Psalms 90:10 - Exposition

The days of our years are three score years and ten. This seems a low estimate for the time of Moses, since he himself died at the ago of a hundred and twenty ( Deuteronomy 34:7 ), Aaron at the age of a hundred and twenty-three ( Numbers 33:39 ), and Miriam at an age which was even more advanced ( Numbers 20:1 ; comp. Exodus 2:4 ). But these may have been exceptional cases, and we have certainly no sufficient data for determining what was the average length of human life in the later period of the wanderings. The suggestion has been made that it was probably even shorter than that here mentioned. And if by reason of strength they be four score years; i.e. "if, through exceptional strength in this or that individual, they occasionally mount up to four score years." Yet is their strength labour and sorrow; rather, yet is their pride then but let, our and vanity. They may boast of their age; but what real advantage is it to them? After seventy, the years draw nigh when each man is forced to say, "I have no pleasure in them" ( Ecclesiastes 12:1 ). For it is soon cut off, and we fly away . Moreover, even if we live to eighty, our life seems to us no more than a span, so soon does it pass away, and we take our departure.