What is the meaning of Psalm 90:7? For we are consumed • Moses speaks for all humanity: life feels swallowed up, spent, and fragile (Psalm 103:15-16; James 4:14). • The verb “consumed” recalls how sin wears us down until strength, health, and even optimism fade (Psalm 39:4-5). • The context of Psalm 90—life limited to “seventy years, or eighty” (v. 10)—confirms that what devours us is more than time; it is the holy response of God to a fallen world (Genesis 3:17-19). by Your anger • Scripture presents God’s anger as pure, measured, and always aimed at sin (Psalm 7:11; Romans 1:18). • Israel’s wilderness story, which Psalm 90 alludes to, shows the Lord’s displeasure over disbelief (Numbers 14:32-35). • Recognizing divine anger corrects the illusion that our troubles are random; they remind us that God refuses to ignore unrighteousness (Deuteronomy 32:22). and terrified • Encountering God’s holiness produces genuine fear, not mere anxiety (Hebrews 10:31; Psalm 33:8). • This terror is not hopeless panic but an awakening that drives sinners to humility and repentance (Isaiah 6:5). • The emotion expressed here is honest: standing before perfect righteousness exposes every hidden fault (Psalm 139:23-24). by Your wrath • “Wrath” intensifies the thought—Judgment is not abstract but a settled, personal opposition to evil (Nahum 1:2; Revelation 6:16-17). • God’s wrath is the necessary counterpart to His love; to protect what is good, He must remove what is wicked (John 3:36). • Moses wants the congregation to grasp that nothing but divine mercy can shelter them from this deserved fury (Psalm 130:3-4). summary Psalm 90:7 captures the sobering reality that our mortality, fears, and hardships trace back to God’s righteous response to sin. We are spent, shaken, and overmatched because we live under holy anger that cannot overlook wrongdoing. Yet the verse’s candor invites us to measured fear that leads to repentance and trust in the only One who can turn away wrath through His steadfast love (Psalm 90:14; 1 Thessalonians 1:10). |
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