Psalm 90 Live Today for What Lasts Forever
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Psalm 90 Live Today for What Lasts Forever Introduction There is a certain foolishness which comes with being young. For instance, when I was younger, I thought I would live forever. Not really, but I certainly tended to act that way. When we are young, there is a part of us that believes we have all the time in the world. When we believe that we have all the time in the world, we tend to waste a lot of it. We start to focus on things with little value in the long run. We live for the pleasure of today. Eventually, we become busier and more distracted. Any notion that we should live for things beyond today, things of eternal value, is lost on us. It’s something we can worry about tomorrow. As we age, a lot of things change: we get a bit taller, maybe a bit heavier, we develop a few more wrinkles, and our hair begins to lose its color. But what never seems to go away is that foolish tendency to center our lives on things that don’t have lasting value. Our culture is steeped in this. We are a people that live for the pleasures of today. We’re addicted to instant gratification. When hard times happen, we escape into fantasy. We are so busy that we don’t stop to consider those around us. Is it possible that we’ve become so focused on the moment that we become blind to things of eternal value? I think this is at least part of what made this year so difficult. Everything was put on hold. We weren’t able to see a movie, eat out, go to school, or do one of the myriad of things that we do to occupy our time. It reminds me a little of my kids. Sometimes I need to have an important discussion with them. I have learned not to try to do that when the TV is on, because they will be too distracted to hear anything that I am saying. So, I will grab the remote and turn the TV off. When I do, I am able to have their full attention. This year I feel like God has, ever so graciously, pushed the OFF button on the remote. So many distractions were temporarily removed, and we had a moment to put our full attention on him. To look away from busy things and to contemplate weightier matters, matters of life and death. But will this focus last longer than just this moment? What prevents us from returning to our old foolishness? Look, I am as glad as anyone else to put this year behind me. I’m ready to make some half- hearted resolutions and forget that 2020 ever happened. But let’s not be in such a hurry that we miss an opportunity for growth. In light of that, what I would ask us to consider this morning is, “How do we shift our perspective away from temporary things of little lasting value? How can learn to live today for what lasts forever?" I hope we can answer those questions as we examine Psalm 90. Context Psalm 90 is one of the oldest chapters in the Bible. The superscription tells us that it is a prayer of Moses, the man of God. What a wonderful title: Man of God. Acts 7:22 tells us that “Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.” Yet, Hebrews 11:24-27 tells us that he “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” He rejected all wealth and wisdom of the world to be fully part of the people of God. He was a man called by God, commissioned by God, and inspired by God. Moses traveled with the Israelites through the desert wanderings. Exodus describes the account of Moses being sent by God to confront Pharaoh and lead his people out of Egypt to the Promised Land. This was a journey that would ultimately last for forty years. Forty years marked by the challenges of wilderness travel with a difficult and often rebellious people. These were years of struggle and hardship. We can just imagine Moses offering up this prayer somewhere in the midst of the wilderness wanderings. Perhaps he prays as the people gather before the Jordan River to cross into the Promised Land. Remember that God is Eternal (vs. 1-2) If you are to live today for what lasts forever, you must remember that God is eternal. If we have a distorted view of eternity, it’s because we have an incomplete view of God. Moses does not let us start with in incomplete view of God. He begins by offering a view of God’s eternal nature. “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.” (vs. 1) Think about where this Psalm was written. It is not in the halls of Pharaoh surrounded by all the comforts of the world. Rather, it is written in the heat of the open desert as Moses considers his people. Here was a people that had never really known a home. They were slaves that were descendants of slaves. For hundreds of years, they were suppressed in a land not their own. Each morning they rose in the desert, packed the few possessions they owned, and spent the day pressing forward to Canaan. They could not build houses or plant gardens. They were subject to the winds and the sun, wild creatures and troubles on every side. Even the tabernacle, their place of worship, was a giant tent designed to be transient. In every respect, here was a nation without a home. Yet, the Bible states that the Lord was their dwelling place. The term “dwelling place” has in mind a refuge, an oasis, an encampment. Regardless of what they faced, each day carried with it the reminder that the Creator was their protection, their safe place, and home. In fact, there was never a moment in which God wasn’t their refuge. Each successive generation had found its refuge in him. From their fathers to their fathers’ fathers, all the way back to the first man and woman. We have multiple generations represented at Calvary. We have folks from the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, and even some from the newest generation. Each generation is a little different from the last. Yet, there is a common tie between all of them. The same Eternal God offers refuge to his people just like he did in the wilderness. Because God is eternal, he remains as much today a safe place for his people as he was for the Israelites. Consider verse 2. “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” From everlasting to everlasting. From eternity to eternity. From always has been to always will be. The very idea of eternity can be difficult for us to wrap our heads around. A child might ask, “How old is God?” The problem with that question is that it doesn’t work. God invented time. He is the Master of time and as such is not mastered by it. This year you and I will have a birthday. God won’t. There never was nor will there ever be a moment when God does not exist. Consider the mountains. Surely it must have felt to the wilderness wanderers that they passed countless hills and mountains. Moses certainly had some incredible experiences on a mountaintop. Each mountain that passed invited them to consider the eternal nature of God. As old and majestic as the mountains may be, they are as infants in God’s eyes. The Bible begins with the statement, “In the beginning, God.” Before anything was made that has been made, when the earth was nothing but chaos, God was there. God spoke into existence all the creation that we see around us. When Moses looked at the mountains, he didn’t see the result of millions of years of chance, but rather the handiwork of the eternal Creator of the universe. But Moses also understood that in contrast to God’s eternal nature, mankind was fleeting. Remember that Life is Fleeting (vs. 3-6) If you are to live today for what lasts forever, you must remember that life is fleeting. At this point the psalm makes a difficult shift. These following verses weren’t designed to make us feel good about ourselves. They are often recited at funerals because they force us to consider our own mortality. To ignore this is to become like the fool of Luke 12:16-21 who chose to relish in comfort, not knowing that this very night his life would be required. The verses don’t let us get away with this. They make a stark contrast between the everlasting existence of God and the very short life of man. Verse 4 tells us that for God, a thousand years are like a single night. A thousand years is such a long time. Think of all that has happened in the last thousand years. Nations have risen and fallen, leaders have come and gone, various philosophies of men have been introduced and soon forgotten, wars, events, ideas, so much that we can hardly remember it all.