Tag: psalm 90

Immortal God and Mortal Humanity (Psalm 90)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
Digital artwork by Bruce Butler

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 turn us back to dust
    and say, “Turn back, you mortals.”
For a thousand years in your sight
    are like yesterday when it is past
    or like a watch in the night.

You sweep them away; 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 consumed by your anger;
    by your wrath we are overwhelmed.
You have set our iniquities before you,
    our secret sins in the light of your countenance.

For all our days pass away under your wrath;
    our years come to an end like a sigh.
The days of our life are seventy years
    or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span is only toil and trouble;
    they are soon gone, and we fly away.

Who considers the power of your anger?
    Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
So teach us to count our days
    that we may gain a wise heart.

Turn, O Lord! How long?
    Have compassion on your servants!
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
    so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us
    and as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your work be manifest to your servants
    and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us
    and prosper for us the work of our hands—
    O prosper the work of our hands! (New Revised Standard Version)

All of the psalms are prayers. Most of them are prayers of David. Today’s psalm is a prayer of Moses.

Moses acknowledged and affirmed that God is eternal, and we humans are not. We are frail and in need of God. We are dependent upon God for health, hope, and happiness in life.

There are observations to notice in today’s Psalm lesson, that are then followed by prayerful petitions which arise from those observations.

First Observation: God Is Eternal

God is immortal. God has always been, and will always be. Therefore, the Lord’s rule and reign existed way before this world was ever created, and shall extend way beyond the lifespan of creation. God’s dwelling place is without beginning or end – which means that God isn’t going anywhere. That is a great comfort to me.

Second Observation: Humans Are Finite

Whereas God is immortal, we humans are mortal beings. We are creatures with limited time on this earth. We all eventually die. Everyone returns to the dust from which they came – which isn’t even a blink of an eye when compared to God’s eternal existence.

This isn’t meant to be a downer for us, but rather to help us. It is necessary to work within our limitations while living in this world. To live as if we are immortal has grave consequences (pun intended).

Third Observation: The World Is Broken

Our world is fundamentally messed up. Another way of saying this is that everything in creation is under a curse. Things are not as they should be. And that’s on us, not God. Because of our own human proclivity to sin, our world is beset with a great deal of suffering and toil.

Hopefully, in the best scenario, people learn to understand the brevity of life, and gain wisdom on how to live a humble, just, and good life with one another, and with their God.

Now notice the petitions which Moses offered to God, based upon the observations of God’s nature, human nature, and the world’s situation.

First Petition: Turn, O Lord!

Moses was pleading with God to turn away from divine judgment and wrath, which was more than deserved for a group of people who were chronically complaining and disobedient. Moses was well aware of all Israel’s sins, and was counting on the Lord’s mercy for God’s covenant people.

Second Petition: How long, O Lord?

Moses was asking one of those questions that we ask, knowing that he wasn’t really going to get an answer. Yet, in the asking, there is an understanding that human misery won’t go on forever. Our suffering is temporary.

In this petition of Moses, he was also calling for a change, for God to deal with the people in a different way. Moses wanted gladness to replace affliction, and the sufferings of this life to give way to the joy of living in a good world.

Third Petition: Prosper the work of our hands

This wasn’t a petition for God to simply make everyone healthy and wealthy. It was a focused prayer that God’s work and our human work would be one seamless activity. That is, this is a prayerful longing for what we do in our lives to completely synchronize with God’s law in this world we all inhabit together.

Whenever we sin, we cause damage, not prosperity. Yet, with a divine/human cooperative in which we acknowledge and affirm God’s sovereignty over our lives, and take up our own human responsibility, then humanity thrives and flourishes in the goodness we were meant to enjoy as God’s creatures.

Christian Observations

In Christianity, the immortal and invisible God comes to us in the mortal and visible life of Jesus. In Christ, the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of humanity is not only synchronized; it is perfectly united and harmonized so that there is deliverance from the power of evil and from God’s judgment.

God’s steadfast love is brought to us with skin on.

For the Christian, Jesus is the answer to the prayers and petitions of Moses. Christ is the prophet foretold by Moses who was to come:

I [Yahweh]will raise up for them [the Israelites] a prophet like you [Moses] from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. (Deuteronomy 18:18, NRSV)

The incarnation, life, ministry, crucifixion, death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification of Jesus Christ has dealt with the weeds and overgrowth of guilt and shame that has taken over the garden of this world.

In Christ, we can begin to hack through all the stuff, in order to see the beauty underneath all of the spiritual neglect which has occurred for so long.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the steadfast love of God the Father, and the encouragement of the Holy Spirit be with you, now and forever. Amen.

Our Dwelling Place (Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

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 turn us back to dust
    and say, “Turn back, you mortals.”
For a thousand years in your sight
    are like yesterday when it is past
    or like a watch in the night.

You sweep them away; 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…

Turn, O Lord! How long?
    Have compassion on your servants!
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
    so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us
    and as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your work be manifest to your servants
    and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us
    and prosper for us the work of our hands—
    O prosper the work of our hands! (New Revised Standard Version)

Out of the 150 psalms we have in the biblical psalter, only this one is attributed to Moses. At Mount Sinai, when God was entering into covenant with the Israelites, the Lord had Moses come up the mountain to receive the Law. Meanwhile, the people began to rebel and became idolatrous.

And God was angry with them – so angry that the Lord was ready to do away with them all, and start from scratch with Moses. Yet, at that time, Moses interceded for the people and implored God saying:

“O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’” (Exodus 32:11-13, NRSV)

Moses prayed for God to turn and change his mind. And, amazingly, God did.

In a terrible event of the golden calf experience, Moses had the wherewithal to step back and see the larger perspective.

And it is this view of time which governs the prayer of Psalm 90. This psalm sees the transience of human life and the permanence of an eternal God.  From this perspective, we gain wisdom in order to pray as we ought. The center of Moses’ prayer states:

For all our days pass away under your wrath;
    our years come to an end like a sigh.
The days of our life are seventy years
    or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span is only toil and trouble;
    they are soon gone, and we fly away.

Who considers the power of your anger?
    Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
So teach us to count our days
    that we may gain a wise heart. (Psalm 90:9-12, NRSV)

Today’s psalm lesson is a genuine prayer that begs for divine wisdom so that we may live with an eternal perspective. Armed with such a view, the psalmist prays for divine mercy so that our lives may be redeemed and we might know joy. And from wisdom and mercy, prayer is offered for divine blessing upon the work of our hands.

God’s presence ought to cause the people’s acknowledgment and obedience. If it doesn’t, then that presence can turn to wrath. This is precisely why we need wisdom to live rightly – to seek the Lord and know the spiritual laws of the universe. Ignorance leads to death, but wisdom to life.

We do not always live as we ought – which is why we need to seek grace and mercy from God. The psalmist trusts that God can redeem times of evil and the darkness of the human heart. The Lord is able to overcome for us what we cannot overcome for ourselves. God can (and will, in God’s own good time) deliver us from our unhealthy spiritual condition.

Moses led the people out of Egyptian slavery. But it was God who delivered the Israelites and was present with them always. Eventually, Moses died because God took him (Deuteronomy 34:5). And, at that time, the people had not yet entered the Promised Land; they were landless and homeless.

God, however, was their true dwelling place; the presence of God was there and continues to be there. The Lord has not taken a vacation. The Lord’s presence and power is still operative in this world. It’s the perspective of eternity.

Home, for the believer, is God. The Lord is our dwelling place, with us no matter where we go. God is the One who keeps redeeming our time, blessing us with joy, and prospering our work.

“O God, Our Help in Ages Past” by Isaac Watts, 1719, verses 1-3

O God, our Help in ages past,
our Hope for years to come,
our Shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal Home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
sufficient is Thine arm alone,
and our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
or earth received its frame,
from everlasting Thou art God,
to endless years the same.

Psalm 90 – Of God and Humanity

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

Lord, you have been our help,
    generation after generation.
Before the mountains were born,
    before you birthed the earth and the inhabited world—
    from forever in the past
    to forever in the future, you are God.

You return people to dust,
    saying, “Go back, humans,”
    because in your perspective a thousand years
    are like yesterday past,
    like a short period during the night watch.
You sweep humans away like a dream,
    like grass that is renewed in the morning.
True, in the morning it thrives, renewed,
    but come evening it withers, all dried up.
Yes, we are wasting away because of your wrath;
    we are paralyzed with fear on account of your rage.
You put our sins right in front of you,
    set our hidden faults in the light from your face.
Yes, all our days slip away because of your fury;
    we finish up our years with a whimper.
We live at best to be seventy years old,
    maybe eighty, if we’re strong.
But their duration brings hard work and trouble
    because they go by so quickly.
    And then we fly off.
Who can comprehend the power of your anger?
    The honor that is due you corresponds to your wrath.
Teach us to number our days
    so we can have a wise heart.

Come back to us, Lord!
    Please, quick!
    Have some compassion for your servants!
Fill us full every morning with your faithful love
    so we can rejoice and celebrate our whole life long.
Make us happy for the same amount of time that you afflicted us—
    for the same number of years that we saw only trouble.
Let your acts be seen by your servants;
    let your glory be seen by their children.
Let the kindness of the Lord our God be over us.
    Make the work of our hands last.
    Make the work of our hands last! (Common English Bible)

The Bible is first and foremost a collection of books about God. Even though Scripture’s pages are filled with the fame and foibles of humans, nevertheless, the biblical drama unfolds because of the Lord. Holy Scripture is, indeed, a self-revelation of God.

There are times we get too focused on ourselves – our fears, inadequacies, weaknesses, failures – and lose sight of just how huge God really is. Today’s psalm helps reorient us back toward the grand Sovereign of the universe. There is a decidedly theistic worldview espoused and embedded in the psalm. It is a cosmology dominated by the immensity and largeness of a Creator God who is pictured as completely in control of all creation.

Let’s face it: Our lives are a weird and complex concoction of fear and joy that can combust at any time. We swing from high to low, and low to high. If we are on an even keel, its only because we are currently in the middle of swaying to one extreme or the other. Even introverts are familiar with this – it just happens to take place mostly inside their vast inner world, instead of on the outside for all to see.

So, we all need the grand vision of God in this psalm to anchor us through the unpredictable vicissitudes of life. Before the mountains were brought forth, or the earth was formed, from everlasting to everlasting the Lord is God. 

The transcendent God, although high and above everything in all creation, is not at all aloof from humanity; the Lord of the universe is also imminently close. God is near enough to know both our outward iniquities as well as our secret sins. Nothing gets by God. The Lord always knows the score.

The proper and appropriate response to such a God is to exclaim along with the psalmist to teach us to number our days so that we may get a heart of wisdom. Whenever we appropriate a biblical worldview, we learn to measure our days and live consistently moral lives with wholeness and integrity. 

This is why a regular regimen of the psalms is important to us, so that we will continually have before us the basic nature and character of God. And, as we do so, we cannot help but reflect God’s glory and contribute to human flourishing on this earth and the care of all creation.

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, we rejoice in your greatness and power, your gentleness and love, your mercy and justice. Enable us by your Spirit to honor you in our thoughts, words, and actions, and to serve you in every aspect of our lives, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17 – Always and Forever

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

My Lord, you have been our home forever and ever.
You were God before the mountains were born,
    before the earth and the world were made.
    You have always been and will always be God!

You bring people into this world,
    and you change them into dust again.
To you, a thousand years is like yesterday,
    like a few hours in the night.
Our life is like a dream that ends when morning comes.
We are like grass
    that grows and looks so fresh in the morning,
    but in the evening it is dry and dying.

Lord, come back to us.
    Be kind to your servants….
Fill us with your love every morning.
    Let us be happy and enjoy our lives.
For years you have made life hard for us and have given us many troubles.
    Now make us happy for just as long.
Let your servants see the wonderful things you can do for them.
    And let their children see your glory.
Lord, our God, be kind to us.
    Make everything we do successful.
    Yes, make it all successful. (ERV)

Holy Scripture is first and foremost a collection of writings about God. There are times we may become too focused on ourselves – our fears, inadequacies, weaknesses, failures – and lose sight of God’s huge immensity. Today’s psalm helps reorient us back again to the grand Sovereign of the universe. There is a decidedly theistic worldview espoused and embedded in the psalm. It is a cosmology dominated by the largeness of a Creator who is pictured as completely in control of creation.

When it comes to us, our lives are often a weird and complex concoction of fear and joy which could combust at any time. We swing from high to low, and low to high. If we are on an even keel, it is often only because we are currently in the middle of swaying from one extreme to another. Even the seemingly consistent introverts know this – it just happens to all take place inside their vast inner world instead of on the outside for all to see.

Psalm 90 grants us a grand vision of God to anchor and steady us through the vicissitudes of life. The high and transcendent God is also close and imminently near. Because of divine transcendence and immanence, nothing gets by God. The Lord Almighty always knows the score. And God is ready to graciously dispense kindness, mercy, and steadfast love to us in daily need of it.

The appropriate response to such a God is to number our days so that we may become wise. When we appropriate and incorporate a healthy theology into our lives, we learn to measure ourselves in fresh ways and live consistently moral lives with wholeness and integrity. Therefore, a regular regimen of the psalms is important to always have before us a stout view of God who always and forever exists as our heart’s truest home.

Mighty God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, satisfy me in the morning with your constant love so that I might rejoice and be glad all day, every day. Let your favor rest upon me and establish the work of my hands for the glory of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit reign as one God, now and forever. Amen.