Psalm 90

Psalm 90
(This is written as part of a study project I am doing this summer on the Psalms.(This psalm is part of P'sukei d'Zimra.)

This Psalm is also the seventh psalm in Tikkun HaKlali (as taught by R. Nachman) If you have read my essay on that the following is mostly repetition.

"The pasuk of va’ yehi noam from psalm 90 was the blessing that Moshe gave the Bnei Yisrael after the work of the Mishkan or Tabernacle was completed. His blessing was that God’s pleasantness should rest on their work and that their work should be lasting. It is considered very appropriate to recite this on the first day of the week in that the actual work on the Mishkan, itself, was finished on this day." Rabbi Eliezer Kessler

(Incidentally I also learned from R. Kessler's article that “va’ yehi noam” form Psalm 90 is followed by the recitation of Psalm 91, “yoshev b’setair”." at the end of Shabbat (Motzei Shabbat).

The text...

The psalm starts with three variations of praising G*d's timelessness but they are all slightly different. "From the everlasting to the everlasting" this is beyond our comprehension. "Our dwelling place for all generations" Dwelling place makes us think of the Mishkan but it was true even of Adam in Exile. "Before the mountains.. Before you formed the world." Our imagination can proclaim necessity we did not experience. We can exalt G*d by recognizing this. Having praised G*d for everything the generations know, the psalmist praises G*d for what must have been - That G*d was perfect before creation. Finally, with a serene and beautiful metaphor the poet uses another human faculty to praise "For a thousand years in thy sight are as.. a watch in the night."

It should make you smile! Yet wrapped in these four verses that ask us to envision synoptically, is a call for contrition. It is almost lost in the poet’s enthusiasm.

Those thousand years are then imagined "carried away in a flood",
"like sleep." A thousand years are "as grass" which "In the morning
flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth."
What power and surely greater still is the truth than our metaphors.
Even so "Though turnest man to contrition"
We matter. Isn't that what we need to know!
Then our great Teacher asks in humility,
"Teach us to number our days, that we may get us a heart of wisdom."
"We bring our years to an end as a tale that is told."
Moshe’s life is a tale told in four books from Shemot to D'varim.
A tale of wisdom indeed!
"Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance"
Know then that even Moshe asked "Is there anything but
pride, travail, and vanity [in the world?]" and also he seems to lament of life that it
"is speedily gone, and we fly away."

Again only a quote seems fit for this prayer.

14. Satisfy us in the morning with Thy mercy; that we may
rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us, according to the years wherein we have seen evil.
16 Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and Thy glory upon their children
17 And let the graciousness of the Lord our God be upon us;
establish Thou also upon us the work of our hands; yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it.

Amen and Amen!

Summer Psalms Project Page