1Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the
earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to
everlasting, You are God.
3You turn man to destruction,
And say, “Return, O children
of men.”
4For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it is
past,
And like a watch in the night.
5You carry them away like a flood;
They are like a sleep.
In the morning they are like
grass which grows up:
6In the morning it flourishes and grows up;
In the evening it is cut down
and withers.
7For we have been consumed by Your anger,
And by Your wrath we are
terrified.
8You have set our iniquities before You,
Our secret sins in the light
of Your countenance.
9For all our days have passed away in Your wrath;
We finish our years like a
sigh.
10The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength
they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor
and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we
fly away.
11Who knows the power of Your anger?
For as the fear of You, so is
Your wrath.
12So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of
wisdom.
13Return, O Lord! How long?
And have compassion on Your
servants.
14Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy,
That we may rejoice and be
glad all our days!
15Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us,
The years in which we have
seen evil.
16Let Your work appear to Your servants,
And Your glory to their
children.
17And let the beauty of the Lord
our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our
hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our
hands.
Preamble:
Psalm
90 is the only Psalm that was written by Moses. It is humble, it is contemplative, it reveals to us the man of God Moses’ own heart.
Vs. 1-2 1Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the
earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to
everlasting, You are God.
Moses begins his Psalm by placing the Lord as the One to whom we His people have always belonged, from generation to generation, long before we knew the Lord, He knew us. Before He brought forth the mountains, or even had formed the earth and the world, the Lord God has been from everlasting to everlasting. This then is Moses’ declaration of the Eternal and Unchanging Lord God.
Vs.
3-4
3You turn man to
destruction,
And say, “Return, O children
of men.”
4For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it is
past,
And like a watch in the night.
In contrast to God’s Sovereign Everlasting Person is the frailty of man. For as soon as God deems it so, men whom He brought forth from dust return to the same (vs. 3). For though men were to live a thousand years (as in the days of Genesis) yet their lives before God are like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night, and then they end. Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes spent much time contemplating this and found it all vanity, merely grasping for the wind, in all that mankind seeks to do in this life that is only rooted in his own passions, dreams, and desires.
Vs. 5-6 5You carry them away like a flood;
They are like a sleep.
In the morning they are like
grass which grows up:
6In the morning it flourishes and grows up;
In the evening it is cut down
and withers.
Moses’ continues his despondent reflection, likely reflecting upon the deaths of the many people who were taken in Israel’s wilderness wanderings. For God by His Sovereign hand carry’s them away like a flood. Indeed, our lives are like a sleep, just a moment before we awaken to our eternities. For we all are like grass in the morning which grows up; and so for a time we bear the strength and beauty of our youths; however the evening soon comes and the grass is cut down and what is left withers away. This is the call on every generation of humanity.
Vs. 7-10 7For we have been consumed by Your anger,
And by Your wrath we are
terrified.
8You have set our iniquities before You,
Our secret sins in the light
of Your countenance.
9For all our days have passed away in Your wrath;
We finish our years like a
sigh.
10The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength
they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor
and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we
fly away.
Moses as the leader of the congregation in seeing the judgment of God on those who would not enter the Promised Land at His command (see Nu, 13-14; Deut. 1:19-46) cannot but say that we are consumed by God’s anger and by His wrath we are terrified (vs. 7). For Israel were given a great privilege to bear witness to the mighty and awesome works of the Lord in Egypt and at the Red Sea, also at Mount Sinai and with cloud and fire by day and by night. And yet for all of that they would not believe Him, nor obey Him, all throughout their wilderness wanderings they would only continue to disbelieve, complain, and rebel against Him. Thus, what Moses is writing about here must be seen in the light of that context, (also see Neh. 9:6-38 for a more complete recalling), for in their wilderness wanderings Moses had seen many lives lost because of their sins. For God set their iniquities before Him, He brought out their secret sins in the light of His countenance (vs. 8). For the Lord made a covenant with them, and they only went on to make a golden calf! Verse nine then reveals the deep despondency of Moses of having born witness to these things, of seeing many people pass away in God’s wrath. Indeed, Moses now sees our lives ending only like a sigh.
“The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength
they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor
and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we
fly away.”
Vs. 10
There is no boasting, nor proud taking, nor pounding the chest, as if all begins and ends with us when our time comes. For Moses saw this time and again, he saw that a life lived apart from obeying the will of God is a life full of labor and sorrow. And if by chance we succeed to seventy or
eighty years of life our lives are soon cut off, and we fly away to our eternities, never to be heard in the land of the living again. Life lived apart from the salvation of God then has no good end! Now because we will all pass away the time to prepare for that day
is not then, but now! Therefore, now is the time to be reconciled to God, now is the time to
believe in Him through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ Crucified and Risen from the
dead. For whoever believes in Jesus Christ and confesses Him as Lord will have remission
of all their sins and everlasting life (see Rom. 10:9-10, 13). This is God's Promise and command to one and to all to be reconciled to God now! For God made Jesus
Christ who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness
of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:17 paraphrased NKJ).
Vs. 11-12 11Who knows the power of Your anger?
For as the fear of You, so is
Your wrath.
12So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of
wisdom.
In a humbled awe of God, Moses now shows us a real reverence for God, a real fear of His wrath, when he says, “Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.” God’s anger then is not something to take lightly, nor is it something anyone should dare arouse against themselves. For Moses bore witnesses to it time and again and he feared Him, as all mankind should. Therefore, Moses asks Him to teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. For only then will we learn to live humble and fruitful lives with Him, lives of lasting peace and prosperity with Him.
Vs. 13 “Return, O Lord! How long?
And have compassion on Your
servants.
Moses longs for the Lord’s favor to return to His people, for His compassion, His mercies, His grace to once again be upon His servants. Now if you follow Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness you will see that as the rebellious generation passes away and their children rise in their places, i.e., the people God said would enter the Promised Land in place of their unbelieving parents (Num. 14:26-35), that this will increasingly become Israel’s position once again with God. Unfortunately, Moses did not get to see this in fulness in his own life, for he too had to die in the wilderness with them (see Deut. 32:48-51). Nonetheless Moses now sees God’s favor on His redeemed people in the Kingdom of heaven with Christ. For it is because of the Lord Jesus Christ that God can now have compassion on us all!
Vs. 14 “Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy,
That we may rejoice and be
glad all our days!
Moses thus longs for God’s mercy to come to the people, for Him to satisfy us early with His mercy that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. And now it is so true for us for In Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior we now have God’s mercies new every morning, we now have an everlasting relationship with God our Father in heaven by which He may smile upon us. Therefore we do not need to bear the guilt and shame of sin anymore! For we now have what Moses so longed for then!
Vs. 15 “Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us,
The years in which we have
seen evil.”
Moses now asks that the Lord make His people glad according to all the days in which He afflicted them, the years in which we have seen evil. For ultimately God’s grace far and away exceeds His judgments, for everyone who asks for it shall receive His grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Vs. 16-17 16Let Your work appear to Your servants,
And Your glory to their
children.
17And let the beauty of the Lord
our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our
hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our
hands.
In closing Moses asks that the Lord once again show His work to His servants and His glory to our children, he asks that the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; which it is by His Holy Spirit dwelling in us all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that He establish the work of our hands (2x), as Jesus has now promised and done for us so that we now bear fruit that does indeed remain (John 15:16).
Scripture Quotations
New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.
No comments:
Post a Comment