Psalm 90: A Prayer for 2025

By: Edward Cortez

 

My grandfather lived past 100 years old, and his favorite Bible verse is Psalm 90:1, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.” This is indeed a powerful prayer that underscores God’s unfailing love and His faithfulness throughout our lives. We thank God that He has brought us to another year with new opportunities and challenges.

Psalm 90 is an ideal prayer to begin the New Year. It is a prayer uttered by Moses toward the end of his life. He had seen the ups and downs of life and overcame tremendous challenges as a leader and deliverer of God’s people. He wrote Psalm 90 as an expression of his gratitude and appreciation of God’s goodness.

The first two verses of Psalm 90 are an affirmation of the eternality of God, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (verses 1,2). A dwelling place is a place of safety, security, and protection; it is a place of comfort, warmth, and peace. And that’s who God is. “In all generations” encompasses all past and future generations since the beginning of time.

The next 10 verses of Psalm 90 are an acknowledgement of our mortality and need for wisdom. Verses 3,4, and 10 read, “You turn people back to dust, saying, ‘Return to dust, you mortals.’ A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night…our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.”

Then verse 12 enjoins us to make every single day of our lives counts, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” The year 2024 ended with a devastating plane crash in South Korea that killed 179 people and only two survived. On New Year’s Day, a terrorist took out the lives of 14 innocent people and injured dozens by ramming his truck on a crowd excited to welcome the New Year. Life is very fragile and unpredictable.

This prayer of Moses reminds us of the brevity of our lives. We need to pray for divine, godly wisdom so that we may live each day to the full. This prayer ends by asking God for His favor and blessings. May it be our prayer as well for the year 2025: “Let the favor and kindness of the Lord our God be with us. Make us successful in everything we do. Yes, make us successful in everything we do.”