“Soul Talk: Why I Need Wisdom”
Ps. 90
Wisdom is helpful. The new pastor’s family was given a pie, baked by a member of the congregation, who was a poor cook. The pie was inedible so the family threw it in the garbage. Now the pastor needed wisdom – how could he thank the lady and at the same time be truthful? After a lot of thought – and hopefully prayer – he sent a note which said, “Thank you for being so kind and thoughtful. I can assure you that a pie like yours never lasts long at our house!”
Wisdom is helpful - so much so that one morning the young new bank president made an appointment with his predecessor to seek some wise advice. He began, “Sir, as you well know, I lack a great deal of the qualifications you already have for this job. You have been very successful as president of this bank, and I wondered if you would be kind enough to share with me some of the insights you have gained from your years here that have been the keys to your success.” The older man replied, “Young man, two words: good decisions.” The young man responded, Thank you very much, sir, but how does one come to know which is the good decision?” “One word, young man: experience.” “But how does one get experience?” “Two words, young man: bad decisions.” (1)
Certainly Moses, the author of Psalm 90, knew about bad decisions. He had made his share of them during his 40 years in the palace, his 40 years as a shepherd in the desert, and now in his 40 years of leading Israel in the wilderness. Perhaps that’s why he was so conscious of the need for wisdom. And just perhaps we can learn from him.
As he contemplates life, Moses begins with A PROFESSION OF FAITH. (1-2) “Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” ‘Lord’ is a Hebrew word CELEBRATING GOD’S MAJESTIC AUTHORITY AND ACKNOWLEDGING HIS SOVEREIGNTY. He’s celebrating God as ‘my Supreme Master.’ (2) It’s important to recognize Moses’ situation as he wrote this profession. He was in the wilderness; not in the halls of Pharaoh; no longer in the comfort of the safe, routine life of a shepherd, but in a wilderness. He was leading the tribes of Israel as they were taking up their tents and marching along, with no settled dwelling place. So he lifted his eyes above and said, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.” (3) Recalling their history, he saw that GOD HAD ALWAYS BEEN HOME TO ISRAEL, generation after generation. He alone had been their house, their place of comfort and security. (4) That’s where Moses begins.
Throughout the centuries philosophers and others have looked at life and tried to draw conclusions about God. Moses looked at God and drew conclusions about life. IT IS GOD WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DEAL. H.G. Wells once poignantly said, "If there is no God, nothing matters. If there is a God, nothing else matters!" (5) The Apostle Paul professed the same faith (Col. 1:15-18; 3:3), “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy… For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” IT IS JESUS CHRIST WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DEAL. As we contemplate life, this is the profession of faith with which we must begin. We begin with God in Jesus Christ and draw conclusions about life.
Because of his profession of faith, Moses could proceed to AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF FACTS. (3-10) Moses highlights 2 facts in particular. First, he acknowledges THE BREVITY OF LIFE. From Numbers 20 we know that Miriam and Aaron have died. Moses knows he soon will die and without entering the land of promise. So Moses summarizes human life (3-6): “You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.” A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—they are like the new grass of the morning: In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered.” OUR LIVES ARE LIMITED BY THE SWIFTNESS OF TIME. Isn’t it true that the older we get the more we wonder where the time went?
Psychologists have said that the primary subconscious concern of the person over 50 is preoccupation with his or her own death. We don’t always talk about or constantly think about it, but it’s always in the background of our consciousness. And many people in their mid-thirties to mid-forties go through what we now call a midlife crisis – they realize time is flying by and want somehow to slow it down or to speed up what they’re doing. They are beginning to deal with the fact that they may not have time to accomplish all they had dreamed of and envisioned for their lives.
Hannah and Her Sisters follows the lives of three sisters. Television producer Mickey, divorced from Hannah, has his life interrupted when the news comes that he may be seriously ill. Mickey sits in the doctor's office anxiously waiting for the results of his x-rays. The doctor comes in holding the x-rays and says, "Well, you're just fine. There's absolutely nothing here at all. And your tests are all fine." He places the x-rays on the light box. "I must admit, I was concerned, given your symptoms." In the next scene Mickey jumps for joy outside the hospital and runs down the street. Suddenly he comes to a complete stop, his hand on his chin as if he's just been struck by a profound thought. In the next scene he is in the cluttered office of the co-producer of their TV show. She is seated at her desk and in a puzzled tone asks, "What do you mean, you're quitting? Why? The news is good. You don't have cancer." Mickey looks out at the New York skyline. "Do you realize what a thread we're all hanging by?" "Mickey, you're off the hook. You should be celebrating." "Can you understand how meaningless everything is? Everything. Our lives. The show. The whole world. It's meaningless." "But you're not dying." "No, I'm not dying now. When I ran out of the hospital, I was so thrilled, because they told me I was going to be all right. I was running down the street. Suddenly I stopped. It hit me. I'm not going to go today, I'm not going to go tomorrow, but eventually, I'm going to be in that position." "You're just realizing this now?" "No, I don't realize it now. I knew it all the time, but I managed to stick it in the back of my mind. It's a very horrible thing to think about." Later in the scene, Mickey comments on knowing he will die. "Doesn't that ruin everything for you? It takes the pleasure out of everything. I mean, you're going to die. I'm going to die. The audience is going to die. The network is going to die." “You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”
The second fact Moses acknowledges is THE WRATH OF GOD. (7-10) “We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.” The background for Moses is not only his own sin but the fall of humankind he wrote about in Genesis. When we begin with God we see our true condition through His eyes. Thus, Moses continues in verse 7 that Israel has “been consumed by Your anger.” The root of the noun anger is “nose.” When God is angry He snorts like a wild horse. The Mosescontinues, we are “terrified by your indignation.” This terror is Israel’s response to the impending judgment of God.
Moses is acknowledging that OUR LIVES ARE LIMTED BY SIN. This is precisely the lament of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes (3:15 & 17): “Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account… I said to myself, “God will bring into judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.” One of these days, God will, because of our sin, put an end to our time as we know it. Our calendars will be frozen, our social media accounts will stop being updated, our future plans will lie unfulfilled. “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly
away.”
Is it any wonder Moses needed wisdom? Is it any wonder we need wisdom? So we look to Moses and SOME PRAYERS FOR WISDOM. Moses sought God’ perspective. It reminds me of the TV show Let’s Make A Deal, where contestants need to choose what’s behind door # 1, #2, or #3. If only they knew what was behind the door it would make their choice easier. (11) “If only we knew the power of your anger!” Since we do not know what’s behind the next door in our lives, we need wisdom. So Moses prays TEACH US. “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Moses understood the importance of living life to the fullest each day. It means valuing the time we do have by using it for eternal purposes. One Bible student wrote wisely, “We cannot apply our hearts unto wisdom, as instructed by Moses, except we number every day as our possible last day.” (6)
Verses 1-11 of Ecclesiastes 3 remind us that God has created time, and in so doing orders certain parts, certain durations, of our time. There are times for birth and for death, for planting and picking, for weeping and laughing. We do not choose when they occur; God does. There is a divine rhythm to life which is under the control of God. Since we cannot control these events, we NEED TO TRUST GOD for them. As the preacher said, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Everything God does and plans works for our good! As the Apostle Paul later wrote, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” We trust God to bless us through the activities we do not plan and then PRAYERFULLY PLAN THE REST OF OUR TIME, opening the door for Him to bless us through the activities we plan. As a poet has penned, “The clock of life is wound but once, And no man has the power To say just when the hands will stop; At late, or early hour. Now is the only time we own to do His precious will, Do not wait until tomorrow; For the clock may then be still.” (7)
Moses’ second petition for wisdom is SATISFY US. (13-16) “Relent, LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children.” Our days are limited by brevity and wrath, but remember that God is our dwelling place. WE LIVE UNDER HIS COVENANT OF LOVE WHERE WE CAN STILL BE SATISFIED.
Marc Herrienger was a young businessman when a freak accident changed his life. He was shoveling snow out of his driveway. His wife asked him to watch their two-year-old daughter while she moved the car. As the car backed out, Marc and his wife were plunged into the worst nightmare a parent can imagine. Their toddler was crushed beneath a wheels of the car and she died in his arms. Initially the grief was so deep that Marc had to ask God to help him breathe, to eat, to get dressed and move about the house. Slowly over time, Marc felt God working in his life to bring healing, restoration of joy, and a new purpose in life. Eventually Marc left the business world to enter seminary and become a pastor, where he uses his own devastating experiences as a connection with others who are lost in their suffering. They want to know this Jesus, this God who enters our pain. Out of suffering has come endurance, character, and hope, not only for the Herriengers, but for many people. Marc says, "Sometimes people scoff at the Bible saying that God can cause good to emerge from our pain if we run toward him instead of away from him. But I've watched it happen in my own life. I've experienced God's goodness through deep pain, and no skeptic can dispute that. The God whom the skeptic denies is the same God who held our hands in the deep, dark places, who strengthened our marriage, who deepened our faith, who increased our reliance on him, who gave us two more children, and who infused our lives with new purpose and meaning so that we can make a difference to others."
Moses’ third petition is ESTABLISH US. Ecclesiastes comments (3:22) “So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what is after him?” In contrast Moses’ prayer is (17) “May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us yes, establish the work of our hands.” Each of us chooses one or the other – WE LEAVE MEMORIES OR WE LEAVE A LEGACY.
French scientists have succeeded in causing chickens to sound like quail. Researchers took tissue from parts of the Japanese quail brain thought to control the bird's call and implanted it in the brains of five chicken embryos. The experiment worked. Researchers say the hatched chicks sounded like quail rather than chickens. But they weren’t the first to do a brain transplant. God has "implanted" the mind of Christ in those who have accepted His Son as their Savior. The Spirit of God has taken up residence in us (1 Cor. 2:12). In some mysterious way we now have a capacity for divine wisdom that no Ph.D. degree or natural experience could ever provide. Having the mind of Christ enables us to see life increasingly from God's perspective. (8)
So we can leave a God-blessed legacy - if we are conscientious about what we plan and do.
Remember the fool in Jesus’ parable who wanted to build bigger and better barns to store his surplus crops so he could settle down and take life easy? He wanted to create memories. But Jesus said of him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” (Luke 12: 13–20). Jesus wanted him to leave a legacy.
We can leave a legacy BY CHOOSING TO DO ALL WE DO TO THE GLORY OF GOD. How does what I’m considering “do good?” How does it benefit those who love me, look up to me, and depend on me? How does this benefit the cause of Christ? What are the consequences of not doing this? Will anyone be harmed? What are the consequences of doing this? Who will be helped? Tomorrow will I regret not having done this? Tomorrow will I be glad I did this?
It’s time now to be done with lesser things and give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of Kings. It’s time now to stop worrying and start trusting God. It’s time now to usher children and youth into the presence of God. It’s time now to rescue the perishing and pick up the fallen. It’s time now to stop looking for better bait and just start fishing. It’s time now to stop trying to find better soil and just start sowing seed. It’s time now to stop talking about prayer and to start praying. It’s time now to stop looking for excuses and start making some commitments. It’s time now to stop playing at Christianity and start fully committing to Jesus Christ. It’s time now to stop finding ways to avoid Jesus and instead invite Him into your time commitments. Don’t put off until ‘sometime’ what you should do today. It really is an issue of time – you will always create a memory or a legacy by what you in the present moment. All you know is that you have this moment today. That’s why you need wisdom.
(1) Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, edited by Michael P. Green, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI 49516 © 1989 by Michael P. Green, p. 396
(2) Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1997). The Nelson Study Bible: New King James Version (Ps 90:1–2). Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.
(3) Spurgeon, C. H. (1855). The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons (Vol. 1, p. 347). London: Passmore & Alabaster.
(4) Williams, D., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1989). Psalms 73–150 (Vol. 14, p. 150). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.
(5) Michael Shannon, Preaching, July/August 2002 – From preaching.com
(6) Boice, J. M. (2005). Psalms 42–106: An Expositional Commentary (p. 744). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
(7) Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (p. 1481). Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.
(8) Sermons Illustrated May/June 1990, from Preaching.com
