What is the meaning of Psalm 90:5? You sweep them away God is pictured as the One who actively moves humanity along, the way a broom clears a floor or a flood wipes out debris. • The verb evokes unstoppable force; nothing can stand in His path (Job 9:12; Isaiah 40:24). • Moses, the psalm’s author, had watched entire generations fall in the wilderness; he knew this sweeping firsthand (Numbers 14:29-35). • Psalm 103:16 echoes the thought: “the wind passes over it, and it is gone.” Our times are literally in His hand (Psalm 31:15). in their sleep Life ends while people assume tomorrow will look like today. • Death often comes quietly, “without a struggle” (Job 21:13), reminding us that no alarm clock can delay God’s appointment (Hebrews 9:27). • Jesus said the same about judgment in Luke 12:20: “You fool! This very night your life will be required of you.” • The phrase also reassures believers that God, not random chance, calls the moment; He keeps “both body and soul” (Matthew 10:28-31). they are like the new grass Now the picture shifts to tender blades just pushing through the soil—promising, green, seemingly full of potential. • Scripture often uses grass to describe human frailty (Isaiah 40:6-7; 1 Peter 1:24). • The freshness highlights how quickly beauty blossoms, then fades, teaching us to invest in what is eternal (Matthew 6:19-20). • Even a long life is only “a mist that appears for a little while” (James 4:14). of the morning— Morning grass glistens with dew, but hours later the sun withers it (Psalm 90:6). • Hosea 6:4 laments, “Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes.” • James 1:11 notes, “The scorching heat…withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed.” • Dawn-to-dusk brevity calls the wise to numbered days (Psalm 90:12) and sober joy in the Savior who grants everlasting life (John 3:36). summary Psalm 90:5 stacks vivid images—swept-away lives, sleep’s quiet finality, newborn grass, and fleeting morning—to underline one truth: human existence is brief and entirely in God’s hands. Recognizing this drives us to humble dependence, grateful obedience, and eager anticipation of the eternal life promised through Christ. |
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