Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
Moses opens by anchoring the people to God's covenant favor before he addresses their misery and judgment. He means to say: yes, you die like all men, yes, God punishes sin, but He has adopted you, and that peculiar grace is your true dwelling place through all generations.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 90:1-17
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee. Hence these tears! Sin seen by God must work death; it is only by the covering blood of atonement that life comes to any of us. When God was overthrowing the tribes in the wilderness he had their iniquities before him, and therefore dealt with them in severity. He could not have their iniquities before him and not smite them.
Israel must confess a hard truth: their sufferings flow from God's anger, not mere nature or chance. Death is no simple debt to our flesh; it is a debt to God's justice, purchased by sin. When sickness wastes you or calamity strikes, do not blame circumstance, you are tasting the wrath of Heaven revealed against ungodliness and unrighteousness.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 90:7-11