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Psalm 90:5
You sweep them away as they sleep. In the morning they sprout like new grass.
3You turn man to destruction, saying, “Return, you children of men.”
4For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.
5You sweep them away as they sleep. In the morning they sprout like new grass.
6In the morning it sprouts and springs up. By evening, it is withered and dry.
7For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath.
Notice
New grass in the morning looks full of promise, yet the surrounding lines make its brief life a sobering picture of human frailty before God.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What changes in your reading of the new grass when you include its withering in verse 6?
Write on thisWhat would you want to say to God about being among those he can sweep away?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Job 20:8He will fly away as a dream, and will not be found. Yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night.Job describes someone vanishing like a dream; the psalm describes people swept away as they sleep.
1 Peter 1:24For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls;Both compare human life to grass, with Peter naming the withering that follows the psalm’s morning growth.
Isaiah 40:6The voice of one saying, “Cry out!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.Isaiah’s comparison of all flesh to grass shares the psalm’s picture of people sprouting like new grass.
Psalm 73:20As a dream when one wakes up, so, Lord, when you awake, you will despise their fantasies.Both use sleep or waking imagery in addressing God, though Psalm 73 speaks of his contempt for their fantasies.
Job 22:16who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,Being snatched away before one’s time shares the force of the psalm’s description of people swept away.
Psalm 103:15–16As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.Both compare human life to growing grass, describing its flourishing through an image of plants.
Job 27:20–21Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night.Job’s storm steals someone away at night, while the psalm describes God sweeping people away as they sleep.
Isaiah 8:7–8now therefore, behold, the Lord brings upon them the mighty flood waters of the River: the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will come up over all its …Both describe overwhelming force under God’s command, though Isaiah names Assyria as a river overflowing its banks.
James 1:10–11and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away.James compares the rich person’s passing to a flower in grass; the psalm uses grass to picture human frailty.
Isaiah 29:7–8The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a …Isaiah compares Ariel’s attackers to a dream at night; the psalm also links human transience with sleep.
Job 9:26They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.Swift ships and a swooping eagle portray passing in Job, sharing the psalm’s sense of life that cannot be held.
Jeremiah 46:7–8“Who is this who rises up like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge?The link is slight: Jeremiah pictures surging river waters, while the psalm speaks of sweeping people away without naming water.
Where this verse fits
Aging. grief. death and what comes after.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The psalm speaks to God even about his power to sweep human life away. Your frailty is something you can name before him; human life remains in his hands.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).