October 26, 2024 | Daniel L. Segraves, Ph.D.

At about 12:15 this morning, I finished my work on Psalm 90, the first psalm in Book 4 of the Psalter. I had told my wife Susan that I thought I could finish it yesterday, and I almost made it.

The superscription of Psalm 90 informs us it is “A Prayer of Moses the man of God.” It is the only psalm written by Moses, which makes it the oldest in the Book of Psalms. We can’t be sure when it was written, but we can be certain he wrote it before he died! Since I wasn’t able to come up with anything that resembled a close date, I consulted Logos Bible Software’s new AI feature, which assured me that Moses wrote it “by the year 1440 BC.” I’ll go with that.

Since I’m living in 2024, that means Moses wrote the psalm somewhere around 3,464 years ago. That’s why I say it is “a very old psalm.”

When I study the psalms, I always keep in mind that Jesus, just before His ascension, told His disciples, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me” (Luke 24:44, NKJV). He told the Jewish leaders who did not believe on Him, “There is one who accuses you–Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:45-47, NKJV).

I discovered some interesting things in Psalm 90 that point toward the future. Here’s a hint: They involve servants and children. See if you can figure this out. I’ll tell you what I think in the second volume of my commentary, The Messiah in the Psalms. I hope to finish this up and submit it to the editor by the end of this year. I would be happy to see it published before the 2025 general conference of the United Pentecostal Church International, which will convene in St. Louis, Missouri, my home town!

Now, on to Psalm 91, the psalm from which Satan quoted in his attempt to convince Jesus to throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple.

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