In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

PSALMS 90:6KJV
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Psalms 90:6 (KJV)

What does Psalms 90:6 mean?

Psalms 90:6 compares human life to grass that grows in the morning and is cut down by evening. The image makes a point about how quickly human life passes when measured against God’s lasting existence.

The grass is the subject carried over from verse 5. Its change from fresh growth to a withered state takes place within a single day, making the contrast vivid.

The Hebrew behind Psalms 90:6

  • “flourisheth” — צוּץ (tsuts): The word can mean to sprout or blossom. It gives the morning grass an image of fresh, visible growth.
  • “groweth up” — חָלַף (chalaph): The word can carry the sense of passing on or changing. Here the KJV presents the morning scene as continued growth.

Why Psalms 90:6 matters

  • The short span is a comparison, not a count of the years a person lives. The grass changes between “morning” and “evening,” while verse 10 speaks of human years.
  • The grass image helps explain the prayer’s concern with human limits. After describing life as brief, the speaker asks God to “teach us to number our days” in verse 12.

Where else these words appear

“flourisheth” Hebrew H6692 · used in 9 verses

  • Numbers 17:8 And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.
  • Psalms 92:7 When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:
  • Song of Solomon 2:9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.

“up” Hebrew H2498 · used in 27 verses

  • Genesis 31:7 And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.
  • Job 4:15 Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:
  • Song of Solomon 2:11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

“down” Hebrew H4135 · used in 32 verses

  • Genesis 17:10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
  • Genesis 34:15 But in this will we consent unto you: If ye will be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised;
  • Joshua 5:3 And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

“withereth” Hebrew H3001 · used in 67 verses

  • Genesis 8:7 And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
  • Isaiah 19:5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
  • Jeremiah 51:36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.