One of the difficulties in relating to God is His timelessness. We measure everything by time, from minutes on our phones to years in our lives. As we move through time, we gather things; opinions, actions, education, relationships, and the list goes on. As we assimilate life and all it has to offer, we tend to change. We are much different at age 50 than we were at age 25. Is that good or is it bad? It all depends on what those changes have made us into. Have these changes affected my values? One of my great concerns is that as we move through life with its adversarial winds buffeting our craft, we tend to drift. We lose our compass. We then end up at a destination we did not plan on.
In order to grasp what is on my mind, it would help if you had your Bible open to Psalm 90. In this Psalm the author is comparing what time does to God and what time does to us. The writer tells us in verse 1, that God is our dwelling place. I would be safe in saying that we are living in God’s house. “You have given birth to the world “. The author says that God is eternal. “from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God”. God encompasses history, He encompasses creation, and He encompasses eternity.
Then the author says that God is creator. “Before the mountains were born, or the earth was formed…thou art God”. As someone created the electronic device you depend on, someone also created our home, earth, where we live. In order to reinforce this concept, Paul says in Colossians, “for in Him all things exist, the visible, the invisible; all authority were created through Him and for Him”. I am being brought into contact with a God that is above all and beyond everything around us. We live in His house, with no thought of God, who built it. Life pulls at us like a magnet pulls at metal. We change, but He is changeless. I can only reach my highest potential by allowing the Divine Craftsman to create His image in my life.
The psalm then leaps from the majesty of God to the lowliness of man. Note some comparisons:
God is a Spirit, but man is dust.
God is eternal but man’s life is limited.
God gives birth to the earth, but man gives birth to trouble.
The author gives us some unique descriptions. Man returns to dust, but God is timeless. He then seeks to describe our life; it is filled with trouble, trouble piled on trouble; “We live for 70 years, or in some cases 80 years, and what do we have to show for it? Trouble, toil and tension…and soon we are gone and we fly away”.
Am I safe in saying that here in this Psalm, we investigate a man’s journal, and he is expressing himself to God? He tells this eternal being that we live 70 years of troubled life. We then die and what have we gained in it all? At the end of life, are we better or are we worse?
I cannot help but think of another writer who is expressing the same feelings. To get the concept, you really need to read Ecclesiastes 2. I do not have the space here to quote from this author, but he opens the chapter by saying, “I said to myself, come now, I will test you with pleasure. So, enjoy yourself, but I found this to be vanity also”. He then talks about how he tried to bring various things into his life to make those 70 years enjoyable; he tried humor, buildings, gardening, sex, “all my eyes desired, I did not refuse them”. He closes the chapter by saying, “So I hated life…I must leave it to the man who will come after me”.
Life, by itself is futile and will leave us with a heartburn and a bad taste in our mouths. Thankfully, the writer of Psalm 90 does not leave us there, in that hopeless condition. Starting in verse 13 he cries out to God, “be sorry for thy servants…satisfy us with thy loving kindness, may we sing and be glad all our days [70 years], let thy works appear to thy children and let the favor of God be upon us, and do confirm the work of our hands, yes, confirm the work of our hands”.
He is saying two things;
We need to keep living life.
Into the troubles of our life, can be woven God’s goodness.
Note some of the phrases he uses;
“Satisfy us in the morning with thy loving kindness”. [verse 14
“Make us glad according to the days thou hast afflicted us, and the years we have seen evil”. [verse 15]
He is asking God to guide life. Keep me from drifting. Yes, life will bring pain and trouble, but he is asking God to bring good out of all he is going through. This concept is taught in the New Testament. “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”. [Romans 8:28]
None of us dare to deny the pain that life can bring to us. Some of this is physical pain and some of it will be emotional pain. God cannot remove the pain of these 70 years because it is a part of our fallen state, but He can dilute the pain of life. The pain of our fallen nature can actually produce in us the nature of Christ Himself. For that reason, we cannot live these limited years without God as our anchor. He is he one who will keep me from drifting in life. He is in the process of creating in me His very nature. Without that anchor, we will drift.
I note two lesson in this Psalm;
“Teach us to number our days that I may present to you a heart of wisdom”. He is asking us to live well, to the best of our ability.
“Let the favor of the Lord be upon us and confirm the work of our hands”. He is asking for God’s favor and for God’s blessing. Can we do that for this week?
In living these 70 years, so many have met shipwreck, and in the process destroyed life and relationships. Some have such a bitter taste in their mouth for life and for God. My prayer or you today is to ask for God’s favor to rest on your life.
Amen.
