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Psalms

About this book
Psalm 90

1 A prayer of Moses, the man of God. O Lord, you have been our protector through all generations. 2 Even before the mountains came into existence, or you brought the world into being, you were the eternal God. 3 You make mankind return to the dust, and say, “Return, O people.”⁠ 4 Yes, in your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday that quickly passes, or like one of the divisions of the nighttime.⁠ 5 You bring their lives to an end and they “fall asleep.” In the morning they are like the grass that sprouts up:⁠ 6 In the morning it glistens and sprouts up; at evening time it withers and dries up. 7 Yes, we are consumed by your anger; we are terrified by your wrath. 8 You are aware of our sins; you even know about our hidden sins. 9 Yes, throughout all our days we experience your raging fury; the years of our lives pass quickly, like a sigh. 10 The days of our lives add up to 70 years, or 80, if one is especially strong.⁠ But even one’s best years are marred by trouble and oppression. Yes, they pass quickly and we fly away.⁠ 11 Who can really fathom the intensity of your anger? Your raging fury causes people to fear you. 12 So teach us to consider our mortality, so that we might live wisely. 13 Turn back toward us, O Lord. How long must this suffering last? Have pity on your servants. 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your loyal love. Then we will shout for joy and be happy all our days. 15 Make us happy in proportion to the days you have afflicted us, in proportion to the years we have experienced trouble. 16 May your servants see your work. May their sons see your majesty. 17 May our Sovereign God extend his favor to us. Make our endeavors successful. Yes, make them successful.

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 3:19 and Psalm 90:3

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Psalm 90 describes humanity returning to dust, language that correlates with Genesis 3 where life begins and ends with dust. Rather than presenting dust as only a metaphor for death, both texts link mortality with human origins in a repeating cycle.

Passages

Genesis 3:19

Hebrew Bible
17 But to Adam he said, “Because you obeyed the voice of52 your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ the ground is cursed because of you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grass of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return.” 20 The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made garments from skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Psalm 90:3

Hebrew Bible
1 A prayer of Moses, the man of God. O Lord, you have been our protector through all generations. 2 Even before the mountains came into existence, or you brought the world into being, you were the eternal God. 3 You make mankind return to the dust, and say, “Return, O people.” 4 Yes, in your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday that quickly passes, or like one of the divisions of the nighttime. 5 You bring their lives to an end and they “fall asleep.” In the morning they are like the grass that sprouts up:
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... A verbal similarity exists between Genesis 3:19 and Ecclesiastes 3:20. We must now consider whether this is a citation. The creation of human beings from the dust is a common motif in the First Testament (Job 4:19; 10:9; 34:15; Ps 90:3; 103:14; 104:29). Most frequently dust simply means the grave, or death, with no indication that the creation account is the source. Dust is also used to describe prodigious offspring (Genesis 13:16; 28:14; Numbers 23:10). Returning to dust is simply a metaphor and a physiological description of death (e.g. Job 16:15; 17:16; 20:11; 21:26; Psalm 7:5; 22:15; 44:25; 89:39; Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2). No other passage contains the dual concept of creation from dust and returning to it. The closest is Job 10:9, where humans are formed from clay (כחמר) but return to dust (עפר). Reference in the preceding verse to the action of God in fashioning and making him (ידיך עצבוני ויעשוני) suggest a connection to Genesis. Psalm 90:3 and 104:29 speak of returning to dust, implying that we came from dust. Psalm 103:14, like Genesis 3:19, states that we are dust, again implying origin (and fragility). We cannot be sure that the idea of returning to dust originated with the Genesis account. However, the similarities would suggest this: both Genesis and Ecclesiastes go beyond using “dust” as a metaphor for death and “going down to dust” for dying. Both see it as the literal origin of humanity ..."
Ray Moxham, “Qohelet's Fall: The Use of Genesis 2–4 in the Book of Ecclesiastes” (MTh diss., University of Otago, 2015), 54.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Genesis 3:19 and Psalm 90:3

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