Pastor Joe Fuiten, August 24, 2003

 

Scripture Reading:  Psalm  90 Page 424

1 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. 3 You turn men back to dust, saying, "Return to dust, O sons of men." 4 For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. 5 You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning—6 though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered. 7 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. 9 All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. 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. 11 Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. 12 Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 13 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. 15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. 16 May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. 17 May the favor[1] of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us-- yes, establish the work of our hands. (NIV)

 

            This is a painful Psalm.  It has a good prayer attached to it, but it comes from a man who has clearly been set aside to some degree.  Even though he has success, it is not the success he could have had.  You recall the message of a couple of weeks ago where we described the first attempt by Israel to enter the Promised Land.  Because some of the leaders were ruled by fear instead of faith, they failed at Kadesh-Barnea to appropriate God’s promise or to use God’s help.  As a result all the warriors who should have fought the battles of the Promised Land were sentenced to die one by one in the wilderness.  Even Moses the leader, was among those who could look into the land but could not enter.

            It must have been a bitter thing for Moses.  God had called him to lead Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.  Instead of leading Israel in triumph into the land, he also will die in the wilderness.  He will see it with his eyes but not touch it with his hands. 

            I believe this is the backdrop for this Psalm.  I cannot imagine another time when all the elements he mentions would have been present.  Even though we can read this Psalm as if the questions at the end are rhetorical and are answered in the positive, we have no assurance that these prayers were answered positively.

            Let me give you what I think the application of this Psalm can be for us.  Whenever we study how God has acted in the past, we do it so we can understand him and learn to apply these lessons to ourselves.  At any given moment your life is a crossroads.  You can go one way or another and reap the results of those choices.  Too often we choose poorly and suffer the consequences.  Moses’ plea is that he will choose well and that God will give him his favor. This is what we should desire as well.  With that in mind, let us consider the text and the story it reveals.

            Moses begins by acknowledging that God is at the center of it all.  In verses 1-2 he says, “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.”   This is an important acknowledgement.  God really does determine the affairs of this life. One of the Proverbs says, “The LORD works out everything for his own ends-- even the wicked for a day of disaster.”[2]  In on of the other Psalms it says, “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.”[3]  Moses is acknowledging that without God there is no answer.

            Verse 3-11 is the summary of what it feels like to waiting awaiting your turn to die in the desert. “You turn men back to dust, saying, "Return to dust, O sons of men." 4 For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. 5 You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning—6 though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered. 7 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. 9 All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. 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. 11 Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.”  Even though the cloud was leading them, it had a dark edge.  They were warriors under a sentence of irrelevance. They could have been great like green grass in the morning, but they withered and died.  They cannot outlive God and they cannot escape.  They finish their days with a moan.

            Have you ever been part of a lost cause or a hopeless situation?  I have.  Probably the two most difficult years of my life were right after we moved into this first building. We are now building our seventh building and we have learned a few things, but the first one was really terrible. The building was so far off budget it was incredible.  It was easily $1.5 million.  By a miracle we got the second loan to finish it off, but then we had to pay it back.  We made huge cuts but even with that, I didn’t see how it could work.  I never missed a day of prayer, but I had no faith at all and I sank deeper into despair.  There is no glory in being the captain of a sinking ship. We never have missed or been late on one payment but I am telling you it was only the mercy of God that allowed it to happen. Fortunately we have a great congregation.  I was very impressed with the people of this church who pitched in, worked together, and made it happen.  The two wealthiest families we had volunteered to clean the toilets.  With attitudes like that we made it work.  Unlike Moses, I don’t believe we went though that because of sin unless being young and stupid is a sin.  Even so, it gives me sympathy for Moses.

            The rest of the chapter is the prayer of an experienced person and it is quite powerful.  Moses had more faith than I had.  The very next thing that God did with Israel after he told them they would spend forty more years in the desert was to tell them what they should do when they get to the Promised Land.  In Numbers 15:1-3, “The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'After you enter the land I am giving you as a home 3 and you present to the LORD offerings made by fire….” The detailed instruction about sacrifices they should make became the faith statement upon which they could build their future.  They would not always been in the desert.  They would have a home in the Promised Land.  The work of their hands would be established.

            Moses builds this next part of this prayer on that statement by God. Back to Psalm 90.  He didn’t know how long it would take. “12 Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  In effect he said, I don’t know how many days we have but help us to take advantage of them so we will be wise, not foolish.

            Verse 13 has a great bit of human understanding built into it.  In the NIV it says, “have compassion on your servants.”  The word translated as compassion is nacham (naw-kham').[4]  It means to sigh.  In dealing with people you learn to read their body language as much as their words.  When they let out a sign, it usually signals a change of heart or openness to a new idea.  The concept is built into the Hebrew language.  Moses wants God to let out a sigh and signal a change of heart. 

            In verses 14 to the end, Moses can already sense what God will do.  He anticipates the promises of God.  Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. 16 May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. 17 May the favor[5] of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us-- yes, establish the work of our hands. (NIV)

            Moses first of all calls upon the unfailing love of God.  Go with that.  God loves you very much and will listen to your prayer.  There is great satisfaction in that.  Also great joy and gladness.  For some of us, this may be the first real spark of anything good.  We are loved.  Even though you might be here with all the burden of your past mistakes on your shoulders, start by finding joy in love.

            Second, he speaks of the deeds of God which reveal his splendor.  The sentence structure has two parts which are parallel to each other.  For God to show his deeds to his servants is parallel to the idea that God would show his splendor to their children.  It is so great when the miracle comes.  God heals.  God delivers.  God restores.  God supplies.  Moses doesn’t emphasize so much what God does, but that God’s splendor is being revealed in the deeds.  He really wants the relationship with God more than the benefits of the action.

            Third, he asks for God’s favor.  He is thinking about those homes in the Promised Land.  He wants them to be established.  This is the peak, the top of the mountain.  To enjoy God’s favor is to have everything else.  The question is, upon what basis does God give favor.  God’s favor is certainly expressed in Salvation which we can only have through faith in the blood of Christ and in no other way.  Yet we also know that not all Christians whose sins are forgiven apparently enjoy the same level of favor.

God apparently looks at how we handle his stuff to see what he is going to do with our stuff. Hag 1:9-10 "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops.”

God’s favor is not just personal.  We see it in our families.  It is a tremendous thing to see kids getting established in the Lord and in their families.  We see it in our church in various ways.  When we pray for babies and God gives them, what should are we seeing?  It is the splendor of God.  It is his favor.  When our children are in Sunday School soaking up the love of God, what is that?  God’s splendor!  As school starts with every classroom full, what is that?  The splendor of God and his favor being revealed.  When our budget is successfully met we are seeing God’s favor on the people and thus his favor on the church.

God’s favor in a nation is also necessary.  Psalm 33:10-20 makes this very clear.  “The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. 11 But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance. 13 From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; 14 from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth—15 he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. 16 No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. 17 A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. 18 But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, 19 to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. 20 We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.”

When the President opened his comments in Seattle on Friday he said “Thank you for your contribution, and thank you for your prayers.”  He seems to know that it is not by might or dollars that it gets done, though both are necessary.  It is by God’s favor in our land.

            We need to keep asking for God’s favor that his Splendor will be seen by all people.