John Calvin Commentary Psalms 90:1

"Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place In all generations." — Psalms 90:1 (ASV)

O Lord! You have been our dwelling-place. In separating the seed of Abraham by special privilege from the rest of the human family, the Psalmist magnifies the grace of adoption, by which God had embraced them as His children. The object he has in view in this introduction is that God would now renew the grace He had displayed in former times toward the holy patriarchs, and continue it toward their offspring.

Some commentators think that he alludes to the tabernacle, because in it the majesty of God was not less conspicuous than if He had dwelt in the midst of the people; but this seems to me to be altogether out of place. He rather encompasses the whole time in which the Fathers sojourned in the land of Canaan.

Since the tabernacle had not yet existed for forty years, the long duration mentioned here—our dwelling-place from generation to generation—would not be applicable to it at all. It is not intended, then, to recount what God showed Himself to be toward the Israelites from the time He delivered them from Egypt, but what their fathers had experienced Him to be in all ages, even from the beginning.

Now it is declared that as they had always been pilgrims and wanderers, so God served as their dwelling-place. No doubt, the condition of all people is unstable on earth; but we know that Abraham and his posterity were, above all others, sojourners and, as it were, exiles.

Since, then, they wandered in the land of Canaan until they were brought into Egypt, where they lived only by permission from day to day, it was necessary for them to seek a dwelling-place under the shadow of God. Without this, they could hardly be considered inhabitants of the world, since they remained strangers everywhere and were afterwards led about through many twists and turns.

The grace the Lord displayed in sustaining them in their wanderings, and shielding them with His hand when they sojourned among savage and cruel nations and were exposed to harmful treatment from them—this grace is extolled by Moses in very striking terms when he represents God as an abode or dwelling-place to these poor fugitives who were continually wandering from one place to another seeking places to stay. He magnifies this grace because of the length of time during which it had been exercised, for God never ceased to preserve and defend them for more than four hundred years, during which time they dwelt under the wings of His protection.