{"id":2758,"date":"2024-01-05T00:51:58","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T00:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=2758"},"modified":"2024-01-05T00:52:07","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T00:52:07","slug":"evensong-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=2758","title":{"rendered":"EVENSONG 90"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This is the one and only psalm attributed to Moses \u2014 yes, that Moses, the really old one known for the Bulrushers and for parting the Red Sea, not Moses Malone or Woody Allen\u2019s son, Moses Farrow, or even Grandma Moses, although she was sharp enough to create something like this.

Some folks say this is the oldest psalm of all 150, but then why is it No. 90, the first in the fourth book of the Psalter? (So I\u2019m three-fifths of the way done with this project \u2014 only 60 more poems to go \u2014 and I will finish the whole kit and caboodle on Good Friday 2024, with a little good luck.)

This is an oft-quoted psalm, because Moses \u2014 or whoever wrote it \u2014 was a better writer and a lot more quotable than whiny-ass David: \u201cFor a thousand years in Your sight \/ Are like yesterday when it is past, \/ And like a watch in the night.\u201d David would have made this song about himself.

Then Moses compares the days of our lives, no, not to sand in an hourglass, but to green grass that springs up and thrives in the sun by day, then in the cool of the evening is mown down and left to fade and blow away. I\u2019m thinking Uncle Walt had this psalm in mind with Leaves of Grass.

This particular psalm also discusses the average man\u2019s lifespan \u2014 \u201cthreescore years and ten \u2026 [or] fourscore years,\u201d in the King James Version (no, not Lebron James); that\u2019s 70 or 80 years in other bibles. Maybe Honest Abe read this psalm on his way to Gettysburg in November of 1863.

Keep in mind that Moses lived almost 4,000 years ago. Some things never change, except that the average man\u2019s life expectancy is closer to 70 while the average woman\u2019s is almost 80, says Dr. Google. No psalmists \u2014 not even Moses \u2014 have differentiated between the genders so far.

Be that as it may, the famous prophet asks YHWH: \u201cSo teach us to number our days, \/ That we may gain a heart of wisdom.\u201d Whatever our gender or religion or place in life, that\u2019s a lesson we all should internalize \u2014 to know exactly where we stand before we see that lawnmower coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the one and only psalm attributed to Moses \u2014 yes, that Moses, the really old one known for the Bulrushers and for parting the Red Sea, not Moses Malone or Woody Allen\u2019s son, Moses Farrow, or even Grandma Moses, although she was sharp enough to create something like this. Some folks say this … Continue reading EVENSONG 90<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2759,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2758\/revisions\/2759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}