Psalms 90:1-17
The author of this psalm is Moses. The first writer of the Bible is Moses.
- No books were written in the days before the Flood when people lived to be almost 1000 years of age. Methuselah lived to be 969 years old.
- No Bible books were written in the days of Abraham when people were still living to be 180, and so forth.
- The first Bible books which were written were written when the average lifespan of man’s life has been reduced to 70-80 years.
We need to hear what Moses has to say.
- This is a serious psalm. It makes no pretence about the realities of life, death, sin and the wrath of God.
(1) We live a Short Life - we need to know the One who is the Eternal
This psalm was a prayer by the aged Moses.
- He looked back at life and saw the real needs of man.
- Man’s life is frail. It is short.
Somebody has calculated, not sure how, that as Moses was leading the children of Israel through the desert during those 40 years, at least 15,000 people would have needed to be buried. (It was in an old commentary.)
So, over the forty-year period, Moses and the Israelites were faced with this duty, day after day - several times a day - burying their dead. In Singapore, with a population of about 3 millions, we cremate many in one day. Crematorium can be fully booked.
You see how this message was imprinted upon their minds and upon Moses’ mind.
Moses brings to mind the brevity of life - 90:4 like a watch in the night; 90:5 weep men away in the sleep.
James 4:14 - What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
90:10 - The length of our days is seventy years - or eighty, if we have the strength.
Moses asks the Lord to teach him how to count his days so he can be wise.
Ps 90:12 - Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
If we have only $100 to spend, we will be careful what we buy. We cannot afford to waste it.
- In a drought, shortage of water, we try to save water.
Calvin: Great scholars and scientists spend a lot of time calculating the distance from the earth to the sun, and from this planet to that planet, and calculating the distance from here to the moon, and the lifespan of different animals, plants, and trees but few people would like to study the lifespan of man. It makes them think of the shortness of their own life!
Life is short and limited, so how are we to live wisely? KNOW GOD
- Man has sinned against God and needed to be reconciled to Him.
- We have to meet Him one day. He is the ETERNAL God.
- Moses began the psalm Ps 90:1-2 “Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. 2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
We need to know that which is eternal – we are going to face Him one day.
- Prov 9:10 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom..."
Thomas Chalmers, a mathematician and a scientist, became a Christian. Someone said to him: "What about the mathematics now?" He was busy preparing sermons all the time and he saw something far more important - the desire to save souls.
"Oh," he said, "my friend, in my unconverted days I forgot two things: the magnitude of eternity and the shortness of life - these are the two great mathematical factors which I now see to be important."
Living a few years for the Lord is far better than living many years foolishly for self.
- Life without God is a wasted life.
- Do not reach the end of the road and then realized you have taken the wrong road.
Have you ever got up out of your chair and walked to the other end of the house, only to arrive and find that you have completely forgotten what you were going to do, or what object you went to get? I once knew a man who called it the affliction of "Destinesia," sort of a combination of amnesia and destination!
Verses 7-8 tell us: We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. 8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
(2) We have a Sinful Life - we need God’s forgiveness and love
Why are we under God’s wrath, if we are works of His hands?
- The Bible explains to us why man dies. Why do we die at all?
- God made trees that can survive for generations. Man ever lived for 969 years. Death enters into mankind because of sin.
No wonder their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
Ps 90:10 - The length of our days is seventy years - or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
It’s a meaningless life. Unless we come to know God and understand God’s will.
- We look at our world today and we do understand. We see violence and pain. We see trouble and sorrow.
- Are we going to spend 70-80 years on earth in vain?
This is not God’s will. We are to HONOUR Him in our life.
We need God’s forgiveness and mercy.
90:13-14 Relent, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants.
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
In the midst of a suffering world, only God can give us peace and joy.
- There will be sufferings in life. And we will see more and more of it in this world.
- A small mistake can cause an uproar and violence all over the world.
- People destroy buildings and burn cars, sometimes for no good reason.
- There is no real peace in this world.
Moses, in his prayer, did not ask God to remove these afflictions, but that in the midst of all these we can experience His love and joy.
- Today, we see many people looking fine on the outside but there is no peace in their hearts. Yet there are those who are sufferings and are able to sing and praise God with joy.
- This is the strength God gives.
(3) We have a Frail Life - we need God’s help
Not only is life short - this short span brings infirmity of body, weakness of mind, loss of memory - not always that bad for all, thank God, especially not in these days when we have so many medications to help us - but at best our life is frail.
We need God. Not just to save us - our Saviour, but also the lead us, as Lord of life.
Ps 90:16-17
16 May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children.
17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us -
yes, establish the work of our hands.
In Luke 12:13-21 - Jesus tells us the parable of the rich fool. To let us know life is not in our hands.
- The rich man’s barns were too small to contain all his grain.
- He broke them down and built bigger barns and crammed all the grain inside.
- And he said to himself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." (Luke 12:19).
- God said to him that very night, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” (Luke 12:20).
Christ tells us that, obviously, to make us realize the shortness of our life, and to use the bit of it we have got left in a wiser way than that unhappy man did.
Conclusion
Only when a person knows God and honours Him, can he have a blessed life.
We live by God’s grace. We need Him every day.
Today, people are living unfulfilled lives not because they do not have material things, but because they do not have God in their hearts.
Amos 8:11
11 "The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine through the land - not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
