Meditation on Psalm 90 “O Lord, You Have Been Our Refuge”

When I pray this psalm, light pierces the heart—gentle, sorrowful, and clear. I see before me the fleeting breath of my life, the faces of those I have loved and lost, and the fragile moments that have slipped like water through my fingers. Time gathers us all into its tide, carrying away youth, strength, and every illusion of permanence. We are swept away like grass that blossoms in the morning and withers by nightfall. It is humbling, even terrifying, to face how brief and uncertain our days truly are.

Yet within this realization, something eternal awakens. The psalm is not a lament of despair but a cry of trust: “O Lord, You have been our refuge from generation to generation.” Beneath the decay and transience of this world lies a steadfast Presence—One who is before all things and in whom nothing is lost. Every sorrow, every fleeting joy, every act of love entrusted to Him is gathered into a radiance that does not fade.

In the darkness of suffering, when the heart feels old before its time and the weight of mortality presses heavily, the Lord whispers through the psalm: “Make us know the shortness of our life, that we may gain wisdom of heart.” The wisdom He offers is not the cold acceptance of death but the luminous peace that flows from communion with Him who is Life itself. In His gaze, the brevity of our days becomes the doorway to eternity.

So I pray:

Teach me to measure my life not by length of years but by depth of love.

Let every sorrow drive me more deeply into Your mercy.

Let every remembrance of the dead become a confession of trust in Your resurrection.

You do not abandon the work of Your hands; You redeem it in Your boundless compassion.

When the shadows lengthen and the final evening comes, may I rest in You who were my dwelling all along.

And when the dawn of Your glory breaks, may all whom I have loved and all for whom I have prayed rise with me to behold the light that no darkness can overcome.

“Let the favor of the Lord be upon us;

give success to the work of our hands,

give success to the work of our hands.”