Unexpectedly this is a Psalm of Moses. He begins by focusing on God’s eternal nature (v1-2) in contrast to man’s frailty (v3). The Lord observes many millennia (v4) but people are constantly being swept away (v5-6).

This Psalm is really a prayer and the secret to power praying is to have a right sense of the eternal. When we bring God down in our thinking we worship a false god who is weak and unable to meet our every need.

Moses focuses on the great danger of God’s wrath (v7-11). This is of course is our biggest problem, being guilty before this holy God. This needs to cause us to be careful, to number our days (v12) and to trust in the Lord’s steadfast love (v13-14). We must focus on God’s love, but we also need to focus on God’s holiness and awesome nature, to be a people who are reverent.

David knew that his only hope was the intervention of the Lord and Him coming to perform mighty works of grace (v15-17). The gap between God and us is so great that we can never reach up to God, but rather the Lord needs to reach down to us in grace and mercy. This the Lord always does through Jesus His dear Son and the saviour of the world.