Psalms 90:13
in Psalms 90Return, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on Your servants.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Return, O Jehovah; how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
KJV
Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
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This verse in Psalms 90
Commentary
11 notes on this verseTurn back, O Lord, how long? We have sinned much, you turn away your face, our sins are not worthy to be seen by your eyes, and therefore we pray: Turn back, O Lord, how long? Behold, now so many ages have flowed by: the prophets have always proclaimed to the nations that you would come, and still you have not come. And direct the sons of men. We who are crooked, may we be set straight by you. And direct the sons of men. Well did he say, direct the sons of men.
This site's exposition
Return, O LORD
on Psalms 90:13-15
Return in verse 13 is the verb of verse 3, now turned on God. Verse 14 asks to be filled in the morning, where verse 6 had the grass withering by evening. Verse 15 measures the glad days by the afflicted ones.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
Turn back, Lord, how long? Turn back, Lord, and look upon your image: do not show us your back, but your face. Turn back, how long? He who says how long shows that he desires, and cannot bear the delays of his desire.
And as when they became so well known, as to despise these things, and by setting their affections on things eternal, gave a testimony through their sufferings (whence they are called witnesses or martyrs in the Greek), they endured for a long while many bitter temporal afflictions. This man of God gives heed to this, and the prophetic spirit under the name of Moses continues thus, "Return, O Lord, how long? And be softened concerning Your servants" [Psalm 90:13]. These are the words of those, who, enduring many evils in that persecuting age, become known because their hearts are bound in the chain of wisdom so firmly, that not even such hardships can induce them to fly from their Lord to the good things of this world. "How long will You hide Your face from me, O Lord?" occurs in another Psalm, in unison with this sentence, "Return, O Lord, how long?" And that they who, in a most carnal spirit, ascribe to God the form of a human body, may know that the "turning away" and "turning again" of His countenance is not like those motions of our own frame, let them recollect these words from above in the same Psalm, "You have set our misdeeds before You, and our secret sins in the light of Your countenance." How then does he say in this passage, "Return," that God may be favourable, as if He had turned away His face in anger; when as in the former he speaks of God's anger in such a manner, as to insinuate that He had not turned away His countenance from the misdeeds and the course of life of those He was angry with, but rather had set them before Him, and in the light of His countenance? The word, "How long," belongs to righteousness beseeching, not indignant impatience. […]
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
We are thy servants, thy people ( Isa. lxiv. 9 ); when wilt thou change thy way toward us?" In answer to this prayer, and upon their profession of repentance ( Num. xiv. 39, 40 ), God, in the next chapter, proceeding with the laws concerning sacrifices ( Num. xv.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. 6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. This psalm is entitled a prayer of Moses.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:88%@v4-6
Return, O Lord,....
4 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Return, O Lord - Come back to thy people; show mercy by sparing them. It would seem probable from this that the psalm was composed in a time of pestilence, or raging sickness, which threatened to sweep all the people away - a supposition by no means improbable, as such times occurred in the days of Moses, and in the rebellions of the people when he was leading them to the promised land. How long? - How long shall this continue? How long shall thy wrath rage? How long shall the people still fall under thy hand?
Return, O Lord, how long? Come in mercy, to us again. Do not leave us to perish. Suffer not our lives to be both brief and bitter. Thou hast said to us, "Return, ye children of men", and now we humbly cry to thee, "Return, thou preserver of men." Thy presence alone can reconcile us to this transient existence; turn thou unto us. As sin drives God from us, so repentance cries to the Lord to return to us. When men are under chastisement they are allowed to expostulate, and ask "how long?"
Return, O Lord, how long? Come in mercy, to us again. Do not leave us to perish. Suffer not our lives to be both brief and bitter. Thou hast said to us, "Return, ye children of men", and now we humbly cry to thee, "Return, thou preserver of men." Thy presence alone can reconcile us to this transient existence; turn thou unto us. As sin drives God from us, so repentance cries to the Lord to return to us. When men are under chastisement they are allowed to expostulate, and ask "how long?" Our faith in these times is not too great boldness with God, but too much backwardness in pleading with him. And let it repent thee concerning thy servants. Thus Moses acknowledges the Israelites to be God's servants still. They had rebelled, but they had not utterly forsaken the Lord; they owned their obligations to obey his will, and pleaded them as a reason for pity. Will not a man spare his own servants? Though God smote Israel, yet they were his people, and he had never disowned them, therefore is he entreated to deal favourably with them. If they might not see the promised land, yet he is begged to cheer them on the road with his mercy, and to turn his frown into a smile. The prayer is like others which came from the meek lawgiver when he boldly pleaded with God for the nation; it is Moses like. He here speaks with the Lord as a man speaketh with his friend.
Return, O Lord, how long? - Wilt thou continue angry with us for ever? Let it repent thee - הנחם hinnachem, be comforted, rejoice over them to do them good. Be glorified rather in our salvation than in our destruction.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
So teach the number of our days And just as in the beginning, make known in the world the number of our long days, and since we enjoy longevity, we will be able to acquire intelligence, and we will acquire in them a heart of wisdom.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Satiate us in the morning On the day of the redemption and the salvation, which is the morning of the night of the trouble, the sighing, and the darkness.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שׁוּבָ֣ה | shuvah | return ! | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| יְ֭הוָה | yahweh | O Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| עַד־ | ʾad- | until | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| מָתָ֑י | matai | when? | H4970 → | 43 times |
| וְ֝הִנָּחֵ֗ם | vehinachem | and have compassion | H5162 → | 108 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| עֲבָדֶֽיךָ׃ | ʾavadeikha | servants your | H5650 → | 799 times |
שׁוּבָ֣הreturn !
shuvahH7725 →1056 times
יְ֭הוָהO Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
עַד־until
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
מָתָ֑יwhen?
mataiH4970 →43 times
וְ֝הִנָּחֵ֗םand have compassion
vehinachemH5162 →108 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
עֲבָדֶֽיךָ׃servants your
ʾavadeikhaH5650 →799 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 135:14For the LORD will vindicate His people and will have compassion on His servants.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 32:36
For the LORD will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 32:36
Through
Psalms 106:45And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.
it leads to
- Judges 2:18
Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for the Israelites, He was with that judge and saved them from the hands of their enemies while the judge was still alive; for the LORD was…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 105:8
He remembers His covenant forever, the word He ordained for a thousand generations—
- 2 Kings 13:23
But the LORD was gracious to Israel and had compassion on them, and He turned toward them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And to this day, the LORD has been…
- Lamentations 3:32
Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion.
- Judges 2:18
Through
Deuteronomy 32:36For the LORD will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free.
it leads to
- Psalms 135:14
For the LORD will vindicate His people and will have compassion on His servants.
- Psalms 135:14
Through
Psalms 80:14Return, O God of Hosts, we pray! Look down from heaven and see! Attend to this vine—
it leads to
- Isaiah 63:15
Look down from heaven and see, from Your holy and glorious habitation. Where are Your zeal and might? Your yearning and compassion for me are restrained.
- Isaiah 63:15
Through
Amos 7:3So the LORD relented from this plan. “It will not happen,” He said.
it leads to
- Jonah 3:10
When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.
- Jonah 3:10
About Psalms
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 90; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 4; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Jerome, Homily 19, on Psalm 89; Jerome, Homily 67, on Psalm 89 (Alternate Series); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.