What Does Psalm 90:10 Mean?
The days of our years, in them, are seventy years, or with strength eighty years; yet their span is toil and emptiness, for it is sheared away swiftly, and we take wing.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.THE KEY
English calls both phrases “strength,” while Hebrew moves from might that prevails to the boast of that might, and names even its long span toil and trouble.
THE MEANING
Your years may reach seventy, or eighty when strength carries them farther, but the longer span still holds toil and trouble. Even that added time passes swiftly, and we fly away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a longer life or stronger body can make finite life secure from strain and departure.
THE ROOT
רָהְבָּם
rahavam
GROWS FROM
רהב
rahav
To act proudly or boisterously; as a noun, pride, boast, or forceful arrogance.
The Hebrew word behind “their strength” carries the added shade of pride or boastful force. The verse lets that force have its full span, then says its substance is still toil and trouble.
ALSO GROWS
rahav: Pride, arrogance, or boastful force.
רָהַב
This is the word-family that gives “their strength” its added sense of a boast or proud power.
Rahab: A poetic name associated with Egypt and proud, overwhelming power.
רַהַב
Psalm 89:10 uses this name for a power that is broken, echoing this verse’s limit on what strength can hold.
גְּבוּרֹת
gevurot
GROWS FROM
גבר
gavar
To be strong or prevail.
“span” in this verse is gevurot. The first “strength” is might that prevails; it can extend the years to eighty, but it cannot make them free of toil or keep them from passing. The Hebrew changes words in the next clause, moving from might to the boast of might.
ALSO GROWS
gever: A man or adult male.
גֶּבֶר
This related word connects strength with the human being whose years the verse is counting.
gibbor: A mighty one or warrior.
גִּבּוֹר
This branch makes the force of gevurot vivid: even a mighty life remains finite.
THE PATTERN
Long life and human strength can extend the span, but they do not cancel toil or mortality.
As for humankind, his days are like grass; like the blossom of the field, so he blooms.Man, born of a woman, is short of days and full of trembling.You do not know what tomorrow holds. For what is your life? You are a mist, showing itself for a little while, and then made unseen.THE THREAD
You crush Rahab like one pierced; with your strong arm you scatter your enemies.Psalm 90’s “their strength” is rahavam, carrying the sense of proud force; Psalm 89:10 uses Rahab as a name for a power that is broken. The shared root lets this verse’s boastful strength echo against a power that cannot hold itself together.
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