Psalms 90:5

“O Lord, how great are thy works! etc.] Of nature, providence, and grace, both for quantity and for quality, for number, excellency, and glory, as they are a display of God’s wisdom, power, and goodness; (see <19A424>”

“Thou carriest them away as with a flood - The original here is a single verb with the suffix - זרמתם zerametâm. The verb - זרם zâram - means, to flow, to pour; then, to pour upon, to overwhelm, to wash away. The idea is, that they were swept off as if a torrent bore them from the earth, carrying them away without regard to order, rank, age, or condition. So death makes no discrimination. Every day that passes, multitudes of every age, sex, condition, rank, are swept away and consigned to the grave - as they would be if a raging flood should sweep over a land. They are as a sleep - The original here is, “a sleep they are.” The whole sentence is exceedingly graphic and abrupt: “Thou sweepest…”

“Them - Mankind. Away - Universally, without exception or distinction. A sleep - Short and vain, as sleep is, and not minded 'till it be past. Psalms 90:7”

“Thou: Job 9:26, Job 22:16, Job 27:20, Job 27:21; Isa 8:7, Isa 8:8; Jer 46:7, Jer 46:8 as a sleep: Psa 73:20; Isa 29:7, Isa 29:8 morning: Psa 103:15, Psa 103:16; Isa 40:6; Jam 1:10, Jam 1:11; Pe1 1:24 groweth up: or, is changed Psalms 90:6”

“Psa 90:5-6 tell us how great is the distance between men and this eternal selfsameness of God. The suffix of זרמתּם, referred to the thousand years, produces a synallage (since שׁנה is feminine), which is to be avoided whenever it is possible to do so; the reference to בני־אדם, as being the principal object pointed to in what has gone before, is the more natural, to say the very least. In connection with both ways of applying it, זרם does not signify: to cause to rattle down like sudden heavy showers of rain; for the figure that God makes years, or that He makes men (Hitzig: the germs of their coming into being), to rain down from above, is fanciful and strange. זרם may also mean to sweep or…”