time can never make up what he has lost.'
13 Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent you concerning your servants.
Jerome · AD 420 Turn back, Lord, how long? Turn back, Lord, and look upon your image: do not show us your back, but your face. Turn back, how long? He who says how long shows that he desires, and cannot bear the delays of his desire.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 And as when they became so well known, as to despise these things, and by setting their affections on things eternal, gave a testimony through their sufferings (whence they are called witnesses or martyrs in the Greek), they endured for a long while many bitter temporal afflictions.
14 O satisfy us early with your mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Jerome · AD 420 And we have exulted and been delighted. After the joy of the resurrection of our Lord, by which we now believe both that we have been redeemed and that we shall rise again, for the remaining days of our life, rejoicing in this confidence, we exult, and with hymns and spiritual songs we render praise to God through Jesus Christ our Lord: to whom is glory unto the ages of ages.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Next, in anticipation of future blessings, of which he speaks as already vouchsafed, he says, "We are satisfied with Your mercy in the morning" [Psalm 90:14]. Prophecy has thus been kindled for us, in the midst of these toils and sorrows of the night, like a lamp in the darkness, until day dawn, and the Day-star arise in our hearts.
15 Make us glad according to the days in which you have afflicted us, and the years in which we have seen evil.
16 Let your work appear to your servants, and your glory to their children.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 But now in days that are as yet evil, let us speak as follows. "Look upon Thy servants, and upon Thy works" [Psalm 90:16]. For Thy servants themselves are Thy works, not only inasmuch as they are men, but as Thy servants, that is, obedient to Thy commands.
17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish you the work of our hands upon us; yes, the work of our hands establish you it.
Athanasius of Alexandria · AD 373 Thus, if Isaiah says, "The everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth"; and Susanna said, "O everlasting God";42 and Baruch wrote, "I will cry to the Everlasting in my days," and shortly after, "My hope is in the Everlasting, that he will have you, and joy is come to me from the holy One"; yet forasmuch as the apostle, writing to the Hebrews, says, "Who being the rad…
Jerome · AD 420 And let the splendor of the Lord our God be upon us. The Apostle also says to the Hebrews that the Lord and Savior is the splendor of the glory of the Father. And let the splendor of the Lord our God be upon us. This is what is said also in another place: "The light of your countenance has been sealed upon us, O Lord." The sign of the cross is our banner.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us" [Psalm 90:17]; whence the words, "O Lord, the light of Your countenance is marked upon us." And, "Make Thou straight the works of our hands upon us:" that we may do them not for hope of earthly reward: for then they are not straight, but crooked.