Have you ever wondered when the first psalm of mankind was written? Today we are going to present to you what is considered the first Psalm written. Don’t miss it!
Psalm 90 kjv
If you have ever wondered what was the first psalm ever written in the history of mankind, today we will give you the answer. Psalm 90 of the King James Bible was the first, and it is well known that it was written by Moses, the great prophet of the Old Testament. So, today we will teach you a very special psalm, different from all the others. Let’s find out!
Psalm 90 is a very profound psalm in which Moses deals with the infinitude of God and his enormous power. In this case, this power translates into punishment for the people of Israel who tried to rebel after being liberated from Egypt, being punished to wander forty years in the desert in harsh conditions.
Psalm 90 of the Bible in English and large print
Now that you have listened to the psalm, we invite you to read it at your own pace so that you can reflect more deeply on the message it intends to convey. The text we leave you here is from the King James version of the Bible, like all the other psalms we have in Tu Biblia Online. Relax and enjoy!
1 Lord, you have been a refuge for us
From generation to generation.
2 Before the mountains were born
And form the earth and the world,
From everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
3 Thou turnest man until he be broken,
And you say: Convert, you sons of men.
4 For a thousand years before thine eyes
They are like yesterday, what happened,
And as one of the vigils of the night.
5 Thou sweepest them away as with a flood of waters; they are like a dream,
Like the grass that grows in the morning.
6 In the morning it blooms and grows;
In the afternoon it is cut and dried.
7 For in your wrath we are consumed,
And with your wrath we are troubled.
8 You set our iniquities before you,
Our mistakes in the light of your face.
9 For all our days decline because of your wrath;
We end our years as a thought.
10 The days of our age are seventy years;
And if in the most robust are eighty years,
All in all, their strength is discomfort and work,
Because soon they pass, and we fly.
11 Who knows the power of your wrath,
And your indignation that you should be feared?
12 So teach us to number our days,
May we bring wisdom to the heart.
13 Turn, O Jehovah; how long?
And be placated toward your servants.
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your mercy,
And we will sing and rejoice all our days.
15 Make us glad according to the days that thou hast afflicted us,
And the years in which we saw evil.
16 Let thy work appear in thy servants,
And your glory upon his children.
17 Let the light of the LORD our God be upon us,
And the work of our hands confirms upon us;
Yes, the work of our hands confirms.
Psalm 90 meaing and explained verse by verse
We will now analyze the psalm in detail. Since it is a longer psalm, we will not comment on it verse by verse, but we will separate it into three parts, differentiated by the themes they deal with. Let’s get to it!
- Part I: Contrast between the eternal and the fleeting (v. 1-6)
In the first part of Psalm 90, Moses tries to make us understand the meaning of eternity. This concept does not seem complicated at first, but upon reflection, it leads to much deeper ideas.
As it says in verse 2, God transcends the creation of the universe by existing before time itself. The existence of God is independent of the existence of the universe.
2 Before the mountains were born
And form the earth and the world,
From everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
In verses 3 and 4, we see how everything that is susceptible to change, such as our lives and our hearts, belong to the divine creation. God intervenes in the universe to show us which is the true path to follow.
This part ends with a nice metaphor that encompasses all the previous ideas. Our lives, which to our eyes may seem quite long, to the Lord are but a brief moment, for a few years are nothing in front of an eternity.
6 In the morning it blooms and grows;
In the afternoon it is cut and dried.
- Part II: God’s judgment of his people (v. 7-12)
In this part, Moses shows us how God, who created everything, including us, has the right and power to judge his people when he sees fit.
In this case, the Lord can punish the people of Israel for living in sin and disobeying the Word of God. In the Exodus, the Israelites underwent many hardships in the desert, and a large part of the adult population that escaped from Egypt died.
Moses lived those very hard years being aware that God’s just judgment was punishing them for having turned away from His light.
9 For all our days decline because of your wrath;
We end our years as a thought.
- Part III: Prayer for mercy (v. 13-17)
Finally, the psalm ends with a beautiful prayer of mercy. In the most complicated moments we should not move further away from God, but rather we should pray for Him and seek reconciliation with His Word.
For this reason, Moses, in those moments of desolation, asks God for his light, promising to be his people who proclaim his Word throughout the world.
16 Let thy work appear in thy servants,
And your glory upon his children.
17 Let the light of the LORD our God be upon us,
And the work of our hands confirms upon us;
Yes, the work of our hands confirms.
Contextualization of Psalm 90
At this point, you have surely been struck by the depth of the message of such an ancient text. It is for reasons like this that Moses is one of the most important and well-known prophets of Christianity.
The prophet Moses appears in many of the books of the Old Testament, being the author of five of them: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. He is also mentioned on a few occasions in the Gospels of the New Testament. Thus, Moses is one of the most important biblical figures and the most important for the Jews.
Psalm 90 belongs to the Old Testament Book of Psalms. Most of the psalms in the volume were written by King David although there are exceptions such as Psalm 90 that are attributed to other prophets. We must keep in mind that David lived around the 10th century B.C. and Moses around the 14th century B.C., being about 400 years difference between them. Thus, Psalm 90 is the oldest text in the Book of Psalms and also one of the most special.
The main objective of this psalm is to denote the eternity of God in the face of the transience of human life and to give importance to living according to the Lord’s designs guided by his word.
As you have been able to read, the crudeness of this psalm is not comparable to the rest of the psalms, in this one God is presented as a being to be feared. It is a conception deeply rooted in the societies of that time and that little by little evolved towards an image of God more associated with love as we Christians have today.
Curiosities of Psalm 90
Because of the context of Psalm 90, it is considered one of the most important psalms in the Book of Psalms.
One of its verses, specifically verse 4, is quoted in the second epistle of St. Peter with the same meaning as in this psalm: to highlight the contrast between eternity and transience.
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:8)
After listening to this beautiful hymn, we said goodbye. We hope that Psalm 90 has surprised you, and that you have been able to understand the meaning, the context, and that you have learned important things about God and Christianity. See you soon!
After listening to this beautiful hymn, we said goodbye. We hope that Psalm 90 has surprised you, and that you have been able to understand the meaning, the context, and that you have learned important things about God and Christianity. See you soon!