John Calvin Commentary Psalms 90:10

"The days of our years are threescore years and ten, Or even by reason of strength fourscore years; Yet is their pride but labor and sorrow; For it is soon gone, and we fly away." — Psalms 90:10 (ASV)

In the days of our years there are threescore years and ten. He again returns to the general doctrine concerning the precariousness of the human condition, even though God may not openly display his wrath to terrify them. “What,” he says, “is the duration of life? Truly, if we reckon all our years, we will eventually come to seventy, or, if there are some who are stronger and more vigorous, they will bring us even to eighty.” Moses uses the expression the days of our years for emphasis, because when time is divided into small portions, the sheer number itself deceives us, so that we flatter ourselves that life is long.

To overthrow these vain delusions, he permits people to sum up the many thousands of days that are in a few years, while at the same time affirming that this great heap is soon brought to nothing. Let people then extend the span of their life as much as they please, by calculating that each year contains three hundred and sixty-five days; yet certainly they will find that the term of seventy years is short.

When they have made a lengthy calculation of the days, this is the sum in which the process ultimately results. He who has reached the age of eighty years hurries to the grave. Moses himself lived longer (Deuteronomy 34:7), and so perhaps did others in his time; but he is speaking here of the ordinary lifespan.

And even then, those who attained the age of eighty years were considered old men, and in a way decrepit, so that he justly declares that it is only the robust who reach that age. He uses pride for the strength or excellence of which people boast so highly.

The meaning is that before people decline and come to old age, even in the very bloom of youth they are involved in many troubles, and they cannot escape from the cares, weariness, sorrows, fears, griefs, inconveniences, and anxieties to which this mortal life is subject. Moreover, this refers to the whole course of our existence in the present state.

And certainly, whoever considers the condition of our life from infancy until we descend into the grave will find troubles and turmoil in every part of it. The two Hebrew words עמל, amal, and און, aven, which are joined together, are taken passively for inconveniences and afflictions, implying that human life is full of labor and filled with many torments, even when people are at the height of their pride.

The reason that is added, for it swiftly passes by, and we fly away, hardly seems to suit the context of the passage, for happiness may be brief, and yet on that account it does not cease to be happiness. But Moses means that people foolishly glory in their excellence, since, whether they want to or not, they are compelled to look to the future. As soon as they open their eyes, they see that they are dragged and carried toward death with rapid haste, and that their excellence is vanishing every moment.