April 12, 2023
Author: Pastor Gordon Cook
April 12, 2023
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the
mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the
world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You return man to
dust and say, Return, O children of man! For a thousand years in your
sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass
that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is
renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. For we are brought to an
end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our
iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an
end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of
strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon
gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger, and your
wrath according to the fear of you? So teach us to number our days that
we may get a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:1-12
I would think that most Christians would say this, the older they
get, the more they read their bibles the more they see the sufficiency
of scripture. The world likes to tell us the Bible is archaic and
irrelevant, but the more you study your Bible, the more you meditate
upon it you see how relevant it is for all of life. Whatever stage of
life you’re at, whether you’re a young person, middle-aged, single,
married or a grandparent. We could say this couldn’t we that all the
sights and sounds in our Bible are taken from real life. Psalm 90 is one
of those Psalms that forces us to face real life. Now we can’t be sure
when this was written in all likelihood it was written more towards the
back end of those 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. And that’s
why this Psalm has what you might call the aroma or the smell of death.
Many pastors read this Psalm at funerals. I think the Church of England
has always made this part of their requirement to read this Psalm at
every funeral. Moses, again this is at the back end of those 40 years,
saw a lot of death, maybe even conducted a lot of funerals during those
40 years. Remember 99.9% of them didn’t make it into the promised land.
But Moses here looks at death, we could say this-
through a God centered lens. First, he celebrates, notice in those first
two verses-the greatness and the eternal grandeur of God. Verse two
“From everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Moses, I think takes us
back to Genesis chapter one verse one “In the beginning was God.” God’s
always been there, he will always be there. And he tells us here that
he’s always been the dwelling place of his people. That means no matter
how far we go back in time whenever God had a people for himself, he’s
always had a people for himself and no matter how far we go into the
future God has always made himself the home of his people, he is the
dwelling place of his people. Isaac watts you’re probably familiar with
that hymn based upon this particular Psalm- Our God our help in ages
past, our hope for age for years to come. The word here that he uses for
dwelling place could be translated refuge, and he carries the idea of
safety and protection and that’s a wonderful comfort. No matter what
happens in this present life no matter how unstable things get in terms
of politically, economically- no matter how dark things get in this
present world there’s always that sure rock of stability, God. So, Moses
begins the Psalm by praising God, that’s the starting point and that
should be the starting point of most of our prayers. We begin with
praise, but Moses goes from praise of God to the plight of men. He sets
up a contrast between the eternity of God and the frailty of men, versus
three through eleven. You could say he sets up the contrast between
God’s immortality and man or human mortality. And he employs several
word pictures to remind us of the brevity of life and the certainty of
death. He uses the analogy of a flood, verse five that quickly comes and
goes. He uses the analogy of a dream, why a dream? Well dreams are
pretty short, you know how long a dream is? Generally, a few seconds,
some last up to 20 minutes, that’s the top end, I think, 20 to 30
minutes. But dreams are very, very short. And then he uses the
picture of grass. The grows up in the morning and then flourishes in the
evening. So, it’s good to remind ourselves of who God is, he starts out
there verse one and two. But he also wants us to remind ourselves of
how frail we are and how short life is. There’s a sermon by Jonathan
Edwards titled “The preciousness of time and the importance of redeeming
it.” And that’s really what Moses wants to drive home here, after
giving us the cold statistics regarding the brevity of life verse ten,
“70 years or three score and ten and by reason of strength 80 or four
score.” Notice he begins to pray and so if you want a sermon outline the
praise of God verse one and two, the plight of man verse three through
11, and then the third P would be the prayer for wisdom- verse 12. The
prayer for wisdom, knowing that God is God that he’s an everlasting God
from beginning- no beginning no end. Knowing how short life is on the
face of the earth Moses begins to plead for wisdom, verse 12 “So teach
us to number our days that we might get a heart of wisdom.”
It’s
interesting, I never thought of this before but Paul the apostle says
something similar. If you think of Ephesians chapter five, here’s what
he says, Paul says this, almost like Moses “Look carefully then how you
walk not as unwise but as wise, making use of the time because the days
are evil.” I don’t think anyone would question would they, the days are
evil? And the options for us as Christians are not that we run away, God
never calls us to run and hide. We are to live in this world, we are
rub shoulders with people, but we need wisdom. If we’re going to number
our days, we need wisdom. And the good news is that God promises, he
does, a wonderful promise in James chapter one to give wisdom to those
who ask. James says, “if anyone lacks wisdom ask God who gives
generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him” The more
our society implodes, the more sin is more pervasive across the board
you see things get more complex- how to live in this world. It really
does I think we’re going to cry more and more than we ever have brethren
for wisdom and how to live, how to think and how to speak in what you
could call a Romans one world. It’s a Romans one world, under the wrath
of God. We need to love this world, we need to love our neighbors, we
need to love our enemies, but we need wisdom from above.
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