All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Psalm chapter 90. Psalm chapter
90. Psalm chapter 90, if you'll notice, you may have this note at the
top of that Psalm. It says, a prayer of Moses, the
man of God. This is considered to be the
oldest psalm ever penned. Penned by name, Man Moses. And Deuteronomy 33, 1 says, the
man of God. This was a man that was called
of God. and taught of God. He's a picture. He's a type of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a man chosen of Jehovah to deliver God's people out of
the land of Egypt, a place which was a type of the bondage of
sin. He was a man that the scripture
declares that God spoke to face to face. Therefore only did Jehovah
speak to Moses in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
now we're blessed to consider this psalm, a psalm that was
born to the heart of a man that knew God. Last week when I was in Arkansas, I preached the funeral of a dear
friend. I've said a friend that I've
known 40 years. And this psalm was brought back
to my memory after I preached that message. And I want us to
consider, just a few minutes, this blessed Psalm. I want to
just take the Word of God and I want to just look at how the
Spirit of God wrote it and listen to what God has to say. Moses
began and he said, Lord, Jehovah, the I Am, all capital letters,
Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you, thou, has been our dwelling
place in all generations. You know, when the Lord is pleased
to call one of his own out of spiritual darkness, they then
know by faith that Jehovah is their hiding place. Jehovah. Almighty God. In the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He who is the fullness of the
Godhead. Bodily. They know then, but even
before they knew it. He was their hiding place, dwelling
place. Before we believed, before we
realized that the Father had put us in Christ, before we realized
that He was our surety and representative and husband, before there was
time, the objects of God's mercy and affection were found mysteriously in Christ. Chosen in him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. Now, what comfort to a believer
to know, I have always, always, been in Him, who is my dwelling
place always. He ever knew me. Moses says,
verse 2, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou
hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting
to everlasting, thou art God. Before there was ever any stability
As far as this world, before there were mountains, there was
eternity. There was God. Before the mountains
were brought forth in creation, I am the true and living God,
the only God, the unchangeable God, sovereign in creation, providence,
salvation. The just God. I'm a just God. He said in verse 3, thou turnest
man to destruction and sayest, return, you children of men. Now, excuse me, thou turnest. You cause men to return to the
dust. That's what he's saying. You
cause men To go back to that which they were made, man fell
in Adam. Man's a sinner. Man fell in the
first Adam. First in time. Not in being,
but first in time. Thou turnest man to destruction. You cause, because of sin, man
to return to the dust. and you determine that time.
Thou sayest return, you children of men. Ecclesiastes 3, 1 and
2, Solomon says to everything, there's a season and a time to
every purpose under the heaven, a time to be born, a time to
die. Moses said, Lord, you do that. We've always been found
in you. Before we were brought forth,
you're God. You're just. You do that which
is right because you do it. He says in verse 4, for a thousand
years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past. And as a watch in the night,
a thousand years, Lord, you're eternal. A thousand years to
you, a time that might seem to be so long ago. Just a day. That's what Scripture
says, 2 Peter 3, 8, But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing,
that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand
years is one day to Him. Just a watch. Just a portion. You know, He's eternal. Verse 5, Thou carriest them. Now listen to the wording of
these next few verses. Thou carriest them away as with
a flood. They are as asleep in the morning. They are like grass that groweth
up. Thou carriest them. Who is he talking about? Hold
your place, just right there, return to Psalm 73, just a second,
Psalm 73. Who are the them? Thou carryest
them. Psalm 73, look at verse one. Truly God is good to Israel,
even to such as are of a clean heart. Now, you know he's speaking
ultimately of spiritual Israel. Lord, you're good to Israel.
Look at verse 3. I was envious at the foolish
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Look at verse 8. They are corrupt and speak wickedly
concerning oppression. They speak loftily. Look at verse
11. They say, how doth God know? And is their knowledge in the
Most High? Look at verse 18. Surely thou
did set them in slippery places. Thou casteth them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation? As in a moment, they are utterly
consumed with terrors as a dream when one awaketh. So, O Lord,
when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. Who are the they? That's the
wicked. Men left to themselves. Moses says in verse 5 back in
Psalm 90, Thou carryest them away as with a flood. They are swept away like a tsunami
that would just sweep away everything. Grass, cities, Unexpectedly,
violently, irresistibly, their life, Moses says, their life
is like sleep, it's like a dream. You know how you dream, and when
you're dreaming it seems so real. You wake up and you're thinking
about it and you think, that was so ridiculous. What was that? I was dreaming that, you know,
and I was doing this, that, and the other, and you're thinking. Thou carriest them away as with
a flood. They are as asleep in the morning. They're like grass which groweth
up. In verse 6, in the morning, that
grass that groweth up, it flourisheth and groweth up. In the evening,
it's cut down and withereth. Man by nature in youth, their
life because of the deadness of their heart. They think, man,
all of us, all of us like this by nature. We all have the appearance
to ourselves of promise, long life. The old people, all the old people,
you know how they are. Well, look how frail they are.
Just wait one day. And all of a sudden, we are the
old people. We are they. The morning, it
flourishes. In the evening, it's cut down
and withereth. What appears to be so promising is so short. It amounts to nothing. It just withers. Thou carriest them away. In the
morning it flourishes, cut to evening, withers. Then he talks
concerning God's people. Look at verse 7. For we are consumed
by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Now that verse,
though it may appear to have So much against us is one of
the greatest declarations of our hope right here. Let me tell
you what he said. We are consumed. That blessed word right there,
consumed, accomplished. We're accomplished. By thine
anger. His anger spewed out on Christ. We are accomplished by thine
anger, by thy wrath, or we trouble." Now, let me share with you what
he's saying. Not that the Lord is angry with
His people or deals with them in wrath. He has done so in the
Lord Jesus Christ. But the meaning is that because
of sin, because of the presence of sin, We still die physically
also. Now he accomplished salvation
for us. We're consumed, accomplished.
Beautiful word. By God's anger against sin in
Christ. That's how he accomplished us.
And by thy wrath are we troubled. Troubled. Meaning this, that
word deals totally with our physical death. That means that our temporal
habitations, our bodies, are made to be troubled by the afflictions
and griefs of this life and we will die. But, in our physical
death, that is, by the grace of God, the means by which Almighty
God are going to usher us right into His presence. Precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, his people. Moses setting forth, the death
of the believer is not judicial execution. Judgment has been
satisfied by the Lord Jesus Christ and sin has truly been dealt
with by God's anger against sin, Christ being made sin, We've
been accomplished, redeemed, salvation is ours. And now physical
death, that is our friend. That's our friend. All things work together for
good. You mean even the physical death?
Yeah. This corruption? by the grace
of God is going to put on incorruption. I know that's hard for a mere
human to perceive, but you that know Him know it so. This mortality is going to put
on immortality. The Apostle Paul says, who shall
separate from the body of this death. Verse 8, He says, Thou hast set
our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy
countenance. Lord, You have placed and You
considered, You set our iniquities before You. You regarded them. You set them before You. In Christ, You dealt with them. Our secret sins in the light
of thy countenance set that which we would desire in ourselves
to hide. I don't want anybody to know
about that. I really don't want anybody to know how I think.
I don't really want to know what I think, why I think it. Lord, you set every bit of that
before you. You who are, you're omniscient,
you know Lord, you've taken, you dealt with, you set them
before you in the revealing light of your precious son. He bore
all that we are, do, think. All our days, verse nine, are
passed away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale
that is told. Our days, the days that we have
on this earth, they're going to fail to continue with us,
is what he's saying. All our days are passed away
because of sin. They're not going to be here.
Our lives quickly, they're turned. Our life, we've turned it back.
They leave us. We spend our days no longer than
meditation. It seems so strange to me. I think back. I graduated for a while. I was talking about me graduating
from high school 50 years ago. Then, a couple of days later,
It was that I graduated from college 50 years ago. And I'm thinking, how can it
be that it's just a moment? It's just a meditation. The scriptures declare in verse
10, the days of our years are three
score years and 10. And if by reason of strength,
They'd be four score years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow,
for it's soon cut off and we fly away. Here the Spirit of God declares
the average time for man upon this earth. Seventy years. Some are thinking, oh, I'll never
see that. Well, if you do, it'll be by the grace of God, but believe
me, it'll be here before you know it. But Moses said if the Lord gives
us 80 years or more, even if our bodies be such that they're
vigorous or strong, Moses was 120 years old. His strength didn't
leave him. God continued to give him strength,
but it was just by the grace of God. Our lives, if we do make it,
I remember my mama told me years ago, she said, when I got to
be 70, she said, I could tell a difference. There's something
about 70, according to these scriptures. And you know, You
know, something changes. Something just seems like that
was the point. And here it goes. Lives, if you make it, God gives
you a few more years, this is what Moses said it's going to
be. It's filled with weariness, affliction, trouble, grief. Is that not so? and soon will
pass rapidly away and take flight. Soon cut off, we fly away. Then
Moses said, verse 11, who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even
according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. We behold, we look
in the scriptures, who knoweth the power of thine anger? Now
I could go back and we could read of what happened in the
flood. We could go back and we could
read the scriptures concerning when God judged Solomon and Gomorrah. We could go back and read what
happened when everybody that came out of Egypt, 20 years old
and older, except Joshua and Caleb, two men, Everybody that
came out that was 20 years old and older died in the wilderness. Now we can read that, but let
me ask you something. What do we know about what really
went on? What do we know what really went
on? Who knoweth the power of an anger? What about the cross? When Almighty
God dealt with his people, in a substitute. When the Lord Jesus
Christ cried, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He knew that wording was for
us. Sin was found right there. He was made sin. and the indescribable
justice and wrath of Almighty God. What man born in Adam knows
the power of God's anger against sin? Who knows that? Scripture says even according
to thy fear, so is thy wrath. He just said, who knows the power
of your anger? And likewise, likewise, just
as no mere man can contemplate the power of God's anger, no
one truly knows or considers the reverence that's due him.
That's what he said. Even according to thy fear. We
don't know, Lord, the power of your anger. Lord, we don't know
the reverence that's due you. We're sitting here in this blessed
place, been blessed here over 60 years. God raised up the gospel,
sent a precious, precious man, taught him the gospel, gave him
a heart for this community, and blessed him, and blessed the
world. God blessed his word. Who can tell me the respect that
is due God Almighty because of that, because of us being allowed
the privilege to sit here. If I could sit here and be with
you right now, be in your presence with your fellowship, that I
can be with God's people. What a privilege. I'm so thankful
that God made me a part of this family right here. Who knows
your fear? So is your wrath. Like no man
knows your power, we don't realize the reverence. And we can't imagine
the wrath that's to come to all that's found without Christ,
without a substitute, without the priest himself. Can you imagine? What can we contemplate concerning
this scripture? I never knew you. Depart from me, ye workers of
iniquity. Who can tell me the indescribable
fullness of God's wrath? Man or woman leaves this world
without Christ, they lift their eyes up out of hell, and in the
day of judgment, hell itself, the holding place, will be cast
into the lake of fire. Who can tell me? Verse 12. So teach us to number
our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Lord, instruct
us to weigh the days that we've been given. Teach us to consider
this might be Our last day. A week ago yesterday, we were on our way to the funeral.
Darvin was driving. I was in the car behind him.
Frank Tate was driving. We were just sitting there chit-chatting.
Now, we were four or five car lengths behind him. He was driving
the speed limit. We were just reminiscing on things
that had recently passed. All of a sudden, Frank Tate said,
uh-oh. And I mean, before he literally,
before I could even realize what he was saying, we were on a two-lane
road, a car's coming. And he cannot be, he can't be
any farther than me to Larry. He's coming. And a car just sweeps
in between us and Darvin. There's not enough room. I mean,
how could he even get in between us? I mean, four or five car
lengths at that length, that's not a big distance. I mean, he
was in our lane and the car went past us. I thought that could
have been a four or five car pile up and all of us in it. Then I began to think, Lord,
teach us to number our days. In a moment when I thought not,
in just a moment, it could have all been over. I could have been
in eternity. Somebody would have said, well,
who would have ever thought? Lord, teach us, instruct us,
teach us to consider. Keep us from being taken up with
the fleeting foolishness of this world. We don't have time. We don't have time with foolishness. Teach us to number our days that
we may apply our hearts unto wisdom, unto Christ Himself.
Let the realization of Christ's glory, Christ's honor, Christ's
praise. Lord, let that come to my mind. Let us be seeking His will and
loving one another. We don't have time. We don't
have time. We don't have time. Somebody in this congregation
right now is closer to dying than anyone else. Who is it?
I don't know. Maybe me. Teachers, don't let
us be spending our time in this foolishness, in this silliness. Let us reckon our days to be
too uncertain to strive to avoid everything that's inappropriate.
Let us be seeking the furtherance, the proclamation of the gospel,
praying for one another, encouraging one another, praying God bless
us. We're praying that the Lord bless. We're calling out your
sheep. He says in verse 13, 14, return,
oh Lord, how long? Let it repent thee concerning
thy servants. Oh, satisfy us early with thy
mercy that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Return,
restore, turn back. Come back, Lord. Whenever Almighty God is pleased
to draw us to Himself, often what He does is He withdraws
Himself from our realization. Just like He did with Shulamite.
He called to her and she said, well, I'm already laid down for
the evening. I'm tired. I'm down. He knew how to draw
her to Himself. She looked for Him. He wasn't
there. She went looking for Him. Oh,
return, oh Lord, how long? Lord, how long will you leave
us? How long will you leave us in our silliness? Lord, have
mercy. It appears that you've forsaken. We know you haven't. You said
you wouldn't. Deal with us mercifully. Comfort us. Comfort us in your
salvation. Take not, that's what David said,
take not your Holy Spirit from me. The realization to my heart,
Verse 15, make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast
afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil. Make us glad according to the
days wherein thou hast afflicted us. Let the occasions of our
joy be in mercy in proportion to the days of our afflictions
when we felt the hand of your chastisement. We've been shown by your kindness
and compassion our need of a savior. Lord, only you can make us glad. Restore unto us the joy of thy
salvation. Verse 16, let thy work appear
unto thy servants and thy glory unto thy children. Let thy work. Let your, not ours, but yours. Make thy work the glorious work
of salvation in Christ. Lord, that's your work. We know
that. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants. Lord, make us to know it afresh. We know it. We know that. Lord, make me to know it again.
Reveal it to me again. Appear unto thy servant and thy
glory unto their children. Oh, the spirit of humility that's
wrought in the heart of a believer and the desire for God's outpouring
of his mercy for their children. Don't you wish, pray, ask that
the Lord save your kids? You got children, grandchildren? Don't you pray, God have mercy?
I pray God save, you know, my family. Our people in my family
don't know God. I know they don't. Do you? Won't
you pray God save them? Won't you say as the leper, Lord,
you can if you will. I know you can. Lord, would you
have mercy on my kids? Lord, would you save my grandchildren? The thought of them leaving this
world. Lord, have mercy. And let, verse 17, the beauty
of the Lord our God be upon us. and establish thou the work of
our hands upon us. Yea, the work of our hands, establish
thou it. Well, I thought that we couldn't
do anything. Well, the work of our hands, what is that? The work of faith, labor of love,
patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. He said that twice. Now you look at that. In closing,
let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and establish
thou the work of our hands. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Oh, the work of faith. But I'll
tell you the greatest work. greatest work, that God Almighty,
as He told that woman with the issue of blood, thy faith, thy
faith. Where'd she get it? He gave it to her. And then told
her, He said, that's your faith. Caused her to believe Him, she
believed Him, and He accredited it to her. Thy faith. What must we do to work the works
of God? This is the work of God, that
you believe on Him. in whom God has sent. Lord, establish
it. Render it sure. Lord, keep it. We believe you. Now, establish
and make prosperous our work of faith. Lord, help us to keep
believing you. Lord, for Christ's sake, and
for our eternal good, amen. All right.