John Calvin Commentary Psalms 90:8

"Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance." — Psalms 90:8 (ASV)

You have set our iniquities before you. To show that by this complaint he is far from intending to murmur against God, he asserts that the Divine anger, however terrible it had been, was just, since the people had provoked it by their iniquities; for those who, when struck by the Divine hand, are not brought to genuine humiliation, harden themselves more and more.

The true way to profit, and also to subdue our pride, is to feel that He is a righteous judge. Accordingly Moses, after having briefly taught that men by nature vanish away like smoke, concludes from this that it is not to be wondered at if God destroys and consumes those whom He pursues with his wrath.

The manner of the expression by which God is described as showing the signs of his anger is to be observed—he sets the iniquities of men before his eyes. Therefore, it follows that whatever intermission of punishment we experience should justly be ascribed to the forbearance of God, who buries our sins that he may spare us.

The word עלומים, alumim, which I have translated as our secret sins, is translated by some as our youth; as if Moses had said that the faults committed in youth are brought to remembrance.

But this interpretation is too forced and inconsistent with the context of the passage, as it would destroy the contrast between secret sins and the light of God’s countenance—a contrast by which Moses intimates that men hide themselves in darkness and wrap themselves in many deceits, as long as God does not shine upon them with the light of his judgment.

Whereas, when he draws them back from their subterfuges, by which they endeavor to escape from him, and sets before his eyes the sins which they hide by hypocrisy, then, being subdued by fear and dread, they are brought sincerely to humble themselves before him.