Commentary on Selected Psalms

                                Psalm 90:3 (KJB)

The phrase in this verse, "Thou turnest man to destruction..." happens to be true of all humans to some extent. Words like "destruction" or "perish" in the Bible never mean an annihilation. God's physical laws that govern the universe reflect this fact. All of God's creations form a part of His Word. Psalm 19:1-14 (KJB). Matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed except by God. The weight of a log burned in a fire equals the weight of the gases and ashes emitted from it. This happens to be  what God means by such words as "destruction" or "perish." John 3:16 (KJB).

God must consign the souls and spirits of humans not saved by grace to one of the three regions of death when they die. John 8:23-24; Hebrews 9:27 (KJB). But in the end of the world, Christ will visit them and cause them all to repent and believe in Him as the Lamb of God their Savior. Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). Christ will then use His fiery wrath against evil to destroy them; that is, He will dissolve their lives to melt them down to purify them. His fiery wrath will separate their repentant, good natures that Christ created and loves from their evil natures injected into them by the Devil so that He can save their good natures from eternal death and cast their dead and evil natures into an eternal lake of fire. Psalm 75:3; Matthew 13:36-43; I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 20:11-15 (KJB). All of this means that their old selves will perish, but God will recreate their good natures with new bodies to be the meek that will inherit God's new earth. Matthew 5:5; Revelation 21:1-5 (KJB).

God's destruction even happens to a much lesser extent to even humans who become saved by grace. Humans saved by grace immediately pass from eternal death to eternal life which is the life of Christ Himself. John 5:24; Galatians 2:19-20; Colossians 3:4 (KJB). In other words, the Spirit of God destroys the earthly lives of humans saved by grace to create an eternal life within them. God sends the sins, evil, and spiritual deaths of humans saved by grace into the Sea of forgetfulness which is also one of the three regions of death. Micah 7:19; Revelation 20:13 (KJB). In the end of the world, God will eliminate this Sea by a method not revealed. Revelation 21:1 (KJB). God will destroy the earthly lives of humans saved by grace the moment they repent and believe in Christ as their Savior. John 5:24 (KJB). The Spirit of Christ will then cleanse their souls and spirits of all sin and evil with the blood Christ shed on the cross, and He will recreate their souls and spirits to be pure and holy and unable to sin. I Corinthians 6:11; II Corinthians 5:17; I John 3:9 (KJB). But humans saved by grace will still retain their fleshly natures which can cause them to sin. Romans 7:18 (KJB). Yet as they daily repent of their sins, God will wash them clean with the water that Jesus shed on the cross. John 13:1-13; I John 1:9 (KJB). Even so, God's creative powers are so great that He can destroy the earthly lives of humans saved by grace, but at the same time, He can recreate them in such a way that they will retain their same identities and much of their same personalities. John 12:25 (KJB). The recreated lives and identities of humans whom God raises from the dead will be quite different from their former lives that they lived on the former earth. John 12:25 (KJB).

The phrase in this verse, "Return, ye children of men," refers to the fact that although God will to some extent destroy all men, He will nevertheless recover and recreate all men. This phrase happens to be very similar to Romans 11:36 which describes the fact that God's creations go out from Him and form the universe and all life in it, including all human life, and then He recovers and recreates it all having purged it all of all sins, evil, and spiritual death. Romans 8:18-25; Colossians 1:15-23; I Corinthians 15:20-26 (KJB).