Psalm 90, How Long Should a Man Live?
Psalm 90:10 The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
When most people read these words, they think that YHWH Elohim has already determined the age of a person and his fate: to live a short life with the purpose to only toil in their labor. However, they are missing the fact that after the global flood in Genesis some people continued to lead a rich long life. For example:
- Abraham lived about 175 years of healthy, and fulfilling life.
- Jacob lived 147 years.
- Moses lived more than 100 years and ended up in the days of pilgrimage on the mountains.
- And many others.
Jacob, in his extreme old age, came to Joseph in Mizraim, and when Pharaoh asked him about his age, he said:
Gen.47:8 Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?” And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage”.
In other words, he considered his 130 years of pilgrimage to be a very short period of life. And after that he lived in Mizraim for another 17 years! (Gen.47:28)
Let’s take a closer look at Psalm 90 so that we can get a better understanding of the context of the verse that talks about the length of a man’s life. First of all, Psalm 90 is addressed to sinners, to people who have left the Word of YHWH – His commandments. This Psalm speaks of the wrath of YHWH that is directed against people who are disobedient to His Word:
Ps.90:3 You turn man to destruction, and say, “Return, O children of men.” For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night. You carry them away like a flood; They are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up: in the morning it flourishes and grows up; In the evening it is cut down and withers. For we have been consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified. You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; We finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.
So, if Psalm 90 is pointed at those who knowingly disobey the Most High’s commandments, what is the plan of YHWH for His people that do obey His commandments?:
Ps.92:8 When the wicked spring up like grass, and when all the workers of iniquity flourish, it is that they may be destroyed forever. But You, YHWH, are on high forevermore. For behold, Your enemies, O YHWH, for behold, Your enemies shall perish; All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. But my horn You have exalted like a wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil. My eye also has seen my desire on my enemies; My ears hear my desire on the wicked who rise up against me. The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of YHWH shall flourish in the courts of our Elohim. They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing, to declare that YHWH is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
Ps.103:1 Bless YHWH, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless YHWH, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s (strong, overcoming, soaring)!
Is.40:31 But those who wait on YHWH shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Ps.1:1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the Law (Torah) of YHWH, and in His Law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Jer.17:7 Blessed is the man who trusts in YHWH, and whose hope is YHWH. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.
The Book of Jubilees also confirms all these words:
The Book of Jubilees Ch.23 And he (Abraham) lived three jubilees and four weeks of years, one hundred and seventy-five years, and completed the days of his life, being old and full of days. For the days of the forefathers, of their life, were nineteen jubilees; and after the Flood they began to grow less than nineteen jubilees, and to decrease in jubilees, and to grow old quickly, and to be full of their days by reason of manifold tribulation and the wickedness of their ways, with the exception of Abraham. For Abraham was perfect in all his deeds with YHWH, and well-pleasing in righteousness all the days of his life; and behold, he did not complete four jubilees in his life, when he had grown old by reason of the wickedness, and was full of his days. And all the generations which shall arise from this time until the day of the great judgment shall grow old quickly, before they complete two jubilees, and their knowledge shall forsake them by reason of their old age Land all their know-ledge shall vanish away. And in those days, if a man live a jubilee and a-half of years, they shall say regarding him: ‘He has lived long, and the greater part of his days are pain and sorrow and tribulation, and there is no peace: for calamity follows on calamity, and wound on wound, and tribulation on tribulation, and evil tidings on evil tidings, and illness on illness, and all evil judgments such as these, one with another, illness and overthrow, and snow and frost and ice, and fever, and chills, and torpor, and famine, and death, and sword, and captivity, and all kinds of calamities and pains.’ And all these shall come on an evil generation, which transgresses on the earth: their works are uncleanness and fornication, and pollution and abominations. Then they shall say: ‘The days of the forefathers were many (even), unto a thousand years, and were good; but behold, the days of our life, if a man has lived many, are three score years and ten, and, if he is strong, four score years, and those evil, and there is no peace in the days of this evil generation.’ And in that generation the sons shall convict their fathers and their elders of sin and unrighteousness, and of the words of their mouth and the great wickednesses which they perpetrate, and concerning their forsaking the covenant which YHWH made between them and Him, that they should observe and do all His commandments and His ordinances and all His laws, without departing either to the right hand or the left. For all have done evil, and every mouth speaks iniquity and all their works are an uncleanness and an abomination, and all their ways are pollution, uncleanness and destruction. Behold the earth shall be destroyed on account of all their works, and there shall be no seed of the vine, and no oil; for their works are altogether faithless, and they shall all perish together, beasts and cattle and birds, and all the fish of the sea, on account of the children of men. And they shall strive one with another, the young with the old, and the old with the young, the poor with the rich, the lowly with the great, and the beggar with the prince, on account of the law and the covenant; for they have forgotten commandment, and covenant, and feasts, and months, and Sabbaths, and jubilees, and all judgments. And they shall stand with bows and swords and war to turn them back into the way; but they shall not return until much blood has been shed on the earth, one by another. And those who have escaped shall not return from their wickedness to the way of righteousness, but they shall all exalt themselves to deceit and wealth, that they may each take all that is his neighbour’s, and they shall name the great name, but not in truth and not in righteousness, and they shall defile the holy of holies with their uncleanness and the corruption of their pollution. And a great punishment shall befall the deeds of this generation from YHWH, and He will give them over to the sword and to judgment and to captivity, and to be plundered and devoured. And He will wake up against them the sinners of the Gentiles, who have neither mercy nor compassion, and who shall respect the person of none, neither old nor young, nor any one, for they are more wicked and strong to do evil than all the children of men. And they shall use violence against Israel and transgression against Jacob, and much blood shall be shed upon the earth, and there shall be none to gather and none to bury. In those days they shall cry aloud, and call and pray that they may be saved from the hand of the sinners, the Gentiles; But none shall be saved. And the heads of the children shall be white with grey hair, and a child of three weeks shall appear old like a man of one hundred years, and their stature shall be destroyed by tribulation and oppression. And in those days the children shall begin to study the laws, and to seek the commandments, and to return to the path of righteousness. And the days shall begin to grow many and increase amongst those children of men till their days draw nigh to one thousand years. AND TO A GREATER NUMBER OF YEARS THAN BEFORE WAS THE NUMBER OF THE DAYS. And there shall be no old man nor one who is not satisfied with his days, for all shall be as children and youths. And all their days they shall complete and live in peace and in joy, and there shall be no Satan nor any evil destroyer; For all their days shall be days of blessing and healing. And at that time YHWH will heal His servants, and they shall rise up and see great peace, and drive out their adversaries. And the righteous shall see and be thankful, and rejoice with joy for ever and ever, and shall see all their judgments and all their curses on their enemies. And their bones shall rest in the earth, and their spirits shall have much joy, and they shall know that it is YHWH who executes judgment, and shows mercy to hundreds and thousands and to all that love Him and do thou, Moses, write down these words; for thus are they written, and they record (them) on the heavenly tablets for a testimony for the generations forever.
To briefly sum all of this up, the will of YHWH for those that disobey His commandments is to subject them to His wrath while His will for His people that do obey His commandments are blessings of abundant healthy living and prosperity.
Ps.31:23 Oh, love YHWH, all you His righteous! For YHWH preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person.
Jn.10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.