Wisdom for this Mortal Life | Psalm 90 | Pastor Don Green

thank you for being with us this evening it's our privilege tonight to go back to the Book of Psalms where we have been for a number of years off and on and where my heart loves to be we come to Psalm 90 here this evening the opening of book 4 of the Psalms Psalm 90 is the first of a series of related Psalms Psalm 90 highlight highlighting the transience of life Psalm 91 being a call to trust in the Lord in light of that and Psalm 92 answering that God will be faithful even to the end as we trust in him now Psalm 90 I'm going to read it here in a moment and I just want to say a word by by way of introduction Psalm 90 is an intensely personal Psalm to me it has had a profound impact on my life and I'm not going to try to hide that from what I have to say here this evening is as we unfold things let's read it to begin Psalm 90 the heading says it's a prayer of Moses the man of God verse 1 Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were born or you gave birth to the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting you are God you turn man back into dust and say return o children of men for a thousand years in your side are like yesterday when it passes by or as a watch in the night you have swept them away like a flood they fall asleep in the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew in the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew toward evening it fades and withers away for we have been consumed by your anger and by your wrath we have been dismayed you have placed our iniquities before you our secret sins in the light of your presence for all our days have declined in your fury we have finished our years like a sigh as for the days of our life they contain seventy years or if due to strength 80 years yet their pride is but labour and sorrow for soon it is gone and we fly away who understands the power of your anger and your fury according to the fear that is do you so teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom do return O Lord how long will it be and be sorry for your servants o satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days make us glad according to the days you have afflicted us and the years we have seen evil let your work appear to your servants and your Majesty to their children let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and confirm for us the work of our hands yes confirm the work of our hands now in this most magnificent Psalm here's what's happening there is a broad sweep of meditation that Moses is doing he opens up meditating on the eternality of God and then he immediately contrast that with the mortality of man and he places the eternal nature of God against the transient nature of man and at the end of the psalm that leads him to prayer and so in the process what he has done is he has given us is given for all time wisdom for this mortal life and for some 3500 years almost people have been reading Psalm 90 since it came from the pen of Moses now I always like to define terms right from the start it is very important that we know what we mean as we use certain terms and tonight we're focusing on mortality didn't plan it this way but Sunday was a was a message on why immortality matters and you could almost have titled this message why mortality matters or what you do in response to mortality immortality matters because we're going to live forever and we need to factor that into the way that we think about life and our philosophy of life and the other side of that coin is that mortality matters because our lives are brief and we need to do something with them there is a there is a there is a reality that must be factored into life both in mortality and mortality have this effect that when they're properly considered they help us keep life into perspective and not only that when you properly calculate mortality into your approach to life it has a way of defining the priorities by which you live and if you've never calculated mortality into your approach to life you is it's now's the time even if you're in your 60s and 70s and 80s it's time to start calculating that into the way that you think and approach life and if you're younger then you have all of the benefit of time to be able to make the most of this message and so for those of you that are listening that are in your in your teens in your early 20s man is this a time to take heed to Psalm 90 and to let it rap its rap its thought and its philosophy around your mind and let it shape you going forward as I've said in the past I've taught this Psalm twice at truth Community Church once in 2013 once in 2016 I actually don't mind teaching it every three years but that's not the plan here it's just the next Psalm in the series that we're doing here but I probably mentioned this there was a sweet woman whose name I don't remember who Nancy and I got married gave us a very simple little wedding gift she was not a woman of means and she just wanted to give us something and she gave us this very simple plaque that she no doubt found in a Christian bookstore that had saw ninety verse twelve edged upon it Psalm 90 verse 12 says to teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom and she had no idea at the time how much that verse was going to impact my life going forward and there are just certain verses that make an imprint on your mind and just and the Lord just uses them and Psalm 90 verse 12 was one of those verses in my life as I'll talk about in a little while for now though what we want to do is we want to exposit Psalm 90 before I get too overly personal about all of this that God's Word matters doesn't it Moses as he wrote this Psalm probably wrote this during the forty years of wandering in the wilderness during that wilderness time the people of Israel were marching through they had been judged by God and he had said that that entire generation would die in the wilderness and so they're going through a 40-year purging as a nation to cleanse out all of the rebellious souls that had objected to God's work in bringing them out of Egypt and so day by day year by year people were starting to die off and if you do the math I won't take you through all of this if you do the math there was anywhere between an average of 50 to 75 people dying day by day in the wilderness in in Israel and it's that provides a bit of the backdrop for what Moses was seeing what he was thinking and what would have prompted him to write such a magnificent Psalm as this we're going to break it down into three points tonight as I usually do it seems like I can't count past three and that's alright the attorney the eternality of God point number one eternality of God point number two the mortality of man and then point number three the humility of Prayer the more the eternality of God the mortality of man and the humility of Prayer and those things that really kind of wraps it all up and if you can get your mind around those three points you can have a focus that will with that will help you eat long after the words that I say tonight are forgotten from your mind and so let's start with point number one the eternality of God as Moses meditates and then writes for the benefit of all the people of God who would follow after him now 3500 years later Moses here is drawing a pawn for his meditation he starts with the eternality the eternal nature of God look at it there in verses 1 & 2 he says Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were born or you gave birth to the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting you are God and so as he starts here tonight as he starts the in the psalm he didn't start tonight because that would be quite difficult for a man who had been dead for 3500 years to do moses starts this meditation dwelling on the nature and the essence of god and that is where all proper right thinking of man begins we start with the nature the purpose of God and then we work things out from there and as Moses begins here he is connecting Israel with the people of faith who went before them and look at what he says there in verse 1 he's speaking about Israel they weren't yet quite yet a nation so much because they weren't yet in the land but they had developed into this into this mass of people under the leadership of God and he says in verse one Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations and what he's doing here is he's connecting the present group of the people of Israel with the people of faith who had preceded them now God had called Abraham 2,000 years before the time of Christ yeah back in Genesis Genesis chapter 12 he calls Abraham to follow him that was 2,000 years before the time of Christ speaking in round numbers Moses lived and this this time of the exodus was I'm oversimplifying on just using round numbers here about six hundred years later Moses is writing Psalm 90 and so there's been an intervening period of 600 years during which the descendants of Abraham were multiplying and growing and it and Moses is calling all of that to mind and he says Lord as hard as our people have grown and expanded you have been our dwelling place what he means by that is God you have protected us and sustained us from our from our tiny numbers when we left Israel to come into Egypt during our 400 years of slavery and in in Egypt where we multiplied and we were under harsh taskmasters and very little was there at times to encourage us Lord the underlying reality of our existence as a people was that you were protecting us you were sustaining us you were achieving your purpose even when it didn't seem like anything was really happening and as I like to say to just give a sense of perspective 600 years in our terms in our in our thinking of history as Americans anyway would take us back to prior to the discovery of America by Columbus now that seems like ancient dark history to us it's so long ago and yet that is the timeframe that that Moses is writing from he's looking back in in chronological terms to something that would have preped seeded the discovery of America by Columbus connecting connecting that time all the way through to where he's presently riding and saying God you have been over us you have you have been our security you have been the driving force of our continued existence even though we have been living in slavery much of that time and through it all through it all God here's the thing God had been accomplishing his purposes even though at times there was very little external evidence of it and he looks back over the sweep of centuries and says God you have been working in the midst of all of this even though it doesn't seem it may not have seemed like it at the time for us for us as Christians we could look back 600 years and go back just a few decades prior to the time of the Reformation and look back at the subsequent 500 years of the subsequent five hundred years of Reformation history and realize how God had has had his hand upon his people his hand upon his word his hand upon the proclamation of the gospel and his kingdom has advanced his church has grown Christ has built his church just as he promised even through the ups and downs of the ages that have intervened since then and what you and I need to do in response to that kind of thinking looking back at the window of 600 years of Israel's history that was prompting Moses to write now in the church age looking back at the 500 years since the Reformation looking back 2,000 years since the time of Christ we need we need to think we need to contemplate the way that God shall develops and grows his people according to his purposes no matter what the earthly opposition might be if we would do that and contemplate Providence rightly in light of God's Word we would be far less intimidated by the rise and fall of earthly leaders who are opposed to Christianity we wouldn't be so wrapped up in the things of politics the things of economics the things of this life because we would realize that behind it all in it seeing it with seeing these unseen things with the eyes of faith is that the hand of God is is marching forward and is bringing to pass everything that he ordained to happen before the beginning of time God is achieving his purpose without fail and in that the people of God have great security in that in that in that realm of faith in that mental realm of knowing God and knowing the fulfillment of his purposes that is where we find our stability he is our rock our refuge and his eternal nature guarantees that he will never miss out on what he's doing with his people you know if it matters what you think about the sovereignty of God and it is no small error for people to chip away at the sovereignty of God either in salvation or just in in not recognizing it not teaching it because we want to exalt the the so called free will of man beloved I want to tell you those things have long far-reaching ramifications and Moses would have had nothing of it look at it there in verse 1 when he says Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations you have been stable you have been unchanging you have been immutable and we as a people dwell and the shadow of your protection as he'll say in not as it will say in Psalm 91 verse 1 he goes on in verse 2 here in Psalm 90 says before the mountains were born or you gave birth to the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting you are God says God you had no beginning God you will have no end you established your eternal purpose before time began and and he's looking at this and he's saying and he's in it and in a in a a statement of reverence of fear and a spirit of worship he's saying God you are working out your purpose in time and after time ends you will have accomplished your purpose to perfection and nothing will have hindered there will be no diminishment of what you intended to accomplish you will do it all because of your great sovereign eternal power and purpose and his point here as he continues on where he's about to go with this is this he's setting forth the fact that we as the people of God you could say and expand it to all of humanity for that matter humanity is living history is unfolding in the context of the eternal purpose of God there is nothing that is happening outside of God's eternal purpose even the sin of man is calculated in the eternal purpose of God and he uses it to accomplish his purposes the hand of God beloved is in absolutely everything that happens his eternal purpose will be achieved it will prove to be good in the end in another book of Moses in Genesis chapter 50 verse 20 he records how man meant it for evil but God meant it for good in Acts chapter 2 godless men nailed Christ to the cross and they were merely carrying out the eternal purpose of God when they did now see beloved we need you do I want to talk in 2nd person or first person plural here tonight let's go with second person plural or a second person you really need to you really need to factor this into the way that you think about life the things that we are talking about here tonight shape your entire mind they inform the entire way that you think about life what you think about the sovereignty of God and his ability to work out his purposes changes everything and a man who does not understand these things or who denies these things will live much differently than the man who affirms and believes them having been saved by the by the power and the blood of Christ this matters I'm telling you and if it didn't matter it wouldn't be in Scripture and so Moses briefly starts out with this statement of the surpassing eternality and sovereignty of God and that's the start of his meditation now he goes on having said that God is eternal he now changes focus he having looked up vertically so to speak at God and and praising and honoring the eternality of God he now turns his focus to the the nature of man he does this without a without a real transition but the contrast is certainly clear enough we come to point number two here this evening the mortality of man the mortality of man now Moses is still talking to God here he is still praying in a sense here as we go to verse 3 as we see because he's addressing he's he's still speaking in the second person you look at it there in verse three with me he says you turn man back into dust well it's who's the you it's the same Lord that he had addressed at the beginning of the song you turn man back into death didn't say return o children of men for a thousand years in your side or like yesterday when it passes by or as a watch in the night you have swept them away like a flood they fall asleep in the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew in the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew toward evening at fades and and withers away what's he doing here in poetic language he is now talking about the brevity and the mortality of man he's had such an exalted view of God as he opened it up but now he turns to he turns to a contemplation of man and says God man is not like you at all you who are the same from generation to generation transcendent over ages living beyond and existing beyond the realm of time God by contrast we live in this we live in this transient temporary realm where we flourish for just a short period of time and then the wind blows on us and we are gone he is making a a grand statement a grand contrast between the eternality of God and the mortality of man and what he is saying here is is that that God unlike you we are subject to death we die and our time span is insignificant look at look at verse 4 as he contemplates time from God's perspective he says in verse 4 for a thousand years in your side are like yesterday when it passes by a millennium a day it's there's there's no there's no difference in the sense of in the sense of God the timespan is insignificant from God's perspective because he dwells outside of time it's not that God is unaware of time it's not that he doesn't act in time but but his perspective on time has come completely different from ours 24 hours to us and a thousand years is vastly different the God he's so far beyond time that it's it's there's there's the distinction is insignificant a thousand years to God is the same as a four-hour watch in the night to him because he dwells outside the realm of time time has is no restraint on his character or being time is no restraint on the fulfillment of his purposes or what he intends to do that's from God's perspective but for us it's important for us to realize that time has a much different significance to us and unlike the eternality of God we are transient and passing look at verses five and six as he contemplates men who died and go back to the dust he says in verse five you swept them away like a flood they fall asleep in the morning they're like grass which sprouts anew in the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew toward evening it fades and withers away we know this especially in springtime I love springtime it's my favorite time of year by far I love the flowers that bloom up in the trees that bloom and and I just love that but every year every year it's the same the the beauty of it is passing the flowers fade and the petals start to peel back and you know and they wither up and they blow away the beauty is transitory as real as the beauty is it's it's transitory with each passing year I realize that I have fewer Springs to enjoy as life moves on this way and what Moses is doing here is comparing the the the life of man to the passing grass of the field man flourishes time oh yeah it's longer than the two weeks span of a flower but it's really in the context of God's eternal tea it's it's a it's exactly the same principle flourishes for a while the breath comes on it and it withers and goes away and that is the only proper way to think about the the the nature of the life of man your life beloved even for you young people your life is like a waterfall that is cascading over the cliffs of time the the river comes rushing down and and and there's a current and a flow to it and it passes by passes along the the banks of the edge there and then it comes over to the waterfall and down it goes that's what our life is like swept away like a flood and this is the picture that Moses is giving to us the temporary nature of life where man flourishes for a time seems to be a pillar of strength or a pillar of beauty it can you be a pillar of beauty I don't know doesn't matter you get what I'm saying a pillar of strength or a picture of beauty and that time goes on and it all starts to crumble away until it is gone now most of you know that I like to go to cemeteries I like to walk around in cemeteries especially where my prior generations are buried one of my favorite places on earth to go and some people find that morbid and you know get a little bit edgy when I start talking this way but bear with me here for a moment I won't well on it long but you need to you need to think about life from this way this is this is what Moses is saying just illustrate it a little bit differently a cemetery gives silent testimony to the reality of what Moses is talking about here the brief nature of life you go and you look at carved out and granted carved out in marble the name of a man you know maybe you don't know and you see that that man lived from 1795 to 1882 lived 87 years and and and during the course of his life he was strong he was prominent it looked like it from all appearances it looked like he would just go on indefinitely living and continuing on in the strength of his of his days and in the pursuits of his life but now his name is etched in stone after those 87 years are are gone and he who once seemed to be strong is now forgotten in the grave no one remembers what he looks like if you even remember his name if the if the stone has worn away and that strength in real terms here that strength that he exhibited in in in the most profound way was just an illusion it wasn't real it wasn't lasting it wasn't eternal like God is it was a flourishing for a time that had an endpoint and then it moves on and life is over for him and what Psalm 90 is calling you to do each one of you in here today what Psalm 90 is calling each one of us to contemplate is the fact that that that reality of the brevity of life is what marks you as well this is the reality of your life even in your even in the the vigor and strength of your youth right now beloved it is temporary it is passing and soon enough it will be your name that is etched on stone in a cemetery soon enough it will be your remains that are dealt with in other ways to think and however long you live whether it's 30 years or 90 years the outcome is quick and the outcome is the same one day it's going to be your name that is being etched upon the stone now I now look look it is it is just so critical for you and I not to shy away from this kind of thinking because this is biblical thinking and the fact that it makes us uncomfortable is no reason not to embrace it and to understand it because this is what God's Word is saying to us God says these things in his word for our benefit and for our help and for our instruction Moses isn't being morbid here he is being realistic and I don't think it's too much to say that until a man has calculated death into his perspective on life he hasn't even begun to live now Moses answers an important question he answers a theological question beginning in verse 7 why is it like that why is it that our lives are brief as God is eternal and we're made in the image of God why are our lives brief why is it that we flourished for a time and then we fade away well he answers that question in verse 7 I love this Psalm it's just so profound he says in verse 7 for for he's explaining what he had just said he's giving a reason for it why do we flourish and then wither away verse 7 for we've been consumed by your anger and by your wrath we've been dismayed you've placed our iniquities before you are secret sins in the light of your presence for all our days have declined in your fury we have finished our years like a sigh as for the days of our life they contain seventy years or if due to strength 80 years yet their pride is but labor and sorrow for soon it is gone and we fly away we leave this earthly existence behind verse 11 who understands the power of your anger and your fury according to the fear that is do you what is he talking about here well remember that he's he's he's writing in the context of a generation of Israelites falling in the wilderness every grave a fresh reminder about their disobedience to God what he is saying here is that we are experiencing this this realm of death because we are experiencing your wrath and anger against our sin we are being punished for our sin your fury and wrath is against our rebellion and disobedience against you and every grave was a fresh reminder if they thought about it rightly about their disobedience when they wanted to return to Egypt instead of following the pillar of cloud and fire into the promised land inexcusable and you expand it out and you realize that what was true and a microcosm of Israel is true for all of men look at Romans chapter 5 verse 12 with me just as a brief reminder for you about where death comes from where does death come from it wasn't it wasn't present in creation before the fall of man but when Adam disobeyed he brought death upon the entire human race Romans chapter 5 verse 12 therefore just as through one man speaking of Adam sin entered into the world and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned death why why is there death it's because man sinned against God and the penalty for sin was death death in terms of alien immediate alienation from God death in terms of physical death when the soul is separated from the body and ultimately eternal death for those who are not redeemed from their sin death is a multifaceted reality of existence since Adam sinned and we all shared in it with him not only shared in it as with him as the representative head of the human race but shared in it by our own nature and by our own choice and by our own desires you were talking about here and so the reason that there is death the reason that life is mortal the reason that life is brief and transient is because of the sin of man that invoked the wrath of God against humanity death was the judgment for sin the wages of sin is death and that's what Moses's were is referring to in in in humble and a humble expression of worship and meditation to God he says in those in verses 3 to 6 our life is brief mortal and transient and he goes on to saying God the reason that it's like that is because your wrath is against us we've sinned against you your fury is invoked against our rebellion and disobedience and God this is really really sad look at verse look at verse 10 again with me as for the days of our life they contain seventy years due to strength 80 years if we go really well we go 80 years he says but the pride of our life is just labor and sorrow then it's gone and we fly away you know if I can go back to the cemeteries with you for just a moment the you know it always it slightly amuses and saddens me at the same time when I go to an unfamiliar cemetery and I and somebody there's always somebody who at one time was a big community leader and a prominent guy whose family built him the biggest monument in the place right you know and you've got the natural the the smaller stones like most of us will have if we're buried in a cemetery like that you know the modest stones may be as wide as the pulpit and you know a fraction of the height and you know here lies so-and-so or whatever but somebody's got to have somebody's got to have the 30 foot tall monument or the big mausoleum that looks like it's you know looks like you could live a it looks like a small house in it and you come to that afterwards and the whole point is to is to speak to how prominent and great this man was or this woman was but it you know with the passage of just a few years it just becomes a mockery of the very thing that it was supposed to be commemorating if you don't know who the guy is that monument just looks like a big waste of money and it was this man was important really who was he I don't even recognize his name and the pride of all of that was just meaningless he was trying his family was trying to keep his name perpetuated for generations and one or two generations later people are scratching their head and saying why did they put so much stone into that this beloved why does this matter why are we talking about this and why am i illustrating this way this shows us it illustrates force the truth of what Moses is talking about the pride of life is just labor and sorrow there is nothing lasting or permanent about this life not even the significance it is communicated by your headstone at a cemetery and so we need to think completely differently about what life signifies and what the point of it is because Moses is saying here life brings sorrow we get started and then death takes us away this is undeniable this God's Word can never be successfully refuted but this in particular is just undeniable for anyone who would take time to think about it and look at it with open eyes we're gonna die all the generations before us have died and we're gonna join them in that realm of the Dead speaking humanly and beloved aren't you glad you came tonight this is so truthful this is God's Word Moses's Moses is writing this for purpose not to depress us but to instruct us and this unseen Nate this unseen dynamic about the nature of life and nature of death it governs all of life and here but we have a problem at precisely this point you and I have a problem at precisely this point we do not have the ability in our natural mind and in our natural power to grasp that because you tend to live by what you see and you live you live in the realm where life is pretty much the same day after day after day and without even realizing it you start to assume and presuppose that because yesterday was like this and today was like this that tomorrow will be like this as well and you think and you just and you don't even start to contemplate that it's not always going to continue and yes tomorrow won't always be like today and yesterday was and you can't grasp that in your natural ability and here's what it does to you it creates in you a false sense of security that life will go on as it always has and that is not true and Moses says and points out to us toward the evening it fades and withers away we've been consumed 70 or 80 years and were gone and we fly away but the vast majority of people don't have the wisdom to stop and think about that and calculate it into the way that they approach life they just keep doing what they're doing without contemplating what the reality of life it really is yeah and yeah I get animated about this that's all right you see your challenge is is that you can't grasp that in your natural ability with your natural faculties you live by sight and not by faith not informed by the Word of God and so what does Moses do Moses has a conclusion to draw from that that is profoundly significant Moses has identified the problem he says in verse 11 who understands the power of your anger and your fury according to the fear that is do you god you're angry against our sin God were mortal and transient and we're gonna die and and life is short and who understands that who understands that who gets that who grasped that rightly implied answer is no one does naturally now look at verse 12 in light of that he says so so in light of all of these things that I've been saying Lord in light of your in eternality and the mortality of man and our inability to grasp the significance of what all of this means for our individual lives so therefore in light of all of that God I have another prayer request for you God verse 12 I pray that you would teach us to number our days so that we may present to you a heart of wisdom God we need you to show Grace and favor to us to enlighten our minds so that we would consider time and the brief window of life that we have properly God I need your help to think rightly about the nature of life otherwise I'm gonna squander it I'm gonna waste it help me to use and consider time in light of the mortality and brevity of life God Moses understands that we would not do that if we were left to our own devices because we are too fascinated by what we see around us we are too much in love with ourselves and we just have this natural thought that I'm just going to keep on living and keep on living and keep on living that's the natural way that men think before life starts to get away from them and so Moses is praying God teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom God help help us to think rightly about the brevity of life so that we would live in a wise way in response to it and not squander the days that have been given to us by your gracious hand teach us to number our days now let's make this really practical I'm gonna repeat an illustration that I've used in the past and that's alright you know looking out looking out on you and knowing so many of you in your life circumstances some of you on the count on the cusp that's a good word cusps on the edge of important life decisions deciding what you're going to do making important decisions about what life lies ahead periodically life brings us those things decisions that will alter the course of your life forever job what kind of job or career are you going to pursue what kind of education where are you going to go to school out where are you gonna relocate who you're going to marry all those kinds of things and you're on the front end of those decisions and saying what do I do how can I think about these things rightly and how can I make a good and wise decision I've said this to people so many times in so many different places when you're on the brink of decisions like that here's my encouragement to you follows the thinking of Psalm and think ahead to the end of your life picture yourself on sitting on a rocking chair you're on a porch someplace life has life is basically over you know that you don't have too much time left your strength is gone and and your days are are a few you're an old man or you're an old woman and and you're looking back on your life at that time it's an imaginary exercise but I think it's helpful and here's the thing here's the thing man I plead with you and if you're too old if you're already at that point in life that's okay just teach it to somebody else who's coming up behind you you're sitting on that rocking chair and here's the reality of life it's occurring to you that you don't get to do it over again you don't get another chance you had one chance and whatever you did with it that's what you've got now is you're sitting in the rocking chair remember we're Chuck's to pose and we're doing a little bit of time travel here in reality you're on the front end of life the front end of decisions but you're thinking about it at the end looking back on it here's the whole point when you're sitting in that rocking chair beloved what's going to be important to you at that time what's going to matter then when you look back on life what are you going to want to have to show for your life or for your decisions then what's going to be important then when you are at death's door and you are about to give God an account for your life what do you want to show for yourself I can tell you this you don't want to be sitting in that rocking chair having squandered your life on the foolish pursuits of youth you don't want to have have squandered it in sin having neglected Scripture having neglected biblical priorities or having shredded your family with excessive devotion to business ministry or or or a double life that you think you're hiding from others I can promise you that when you're in the rocking chair you're not going to be glad you did that and I'm saying these things sympathetically to help you I know I'm saying them strongly buts I'm saying it's strongly just because it's so important beloved let me shift tone here beloved whether you've got two years or you've got 70 years to look forward to in the natural course of things I plead with you I beg you to live your life in a way that when you're sitting in that rocking chair you're not sitting there thinking and I say it reverently oh my god I've wasted it all I can't do it over and it's too late and I squandered it I [Music] played games through all of my life I never took God's words seriously I never even responded to the gospel of Christ oh I'm put on a show for a man that I never gave him my heart I never loved him with all of my heart soul strength in mind I just played the part of a hypocrite and now I've squandered it all by every appearance some of you give me the impression that that's exactly the trajectory that you're on I worry over you I worry over what you seem to consider in what you seem to think is important in life worries me no end you see beloved that day of reckoning is coming and you are in a position now responding to God's Word here tonight you're in a position to change the trajectory of that and ultimately it's really not the rocking chair that matters is it it's the fact that the rocking chair is just a is just a preliminary act before you actually give an account to God for your life and you have to give an account to him for your life because even as Christians we're going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account for the things that we've done in the body and what are you gonna do with that what are you going to say then what are you gonna say I can tell you what you ought to pray right now I hope God teach me to number my days so that I would live wisely and let's also just humble ourselves even further and just realize it as we talk about these things it illustrates for us how much we need and our a redeemer to conquer death for us how much we need Christ to overcome our sin and to overcome our foolishness so that we might be delivered safe through that passageway so to speak lord teach me to number my days so that I would live wisely now look I'm about to do something that I don't want to do I hadn't planned to do this until about an hour ago I'll probably regret it when I go to bed tonight but we know each other you know me I'm here as a pastor and if I can be personal for just a moment and in passing deal with a question that I get asked all the time people ask me and I'm just illustrating how you think about this how this applies and what it looks like it's not to talk about me but to help you people ask me often why is it that you speaking to me why did you leave a law practice why did you abandon being an attorney to to go into ministry what was that like for you I get asked that question a lot and there's there's a long answer but there's a short answer in this context right here and at the end of the day it was very very simple I was about 30 I don't know I don't know where this thought came to think about a rocking chair thing like this I don't know where that thought came from but I was 30 in the midst of a law practice that I really enjoyed into this day I still miss but I looked ahead to the rocking chair and I asked myself what do I want to look back on that I had given my life to when I get to the rocking chair what do I want to look back on of having given my life to and I knew that I didn't want to have to show for my life a career in law when there was an alternate path of giving myself to God's Word and that's what I wanted to sit in the rocking chair and look back on and remember was that I had given my life to God's Word and I'll trust God to honor that when I stand before him in judgment it was that simple this thought of the rocking chair changed the entire trajectory of my life now let me clarify something really quickly here it is not at all I don't say that because every man needs to go into ministry that's not what I think at all I don't I don't even I don't even recommend it as a career choice frankly let's explain that some other time I'm glad to be doing what I'm doing every man the point is is that every man every woman does not need to go into ministry but every man or every woman does need to do this every one of you you do need to number your days and calculate in what you're doing with your time and with your priorities and with your resource and and what you're doing because at some point at some point the end is going to come and whether you have time to reflect back on it or not what you want to live life from is from a perspective that when I reach the end I can look back and say no matter how it went I at least made choices that were informed by the fact that I was living a brief life under the eye of God that's what you need to do that's ahead that's how Christian's live life and you young guys you've got a great opportunity to set the course now you older guys some of you may be having squandered an awfully lot well let me just remind you we do serve a God of grace and that if you squandered it and you look back and you say I lived selfishly this is why Christ came Christ came to bring grace to sinners just like you and that you can go to Christ even now and confess a lifetime of sin and find him willing to receive you and to forgive you and restore the years at the locus of Eden the years that you've wasted and if even if it chronologically it's a small window of time after a lifetime of sin that there is still grace and productivity and an opportunity to live to the glory of God even if it's short by comparison it's the nature of grace to say come have at it come all you who labor and are heavy-laden and I'll give you rest he's able to restore the years that the locusts have eaten and for that we praise Him and thank him but the younger you are and the more that you're on the front end the more is use your opportunity and now that you've heard it is your responsibility to respond to the Word of God with how you give what you give your life to this matters well in response to all of that let's look finally and quickly at number three the humility of Prayer the humility of Prayer understanding this ends on a joyful notes on 90 does understanding contemplating meditating on the brevity of life the mortality of life it humbles us it Sobers us and it and it leaves us it leaves us recognizing that there are that there are dynamics about life that are just beyond our ability to grasp and to respond to and we need help we need help the whole of this the eternality of God and the mortality of man drives us to a position of humility before God Moses is writing this toward the end of his life by the way for what I was just saying that's a good point to remember Moses lived to be a hundred and twenty he died God took him at the at the end of that 40-year wandering he probably only had a very short number of years of his own life to live when he was writing this and what did Moses the man of God have to say then and then he turns to prayer in verse 13 look at it with me it would be depressing he's God we would be depressed by all of this weakness so god I asked you for grace I asked you for help look at verse 13 do return O Lord how long will it be and be sorry for your servants he's praying for mercy God have mercy on us be sorry for us give us joy that we don't even deserve verse 14 Oh satisfy us in the morning with your loving-kindness that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days make us glad according to the days you have afflicted us in the years that we have seen evil what he's saying what is he saying here he's saying God show us mercy God God the the reality of this would crush us if you left us here and so I'm asking you to show mercy to us to be sorry for us and to help us even in our inner man to give us joy to replace the despair that we would otherwise feel in light of these things there is joy in Christ even in light of the brevity and mortality of man Moses says Lord give that to us in our inner man help us help us to be enraptured by by you by your character by your grace and if we can see your grace and be satisfied with your Grace and we can sing for joy we can we can be glad all of our days God help us in our inner man to transcend what would otherwise take place and then he gives a second prayer in verses 16 and 17 he prays for God to grant a lasting impact to his life look at verse 16 with me let your work appear to your servants and your Majesty to their children God make yourself known to us God you are the answer to this brevity of life you are the answer that satisfies our soul and so make yourself known break into this earthly this earthly realm of despair and make yourself known and show your Majesty to us in verse 17 let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and confirm for us the work of our hands yes confirm the work of our hands Moses wanted his life to have a lasting value and so he says God here's what we're doing here's what I'm doing confirm it in other words establish it bless it so that somehow it has an enduring impact on posterity that what I do will outlive my natural life and somehow turn to be a blessing to those who come after me and what all of this means beloved for those of you that are older especially you may have regrets about the past some of you aren't even all that old and you have regrets about the past don't you but here in this prayer of Moses my friends what you find is this is it by grace you can finish well you can finish well one writer said this said so long as we are here God requires us to do something let us therefore find out what that is and do it and while we do it let us pray that God may establish it so that it may remain to bless posterity here's what you should be thinking no matter whether you're young or old here's what you here's the way that you should think in light of Psalm 90 Lord I'm still here I'm still here I detect by that here's a way that you should thank beloved I detect by the fact that I am still here that I still have work to do that there is still purpose in my remaining days appointed by you God I pray God I ask you God I beg you to guide my steps and to give me enlightened understanding so that I could see what that is and that I could devote my time and energy to that which you would be pleased to bless with all of that said to just wrap this up time goes so quickly yeah that's right dawn the whole song's about that but I was only thinking about the 60 minutes here beloved we're family here together let me just say this if you are a Christian God does not intend for you to cling to this life this life is mortal it is passing it is brief yes you are to use that time to his glory to love him and to serve him while you can but to recognize that this is that this life is not why God created you the purpose is for which God created you transcend this life there are eternal purposes that God has appointed you to and whether God takes you when you're 30 or whether God takes you when you're 90 he has appointed for you a destiny he is appointed for you a purpose that lives on long after you're gone your priority is God's eternal purpose not your earthly stuff ultimately Christ redeemed you to be with him in heaven forever Paul so the Apostle Paul in Philippians once said for me to live is Christ and to die is gain to depart and to be with Christ is very much better beloved that is the blessed prevail the blessed position that all of us have as Christians not to fear death not to resent it not to run from it when it comes to us but rather to embrace it understanding that death is your escort into glory and all fear is gone then you're free to leave when the time comes you look back and bid farewell to life you say God be gracious be merciful to me the center that's what I intend to pray with my dying lips if I have breath and thought to think it too just look back over all of the life of failure and sin and despair and and and everything that I messed up and to go before him not with boasting in my accomplishments but God be merciful to me the center and knowing that our gracious Lord is disposed to answer that because he is favourable to us as he showed when he died for us on the cross and in these things we find a philosophy and priorities by which we can live may be true for each one of you let's pray Lord what else could we pray we could not improve on the words of Moses inspired by your spirit that have stood the test of three and a half millennia and which were just as true and powerful today as they were back then for each one father under the sound of my voice I pray that you would teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom in Jesus name we pray amen thanks for listening to Pastor Don green from Truth Community Church in Cincinnati Ohio you can find Church information Don's complete sermon library and other helpful materials at the truth pulpit com this message is copyrighted by Don Greene all rights reserved

Channel: The Truth Pulpit

Views: 1,908

Rating: 4.8857141 out of 5

Keywords: Pastor Don Green, Cincinnati Church, Bible Study, Psalms, Psalm 90, Don Green, Wisdom, Mortal Life, Mortal, Life, Death

Id: faDuYLDFd3Q

Length: 71min 29sec (4289 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 27 2019