As we get ready to enter into the new year, many of us are busy making some New Year’s resolutions. While I’ve certainly made my share of resolutions over the years, I no longer do that. Probably, like most of you who have done that I find that I haven’t really done a very good job of carrying out many of those resolutions.
But as we end one year and get ready to enter into the next, it is certainly an appropriate time for us to consider our own lives and make sure that we’re living them in a way that honors God and that brings the blessings that come with living life in a manner that is consistent with His character and His ways. So this morning we’ll wrap up the journey that we’ve been on since July through a number of the Psalms by using Psalm 90 to help us evaluate our lives and then determine how we ought to live the rest of our lives in light of what God has revealed to us in that Psalm.
Psalm 90 is the oldest Psalm, and it was the only one written by Moses. Although we can’t be totally certain, it seems likely that Moses wrote these words as God’s people wandered in the wilderness and a whole generation of people died because of their rebellion against God.
According to Numbers 26, all the men over 20 who refused to obey God and go into the Promised Land totaled 600,000 and they were sentenced to die in the wilderness. That means that Moses spent 40 years watching over 1 million funerals when you count the men above 20 and their wives. That is over 70 per day or about 3 each hour.
So it’s not surprising that Moses would write a Psalm that focuses on the brevity of life here on earth and how that should influence the way we live those lives. With that in mind, follow along as I read Psalm 90:
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.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!
Psalm 90:1-17 (ESV)
Like most Hebrew poetry, we find that the climax is not at the beginning or the end, but rather in this middle. A brief outline of the Psalm helps us to see that:
Outline of Psalm 90
1. God is eternal (vv. 1-2)
He existed before this earth was created and He will be around long after it is burned up and gone. That truth undergirds the rest of the Psalm and it also, as we’ll see, should have a tremendous impact on how we live our lives here on earth. That idea leads directly to the second section of the Psalm…
2. Life on earth is short and hard (vv. 3-11)
Compared to eternity, the 70 or 80 years of life that we have here on this earth are very short and Moses uses several different pictures to illustrate that truth.
But not only is that part of our life short, it is also hard because we experience the consequences of sin. We’ve spent some time talking about that lately by looking at Romans 1 where Paul explains how we are currently experiencing God’s wrath as a result of man’s sin. We experience that wrath both personally and corporately.
When we fail to confess and repent of our own personal sin, God gives us over to that sin and we suffer the associated consequences. But even when we don’t sin personally, we are impacted by the wrath of God when sin goes unchecked in our churches and in our culture.
So how are we to live in light of the first two realities – God’s eternalness and our short, hard lives on earth?
3. Therefore, we are to number our days (v. 12)
Since this is the main point of the Psalm, we’ll come back to it in just a moment and focus on how we can do that. But the reason that Moses commands us to do that is…
4. So that we can make the most of our remaining days (vv.13-17)
Think about the last part of this Psalm from Moses’ perspective. He was 80 years old when he led the Hebrews out of Egypt. Although we don’t know exactly when Moses wrote this Psalm, it was likely sometime during the last one third of his life. And much of his first 80 years hadn’t been used very profitably for God and His kingdom.
But Moses wanted to finish well. He wanted to use whatever time he had left wisely, seeing God at work and then joining in what God was doing.
Did you know that there is actually a website called Death-clock.org where you can go and input some personal information and it calculates your remaining life expectancy? According to that site, I will die on Sunday, April 20, 2031.
Now obviously no one can predict with any degree of certainly when they will die. And it’s certainly possible that Jesus will return long before that time. But let’s just assume for the moment that calculation is correct. That means I have about 6691 days left in my life to serve God. And I want to use every one of those days in a way that is profitable to the kingdom of God. I want to finish well.
This idea of making the most of my remaining days really struck home with me nearly two months ago right after the elections. For about a week after the election, I was really depressed and I couldn’t figure out why. After all, I know that no politician of either party is going to fix the problems that we have in this country because the issues we face are spiritual in nature and none of our politicians are trying to do anything at all to address those root problems.
But after our elders’ meeting that month and some time in God’s Word and in prayer, I began to understand why I was so down in the dumps. It was not because of who won or lost the election, but rather because of what the election results revealed about where we are as a country and even shed light on some of the things that are hindering the body of Christ from being more effective here in this country.
In both national and local elections, we elected candidates from both parties who on one hand rightly lamented the loss of 20 young lives at a school massacre in Connecticut, but on the other hand have absolutely no problem at with the killing over 1 million unborn children in this country each year. We put into office people who openly oppose the Biblical model of marriage – one man married to one woman for a lifetime – and openly support legalizing marital relationships which clearly violate Scripture.
In that same election a number of states voted on propositions to legalize marriage between homosexuals. And while those propositions didn’t pass in some states, the disturbing reality is that in every state that has voted on whether to legally recognize homosexual marriage, the votes have been very close with somewhere around half the people supporting such measures.
It would be nice to think these things occurred in spite of the efforts of those who claim to be Christians to try and oppose these assaults on our Biblical values. But the facts unfortunately tell a different story. Over 6 million self described “evangelical Christians “voted for the presidential candidate who openly opposed Biblical principles in these and other areas. And one reason that many of the ballot initiatives dealing with homosexual marriage passed is because Christians either are failing to hold to the clear teaching of Scriptures or they are separating their actions in the voting booth from what they claim to believe.
In a 1988 survey, 85% of born again Christians believed that “sexual relations between two adults of the same sex” was always wrong. Twenty two years later, the same survey showed that only 59% held that same view. And among younger born again believers the trend is even worse, with only 44% of 18-35 year olds opposing homosexual marriage.
As I pondered these trends in our culture, and especially within the body of Christ, I began to evaluate what we’re doing here at TFC to help people really live out their faith in every area of their lives. And what began to come to my mind really broke my heart, because it became evident very quickly that as much as I would like to believe otherwise, we’re not immune to these trends here at TFC. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I began to realize that we need to do a better job of equipping people to live for Jesus.
I obviously can’t share the details with you, but let me just say this. Over the past six months or so, I have seen things within this body that absolutely shocked me – things I would have never believed had I not witnessed them personally. And in every case where people have failed to live their lives in a manner consistent with Biblical principles, the results have been devastating to so many relationships and so many lives.
So several weeks ago as I began to prepare for this message, I began to spend a lot of time “numbering my days”, asking God to give me wisdom so that I can personally be more effective in my ministry and so that we as a church can help people apply the Bible in their everyday lives. So the principles that I’m going to share with you in just a moment are certainly just as important for me and for our church as a body as they are for any of you. I’m not going to ask any of you to do anything that I’m not prepared to do personally in my own life. I want, more than anything else in my life to finish well, regardless of how much time God gives me here on this earth. And my earnest prayer is that God will give you a heart that desires to do that as well.
HOW TO “NUMBER MY DAYS”
• Sanctify
This is one of those religious words that we use a lot that we may not really understand all that well at times. The word literally means to “bet set apart as holy”. In fact that’s actually how the ESV translates that word in Paul’s second letter to Timothy:
But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
2 Timothy 2:19-21 (ESV)
In Psalm 90, Moses points out that the reason that life on earth is short and hard is due to man’s sin. While there is no guarantee that confessing and repenting of our sins will make life here on earth any easier in the short run, Paul makes it clear that those who claim to belong to God must sanctify their lives by departing from iniquity. That is the only way that we can become honorable vessels that God can use for His purposes.
If we want to number our days and gain a heart of wisdom, we must all start here. We need to ask God to reveal the sin in our lives, and then, with His help, we need to do everything we can to remove that sin from our lives. And sometimes that means taking some drastic action in our lives.
With that in mind let me suggest some very practical things that you might need to do in order to sanctify your life.
How about your marriage? Husbands are you loving your wives as Christ loves the church – with a selfless love that focuses on the needs of your wives? And wives, are you submitting to the godly leadership of your husbands? If not, then you need to take whatever steps are necessary to improve that relationship.
How about your finances? If you’re not being a good steward by giving off the top to support your church, then you need to start doing that immediately. If you’re incurring debt because you’re spending more than you make, then you need to develop a budget and stick to it. And if you have credit card balances you can’t pay off at the end of each month, you need to cut up those credit cards right now.
On your jobs, are you working with all your heart, as if working for the Lord and not for man? Or are you stealing from your employer? That can take many forms other than actually taking money, office supplies or other material items. Perhaps you are stealing time from your employer by coming in late or taking care of personal business during working hours. If that’s the case, then you need to confess that to your employer and make appropriate restitution.
Finally let’s focus on sexual purity. If you’re involved in any kind of sexual activity outside your marriage – adultery, pornography, pre-marital sex, etc. – that is clearly sin that you need to deal with. If you’re in a relationship where someone other than your spouse is pressuring you to violate the Biblical standards for sexual purity, then you need to get out of that relationship immediately. If you’re involved in pornography in any form, then you need to get rid of the source, whether it’s your cable TV, your internet, or something else. Or if there is some legitimate reason you can’t totally get rid of the source, then you need to find a way to have someone hold you accountable for what TV shows you’re watching or what internet sites you’re visiting.
If I want to number my days, then I must begin by sanctifying my life – doing whatever I need to do in order to remove sin from my life. But numbering my days doesn’t stop with just getting rid of the “bad” stuff. Often the things that get in the way of serving God in the way He desires are actually not bad things at all. So that is why we need to take the second step to…
• Simplify
As I think about this principle, I’m reminded of the account of Martha and Mary and Jesus’ words to Martha, when she was so busy making preparations for His visit:
But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:40-42 (ESV)
Jesus didn’t rebuke Martha for her service, but what He did clearly point out is that what she was doing was distracting her from that which was more valuable. So much of what we have and what we do in life is not necessarily bad – it just distracts us from that which is more valuable. There are three areas of our lives where we need to consider simplifying them:
o Possessions
I am really thankful for all the possessions that God has provided for me and without a doubt many of them actually do help simplify my life by making tasks much easier. I’m thankful for running water and electricity at my house because it means I don’t have to spend part of my day going to fetch water from a well or to gather fuel to cook and light and heat my home. I’m thankful for microwave ovens that speed up my cooking. And certainly preparing sermons is much easier with a computer and the internet than it was before those things were available.
But at the same time, there comes a point where my possessions actually begin to consume, rather than free up, my time. I can easily get consumed with spending time surfing the web or playing games on that same computer. The bigger house I have and the more stuff I have the more of my time is required to clean and maintain those things.
So I really need to do two things. First, I need to look at the possessions I currently own and evaluate how much of my time and effort they require and then determine whether that is an appropriate use of my time and resources. And secondly, every time I get ready to make a purchase, I need to first consider what it is going to cost me in time and resources to use and maintain that item before I decide whether to buy it
o People
Obviously our family is our primary obligation when it comes to our human relationships. But there are a whole lot of other people who want a piece of our time. And we need to evaluate which of those relationships are valuable enough that they warrant the use of our time.
Jesus certainly didn’t waste His time with everyone. Although He spoke to large crowds from time to time, He really didn’t invest much of His life with the crowds. And He didn’t spend a whole lot of time with the religious leaders. Instead, He focused on a small group of men who He could equip to carry on His ministry. And when He sent those same men out to minister, He instructed them to focus their time on those who were receptive to their message.
I think the Bible shows that there are two groups of people in whom we should invest our time. First, there those who are helping me to grow in my relationship with Jesus. That hopefully includes my family as well as those who are part of this body.
Second, there are those who I am helping to grow in their relationship with Jesus. Again that should include my family and members of this body, but it also includes those who God has placed into my life who do not yet know Jesus and with whom I am developing a relationship in order to be able to share the good news of Jesus.
Outside of those two groups, most of the people who make demands on my life are probably dragging me down rather than building me up, so I really need to honestly evaluate whether time spent with them is a profitable use of my time.
o Projects
This category pretty much includes anything we do with our time – everything from watching TV to participating in a civic group like Rotary or the Lions. Most of these activities are neither good nor bad on their own. The issue is that they take up our time.
Let me share with you a personal example of how one of my projects got in the way of things that were more important. After we moved back to Tucson in the 1980’s I allowed a few people to talk me into running for the school board. In spite of some reservations of my much wiser wife, I decided to run and unfortunately got elected. During the four years that I spent in that position most of the time I devoted was actually worthwhile. However, there were other things that I could have done with that same time that would have been much more valuable for my family and for the kingdom of God.
If I really want to have time to devote to those things that will have lasting value then I need to evaluate all my projects to see if they really contribute to that which will last and where they do not I need to simplify my life by getting rid of many of those activities or at least limiting them.
Once I’ve gone through the process of sanctifying and simplifying, I’m then ready to take the final step…
• Specify
This is where the last part of Psalm 90 really provides us with some practical help. There are three specific practices in that section that will help us to specify that what we do with our lives will matter for eternity:
The first is to be satisfied in the morning with God’s steadfast love. What that means is that I begin each day by focusing on God and asking Him to allow me to see life from His perspective. As I’ve shared before, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have some structured “quiet time”, although if that is what works best for you, by all means do that. But it does mean we need to spend time in God’s Word and in prayer so that God can reveal His heart to us.
In his song, “More Like Falling in Love”, Jason Gray captures the essence of what it means to be satisfied with God’s steadfast love:
Give me rules
I will break them
Show me lines
I will cross them
I need more than
A truth to believe
I need a truth that lives
Moves and breathes
To sweep me off my feet, it's gotta be
More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It's like I'm falling, oh
It's like I'm falling in love
I think back to when I first fell in love with Mary. I couldn’t wait to get to know more about her so that I could do those things that would give her joy. Because I loved her, I never once thought that I would try to just do enough to get by in our relationship or that I’d try to see how much I could get away with doing things that offended her and still maintain our relationship.
That’s what our relationship with Jesus needs to be like. My goal in my time with Jesus is to get to know Him and to understand what pleases Him so I can try to live my life like that. It’s certainly not to try and figure out how much I can sin and still be OK with Him or to see what is the least I can do and still get to heaven one day.
I am best satisfied with the steadfast love of God when my desire is to fall in love with Him.
Secondly, we need to see God at work around us. We need to see His power at work in this world, especially as it is manifest in the lives of other people. God is at work in this world, but we often miss that because we’re too busy doing our own thing. That’s why we must often first sanctify and simplify before we can see God at work around us.
Then finally, we must make the choice to join God in the work He is already doing. We must make a conscious effort to direct where we are going to spend our time, talent and resources and make sure that they are directed toward those things that count for eternity.
That’s exactly what Jesus did:
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
John 5:17 (ESV)
Jesus saw where His Father was already at work and then He made a conscious decision to join in that work.
If all we do is to get rid of the sin in our lives and simplify our lives, but we don’t use the time we free up to engage in those things that have eternal value, it’s only a matter of time until our lives will begin to fill up again with all those things that we’ve worked so hard to get rid of.
In my own personal life and in my role as an elder of this church, I want to finish well. I want to make sure that I’m spending my time, talent and resources investing in the lives of people and making a difference that will last for eternity. So I want to enlist your help in that endeavor in two ways:
First will you join me in a commitment to sanctify and simplify your life so that you can free up time and resources to specify how you will invest in the lives of other people?
And secondly, will you hold me accountable, both in my personal life and as an elder of this church to follow through with that commitment?
If you’re willing to do that, then in just a moment as we close with prayer, I’m going to ask you to stand with me as we pray as a symbol of that commitment. Remember that you’re not just making that commitment before me or the elders or even the other people in this body, but before God. Right now I’m going to ask our elders to come to the front with me as we pray. As they begin to pray, if you will make those commitment sin your life I ask you to stand with us right where you are.
[Elders pray]
