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book, which corresponds with Numbers, the book of the
wilderness. This Psalm, which has been called `The funeral
hymn of the world', is entitled: `A Prayer of Moses the man of
God', and deals with the sojourn of Israel during the forty years'
wandering in the wilderness. The following Psalm (91) refers to
the children that Israel said had been brought out of Egypt to die
in the wilderness. The covering text for the two related Psalms
might well be such a passage as Numbers 14:27-34:
` How long shall I bear with this evil congregation? ... as ye have spoken
in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness
... from twenty years old and upward, ... Doubtless ye shall not come into
the land ... ye shall bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall
know My breach of promise'.
The reader should compare this passage with the following
verses in Psalm 90 :
` Return' (verse 13).
` We are consumed by Thine anger' (verse 7).
` The days of our years are threescore years and ten' (verse 10).
In regard to Numbers 14:31-33, viz. :
` But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in,
and they shall know the land which ye have despised. ... Your children
shall wander in the wilderness forty years, ... until your carcases be wasted
in the wilderness'.
the following should be compared :
` Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that
flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the
destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and
ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee' (Psa. 91:5-
7).