Let us read together from God's
holy word, two portions. The first you will find in Numbers
chapter 14. Numbers chapter 14. This is the account when Israel
had listened to the ten spies which said that it was too difficult
to go and possess the land. and they were severely punished
for that, for their rebellion. And I want to pick up the reading
and just read a few verses in chapter 14 and commence in to
read at verse 20. Numbers 14 verse 20. And the Lord said, I have pardoned
according to thy word. But as truly as I live, all the
earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have
seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the
wilderness, and have tempted me now these 10 times and have
not hearkened to my voice, surely they shall not see the land which
I swear unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked
me see it. But my servant Caleb, because
he hath another spirit with him and hath followed me fully, him
will I bring into the land whereinto he went and his seed. shall possess it. I want to now
turn to Psalm 90. This is believed to be the oldest
psalm really, or the first written psalm, a prayer of Moses, the
man of God. And I think, I believe it's the
background that we've read in Numbers 14 that lies behind this
Psalm 90. This 38 years extra of the children
of Israel wandering in the wilderness as a result of God punishing
them and saying that those 20 years old and upward would not
be able to enter the promised land. Psalm 90. Psalm 90, a prayer of Moses,
the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling
place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man
to destruction, and sayest, return ye children of men. For a thousand
years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and
as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with
a flood. They are as a sleep. In the morning
they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth
and groweth up. In the evening it is cut down
and withereth. For we are consumed by thine
anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities
before thee, our secret sins, in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away
in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale
that is told. The days of our years are threescore
years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore
years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow, for it is
soon cut off and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine
anger? Even according to thy fear so
is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O Lord,
how long, and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O, satisfy
us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all
our days. Make us glad according to the
days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we
have seen evil. let thy work appear unto thy
servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let 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. As the Lord helps me, I just
want to speak briefly on this Psalm 19. this which Moses wrote
and in his wilderness journey with this death sentence that
was hanging over all those that were 20 years old and upward
when they came to that time when they should have gone into the
promised land and they forsook that or refused to do it. they were living under a death
sentence, really. And in that sense, it was very
difficult. There was this constant death in the wilderness. 600,000
men were going to have to die in the wilderness. All those
that were older, as it were 20 years old and upward, which were,
as it were, fighting men, they were going to have to perish
in the wilderness. They were not going to enter into Canaan. It was very somber, and very
sad, and very trying for Moses. And Moses here contrasts the
frailty of man with the eternity of God. And we can liken that today,
that by nature we are under the wrath of God. By nature we are
enemies to God. We need to do what Moses did
in this psalm, which is come back to that very God who had
pronounced that sentence, the judgment on Israel, come back
to that very God and plead with that God for mercy. And so Moses
goes through, and in the first, really, 11 verses of this psalm,
he sets the scene. He talks about the majesty of
God, talks about the wrath that they are under. All the days
of our years, we read, are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our
years as a tale that is told. You see, if we're not in Christ,
we're under the wrath of God. We need to be hidden from that
wrath of God by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But Moses
in this psalm, beginning at verse 12, starts his petition. His petition to Almighty God.
And if you look down, there are seven things he asks for in this
psalm. He goes back to that God that
has pronounced this sentence against them. This God who is
angry with the wicked every day and yet comes back to this God,
not to flee away from God, but to come back to this God and
plead for mercy and plead that there may be once again those
that mercy granted to them, and that they may once again enjoy
his favor. So in verse 12, we have, so teach
us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
If life is brief, if the wrath of God is against all that are
outside of Christ, we need to be ready. Teach us to number
our days that it might be sanctified to us that the brevity of life,
that the necessity of being right with God may cause us to pray
these prayers. We are met for prayer this evening,
this prayer meeting at the beginning of this year. Well, let's look
at what Moses prayed for. He first prays, teach us to number
our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. If life is
short, if eternity is certain, If we're by nature under the
wrath of God, what should we do? We should apply our hearts
unto wisdom, and the fear of the Lord, we read, is the beginning
of wisdom. And then in verse 13, he prays,
return, O Lord, how long? It's the same word as the Lord
has used, he used really in what the Lord had said earlier in
verse three, thou turnest man to destruction, saying, Return,
ye children of men. And here it's really referring,
I believe, to Genesis 3 where God has said that dust, shalt
thou return. Man's, because of man's sin,
he shall go back to the dust. This is this sentence pronounced
against man. And yet here Moses is saying
to God, praying to God, saying return. Return unto unto us. Do not leave us to continue in
this state of enmity against God, and no
way back. But you see, the nature of God
is, He is one that delighteth in mercy. And so, instead of
Moses running away and Israel running away from God, Moses
prays to this God, Return, O Lord, how long? And let it repent thee
concerning thy servants. He still claims that they were
servants. They were his people. Remember
them then. Return, O Lord, how long. Let
it repent thee concerning thy servants. And in verse 14, the
third petition, O satisfy us early with thy mercy. This is his plea. He wants mercy. Yes, he does not go through the
psalm and claim that God is unjust in any way in pronouncing that
evil against Israel that he did. There was no disagreement with
God about the facts. It was true. They were guilty. They were unworthy. But his plea is this, O satisfy
us early. with thy mercy. And that is our
plea, is it not? We need mercy. We cannot, as
it were, ask God for justice to be done to us in the sense
of being set free, on the grounds of justice, standing in our own
righteousness. No, oh, satisfy us early with
thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days, which
is very much in line with the next petition, make us glad according
to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us. I think this is
very important, to grasp with the things of God, that it is
not just mercy we need, it is not just a reversal of those,
the sentence of death that is against us due to sin. The Lord's
people also want to be made glad. They want to rejoice. You see,
it's not just a legal transaction. It's also a relationship with
God. There is a delighting in God.
There is a finding pleasure in God. Make us glad according to
the days wherein thou hast afflicted us. And we need in our lives
to realize the joy of the Lord is your strength. It is a true
joy to serve the Lord, to be found right with God, to have
union and communion with the church's living head, is a joy. Make us glad. It's not, I think
Spurgeon made the comment that some people have just enough
religion to be miserable. But no, we are to realize our
sin, we are to acknowledge our sin, We are to seek for mercy,
but we are to know the joy of the Lord. We are to know union
with Christ, and to delight in Him, and that we have things
to rejoice in that this world knows nothing of. Make us glad according to the
days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we
have seen evil. They see much, much death. much
destruction, and yet Moses is saying, we've seen much of the
negative. Lord, return with mercy, and let us rejoice in this same
God, who though he is just, yet he justifies the ungodly as seen in Christ. Then in verse 16 we have the
fifth petition. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants. We want to see the Lord's work
working in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. We
want to be made glad, we want mercy, but we want to see God's
work appear. We want to see the grace of our
God in our midst. We want to see the works of God
manifest in our lives. that we have been with Jesus
and learned of him. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants. Moses was in the wilderness.
Israel needed to get into the promised land. They needed to
cross Jordan. They needed to overcome all the
enemies. They needed to gain the victory. They needed the
walls of Jericho to fall down before them. They needed all
these things for God to do. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants. and thy glory unto their children. Moses, you see, he asked for
the glory of God to be shown to the next generation, to the
children. And they did see it. They did
enter the promised land. We read that all the days of
Joshua and all the elders that outlived Joshua, that Israel
followed the Lord. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants and thy glory unto their children. But then the next petition,
let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. Do we see a beauty
in Christ? See, if the Lord has touched
our eyes, we will see an ugliness in sin that we perhaps never
saw before. We will see sin in all its ghastly
proportions, all its astonishing sinfulness, the exceeding sinfulness
of sin. And as we see something of what
sin is and all its ugly effects, We shall start to see something
of the beauty of the Lord, the beauty of holiness, the beauty
of his meekness, the beauty of his lovingkindness. And let the
beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. We want the Lord to
beautify us. we want his face to shine upon
us, that we may, as it were, radiate that glory in our lives. Let the beauty of the Lord be
upon me. This is Moses' desire. And then
lastly, and establish thou the work of our hands upon us. Moses has been so involved in
the work of bringing Israel safely to the, desiring to bring them
safely to the Promised Land. He had been so, working so hard. But it's God's work, you see,
to get us working. This is His work. It is God that
worketh in you, both to will and to do, of His good pleasure. This is God's work, to work in
us, so that we then, out of, out of what He has done, then
are set a working for Him. But Moses does not want his work,
his labour that he's involved with, to come to naught. What is he asking for? Surely
he's asking for fruitfulness. And it's not that our desire
in the year to come that we may know true fruitfulness. Establish
thou the work of our hands. Don't let it just come to nothing.
Don't let it just go and never bear fruit. But he wanted the
children of Israel to go on and to glorify God and to show forth
his praise. He didn't want Israel just to
come to the borders of the promised land and then turn back again
and give up and run away. No, he wanted the work of our
hands to be established. And we think in this church,
all the ministries that we're involved with, what a prayer
and establish thou the work of our hands upon us, the work that
God works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
But then when we are set a-working by God's work first in us, then
do we not want there to be an establishment of that work? that
we do not labor in vain, that we do not run the market stall
for naught, that we do not teach the children in the Sunday school
for naught, that our pastor does not labor in vain as he prepares
and preaches the unsearchable riches of Christ amongst us,
and all that do preach, that there may be an establishment
of it, that there may be, that it may bring forth much fruit. In John's gospel we read, herein
is my father glorified, that we, that ye bear much fruit. Well, these seven requests of
Moses, the man of God, teach us to number our days. Return,
O Lord, and then have mercy upon us, and then make us glad. Let thy work appear, and let
the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and then establish
the work of our hands upon us. Well, may this be our prayer.
despite all the negative, despite all the beginning of the psalm
as so somber, so sad, so many things to mourn over. Yet, Moses goes back to that
same God and pleads, to whom else can we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life. And so may we come in prayer
with boldness tonight. To whom else can we go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life. May the Lord add his blessing.