Psalm 90 [MT 91]

1–2

It is plain then from the above that the Scriptures declare the Son’s eternity; it is equally plain from what follows that the Arian phrases “he was not” and “before” and “when” are in the same Scriptures predicated of creatures. Moses, for instance, in his account of the generation of our world, says, “And every plant of the field, before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew; for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.” And in Deuteronomy, “When the most High gave to the nations their inheritance.” And the Lord said, “If you love me, you will rejoice because I said, I go to the Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it comes to pass, you might believe.” And concerning the creation he says in the words of Solomon, “Before the world existed, when there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth.” And, “Before Abraham was, I am.” And concerning Jeremiah he says, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” And David in the psalm says, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made, you are God from everlasting and world without end.” And in Daniel, “Susanna cried out with a loud voice and said, O everlasting God, you know the secrets, and know all things before they are.” Thus it appears that the phrases “once was not,” and “before it came to be,” and “when” and the like, belong to things that have an origin and were created, which come out of nothing but are alien to the Word.

Discourses Against the Arians 1.4.13

1–2

Therefore, “God is our refuge and strength.” To him who is able to say, “I can do all things in him,” Christ, “who strengthens me,” God is strength. Now, it is the privilege of many to say, “God is our refuge,” and “Lord, you have been our refuge.” But to say it with the same feelings as the prophet is the privilege of few. For there are few who do not admire human interests but depend wholly on God and breathe him and have all hope and trust in him. And our actions convict us whenever in our afflictions we run to everything else rather than to God. Is a child sick? You look around for an enchanter or one who puts superstitious marks on the necks of the innocent children; or finally, you go to a doctor and to medicines, having neglected him who is able to save. If a dream troubles you, you run to the interpreter of dreams. And, if you fear an enemy, you cunningly secure some man as a patron. In short, in every need you contradict yourself in word, naming God as your refuge; in act, drawing on aid from useless and vain things. God is the true aid for the righteous person. Just as a certain general, equipped with a noble heavy-armed force, is always ready to give help to an oppressed district, so God is our helper and an ally to everyone who is waging war against the wiliness of the devil, and he sends out ministering spirits for the safety of those who are in need.

Homilies on the Psalms 18:2

1–2

The resurrection of the Lord is our hope, the Lord’s ascension our glorification. Today, you see, we are celebrating the feast of the ascension. So if we are to celebrate the Lord’s ascension in the right way, with faith, with devotion, with reverence as God-fearing people, we must ascend with him and lift up our hearts. In ascending, however, we must not get above ourselves. Yes, we should lift up our hearts, but to the Lord. As you know, not lifting up hearts to the Lord is due to pride; lifting up hearts to the Lord is called “taking refuge.” After all, we say to the one who has ascended, “Lord, you have become a refuge for us.”He rose again, you see, to give us hope, because what rises again is what first dies. So it [Christ’s resurrection] was to save us from despair at dying and from thinking that our whole life ends with death. We were anxious, I mean, about the soul, and he by rising again gave us an assurance even about the flesh. So he ascended—who did? The one who descended. He descended in order to heal you; he ascended in order to lift you up. You will fall if you have lifted yourself up; you remain standing if you have been lifted up by him. So, lift up your hearts, but to the Lord—that is taking refuge. Lifting up your heart, but not to the Lord, that is pride. So let us say to him as he rises again, “Since you, O Lord, are my hope”; and as he ascends, “You have placed your refuge very high.” How, I mean, can we possibly be proud, if we lift up our hearts to him, seeing that he humbled himself for our sakes, so that we should not remain proud?

Sermon 261:1

"Lord," he says, "You have been our refuge from one generation to another" [Psalm 90:1]: either in every generation, or in two generations, the old and new: because, as I said, he was the Minister of the Testament that related to the old generation, and the Prophet of the Testament which appertained to the new. Jesus Himself, the Surety of that covenant, and the Bridegroom in the marriage which He entered into in that generation, says, "Had ye believed Moses, you would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me." [John 5:46] Now it is not to be believed that this Psalm was entirely the composition of that Moses, as it is not distinguished by any of those of his expressions which are used in his songs: but the name of the great servant of God is used for the sake of some intimation, which should direct the attention of the reader or listener. "Lord," he says, "You have been our refuge from one generation to the other."

Exposition on Psalm 90

He adds, how He became our refuge, since He began to be that, viz. a refuge, to us which He had not been before, not that He had not existed before He became our refuge: "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made: and from age even unto age You are" [Psalm 90:2]. Thou therefore who art for ever, and before we were, and before the world was, hast become our refuge ever since we turned to You. But the expression, "before the mountains," etc., seems to me to contain a particular meaning; for mountains are the higher parts of the earth, and if God was before even the earth were formed (or, as some books have it, from the same Greek word, "framed" ), since it was by Him that it was formed, what is the need of saying that He was before the mountains, or any certain parts of it, since God was not only before the earth, but before heaven and earth, and even the whole bodily and spiritual creation? But it may certainly be that the whole rational creation is marked by this distinction; that while the loftiness of Angels is signified by the mountains, the lowliness of man is meant by the earth. And for this reason, although all the works of creation are not improperly said to be either made or formed; nevertheless, if there is any propriety in these words, the Angels are "made;" for as they are enumerated among His heavenly works, the enumeration itself is thus concluded: "He spoke the word, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created;" but the earth was "formed," that man might thence be created in the body. For the Scripture uses this word, where we read, God made, or "God formed man out of the dust of the ground." [Genesis 2:7] Before then the noblest parts of the creation (for what is higher than the rational part of the Heavenly creation) were made: before the earth was made, that You might have worshippers upon the earth; and even this is little, as all these had a beginning either in or with time; but "from age to age You are." It would have been better, from everlasting to everlasting: for God, who is before the ages, exists not from a certain age, nor to a certain age, which has an end, since He is without end. But it often happens in the Scripture, that the equivocal Greek word causes the Latin translator to put age for eternity and eternity for age. But he very rightly does not say, You were from ages, and unto ages You shall be: but puts the verb in the present, intimating that the substance of God is altogether immutable. It is not, He was, and Shall be, but only Is. Whence the expression, I Am that I Am; and, I Am "has sent me unto you;" [Exodus 3:14] and, "You shall change them, and they shall be changed: but You are the same, and Your years shall not fail." Behold then the eternity that is our refuge, that we may fly there from the mutability of time, there to remain for evermore.

Exposition on Psalm 90

But as our life here is exposed to numerous and great temptations, and it is to be feared lest we may be turned aside by them from that refuge, let us see what in consequence of this the prayer of the man of God seeks for. "Turn not Thou man to lowness" [Psalm 90:3]: that is, let not man, turned aside from Your eternal and sublime things, lust for things of time, savour of earthly things. This prayer is what God has Himself enjoined us, in the Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation," [Matthew 6:13] He adds, "Again You say, Come again, you children of men." As if he said, I ask of You what You have commanded me to ask: giving glory to His grace, that "he that glories, in the Lord he may glory:" [1 Corinthians 1:31] without whose help we cannot by an exertion of our own will overcome the temptations of this life. "Turn not Thou man to lowness: again you say, Turn again, you children of men." But grant what You have enjoined, by hearing the prayer of him who can at least pray, and aiding the faith of the willing soul.

Exposition on Psalm 90

"For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday, which is past by" [Psalm 90:4]: hence we ought to turn to Your refuge, where You are without any change, from the fleeting scenes around us; since however long a time may be wished for for this life, "a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday:" not as tomorrow, which is to come: for all limited periods of time are reckoned as having already passed. Hence the Apostle's choice is rather to aim at what is before, [Philippians 3:13] that is, to desire things eternal, and to forget things behind, by which temporal matters should be understood. But that no one may imagine a thousand years are reckoned by God as one day, as if with God days were so long, when this is only said in contempt of the extent of time: he adds, "and as a watch in the night:" which only lasts three hours. Nevertheless men have ventured to assert their knowledge of times, to the pretenders to which our Lord said, "It is not for you to know the times or seasons, which the Father has put in His own power:" [Acts 1:7] and they allege that this period may be defined six thousand years, as of six days. Nor have they heeded the words, "are but as one day which is past by:" for, when this was uttered, not a thousand years only had passed, and the expression, "as a watch in the night," ought to have warned them that they might not be deceived by the uncertainty of the seasons: for even if the six first days in which God finished His works seemed to give some plausibility to their opinion, six watches, which amount to eighteen hours, will not consist with that opinion.

Exposition on Psalm 90

I certainly believe that to be God is to enjoy an infinite present, where nothing has yet passed away and nothing is still to come. Does it follow that we can say the same of saints and angels? Or at any rate exactly the same? The dead might experience a time which was not quite so linear as ours--it might, so to speak, have thickness as well as length. Already in this life we get some thickness whenever we learn to attend to more than one thing at once. One can suppose this increased to any extent, so that though, for them as for us, the present is always becoming the past, yet each present contains unimaginably more than ours.

Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, Letter 20 (paragraph 14)

In Psalm 90 (4) it had been said that a thousand years were to God like a single yesterday; in 2 Peter 3:8—not the first place in the world where one would have looked for so metaphysical a theology—we read not only that a thousand years are as one day but also that 'one day is as a thousand years'. The Psalmist only meant, I think, that God was everlasting, that His life was infinite in time. But the epistle takes us out of the time-series altogether. As nothing outlasts God, so nothing slips away from Him into a past. The later conception (later in Christian thought—Plato had reached it) of the timeless as an eternal present has been achieved.

Reflections on the Psalms, Chapter 12: Second Meanings in the Psalms

Next, the man of God, or rather the Prophetic spirit, seems to be reciting some law written in the secret wisdom of God, in which He has fixed a limit to the sinful life of mortals, and determined the troubles of mortality, in the following words: "Their years are as things which are nothing worth: in the morning let it fade away like the grass" [Psalm 90:5]. The happiness therefore of the heirs of the old covenant, which they asked of the Lord their God as a great boon, attained to receive this Law in His mysterious Providence. Moses seems to be reciting it: "Their years shall be things which are esteemed as nothing." Such are those things which are not before they have come: and when come, shall soon not be: for they do not come to be here, but to be gone. "In the morning," that is, before they come, "as a heat let it pass by;"

Exposition on Psalm 90

Whatever there is in the world, it fades away, it passes. As for this life, what is it but what the psalmist said: "In the morning it will pass like the grass; in the morning it will flower and pass away; in the evening it will fall, it grows hard and withers." That is what "all flesh is." That is why Christ, that is why the new life, that is why eternal hope, that is why the consolation of immortality has been promised us and in the flesh of the Lord has already been given us. It was from us, after all, that that flesh was taken that is now immortal and that has shown us what he accomplished in himself. It was on our account, you see, that he had flesh. I mean, on his own account "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Look for flesh and blood; where is it to be found in the Word? Because he wished really and truly to suffer with us and to redeem us, he clothed himself in "the form of a servant" and came down here though he was here, in order to be plainly visible though he had never been absent; and he that had made humanity wished to be made human; to be created of a mother, though he had created his mother. He mounted the cross; he died and showed us what we already knew about, being born and dying. In his humility he went through with those hoary old experiences of ours, so familiar, so well known.

Sermon 359:9

but "in the evening," it means after they come, "let it fall, and be dried up, and withered" [Psalm 90:6]. It is "to fall" in death, be "dried up" in the corpse, "withered" in the dust. What is this but flesh, wherein is the accursed lust of fleshly things? "For all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness of man as the flower of the field; the grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of the Lord abides for ever." [Isaiah 40:6, 8]

Exposition on Psalm 90

Making no secret that this fate is a penalty inflicted for sin, he adds at once, "For we consume away in Your displeasure, and are troubled at Your wrathful indignation" [Psalm 90:7]: we consume away in our weakness, and are troubled from the fear of death; for we have become weak, and yet fearful to end that weakness. "Another," says He, "shall gird you, and carry you whither you would not:" [John 21:18] although not to be punished, but to be crowned, by martyrdom; and the soul of our Lord, transforming us into Himself, was sorrowful even unto death: for "the Lord's going out" is no other than in "death."

Exposition on Psalm 90

“You have kept our iniquities before you.” Nothing eludes you; night does not conceal our sins, nor does the darkness cover them; all things are clear before you: “Our life in light of your scrutiny.” This is expressed much better in the Hebrew: “our hidden sins in the light of your scrutiny.” Whatever we do, whatever we think we are doing in secret, lies open before your eyes. “All our days have passed away.” Our life hurries on at a great pace, and when we least expect it, it slips away, and we die. These very words we speak are of death, and we do not take thought. “We have spent our years like a spider.” Meditate on these words of the psalmist. In the same way that the spider produces, as it were, a thread and runs to and fro, back and forth, and weaves the whole day long, and his labor, indeed, is great but the result is nil; so, too, human life runs about hither and thither. We search for possessions, and we accumulate wealth; we procreate children; we labor and toil; we rise in power and authority; we do everything; and do not realize that we are spiders weaving a web.

Homilies on the Psalms 19

"You have set our misdeeds before You" [Psalm 90:8]: that is, You have not dissembled Your anger: "and our age in the light of Your countenance." "The light of Your countenance" answers to "before You," and to "our misdeeds," as above.

Exposition on Psalm 90

9–10

For in the most general sense it holds good that it is apparently not possible for any person to remain altogether without experience of ill. For, as one says, “the whole world lies in wickedness”; and again, “Most of the days of human life are labor and trouble.” But you will perhaps say, “What difference is there between being tempted, and falling or entering into temptation?” Well, if one is overcome by evil—and he will be overcome unless he struggles against it himself and unless God protects him with his shield—that person has entered into temptation, and is in it and is brought under it like one that is led captive. But if one withstands and endures, he is indeed tempted; but he has not entered into temptation or fallen into it. Thus Jesus was led up of the Spirit, not indeed to enter into temptation but to be tempted of the devil. And Abraham, again, did not enter into temptation, neither did God lead him into temptation, but he tried [tested] him; yet he did not drive him into temptation. The Lord, moreover, tested the disciples. Thus the wicked one, when he tempts us, draws us into the temptations, as dealing himself with the temptations of evil. But God, when he tests, presents the tests as one untempted by evil. For God, it is said, “cannot be tempted by evil.” The devil, therefore, drives us on by violence, drawing us to destruction; but God leads us by hand, training us for our salvation.

Fragment 2

9–10

Let everyone above all have this zeal in common so that having made a beginning they not hesitate or grow fainthearted in their labors or say, “We have spent a long time in ascetic discipline.” Instead, as though we were beginning anew each day, let each of us increase in fervor. For the entire lifetime of a human being is very brief when measured against the age to come; accordingly, all our time here is nothing compared with life eternal. Everything in the world is sold according to its value and things of equal value are exchanged, but the promise of eternal life is purchased for very little. For it is written, “The days of our life are seventy years or, if we are strong, perhaps eighty; more than this is pain and suffering.” When we persevere in ascetic discipline for all eighty or even one hundred years, we will not reign for the equivalent of those one hundred years. Instead of a hundred years, we will reign forever and ever. And although we are contested on earth, we will not receive our inheritance here; we have promises in heaven instead. Once more: when we lay aside this perishable body we receive it back imperishable. LIFE OF ST.

Life of St. Anthony 16:3-8

9–10

They say concerning Abba Apollo, who lived in Scete, that he was originally a rude and brutish herdsman, and that he [once] saw in the fields a woman who was with child and that, through the operation of the devil, he said, “I wish to know the condition of the child that is in the womb of this woman,” and that he ripped her open and saw the child in her belly; then straightway he repented, and he purged his heart, and having repented he went to Scete and revealed unto the fathers what he had done. And when he heard them singing the psalms and saying, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten, and with difficulty [we come] to fourscore years,” he said to the old men, “I am forty years old this day, and I have never prayed; and now, if I live for forty years more, I will never rest nor cease nor refrain from praying to God continually that he may forgive me my sins.” And from that time onwards he did even as he had said, for he never toiled with the work of his hands, but he was always supplicating God and saying, “I, O my Lord, like a man, have sinned, and do you, like God, forgive me”; and he prayed this prayer both by night and by day instead of reciting psalms. And a certain brother who used to dwell with him once heard him say in his prayer, now as he spoke he wept, and groaned from the bottom of his heart and sighed in grief of heart, “O my Lord, I have vexed you; have pity on me, and forgive me so that I may enjoy a little rest.” Then a voice came to him that said, “Your sins have been forgiven you, and also the murder of the woman; but the murder of the child is not yet forgiven you.” And one of the old men said, “The murder of the child also was forgiven to him, but God left him to work because this would prove beneficial to his soul.”

Lausiac History 2:38

"For all our days are failed, and in Your anger we have failed" [Psalm 90:9]. These words sufficiently prove that our subjection to death is a punishment. He speaks of our days failing, either because men fail in them from loving things that pass away, or because they are reduced to so small a number; which he asserts in the following lines: "our years are spent in thought like a spider."

Exposition on Psalm 90

And so the human race was held fast in a just condemnation, and all people were children of wrath—of that wrath of which it is written, "All our days are spent; and in your wrath we have fainted away. Our years shall be considered as a spider." Or as Job says of this same wrath, "Man, born of a woman, living for a short time, is full of wrath." And of this wrath the Lord Jesus also speaks: "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; he who does not believe in the Son does not have life, but the wrath of God rests on him." He does not say it "will come" but it "rests" upon him, for everyone is born with it. And that is why the apostle says, "We were by nature children of wrath even as the rest." Since people were lying under this wrath because of original sin—sin still more heavy and destructive in proportion as the sins added on it were great or numerous—there was the need for a mediator, that is, a reconciler, who would placate this wrath by the offering of one sacrifice, of which all the sacrifices under the law and the prophets were foreshadowings.

Enchiridion 10:33

"The days of our age are threescore years and ten; and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years, yet is more of them but labour and sorrow" [Psalm 90:10]. These words appear to express the shortness and misery of this life: since those who have reached their seventieth year are styled old men. Up to eighty, however, they appear to have some strength; but if they live beyond this, their existence is laborious through multiplied sorrows. Yet many even below the age of seventy experience an old age the most infirm and wretched: and old men have often been found to be wonderfully vigorous even beyond eighty years. It is therefore better to search for some spiritual meaning in these numbers. For the anger of God is not greater on the sins of Adam (through whom alone "sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men"), [Romans 5:12] because they live a much shorter time than the men of old; since even the length of their days is ridiculed in the comparison of a thousand years to yesterday that is past, and to three hours: especially since at the very time when they provoked the anger of God to send the deluge in which they perished, their life was at its longest span.

Exposition on Psalm 90

"For who knows the power of Your wrath: and for the fear of You to number Your anger?" [Psalm 90:11]. It belongs to very few men, he says, to know the power of Your wrath; for when Thou dost spare, Your anger is so far heavier against most men; that we may know that labour and sorrow belong not to wrath, but rather to Your mercy, when You chasten and teachest those whom You love, to save them from the torments of eternal punishment: as it is said in another Psalm, "The sinner has provoked the Lord: He will not require it of him according to the greatness of His wrath." With this also is understood, "Who knows?" Such is the difficulty of finding any one who knows how to number Your anger by Your fear, that he adds this, meaning that it is to the purpose that Thou appearest to spare some, with whom You are more angry, that the sinner may be prospered in his path, and receive a heavier doom at the last. For when the power of human wrath has killed the body, it has nothing more to do: but God has power both to punish here, and after the death of the body to send into Hell, and by the few who are thus taught, the vain and seductive prosperity of the wicked is judged to be greater wrath of God.. ..

Exposition on Psalm 90

“So make your right hand known that fettered we may gain wisdom of heart.” Some codices say “trained”; others “fettered.” “Trained” implies one thing; “fettered,” another. What, then, is the meaning of “make your right hand known”? Why have you restrained your right hand so long, God? “Why draw back your hand and keep it idle beneath your garment?” says another psalm. Here is its meaning: we are lying prostrate in sickness; we are powerless in our sins; send forth your right hand and raise us up. Why do you keep your right hand so long idle beneath your cloak? Your heart overflows with a goodly theme;37 send forth your right hand and set us free. Make known to us the mystery that has been hidden from generation to generation. “Make your right hand known.” What are you pilfering, Arius? The psalmist did not say, “Make your right hand,” for God was never without his right hand. But what did he say? Your right hand, that you have always had and that has been in your bosom, make it known to us. Because we are not able to know him abiding in his Godhead, he assumes our humanity, and in that way we know him.

Homilies on the Psalms

"Make Your right hand so well known" [Psalm 90:12]. This is the reading of most of the Greek copies: not of some in Latin, which is thus, "Make Your right hand well known to me." What is, "Your right hand," but Your Christ, of whom it is said, And to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed? [Isaiah 53:1] Make Him so well known, that Your faithful may learn in Him to ask and to hope for those things rather of You as rewards of their faith, which do not appear in the Old Testament, but are revealed in the New: that they may not imagine that the happiness derived from earthly and temporal blessings is to be highly esteemed, desired, or loved, and thus their feet slip, when they see it in men who honour You not: that their steps may not give way, while they know not how to number Your anger. Finally, in accordance with this prayer of the Man that is His, He has made His Christ so well known as to show by His sufferings that not these rewards which seem so highly prized in the Old Testament, where they are shadows of things to come, but things eternal, are to be desired. The right hand of God may also be understood in this sense, as that by which He will separate His saints from the wicked: because that hand becomes well known, when it scourges every son whom He receives, and suffers him not, in greater anger, to prosper in his sins, but in His mercy scourges him with the left, that He may place him purified on His right hand. [Matthew 25:33] The reading of most copies, "make Your right hand well known to me," may be referred either to Christ, or to eternal happiness: for God has not a right hand in bodily shape, as He has not that anger which is aroused into violent passion.

Exposition on Psalm 90

A hermit said, ‘If you lose gold or silver, you can find something as good as you lost. But the man who loses time can never make up what he has lost.’

The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks

And as when they became so well known, as to despise these things, and by setting their affections on things eternal, gave a testimony through their sufferings (whence they are called witnesses or martyrs in the Greek), they endured for a long while many bitter temporal afflictions. This man of God gives heed to this, and the prophetic spirit under the name of Moses continues thus, "Return, O Lord, how long? And be softened concerning Your servants" [Psalm 90:13]. These are the words of those, who, enduring many evils in that persecuting age, become known because their hearts are bound in the chain of wisdom so firmly, that not even such hardships can induce them to fly from their Lord to the good things of this world. "How long will You hide Your face from me, O Lord?" occurs in another Psalm, in unison with this sentence, "Return, O Lord, how long?" And that they who, in a most carnal spirit, ascribe to God the form of a human body, may know that the "turning away" and "turning again" of His countenance is not like those motions of our own frame, let them recollect these words from above in the same Psalm, "You have set our misdeeds before You, and our secret sins in the light of Your countenance." How then does he say in this passage, "Return," that God may be favourable, as if He had turned away His face in anger; when as in the former he speaks of God's anger in such a manner, as to insinuate that He had not turned away His countenance from the misdeeds and the course of life of those He was angry with, but rather had set them before Him, and in the light of His countenance? The word, "How long," belongs to righteousness beseeching, not indignant impatience. "Be softened," some have rendered by a verb, "soften." But "be softened" avoids an ambiguity; since to soften is a common verb: for he may be said to soften who pours out prayers, and he to whom they are poured out: for we say, I soften you, and I soften toward you.

Exposition on Psalm 90

14–15

Next, in anticipation of future blessings, of which he speaks as already vouchsafed, he says, "We are satisfied with Your mercy in the morning" [Psalm 90:14]. Prophecy has thus been kindled for us, in the midst of these toils and sorrows of the night, like a lamp in the darkness, until day dawn, and the Day-star arise in our hearts. [2 Peter 1:19] For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God: then shall the righteous be filled with that blessing for which they hunger and thirst now, [Matthew 5:8, 6] while, walking in faith, they are absent from the Lord. [2 Corinthians 5:6] Hence are the words, "In Your presence is fullness of joy:" and, "Early in the morning they shall stand by, and shall look up:" and as other translators have said it, "We shall be satisfied with Your mercy in the morning;" then they shall be satisfied. As he says elsewhere, "I shall be satisfied, when Your glory shall be revealed." So it is said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us:" and our Lord Himself answers, "I will manifest Myself to Zion;" [John 14:8, 21] and until this promise is fulfilled, no blessing satisfies us, or ought to do so, lest our longings should be arrested in their course, when they ought to be increased until they gain their objects. "And we rejoiced and were glad all the days of our life." Those days are days without end: they all exist together: it is thus they satisfy us: for they give not way to days succeeding: since there is nothing there which exists not yet because it has not reached us, or ceases to exist because it has passed; all are together: because there is one day only, which remains and passes not away: this is eternity itself. These are the days respecting which it is written, "What man is he that lusts to live, and would fain see good days?" These days in another passage are styled years: where unto God it is said, "But You are the same, and Your years shall not fail:" for these are not years that are accounted for nothing, or days that perish like a shadow: but they are days which have a real existence, the number of which he who thus spoke, "Lord, let me know mine end" (that is, after reaching what term I shall remain unchanged, and have no further blessing to crave), "and the number of my days, what it is" (what is, not what is not): prayed to know. He distinguishes them from the days of this life, of which he speaks as follows, "Behold, You have made my days as it were a span long," which are not, because they stand not, remain not, but change in quick succession: nor is there a single hour in them in which our being is not such, but that one part of it has already passed, another is about to come, and none remains as it is. But those years and days, in which we too shall never fail, but evermore be refreshed, will never fail. Let our souls long earnestly for those days, let them thirst ardently for them, that there we may be filled, be satisfied, and say what we now say in anticipation, "We have been satisfied," etc. "We have been comforted again now, after the time that You have brought us low, and for the years wherein we have seen evil" [Psalm 90:15].

Exposition on Psalm 90

But now in days that are as yet evil, let us speak as follows. "Look upon Your servants, and upon Your works" [Psalm 90:16]. For Your servants themselves are Your works, not only inasmuch as they are men, but as Your servants, that is, obedient to Your commands. For we are His workmanship, created not merely in Adam, but in Christ Jesus, unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them: [Ephesians 2:10] "for it is God which works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure." [Philippians 2:13] "And direct their sons:" that they may be right in heart, for to such God is bountiful; for "God is bountiful to Israel, to those that are right in heart."...

Exposition on Psalm 90