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flying away
Psalm 90:9-11 (JDV)
Psalm 90:9 Yes, all our days ebb away under your wrath; we finish off our years like a sigh.
Psalm 90:10 Our lives last seventy years or, if we are strong, eighty years. Even the best of them are struggle and trouble; indeed, they pass quickly and we fly away.
Psalm 90:11 Who understands the power of your anger? Your wrath matches the fear that is due to you.
flying away
What does flying away (עוף) mean in this passage? Does it mean we go to our reward at death, flying up to heaven? It would be crazy to think that when we read the passage in context. The psalmist has been emphasizing our mortality compared to God’s permanence. Verse ten is sandwiched between two statements about God’s wrath leading to our death. How can death be caused by God’s wrath against sin and also his reward for faithfulness? No, the picture of flying away here is that of our lives leaving us, like a bird flys away.
Our hope is not death. It is resurrection.
Devotions 