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Psalm 90 · a question people ask

"The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years" (90:10). Is that a promise, or a rule for how long we live?

In the text

The verse doesn't give it as either. It speaks as we, and goes straight on: "yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away" (90:10). Two verses on, the psalm asks for something other than a number: "So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (90:12). Psalm 39 asks something close: "LORD, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am" (Psalm 39:4), and Psalm 39's notes set it beside Jesus' words on a lifespan. These notes don't repeat them.

The verses

“The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.”
Psalm 90:10 · World English Bible
“So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Psalm 90:12 · World English Bible
““LORD, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.”
Psalm 39:4 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 90

Psalm 90: Teach us to count our days

Psalm 90 is the only psalm whose title names Moses, and it opens the fourth part of the book: God before the mountains, people like grass that lasts a day. The God who tells people "Return" (90:3) is asked, with the same Hebrew verb, "Relent, LORD!" (90:13), and the prayer ends asking, twice, "establish the work of our hands" (90:17).

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Last reviewed September 28, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions