Orthodox Study Bible: "Psalm 90 describes the intensity of spiritual warfare the Church wages against the devil and his angels, both in life and in death. These enemies are called hunters(v.3), things moving in darkness, mishaps, demons of noonday (v.6), sinners (v.8), evils, scourges

(v. 10), asps, lions, and dragons (v. 13). They seek to ensnare us with every troubling word

(v.3). These words are like arrows that try to pierce the soul with unnatural fears (v.5), especially the fear of death. Their numbers are many (a thousand and ten thousand, v. 7).

Success in this warfare is called salvation (v.16), which comes through God in our hope in Him (my God and Twill hope in Him, v. 2). God is called the Most High vv.1, 9), the God of heaven (v. 1), and the Lord (vv. 2, 9). He also commands His angels to help us (p. 742).

USCCB New American Bible: "A prayer of someone who has taken refuge in the security of the temple (Psalm 90 (91):1-2). The psalmist is confident that God's presence will protect the people in every dangerous situation (Psalm 90 (91):3-13). The final verses are an oracle of salvation promising salvation to those who trust in God (Psalm 90 (91):14-16). (USCCB Website).

IV PSALM 90 - COMMENTARY OF THE CHURCH FATHERS ON SELECTED

PASSAGES ( ALL QUOTATIONS ARE FROM: ANCIENT CHRISTIAN COMMENTARY ON SCRIPTURE: NEW TESTAMENT, ED. GERALD BRAY, DOWNERS GROVE, IL: INTERVARSITY PRESS, VOL.XIII, PP. 1 7 1 - 76 )

DWELLING IN THE SHELTER OF THE MOST HIGH.

GREGORY OF NYSSA: When the great David heard and understood this,' he [David] said to him "who dwells in the shelter of the most High; He will overshadow you with his shoulders," which is the same as being behind God (for the shoulder is on the back of the body). Concerning himself David says, "My soul clings close to you, your right hand supports me." [Psalm 63:8 (62:9 LXX)]. You see how Psalms agree with the history. For as the one says that the right hand is a help to the person who has joined himself close behind God, so the other says that the hand touches the person who waits in the rock on the divine voice and prays that he might follow behind. (Life of Moses 250, 4).

CHRIST BECAME OUR REFUGE.

AUGUSTINE: "God cannot be made; but he is made into, or becomes, something for someone, in the way in which it is said of him, "Lord, you have become (or have been made into) a refuge for us"; and, "The Lord has become (has been made) my helper." [Psalm 30:10 (29:11 LXX, Vg.)]. How many things he has been made into, though he never was made at all! Now the Lord Christ was made man, ... in order for him who was always the creator to be a creature. While remaining God, you see, he became man in order to become what he was not, not in order to stop being what he was" (Sermon 49A).

THE SNARES OF SATAN, THE HUNTER.

Jerome: "Say to the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God.' I am hemmed in by enemies. You, therefore, are my refuge. In whom I will trust.' For he will rescue you from the snare of the hunters.' Note carefully that the psalmist did not say `I trust' but `I will trust.' As long as we continue in a life of sin, we certainly are not trusting; if we put an end to sin, then our hope is confident. For he will rescue you from the snare of the hunters,' There are many hunters in this world that go about setting traps for our soul... We were rescued like a bird from the fowler's snare; broken was the snare, and we were freed.' [Psalm 124:7 (123:7 LXX, Vg.]. What snare is this that has been broken? The Lord,' says the apostle, `will speedily crush Satan under our feet' [Romans 16:20] `that you may recover yourselves from the snare of the devil' [2 Timothy 2:26].. You see, then, that the devil is the hunter, eager to lure our souls unto perdition. The devil is master of many snares, deceptions of all kinds. Avarice is one of his pitfalls, disparagement is his noose, fornication is his bait. 'And from the destroying word.' As long as we are in the state of grace, our soul is at peace; but once we begin to play with sin, then 'The fact that God who has made all things invites and commands us to follow him.

our soul is in trouble and is like a boat tossed about by the waves. (Homilies on the Psalms 20,12).

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ONE WHO FEARS GOD IS NOT AFRAID OF DANGER.

Origen: "He said these things [The reference is to what Solomon said in Proverbs 3:24-25] about the just and wise person and these are said in the blessings, `You will sleep and there will not be anyone who frightens you' [Leviticus 26:6]. For if I am made just, no one can frighten me; I am afraid of nothing else, if I believe with commitment in God. For it says, `the just is confident as a lion', [Proverbs 28:1) and for this reason, he does not fear the lion, the devil, or `the dragon,' Satan, or `his angels' [See Revelation 12:71. but, according to David, he says, `I shall not be afraid of the nocturnal fear, nor the dart which flies during the day, nor the terror which walks in the darkness nor the ruin and the midday demon.' And he adds that `the Lord is my light and my Savior, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life, at what shall I. tremble?' (Psalm 27:1 (26:1 LXX). And again, `If an army stands against me, my heart will not fear' [Psalm 27:3 (26:3 LXX)]. You see the steadfastness and vigor of the soul that keeps the commandments of God and has confidence in the freedom that God gives. (Homilies on Leviticus 16.6.1).

GOD ALLOWS THE RIGHTEOUS TO BE AFFLICTED FOR A PURPOSE.

Jerome:  (From a letter to a blind man.) And now that I am writing to you I beseech you. Do not regard the bodily affliction that has befallen you as due to sin. When the apostles speculated con­cerning the man that was born blind from the womb and asked our Lord and Savior: `Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' they were told `Neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him'[John 9:2-3]. Do we not see numbers of pagans, Jews, heretics and people of various opinions rolling in the mire of lust, bathed in blood, surpassing wolves in ferocity and hawks in rapacity, and `for all this the plague does not come near their dwellings'? They are not struck as other people, and accordingly they grow insolent against God and lift up their faces even to heaven. We know on the other hand that holy people are afflicted with sicknesses, miseries and want, and perhaps they are tempted to say, `Truly I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocence.' Yet immediately they go on to reprove themselves, `If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of your children' [Psalm 73:13, 15 (72:13, 15 LXX, Vg.)].If you suppose that your blindness is caused by sin and that a disease [such as blindness] that physicians are often able to cure is an evidence of God's anger, you will think Isaac a sinner because he was so wholly sightless that he was deceived into blessing one whom he did not mean to bless [Genesis 27]. You will charge Jacob with sin, whose vision became so dim that he could not see Ephraim and Manasseh [Genesis 48:7], although with the inner eye and the prophetic spirit he could foresee the distant future and the Christ that was to come of his royal line [Genesis 49:10]. Were any of the kings holier than Josiah? Yet he was slain by the sword of the Egyptians [2 Kings 23:29]. Were there ever loftier saints than Peter and Paul? Yet their blood stained the blade of Nero. And to say no more of people, did not the Son of God endure the shame of the cross? And yet you fancy those blessed who enjoy in this world happiness and pleasure? God's hottest anger against sinners is when he shows no anger. Therefore in Ezekiel he says to Jerusalem, `My jealousy will depart from you, and I will be quiet and will be no more angry' [Ezekiel 16:42]. For 'whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives' [Hebrews 12:6]. ]The father does not instruct his son unless he loves him. The master does not correct his disciple unless he sees in him signs of promise. When once the doctor gives up caring for the patient, it is a sign that he despairs. You should answer thus: `as Lazarus in his lifetime [Luke 16:25] received evil things so will I now gladly suffer torments that future glory may be laid up for me.' For `affliction shall not rise up the second time' Nahum 1:19. If Job, a man holy and spotless and righteous in his generation, suffered terrible afflictions, his own book explains the reason why' (Letter 68.1).

GOD PRESERVES US FOR REPENTANCE.

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Caesarius ofArles: " We should not be without anxiety, dearly beloved, because we know that [God] is keeping his patience for such a long time. The fact that such great things happen in the world and he still does not avenge them indicates patience, not carelessness. God has not lost his power but is preserving us for repentance. Yet, the longer he awaits your amendment, the harsher will be your punishment if you refuse to amend. God indeed holds the sword, and he wishes to strike sin; we, on the contrary, defend our sins because we love them. Thus, we who should be the accusers of our sins become their defenders. Truly, dearly beloved, God does not want to kill the sinner, but his sin. Like a good doctor he wants to strike the disease, not the person who is ill. But, what is worse, we often despise the doctor and love our sickness: we love our sin and despise God. Sin, indeed, is like this, a dragon, a viper; but concerning the Lord it is written, `You shall walk on the lion and the cobra; and you shall trample under foot the young lion and the serpent.' We, on the other hand, embrace our sins like lions and dragons. But our God, who wants to punish sin and save the sinner, daily exclaims to humanity: Cast off your sin from you, and without you it will die. If you refuse to throw aside your sin, you will perish with it, for sin cannot go unpunished. God wants to kill sin, not to strike the sinner" (Sermon 17..).

CHRIST WILL DEFEAT SATAN, TERTULLIAN:

Tertullian: "This power (the ability to tread on and put one's hand into the den of a poisonous animal and not be harmed) the Creator conferred on his Christ first of all, even as the ninetieth psalm [LXX] says of him: "You shall tread on the lion and the cobra; the young lion and the serpent you shall trample under foot." Isaiah also says, "In that day the Lord God shall draw his sacred, great and strong sword" (even his Christ) "against that dragon, that great and tortuous serpent; and he shall slay him in that day."⁴⁸ But when the same prophet says, "The way shall be called a clean and holy way; over it the unclean thing shall not pass, nor shall there be any unclean way; but the dispersed shall pass over it, and they shall not err therein; no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon; it shall not be found there"[Isaiah 27:1] he points out the way of faith, by which we shall reach God; and then to this way of faith he promises this utter crippling and subjugation of all harmful animals" (Against Marcion 4.24.50).

WILD ANIMALS ARE PROOF OF OUR FAITH

Basil the Great: " Wild animals are a proof of our faith. Have you trusted in the Lord? `You shall walk on the asp and the basilisk; and you shall trample under foot the lion and the dragon.' You have the power through faith to walk on serpents and scorpions. Or, do you not observe that the viper that fastened onto Paul when he was gathering sticks inflicted no harm because the holy man was found to be full of faith? Yet, if you are incredulous, do not fear the wild beast more than your own lack of faith, through which you have made yourself an easy prey to every form of corruption" (Homilies on the Hexaemeron 9.6).

TRAMPLE THE LION AND THE SERPENT,

Augustine: "But what is said to Christ? `And you shall trample down the lion and the serpent.' The lion because of his open danger, the serpent because of his concealed deception. The serpent drove Adam out of paradise; the very same one, as a lion, persecuted the church, as Peter says: `Your adversary the devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour' [1 Peter 5:8]. Let the devil not appear to you to have lost his rage; when he flatters, he must be feared the more." (Tractates on the Gospel of John 10.1.25).

VII. CLOSING PRAYER — FROM THE GREAT CANON OF ST. ANDREW OF CRETE

"I have discolored Your image and broken Your commandments. All my beauty is destroyed and lamp is quenched by unruly sinful desires, 0 Savior. But take pity on me, as David sings, and 'restore me to Your joy' (Psalm 50:41). Amen.

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