What Does Psalm 90:1 Mean in the King James?
A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
God is not merely where you go for shelter; God is the home that has held every generation and still holds yours.
THE MEANING
The LORD is your dwelling now: the one in whom your life finds shelter through every change of age. This home does not expire with one generation; it remains through all of them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that safety depends on finding a place or era that can finally hold you: the LORD himself is the dwelling that endures.
THE ROOT
מָעוֹן
ma'on
GROWS FROM
עון
To dwell or reside.
“dwelling place” in this verse is ma'on. The word for dwelling can also describe a den: the image is a place where life actually settles and is sheltered. The LORD is not a passing refuge but the home in which every generation lives.
ALSO GROWS
me'onah: Dwelling place, habitation, or lair.
מְעוֹנָה
The shared word family carries the sense of an inhabited shelter, whether described as a home or a den.
ma'on: Dwelling, habitation, or den.
מָעוֹן
The same word can name a creature’s settled shelter, making the verse’s image of God as home concrete.
הָיִיתָ
hayita
GROWS FROM
היה
To be, become, or come to be.
“hast been” in this verse is hayita. The verse says the LORD has been a dwelling place for us; it does not say he merely supplied one. The verb’s root holds being and becoming together, so this shelter is presence that continues through time.
ALSO GROWS
ehyeh: I will be.
אֶהְיֶה
This form of the same root opens the sense of being that extends forward, as the dwelling continues for generations.
yihyeh: He will be.
יִהְיֶה
The future form echoes the verse’s enduring claim: this home is not confined to one generation.
THE PATTERN
God’s presence is pictured as a dwelling where life finds shelter across generations.
Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.THE THREAD
Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;The Hebrew word rendered “dwelling place” in Psalm 90:1 appears again here as “habitation.” Psalm 90 names the LORD as the home that holds every generation; Psalm 91 brings that same dwelling image close to the reader.
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