Psalms 90:7

"For we are consumed in thine anger,

And in try wrath we are troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee,

Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

For all our days are passed away in thy wrath:

We bring our years to an end as a sigh.

The days of our years are three-score years and ten,

Or even by reason of strength four-score years;

Yet is there pride, but labor and sorrow;

For it is soon gone, and we fly away.

Who knoweth the power of thine anger,

And thy wrath according to the fear that is due unto thee."

"We are consumed in thine anger" (Psalms 90:7). "Such expressions suit the time of the later wanderings in the wilderness,"[10] in which the condemned generation which God forbade to enter Canaan, "Were being gradually consumed that they might not enter the Holy Land."[11]

Addis observed on these verses that, "It is the sinfulness of man that makes his life so short."[12] Also, there is the possibility that there is a divine limitation upon human life imposed by the will of God. We have already noted the possibility that Psalms 90:10 here is a prophecy.

"Thou hast set our iniquities before thee" (Psalms 90:8). This stresses the relationship between sin and death. As Barnes noted, "The fact that human life has been made so brief, is to be explained, only upon the basis that God has arrayed before his own mind the reality of human depravity."[13]

"We bring our years to an end as a sigh" (Psalms 90:9). The KJV reads this, "We spend our years as a tale that is told." The implication regards the transitoriness, the fleeting nature, and the brevity of human life. "Here today, and gone tomorrow; yes I know; that is so"![14]

"Three-score and ten ... four-score years" (Psalms 90:10). See the chapter introduction for comments on this.

"Who knoweth the power of thine anger ... thy wrath" (Psalms 90:11). "The implication of this verse is that men do not generally take the anger and wrath of God seriously enough."[15] This observation is profoundly true. The current conception of God in our American society regards him as a rather over-indulgent grandfather who pays little or no attention to the crimes of blood and lust that rage beneath his very nose, assuming that his wonderful loving grace and mercy will ignore and overlook anything that wicked men may do. It is against this background of human ignorance and misconception that the ultimate appearance of Almighty God in the Judgment of the Last Day will be an occasion when, "All the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him" (Revelation 1:7).