Psalms 90:16
in Psalms 90May Your work be shown to Your servants, and Your splendor to their children.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Let thy work appear unto thy servants, And thy glory upon their children.
KJV
Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
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This verse in Psalms 90
Commentary
4 notes on this verseon Psalms 90:15-17
TO understand this Psalm, you must observe its black border. Remember the sorrows of Moses, the man of God, who saw a whole generation die in the wilderness and was, himself, denied admission to the promised land. The man, Moses, was greatly afflicted. I might almost call him, as far as his life in the wilderness was concerned, "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." He dug the desert till it became a cemetery, for he lived amid 40 years of funerals.
This site's exposition
Let thy work appear unto thy servants
on Psalms 90:16-17
Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children prays for the next generation to see what this one, dying in the wilderness, mostly did not. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us closes the psalm on the one request the whole poem has been building toward, God's own favor resting visibly on a short life. Establish thou the work of our hands upon us, repeated in the Hebrew's own doubling, asks that what mortal hands build outlast the hands that built it, which the bench reads as Moses' last plea over a nation he would not himself enter Canaan with.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
on Psalms 90:16-17
"Let thy work appear, and in it thy glory will appear to us and those that shall come after us." In praying for God's grace God's glory must be our end; and we must therein have an eye to our children as well as to ourselves, that they also may experience God's glory appearing upon them, so as to change them into the same image, from glory to glory.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Let thy work appear unto thy servants. See how he dwells upon that word servants. It is as far as the law can go, and Moses goes to the full length permitted him henceforth Jesus calls us not servants but friends, and if we are wise we shall make full use of our wider liberty. Moses asks for displays of divine power and providence conspicuously wrought, that all the people might be cheered thereby. They could find no solace in their own faulty works, but in the work of God they would find comfort. And thy glory unto their children.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יֵרָאֶ֣ה | yeraeh | may it appear | H7200 → | 1300 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| עֲבָדֶ֣יךָ | ʾavadeikha | servants your | H5650 → | 799 times |
| פָעֳלֶ֑ךָ | foolekha | deed[s] your | H6467 → | 37 times |
| וַ֝הֲדָרְךָ֗ | vahadarekha | and majesty your | H1926 → | 30 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | to | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| בְּנֵיהֶֽם׃ | beneihem | children their | H1121 → | 4930 times |
יֵרָאֶ֣הmay it appear
yeraehH7200 →1300 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
עֲבָדֶ֣יךָservants your
ʾavadeikhaH5650 →799 times
פָעֳלֶ֑ךָdeed[s] your
foolekhaH6467 →37 times
וַ֝הֲדָרְךָ֗and majesty your
vahadarekhaH1926 →30 times
עַל־to
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
בְּנֵיהֶֽם׃children their
beneihemH1121 →4930 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
Habakkuk 3:2O LORD, I have heard the report of You; I stand in awe, O LORD, of Your deeds. Revive them in these years; make them known in these years. In Your wrath, remember mercy!
it leads to
- Psalms 85:6
Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?
- Psalms 90:13–17
Return, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on Your servants.
- Hosea 6:2–3
After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His presence.
- Lamentations 3:32
Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion.
- Psalms 85:6
Through
Deuteronomy 32:4He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.
it leads to
- Psalms 18:30–31
As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
- Psalms 92:15
to proclaim, “The LORD is upright; He is my Rock, and in Him there is no unrighteousness.”
- Isaiah 26:4
Trust in the LORD forever, because GOD the LORD is the Rock eternal.
- Psalms 18:2
The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
- Psalms 18:30–31
About Psalms
This page draws on Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1701: “Gladness For Sadness” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 4; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.