John Calvin Commentary Psalms 90:13

"Return, O Jehovah; how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants." — Psalms 90:13 (ASV)

Return, O Jehovah! how long? After having spoken in the language of complaint, Moses adds a prayer that God, who had not ceased for a long time severely to punish his people, would finally be inclined to deal gently with them. Although God daily gave them in many ways some taste of his love, yet their banishment from the land of promise was a very severe affliction, for it reminded them that they were unworthy of that blessed inheritance which he had appointed for his children. They could not help but often remember that dreadful oath which he had thundered out against them,

Surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: but as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness (Numbers 14:23, 32).

Moses, no doubt, combines that severe bondage which they had suffered in Egypt with their wanderings in the wilderness; and therefore he justly laments their prolonged suffering in the words how long? As God is said to turn his back on us, or to depart to a distance from us, when he withdraws the signs of his favor, so his return is to be understood as the manifestation of his grace.

The word נחם, nacham, which we have translated be pacified, signifies to repent, and may therefore appropriately be explained thus: Let it repent you concerning your servants. According to the frequent and well-known language of Scripture, God is said to repent when, removing people's sorrow and providing new reason for gladness, he appears as if to be changed.

Those, however, seem to better capture the Psalmist's meaning who translate, Comfort yourself over your servants; for God, in cherishing us tenderly, takes as much pleasure in us as a father does in his own children. This is simply to be pacified or propitious, as we have translated it, to make the meaning clearer.