The prayer for a salutary knowledge, or discernment, of the appointment of divine wrath is now followed by the prayer for the return of favour, and the wish that God would carry out His work of salvation and bless Israel's undertakings to that end. We here recognise the well-known language of prayer of Moses in Exodus 32:12, according to which שׁוּבה is not intended as a prayer for God's return to Israel, but for the turning away of His anger; and the sigh עד־מתי that is blended with its asks how long this being angry, which threatens to blot Israel out, is still to last. והנּהם is explained according to this same parallel passage: May God feel remorse or sorrow (which in this case coincide) concerning His servants, i.e., concerning the affliction appointed to them. The naming of the church by עבדיך (as in Deuteronomy 9:27, cf. Exodus 32:13 of the patriarchs) reminds one of Deuteronomy 32:36 : concerning His servants He shall feel compassion (Hithpa. instead of the Niphal). The prayer for the turning of wrath is followed in Psalm 90:14 by the prayer for the turning towards them of favour. In בּבּקר there lies the thought that it has been night hitherto in Israel. "Morning" is therefore the beginning of a new season of favour. In שׂבּענוּ (to which הסדּך is a second accusative of the object) is implied the thought that Israel whilst under wrath has been hungering after favour; cf. the adjective שׂבע in the same tropical signification in Deuteronomy 33:23. The supplicatory imperatives are followed by two moods expressive of intention: then will we, or: in order that we may rejoice and be glad; for futures like these set forth the intention of attaining something as a result or aim of what has been expressed just before: Ew. 325, a. בּכל־ימינוּ is not governed by the verbs of rejoicing (Psalm 118:24), in which case it would have been בּחיּינוּ, but is an adverbial definition of time (Psalm 145:2; Psalm 35:8): within the term of life allotted to us. We see from Psalm 90:15 that the season of affliction has already lasted for a long time. The duration of the forty years of wrath, which in the midst of their course seemed to them as an eternity, is made the measure of the reviving again that is earnestly sought. The plural ימות instead of ימי is common only to our Psalm and Deuteronomy 32:7; it is not known elsewhere to Biblical Hebrew. And the poetical שׁנות instead of שׁני, which also occurs elsewhere, appears for the first time in Deuteronomy 32:7. The meaning of ענּיתנוּ, in which ימות hcihw is specialized after the manner of a genitive, is explained from Deuteronomy 8:2., according to which the forty years' wandering in the wilderness was designed to humble (ענּות) and to prove Israel through suffering. At the close of these forty years Israel stands on the threshold of the Promise Land. To Israel all final hopes were closely united with the taking possession of this land. We learn from Genesis 49 that it is the horizon of Jacob's prophetic benediction. This Psalm too, in Psalm 90:16-17, terminates in the prayer for the attainment of this goal. The psalmist has begun in Psalm 90:1 his adoration with the majestic divine name אדני; in Psalm 90:13 he began his prayer with the gracious divine name יהוה; and now, where he mentions God for the third time, he gives to Him the twofold name, so full of faith, אדני אלהינוּ. אל used once alternates with the thrice repeated על: salvation is not Israel's own work, but the work of Jahve; it therefore comes from above, it comes and meets Israel. It is worthy of remark that the noun פּעל occurs only in Deuteronomy in the whole Tra, and that here also of the gracious rule of Jahve, Psalm 32:4, cf. Psalm 33:11. The church calls the work of the Lord מעשׂה ידינוּ in so far as He executes it through them. This expression מעשׂה ידים as a designation of human undertakings runs through the whole of the Book of Deuteronomy: Deuteronomy 2:7; Deuteronomy 4:28; Deuteronomy 11:7; Deuteronomy 14:29; Deuteronomy 16:15; Deuteronomy 24:19; Deuteronomy 27:15; Deuteronomy 28:12; Deuteronomy 30:9. In the work of the Lord the bright side of His glory unveils itself, hence it is called הדר; this too is a word not alien at least to the language of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 33:17. Therein is made manifest נעם ה, His graciousness and condescension - an expression which David has borrowed from Moses in Psalm 27:4. יראה and יהי are optatives. כּוננה is an urgent request, imperat. obsecrantis as the old expositors say. With Waw the same thought is expressed over again (cf. Isaiah 55:1, וּלכוּ, yea come) - a simple, childlike anadiplosis which vividly reminds us of the Book of Deuteronomy, which revolves in thoughts that are ever the same, and by that very means speaks deeply to the heart. Thus the Deuteronomic impression of this Psalm accompanies us from beginning to end, from מעון to מעשׂה ידים. Nor will it now be merely accidental that the fondness for comparisons, which is a peculiarity of the Book of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 1:31, Deuteronomy 1:44; Deuteronomy 8:5; Deuteronomy 28:29, Deuteronomy 28:49, cf. Deuteronomy 28:13, Deuteronomy 28:44; Deuteronomy 29:17-18), is found again in this Psalm.

Psalm 91:3 Parallel Commentaries

snare

Psalm 124:7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.

Psalm 141:9 Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.

Proverbs 7:23 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hastens to the snare, and knows not that it is for his life.

Ecclesiastes 9:12 For man also knows not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare...

Hosea 9:8 The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.

Amos 3:5 Can a bird fall in a snare on the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth...

1 Timothy 6:9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts...

2 Timothy 2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

and from

Psalm 91:6 Nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday.

Numbers 14:37,38 Even those men that did bring up the evil report on the land, died by the plague before the LORD...

Numbers 16:46-48 And Moses said to Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly to the congregation...

2 Samuel 24:15 So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the time appointed...

Job 5:10-22 Who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields...