90:9 tale that is told. This phrase, “tale that is told” is actually only one word in the Hebrew, whose basic meaning is that of a mournful or sighing sound. The idea is one of brevity and sadness. Compare James 4:14.

90:10 threescore years and ten. Moses contrasts the seventy years of a normal life span in his day (even though he himself providentially lived 120 years) with the thousand-year life-span of men before the Flood (Psalm 90:4). It is remarkable that, after over three thousand more years of human history after Moses, including the great medical advances of recent centuries, seventy to eighty years is still the normal life-span.

90:12 number our days. Compare Deuteronomy 32:29 in Moses’ valedictory address to the children of Israel. A person has only about eighteen thousand days in which he could apply his life to eternal values, so it is vitally important to be “redeeming the time” (Ephesians 5:16).