John Calvin Commentary Psalms 90:5

"Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: In the morning they are like grass which groweth up." — Psalms 90:5 (ASV)

Thou carriest them away as with a flood. Moses confirms what he had previously said: that as long as men are sojourners in this world, they complete, as it were, a cycle that lasts only for a moment.

I do not limit the expression carry away as with a flood to calamities of a more grievous kind. Instead, I consider that death is simply compared in general to a flood, for when we have stayed a little while in the world, we at once fall into the grave and are covered with earth.

Thus death, which is common to all, is rightly called an inundation. While we are breathing the breath of life, the Lord overwhelms us with death, just as those who perish in a shipwreck are engulfed by the ocean, so that death may be aptly called an invisible deluge.

And Moses affirms that it is then clearly seen that men who flatter themselves that they possess wonderful vigor in their earthly course are merely like sleep. The added comparison to grass amounts to this: that men spring forth in the morning as grass springs up; they flourish or pass away within a short time, and when cut down, they wither and decay.

The verbs in verse 6 being singular, it is better to connect them with the word grass. However, they may also be appropriately referred to each man. Since it makes little difference to the sense of the text whether we make grass or each man the nominative to the verbs, I am not disposed to spend much effort on the matter.

This doctrine requires continual meditation. For although we all confess that nothing is more transitory than our life, yet each of us is soon carried away, as it were, by a frantic impulse to picture for himself an earthly immortality.

Whoever keeps in mind that he is mortal restrains himself, so that instead of having his attention and affections excessively preoccupied with earthly objects, he may hasten toward his goal. When we set no limit to our cares, we need to be urged forward by continual prodding, so that we may not dream of a thousand lives instead of one, which is merely like a shadow that quickly vanishes away.