Deeper Commentary
Psa 90:1
Book IV
A Prayer by Moses, the man of God-
I suggest this is inserted at this point in the Psalter because it is
being used in the context of the exiles. Although Psalm 89 is in book 3 of
the Psalms and Psalm 90 begins book 4, there are connections between the
two Psalms; not least Ps. 89:47,48 = Ps. 90:3-10.
This prayer of Moses is
an appeal for God to rethink His condemnation of Israel to not entering
the promised land, and to the 40 year period of exile from it before they
could enter it. This of course meant that the generation which had left
Egypt would die without entering the land. And Moses seeks to change God's
mind about this, just as he had changed God's mind about His intention to
destroy Israel completely; and just as Moses sought to have his own
rejection from entering the land abrogated. This was exactly relevant to
the exiles, who wanted the 70 years exile to be shortened, and for their
generation to reenter the land and see the restoration of the Kingdom of
God there. As noted on Ps. 89:47,48, they did not want to die before
seeing this happen: "How long, Yahweh? Will You hide Yourself forever?
Will Your wrath burn like fire? Remember how short my time is! For what
vanity have You created all the children of men! What man is he who shall
live and not see death, who shall deliver his soul from the power of
Sheol? Selah. Lord, where are Your former graces which You swore to David
in Your faithfulness?". But as Moses' intercession for these things was not
answered as he wished, so the exiles were to largely die in exile. Psalm
91 however is connected to Psalm 90, and speaks of how the salvation of
Israel was to be through Joshua - Jesus. This was the answer to Moses'
struggle and for that of the exiles.
The Psalms 90 and 91 are full of language found in Deuteronomy, the address Moses gave at the very end of his life. Dt. 33, the final song of Moses, has many connections. Thus Dt. 33:1 also calls Moses the man of God, as does the title of Ps. 90; Dt. 33:15 speaks of the ancient mountains as does Ps. 90:2. So I see Psalm 90 as his prayer of depression at the end of life, wishing so much to change God's mind and let him enter Canaan, and to have had mercy on Israel who died in the desert. Moses is depressed- he had earlier changed God's mind about destroying Israel, but now he laments he cannot change God's mind about himself nor Israel. And he comes to the end of his life depressed and perhaps not as spiritually strong as he earlier was- just as Gideon, John the Baptist, David, Jacob etc. were all spiritually weaker at the end of their lives than they were at some points during their earlier lives. God's answer is in Ps. 91- that he should rejoice that Joshua and others would enter the land, and that because Moses had loved Yahweh's Name, for all his depression and struggle with God, he was assured of great honour and eternal salvation. Ps. 91:16, the final verse of these two Psalms, is therefore the climax to it all. Although Moses felt his prayer of Ps. 90 was unanswered, Ps. 91:14 comforts him that "When he calls to me, I will answer him". The essence of his prayer was that he would be saved- and that would be eternally granted.
Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations-
The allusion may be to Moses' words that God was the safe dwelling
place of Israel (Dt. 33:27). Joshua is commended for making Yahweh his
dwelling place (Ps. 91:9). But He was not the point of refuge for Israel
in all their generations, in that they had chosen other gods.
There is a repeated Biblical theme that the believer's relationship with the Father too is essentially mutual. For example, we dwell in God (Ps. 90:1), and He dwells in us (1 Cor. 3:16). Thus "he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him" (1 Jn. 4:15,16). We respond to God's call of us by calling upon Him (1 Cor. 1:2).
The relevance to the exiles, who had no temple, is that God has always been the temple / dwelling place of His people, even when there was no temple. The lack of external religious symbols like a church building don't mean that God has no dwelling place. For He dwells in human hearts and those hearts dwell in Him. But it could be that Moses is trying to argue with God that His people have always dwelt in Him, and so He should cut them some slack and relent on banning them from entering the land because of their refusal to enter the land in Num. 14. What Moses says is true only on one level.
Psa 90:2
Before the mountains were brought forth, before You had formed the
land and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God-
We are reading here the "prayer" of Moses (:1). But these opening
verses make it clear that prayer is meditation before God, and not simply
requests. "Brought forth... formed [Heb. 'give birth to']" suggests that the world was formed
out of God. The idea of literal creatio ex nihilo isn't Biblical. This world is made
out of God and is therefore not separate from Him. Man is not alone; we aren't cut adrift from our creator. God is so closely with us. He isn't far from every one of us. The fact God is in Heaven and we on earth doesn't mean He is far from us. In human terms, spatiality means apartness; but not for God, who fills Heaven and earth. His being in space and time breaks in to our experience of space and time. Note too that God is perfect / complete in and of Himself;
He didn't "need" us. But He created us and then speaks as if He does in some sense "need" us. The point is, creation was an act of grace. All complaints at the seeming injustice and suffering of creation miss this point. Note too that "brought forth" implies God as a mother / female. His nature is such that He is able to identify with both male and female.
Psa 90:3
You turn man to destruction saying, Return, you children of men-
Ps. 90:3 implies that each person dies as a result of a conscious,
specific command from God; not just because of natural processes. The
specific reference is to God's command that Israel were to die in the
wilderness. Moses is begging God to change this judgment; hence LXX "Turn
not man back to his low place, whereas thou saidst, Return, ye sons of
men". But the Hebrew for "destruction" means 'to pulverize to
dust', and we wonder whether Moses is wrongly considering that the
sentence of Gen. 3, to return to dust, is somewhat unfair- that the
punishment is as it were brutally executed by God, out of proportion to
the sin committed. Moses likewise always blames his not entering the land
upon Israel's provocation of him, rather than accepting the consequence of
his sinful response to their provocation. Moses himself died by the mouth
/ kiss of the Angel, surrounded by God's love, rather than being brutally
pulverized by God as he here describes death.
And yet the allusion is also to the curse in Eden; it is as if God speaks Gen. 3:19 to each person who dies. In this sense the Bible is a living word; the Red Sea and other salvations of God are as it were performed in an ongoing sense to us each one today. Likewise Abel "is yet spoken of" (Heb. 11:4 AVmg.).The passage in the scrolls that said "I am the God of Abraham" was "spoken unto you by God", Jesus told first century Israel (Mt. 22:31). And so Moses really provides his own answer. He is desperate for the 40 year condemnation period to be changed so that he and his generation could enter Canaan. But in fact they were all going to return to the dust anyway, in accordance with Gen. 3:19. And the conclusion really is that our focus ought to be upon a resurrection from the dead, rather than seeking some kind of kingdom now.
"Return" to dust is picked up by Moses later on in his prayer when he asks God to "return" to His people (:13), to return or repent of His intention for Israel to return to dust in the desert, and for Moses to return to dust before entering Canaan. But Moses is overlooking the fact that man must return to dust by the nature of who he is. Even if he and Israel were to enter Canaan, they would still die. But perhaps he has the idea that God could return / relent from His purpose of returning man to dust- through a resurrection, "in the morning" (:14). That is what Moses is implying, and God's final answer in Ps. 91:16 is that indeed, He will show Moses His great salvation, through saving him from the plague of death (Ps. 91:3- alluded to by Paul when he talks of how the resurrection saves from the plague of death). So we see here how prayer works- by stating the problem and our inner longings, we come to some kind of answer. In this case, Moses reflects that although God will indeed return man to dust, He can also return or relent from that- through resurrection of the body.
Psa 90:4
For a thousand years in Your sight are just like yesterday when
it is past, like a watch in the night-
Was Moses right to imply that God forgets about His creatures, just as we sleep through the night watch unaware of its passing?
Ps. 90 is Moses' prayer asking for God's judgment against Israel and himself in the wilderness to be changed.
He had reasoned with God and changed His earlier decision to destroy Israel and make of Moses a great nation. But this prayer of Moses went unanswered- "speak no more unto
Me of this matter" (Dt. 3:26). But here Moses is
doing just that- speaking again to God of this matter.
However, this Psalm is an example of how intimate a man can become with God. Moses pleads that man only lives 70 years, maybe 80- so, cut us some slack, God, and reverse our judgment (Ps. 90:10). He waxes very poetic and eloquent about our humanity. But fails to persuade God. And he also rather oddly seems to ignore the fact that he was blessed with 120 years of life with his youthful vigour unabated. He describes our return to dust as being a result of God's wrath and anger (Ps. 90:3,7)- suggesting some resentment at God's judgment of man in Gen. 3, just as Moses resented how God had judged him and Israel. He argues that they had already suffered quite enough evil in Egypt (Ps. 90:15) and asks if God can't give that generation just a little joy in life.
Ps. 90:4 could be seen as Moses arguing 'You've got eternity; we only have a delicate, fragile, grief-filled 70 years. So please, relent on your idea of filling all our human lives with grief by not letting us into the promised land'. Ps. 90:8 sounds like Moses objected to God scrutinizing our "secret sins", and Ps. 90:11 speaks as if God's anger and wrath were just too much. He clearly had a problem accepting the justice of God's punishment against sin, as did the exiles; hence this prayer wasn't answered. But it's the intimacy with God, that a man feels he can speak like this to God, which is the exhortation.
Psa 90:5
You sweep them away as they sleep; in the morning they sprout like
new grass-
LXX "Years shall be vanity to them: let the morning pass away as
grass". Moses is complaining that the 40 years of wandering would just be
wasted years of vanity. But that is indeed what condemnation will be like,
and Moses and the exiles (in different contexts) all come over as railing
against consequence of sin, rather than focusing upon repentance and the
final fulfilment of God's purpose. The language here is that used of the
destruction of the Egyptians at the Red Sea (Ps. 77:17 is the only other
occurrence of "You sweep them away"), where "in the morning" the Egyptians
were dead (Ex. 14:24,27) and had to be replaced by a new generation ["new
grass"]. Moses is complaining that the condemned generation were being
treated like the Egyptians slain at the Red Sea. But that was indeed
appropriate; for in their hearts they had returned to Egypt, and Ezekiel
records that they had taken the idols of Egypt with them through the Red
Sea. But again, the consequence of sin is focused upon, rather than
admission of sin.
Psa 90:6
In the morning it sprouts and springs up; by evening, it is
withered and dry-
Indeed this is the case. Moses seems to be arguing that the condemned
generation would have a tragically vain life experience, as if they were
grass which grew up in the morning and then was dead by evening. But this
therefore leads the condemned sinner [which is all of us] to a desire for
forgiveness and resurrection to eternity. But that connection isn't made
here as the prophets intended it to be made.
But all this is interpreted in James 1:11 so positively. If we are indeed so fleeting and weak, then don't worry about getting rich. Don't trust in man nor in wealth. Because man is so weak. Likewise in Ps. 90:12- numbering our days, realizing their brevity, will help us get a heart of wisdom.
Psa 90:7
For we are consumed in Your anger, we are troubled in Your wrath-
God had earlier wanted to "consume" Israel, but the intercession of
Moses had stopped this (Num. 16:21,45 s.w.), as did that of Phinehas (Num.
25:11 s.w.). The threat of being "consumed" by God's anger was part of the
covenant Israel had made with Him (s.w. Dt. 28:21). They were suffering
the agreed consequence of sin, and yet Moses presents this as being
unreasonably harsh (:6). And so Moses' request was not answered, at least
not as he then desired. For God did indeed "consume" Israel with vanity, a
vanity they themselves had chosen (s.w. Ps. 78:33). But this was only
after vowing to "consume" them both in Egypt and in the wilderness, and
then He had relented out of pure pity and grace for them (Ez.
20:13,14,21,22). He had relented multiple times before; but Moses was not
allowed this time to cash in on that. And this was true of the
exiles, whom God also "consumed" for their sins (s.w. Jer. 5:3; 9:16;
14:12 and very often).
Psa 90:8
You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the
light of Your face-
Moses perceived that Israel [and his?] rejection from the land wasn't just due to one incident, but because of their secret sins being viewed by God. Moses himself had been often in the light of God's countenance. David in his penitential Psalms concerning Bathsheba and Uriah likewise at times perceives that there were many other sins involved than "just" adultery and murder.
This is not Moses reproaching God; rather is it him soberly recognizing why they were barred from the land. Notice "our iniquities... our sins". Moses was completely at one with condemned Israel, he knew exactly how they felt- just as the Lord Jesus with us. It is a fundamental, if neglected, doctrine that the Lord Jesus was our representative. This really ought to be a source of comfort to us, as we sense the involvement of the Son of God in our lives, one who can truly empathize (rather than just sympathize) with our spiritual struggle. This is so clearly taught by the typology of Moses as a type of Christ. Although he spoke to God as a friend, with an open-faced relationship, he still took upon himself the sin of Israel, he felt as condemned as they felt (Ex. 34:9 cp. Ex. 33:11); when he pleaded for God's sentence on him to be lifted, he pleaded for the same sentence on Israel to be lifted too (Ps. 90:8).
So here in Psalm 90 Moses pleads for his rejection and that of his people to be reversed. He says that the reason for their rejection was God setting their "secret sins" in the light of His countenance. He felt his rejection was due to his secret sins- not the one painfully public failure. The Hebrew for "secret" means 'that behind the veil'; it is from the same root as the Hebrew for 'young girl', i.e. a veiled one. He felt the sins he had committed behind the veil he wore before Israel had been exposed in the light of the Angel's face. Remember that Moses always appeared to Israel with a veil (Ex. 34:33-35; 2 Cor. 3:16-18 RV), only removing it when he spoke face to face with the Angel, radiating the light of God's glory to him. It seems Moses is alluding to this in Ps. 90:8; he felt that he had many secret sins of the heart, hidden to Israel, but completely open to the Angel when he met with him. Likewise Israel were rejected because of the sins of their heart rather than their grosser failures (Acts 7:39; and see the reason for their condemnation given in many other passages).
Psa 90:9
For all our days have passed away in Your wrath, we bring our
years to an end as a sigh-
This is clearly relevant to the wilderness generation, who
spent their years suffering God's wrath. They were ever complaining, and
ended their years with a groan, just as the first sound they heard on
entering the world was the groan of their mother bringing them forth. God
swore in His wrath that Israel should not enter into His rest. But Moses
seems to resent that wrath, despite sharing it and understanding it when
he returned to witness the golden calf apostasy, and broke the tables of
the covenant. But a man can rise to great peaks of spirituality and
perception, yet fall away from them at the end of his life. I suggest this
is what has happened here to Moses as it did with Gideon and John the
Baptist. But Ps. 91 assures Moses that despite this, he will be saved.
"Bring... to an end" is s.w. "consumed" in :7; see note there. It seems Moses is making this prayer towards the start of the forty years wandering and exile from the land. Otherwise there would be little point in begging for the judgment to be reversed. So he may be speaking imagining how things would be at the end of the period; their days would have been wasted in vanity, coming to an end with a sigh of regret. But he fails to see the possibility of being resurrected to eternity in a future, restored Kingdom situation.
"As a sigh" is AV "As a tale that is told", perhaps a reference to the tradition of giving a summary of the deceased's life at their funeral? Is. 53:8 laments that this wasn't done at the death of Messiah. The idea perhaps is that as it takes a mere 20 minutes to summarize a person's life, so in the context of infinity, that is indeed how brief it is.
Psa 90:10
The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength
eighty years-
Lifespans were still relatively long at Moses' time; his father Amram
apparently lived to over 130 years, and Moses to 120.
The mention of 70
years may have been the result of an edit by the exiles, lamenting that
the 70 years of exile from the land would be pointless living; just as
Moses had complained about the 40 years of exile from the land at his
time. As noted on :1, Moses is speaking in depression- for he
appears unmindful and ungrateful of the fact he has come to 120 years with
full faculties.
LXX "As for the days of our years, in them are seventy years; and if men should be in strength, eighty years: and the greater part of them would be labour and trouble; for weakness overtakes us, and we shall be chastened". The idea is that there is just no point in life if they could not enter the land. Normally, we would prefer to die at 80 rather than 70. But in the context of the argument here, if they weren't going to enter the land, then living another ten years in exile was vanity and worthless.
Yet their pride is but labour and sorrow, for it passes quickly,
and we pass away-
"Labour and sorrow" is the phrase translated "iniquity and
perverseness" (Num. 23:21), which initially God saw in the wilderness
generation, but did not count against them. But they chose to live in it,
and so they were made to live like that for 40 years. The same phrase is
used of how the exiles chose to live in "mischief and iniquity" (Is.
59:4), and so their glory flew away (s.w. "pass away") as a bird (s.w.
Hos. 9:11).
Psa 90:11
Who knows the power of Your anger, Your wrath according to the
fear that is due to You?-
Moses could be saying that God's anger was incomprehensible, out of
proportion to the sin committed, too much wrath for Israel not showing Him
enough fear. And of course he would have been wrong in this. Or it could
be that he is musing that according to our perceptions of God we will be
judged. God's mercy is upon us according as we trust in Him. And His wrath
according as we fear it, Moses appears to be saying. The way the servant was judged out of his own mouth,
with the Lord being the kind of "hard man" he thought He was (Mt. 25:24), is surely the
principle of Ps. 90:11 AV: "Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath" (in
practice).
Psa 90:12
So teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of
wisdom-
The condemned generation knew that within 40 years they would be dead.
And so they could number their days. But the time to be wise had passed;
they had chosen not to be, hence the lament: "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!" (Dt. 32:29).
So we could read this as Moses sarcastically asking them to be
given a heart of wisdom, when he knew actually they had not attained this
in their time of opportunity.
LXX presents this as a another plea for God to become active in the salvation of His people immediately, rather than after the 40 years wandering: "And who knows how to number his days because of the fear of thy wrath? So manifest thy right hand". This would suggest that numbering days was pointless because they were under God's wrath. They were indeed, but instead of pestering God to change their condemnation, the focus instead might have been upon confession of sin and hope in the resurrection of the body to the restored Kingdom at the last day.
The other references to people having a heart of wisdom are also in Moses' experience, when the wise of heart make things for the tabernacle (Ex. 35:25). Perhaps Moses is answering his own question here- given their brief lives, the 25,600 days that make up 70 years, they should put their best effort into the Lord's work. Which at their time was the making of the tabernacle. True wisdom is therefore not academic, but rather perceiving our brief life and earnestly devoting every day to His service, knowing our work for Him will be blessed and endure.
Psa 90:13
Relent, Yahweh! How long? Have compassion on Your servants!-
This is the "How long?" asked by the exiles so often in the Psalms.
They wanted immediate restoration, just as Moses wanted the 40 year period
to be cut short. This 'prayer of Moses' (title) is lamenting how Israel were being
destroyed by the Angel as they wandered in the forty year period of
punishment. It may even be that the Angel left Israel in a sense (hence
"Return O Lord") although still leading them. Thus there are different
degrees of the Angelic presence- as at the restoration the Angel did in a
limited sense return to the temple, having left them when the cherubim
departed from Zion (as Ezekiel records).
Yet Moses clearly believed that this period of decreed punishment
could be shortened ("satisfy us early with Thy mercy") by the Angel
repenting. Previously his prayers had succeeded in making the Angel repent
of the evil that He had planned to do to Israel, and Moses evidently hoped
the Angel would again repent.
"Relent... have compassion" are the same words as in Ex. 32:12, "Turn and change Your mind from Your wrath". Ps. 90:11 has just spoken of God's fierce wrath. God was persuaded by Moses after the sin with the golden calf, but now Moses is struggling to do so again- in appealing for Israel's punishment to be changed, and perhaps for his own ban on entering Canaan to be lifted. He is failing to realize that judgment is still part of God's Name as declared in Ex. 34:5-7. Sin still has consequences. And he himself struggled with this when he continually blames Israel for his not entering the land- true as that was, he still was responsible for his words and his sin at that time. Those who make others stumble are guilty, but so is he who thereby stumbles. And Moses is struggling to accept this. He is depressed, and died depressed, that he could not achieve what he had done earlier... which is typical of the old man's depression syndrome.
Moses' hope was always that God would "repent" if He perceived the depth of Israel's suffering (Dt. 32:36 "The Lord will repent Himself for His servants when He sees that their power is gone"]. "Return" may also be a request for God's presence to return again to the tabernacle rather than being outside it. All this was exactly what the exiles were asking; and yet they failed to focus upon the fact they had sinned, failed to give much emphasis to repentance, and seem more concerned about the immediate removal of the consequence of sins, rather than looking ahead to the last day.
Psa 90:14
Satisfy us in the morning with Your grace, that we may rejoice
and be glad all our days-
AV has "satisfy us early", i.e. 'reduce the time period of judgment upon us, and let us enter the land'. Or [Heb.],
Moses may be asking for an answer "in the morning",
immediately, right after his night of prayer.
Psa 90:15
Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, for as
many years as we have seen evil-
The thoughts of Moses here were reflected in the exiles; but they
all failed to perceive that they had been judged less than their sins
deserved (Ezra 9:13). Whereas the reasoning here seems to be that God
needs to as it were put right what He did in judging His people. The
"afflicted" years would refer to the entire sojourn in Egypt (s.w. Gen.
15:13; Ex. 1:12). But this "affliction" was intended to bring them to
repentance (1 Kings 8:35; Ps. 119:67,71). The affliction could therefore
be ended by repentance; but instead of that, there is simply a demand that
God simply overturn the consequence of sin.
Moses seems to be asking God to now make up for His affliction of His people by giving them a commensurate blessing. But surely Moses is failing to perceive that the afflictions were just, a result of human sin, as God's answer in Ps. 91 will explain. And likewise he is not seeing that God's blessings of salvation are not a kind of apology for His affliction of us, they are not deserved because we suffered- they are by pure grace, seeing we deserve only death. It may be that Moses is saying that since God's affliction had lasted for 40 years, could Israel, and himself, not be given 40 years of blessing in the land. But again, he fails to accept the affliction as the consequence of sin, and that the wages of sin is death. So many complaints about God are the same- focusing upon the consequence of human sin, rather than accepting human sin and begging for the grace of resurrection and the Kingdom of God.
Psa 90:16
Let Your work appear to Your servants-
But God's work had appeared to them all, but they had chosen to
disbelieve it (s.w. Ps. 95:9 "Don’t harden your heart, as
at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers
tempted Me, tested Me and saw My work.
Forty long years I was grieved with that generation and said, It is a
people that errs in their heart. They have not known My ways"); and the phrase is used of how the exiles
had done likewise and were therefore in exile (Is. 5:12).
Your glory to their
children-
Moses desired that God’s glory would “appear… upon / unto” the children
of God’s servants. He wanted all God’s children to have the
same experience of glory appearing to them as he had had. And according to
2 Cor. 3:18, this desire is fulfilled every time a man turns to the Lord
Jesus, and like Moses, with unveiled face, beholds that same glory. In the
immediate context, he wanted the visible glory of God to appear not just
to him in his separate tabernacle, but to all God's people. For as
explained on :17, the Angel of glory no longer was going in their midst
(Ex. 33:3).
Psa 90:17
Let the grace of the Lord our God be upon us-
LXX "And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us". This
would be a request for the Angel of glory to return amongst the
Israelites. God had clearly stated "I will not go up in the midst of you"
(Ex. 33:3); but Moses asked all the same for God [in the form of the Angel
of glory?] to go among them" (Ex. 34:9). And he is doing the same here.
For the exiles, it would have meant a desire for the shekinah glory,
perhaps literally associated with the same Angel, to return to Zion.
Ezekiel had in vision seen it departing.
Establish the work
of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands-
In Dt. 16:15 is used of Israel in the land, obedient and blessed. Moses
wishes that the condemned generation could enter the land and experience
the blessings promised.
Moses spoke of how all Israel should pray that God would establish the work of their hands (Ps. 90:17)- but this was in fact his special request for the blessing of Levi, the priestly tribe (Dt. 33:11). Ps. 135:19,20 parallels all Israel with the priestly family: “Bless the Lord, O house of Israel: bless the Lord, O house of Aaron: bless the Lord, O house of Levi: ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord... praise ye the Lord”. All Israel were to aspire to the spirit of priesthood. Indeed, the Psalms often parallel the house of Aaron (i.e. the priesthood) with the whole nation (Ps. 115:9,10,12; 118:2,3). As it was God’s intention that Israel were to be a nation of priests to the rest of the world, so the new Israel likewise are to all discharge the priestly functions of teaching their brethren (Ex. 19:6 cp. 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 1:6; 5:9,10). Under the new covenant, we should all teach and admonish one another (Col. 3:16). Indeed, God told Israel [unrecorded in the historical records]: “Ye are gods [elohim] and all of you are sons of the Most High” (Ps. 82:6 RV). Further, Ps. 96:9 makes the paradigm breaking statement that even the Gentiles could come before Yahweh of Israel in holy, priestly array- they too could aspire to the spirit of priesthood (Ps. 96:9 RVmg.).
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