Let us turn again to God's Word
in the familiar words of Psalm 90. In Psalm 90 and verse 12,
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts
unto wisdom. In Psalm 90 verse 12, So teach
us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts or as the
Mahajan says, cause our hearts to come onto wisdom. As we come to this Lord's Day,
the first Lord's Day of 2020, I want us to consider two things
this morning. Firstly, the shortness of time,
and then secondly, the importance of redeeming the time. Our theme then really is simply
that of time. We are, of course, creatures
of time and of space. We know all the limitation of
these things, but we come together to worship that God who is the
Eternal One. I often think of the words that
we just sang in that hymn of Ann Steele's. Eternity, tremendous
sound, to guilty souls a dreadful wound, but O it Christ, and heaven
be mine, how sweet the accents, O divine. Be this my great, my only care,
my chief pursuit, my ardent prayer, an interest in the Saviour's
blood, my pardon sealed, and peace with God." Surely in that
fourth verse we are reminded that we should be those who are
redeeming the time. with that one great and only
care, that chief pursuit, that ardent prayer, that we might
be those who, though we're in time, are being prepared for
a never-ending eternity, which we hope in the goodness and mercy
of God we will spend worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ, that one
who has accomplished the wondrous salvation of all his people. Considering then the words of
this text this morning so teach us to number our days that we
may apply our hearts unto wisdom. First of all to say something
with regards to the shortness of time. And this psalm of course
does remind us that all of life is transitory. It is not something
that is permanent, it is ever always passing away. Moses says here at verse 9, we
spend our years as a tale that is told. And then again at the
end of verse 10 he says concerning life, it is soon cut off. and we fly away. And as with the man Moses, the
man of God, so also with the man Job, who was the most patient
of men. There in Job 7, 6, he says, my
days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. How time is ever always
hurrying on How the minutes fly away Maybe we sometimes think
of those words on the clock there in the city of Chester I'm sure
you're all familiar with those verses When as a child I laughed
and wept, time crept When as a youth I dreamed and talked
Time warped when I became a full-grown man. Time ran, and later, as
I older grew, time flew. Soon I shall find, while traveling
on, time gone. O Christ, wilt thou have saved
me then? How solemn are those words, words
then, that constantly remind us of the shortness of time. how our lives are so quickly
passing away and surely here we need to carefully consider
at least two things we need to be mindful of the frailty of
man but also to remember the faithfulness of God or the frailty
of man. And we see it here in the psalm,
there in verse 5. They carry us them away as with
the flood, they are asleep. In the morning they are like
grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourishes
and groweth up. In the evening it is cut down
and wither and now we see Peter obviously very mindful of those
words when he writes there in his second epistle in 2nd Peter and there at chapter 3 and verses
8 and 9 he alludes to the language of Moses in the
psalm. He says, Beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise, as some men count slackness. But his
longsuffering to us would, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. or the importance then of us
seeing that we are such feeble, frail creatures, whose time is
fastly passing, time with us is so short, the days of our
years. It says our three score years
and ten, if by reason of strength they be four score years, yet
is their strength labour and sorrow, for it is soon cut off,
and we fly away. the frailty of man. And there, in that language that
we have, in verses 5 and 6, we are reminded, are we not, of
the ministry of John the Baptist. John's ministry is spoken of,
as you know, in prophecy. He's the last, he's the greatest
of the prophets of the Old Testament. He is that one who comes to prepare
the way for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what
do we read in Isaiah chapter 14? The voice. The voice that
crieth in the wilderness. Verse 6, the voice said, Cry,
and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, all the goodliness
thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the
flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it.
Surely the people is grass, the grass withereth, the flower fadeth,
but the Word of our God shall stand forever. or there we see
a connection surely with the words that we have here in this
fifth and this sixth verse concerning man like unto the grass which
groweth up in the morning it flourishes and groweth up in
the evening it is cut down and and withereth and we are those
who have to recognize them what our frailty is we are but creatures
of the day and we must not only be mindful of our physical frailties
but we have to learn also something of our spiritual impotence When
God made man, He created him body and soul. Adam being made
of the dust of the earth, the Lord breathes into his nostrils
the breath of life, he becomes a living soul. And of course
when man transgresses, when he disobeys, when man falls, or
there is an immediate death, In the day that thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die. Or as the margin says there in
Genesis 3, dying thou shalt die. There was an immediate death
in the soul. He was dead in trespasses and
in sins. And in due course Adam would
die physically. Dying thou shalt die said the
Lord God. and as we have to come to terms
with our physical frailty so we have to learn also the solemn
truth of our spiritual impotence we have to learn that awful doctrine
of the sinner's total depravity look at the language in verse
3 thou turnest man to destruction and sayeth, Return ye children
of men. Our God has to make us to see
and feel what we are. Where there is that communication
of life, that spiritual life in the soul, what is the first
evidence? We then feel our impotence. This
is that sinner who is a sacred thing, the Holy Ghost has made
him so, new life from him we must receive before for sin we
rightly grieve. There is then the frailty of
man, but as I've said there is also here the faithfulness of
God. God is that one who is faithful,
a thousand years in thy sight, Ah, but as yesterday when it
is past, and as a watch in the night. And as we've said, we
see how that Peter takes up that idea there in his second epistle,
and that third chapter. a thousand years, what is it
in God's sight? It is as a day that has gone. God is that One who is the Eternal
One. And we are those who in contrast
feel all the limitations that are upon us as His creatures,
all the limitations of time and of space. Now God has allotted the length
of our days in His sovereignty. Here we see why life is short.
There is a reason why life is short, and first of all we have
to recognize the reason is to be seen in God Himself. Our God is in the heavens. we
read in another psalm, he hath done whatsoever he pleased and
remember what he says there at the beginning of scripture in
that antediluvian world, that world before the flood when we
read those opening chapters of scripture we see how that men
did live many years, centuries they lived to great ages but
he was not always to be sung As sin increased in the world,
so God himself made a decree, My spirit shall not always strive
with man, says God, for that he also is flesh, yet his days
shall be one hundred and twenty years. Oh yes, in the beginning
when sin first comes into the world and the result is that
there will be death, Man is clearly now a mortal creature. There's an inevitability, a necessity
of dying. But still men live great, to
great ages. But then God there in Genesis
chapter 6 and verse 3 declares His sovereign good pleasure.
My spirit shall not always strive with man. for that He also is
flesh, yet His days shall be one hundred and twenty years."
The sovereignty of God. It's what God Himself has ordained,
what God has appointed. He doeth according to His will
among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth.
None can stay His hand or say to Him, what doest thou? Again,
the psalmist elsewhere says, my times are in thy hand. All
our times are in the hand of God. There is a time to be born,
there is a time to die. Everything is subject to His
absolute sovereignty. And we see it recorded time and
again on the page of Holy Scripture. Here we have the revelation of
God and for God to be God He must be a sovereign God. The
God who is not sovereign is no God at all. The wise man tells
us the Lord has made all things for himself. That is all things
without exception. The Lord has made all things
for himself. Even the wicked for the day of
destruction. All is what God himself has said. 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. O this is the word of God, and
he is not a man that he should lie, he is not the son of man
that he should repent, hath he said it? Or shall he not do it,
hath he spoken it, shall he not make it good? Why is life here
short, transitory, not permanent, but quickly passing away? It's
because of the sovereignty of God. It's what God himself has
ordained. But then also we see that the
Lord God accomplishes his purpose by means. And here we see also
the cause is human sinfulness. God said to Adam, there in the
garden of Eden, concerning that forbidden fruit, the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, in the day that they eat us thereof,
He says they shall surely die. The soul that sinneth it shall
die. The wages of sin is death. God is not the author of sin.
God is not the author of uncertainty. God is not the author of vanity.
This is the mystery of course. God's sovereignty as I said is
an absolute sovereignty. And yet there is this mystery
that sin has entered into that creation that God made and pronounced
to be very good. But again the wise man tells
us this time in the book of Ecclesiastes, Lo, or behold, this only have
I found, that God made man upright. But they have sought out many
inventions. Oh, it's man's sinfulness. It's
man's rebellion against God. It's man's disobedience to the
commandment of God that is the cause of the shortness of life. The language of the Psalmist
again, Psalm 49, 12, Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not. Man being in honour abideth not. Now, remember that the well there's
two Hebrew words that are rendered in our English version by the
word man one of those is the name Adam Adam literally means
man and there in that verse in Psalm 49 man is the name Adam
And literally, it reads like this, Adam being in honour, lodged
not one night. The verb to abide means to lodge
a night. Adam being in honour, lodged
one night. And some of the expositors of
scripture say that that would indicate that Adam could not
abide one night in that state of innocence. Oh, this is the folly of man,
you see. What a creature man is. How quickly
man falls. How prone we are to every evil,
in spite of the awful consequence. And how terrible it must have
been for Adam and Eve, when God, after the fall of our first parents,
tells them In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till
thou return to the ground, for out of it wast thou taken. For
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. The awful result of man's sin
then is that his life is cut off. His life is now so quickly
passing away. And here we have it in the psalm,
verse 7, 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. Now in the midst of this language
that speaks to us and reminds us so emphatically of the shortness
of time, We have that statement concerning our iniquities. They
will set our iniquities before them. Our secret sins in the
light of thy countenance. We have to be mindful of what
we are. We have to remember our mortality. And what does it mean to be mortal?
It means there is that necessity of death. A mortal thing is a
thing that must of necessity die. I've been reminded of this
recently as we've been involved with the Huntingtonian Press
in publishing a little book by Henry Cole on the significance
of that English adjective mortal. Now some would apply it to the
human nature of the Lord Jesus but his human nature was not
mortal. If he was mortal, he must have
necessity of dying. But he didn't have necessity
of dying. His death was a voluntary death. He had power, he had authority
from God to lay his life down. And he had that same power and
authority to take that life again. His human nature was a real human
nature. But he was free from every taint
of sin, there was no mortality in him. Why did he die? He died to atone for sins, not
his own. But we are never reminded of
what we are. The mortality of our lives. Why
so? Because we are those who are
born dead in trespasses and in sins. the carnal mind, the natural
mind, it's enmity against God, it's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. Oh, it's that ignorance, the
ignorance that is in them, says Paul, because of the blindness
or the hardness of their hearts, the natural man. He receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, that foolishness to him,
neither can he know them. And so, In the words of our text,
so teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts
unto wisdom. It's a prayer. It's a prayer
of Moses, and who is Moses? Moses is the man of God. If we
this morning are men and women of God, this will be our prayer.
We will, that the Lord God would be teaching us. the solemn truths
that we've sought to say a little of concerning the shortness of
life and the reason behind these things the sovereignty of God
the sinfulness of man but what what is the the real solution
to these things? if we recognize that time is
short what are we to do with the time? Well, surely we ought
to be those who would be redeeming it, buying it up. So teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. And how, when we
come to the New Testament, of course we have the same truth
set before us there as we find here in the Old Testament. what
Moses says in the psalm is repeated by the Apostle in Ephesians chapter
5. Paul when he comes to the end
of those epistles is constantly giving instruction and exhortation
giving very real and practical advice and what does he say there?
Ephesians 5.15 see that he walks circumspectly not as fools but
as wise redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Or we pray that God would cause
our hearts to come unto wisdom. And Paul says so much the same. There in the epistle to the Ephesians,
wise, who are the wise? They are those who are redeeming
the time. because the days are evil. Wickedness abounds. You hardly need me to say that. We are constantly bombarded by
evil on every hand. What a day it is in which we
live in! What confusion! When we think of events over
recent years and the dreadful downgrade in morals and ethics
and all the confusion that is now come into the Western world
as our leaders have turned their back upon God, upon the Word
of God. Wickedness abounds. And what
are we to do? We're not just to wait to do
good. No, rather are we to be those
who are on the lookout those who would be seizing the opportunity
Redeeming the time, it says. Literally buying up. That's what
redeem means, to buy a thing, to purchase a thing. Buying up
the time. Because the days are evil, we
need to seize hold of the present opportunity. That's what's really the exhortation of the
apostle there in Ephesians 5. and doubtless Paul was mindful
of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ that was recorded in John
chapter 9 where the Lord again performs the remarkable miracle
when he gives sight to a man that was born blind recently
at home we've been reading again through Matthew's gospel and
it's remarkable chapter after chapter we read of that Ministry
of the Lord Jesus going about doing good, healing all manner
of diseases, giving eyes to the blind, ears to the deaf, feet
to the lame, life to those who are dying. Miracle after miracle. What does the Lord say there
in John 9? I must work the works of him
that sent me while it is day. the night cometh when no man
can work." Or there was a necessity, the Lord must work the works
of Him that had sent Him. Now He is seeking to redeem the
time. And is He not our pattern? We've referred to the language
of the Apostle, to the Ephesians. Remember how Paul only desires
those New Testament churches to follow him as he is a follower
of Christ. We are to follow the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are to recognize that the
night cometh when no man can work. There at the end of that
great 15th chapter in his epistle to the Corinthians the Apostle
says, Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not
in vain in the Lord. And in many respects it's so
similar to what we have here at the end of the Psalm. 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. Oh, there is work to be done
now, This is not legal working that we're reading of in Holy
Scripture. This is not legal works. Oh,
is there not all that exercise of soul, all that experience
of the grace of God? Again, look at the language that
the Apostle employs when he addresses young Timothy. There in 1 Timothy 4.7 he says,
"...exercise thyself rather unto godliness." for bodily exercise
profiteth little but godliness is profitable unto all things
having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to
come to be exercised exercised unto godliness aware of that
promise the redeeming of the time what are these various aspects
then of that godliness that the Child of God is to be pursuing.
Well, I mention three things. First of all, there is to be
the fear of the Lord. Secondly, there is to be that
saving faith, and that faith which is saving is a faith that
works by love. By their fruit ye shall know
them. And then thirdly, there is that believing prayer. these
three things in, these three different aspects of that life
of God in us as we're seeking to redeem the time. All the importance of that fear
of the Lord. How God's wrath burns against
all sin. Verse 11, Who knoweth the power
of thine anger? He asks. Even according to thy fear, so
is thy wrath. God, of eyes too pure to behold
iniquity, he cannot look upon sin. God is angry with the wicked
every day. Always to remember that attribute
in God. He is the Holy One. He is that
God who is three times holy. Holy Father, Holy Son, and Holy
Spirit. Again, look at the language here.
Verse 7, 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. How we need then to be those
who are ever conscious of who God is. Who know something of
what it is to fear the Lord. Our lives marked by that sense
of awe at the greatness of God. and the goodness of God all that
fear of the Lord we are told the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom and we are to apply our hearts
onto wisdom surely we will be those then who desire to walk
all our days in the fear of the Lord that is one right and proper
way of redeeming the time but together with that fear of
the Lord there must be that saving faith or there's not just that
negative aspect of the life of the child of God whilst there
is that fear we remember that it is a filial fear it's not
a fear that has torment That is the fear that belongs unto
the demons. They believe and tremble. Or
they hate God. And they fear God. But that's
not the fear that is in the heart of the child of God. No, the
child of God is one who has a filial fear. it's like that fear that a child
would have at the wrath of the father when the child has been disobedient
and the father must deal with that child and correct that child
and chastise the little one or the child dreads that there's
fear in his heart but he knows that it is that that must come
from a loving father, a tender-hearted father. And so it is with the
Lord. Now He is ever always a gracious
father, but a faithful father, like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. He knoweth
our frame. He remembereth that we are dust. or that saving faith that goes
hand in hand with that true fear of the Lord. And what do we see
here in the text? Isn't this the language of faith?
So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts
unto wisdom. As we've said, the margin indicates
something rather stronger than that. to cause our hearts, God
must cause our hearts to come onto wisdom. If God causes us to come, what
we will do is to pray to Him, to plead with Him. The language
of James chapter 1, if any of you lack wisdom, Let him ask
of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and abraideth not.
But let him ask in faith, not in wavering. For he that wavereth
is like a wave of the sea driven of the winds and tossed. Let
not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
If we lack wisdom, we are to ask of God. were to ask God that
he would cause us to come onto wisdom and we know that when we come
God will not refuse us he will hear us, he will receive us,
he will answer us the Lord Jesus says he that cometh to me shall
never hunger either believe us in me shall never thirst to believe
is to come. And God must cause us to come.
God must work that faith in us. It's faith of the operation of
God wherein we call upon Him and seek from Him this gift of
wisdom. But what is this wisdom? Well,
isn't the Lord Jesus Christ that one who is truly the wisdom of
God? Oh, we see Him so clearly as
that wisdom throughout the book of Proverbs. You know, the Lord
Jesus Christ is in all the Scriptures. Search the Scriptures, He says
to the Jews. In them ye think that ye have
eternal life, and these are they that testify of mercy. So when
we turn to those wisdom books, think of the writings of King Solomon, the wisest of all
men. What is the wisdom literature?
Well, it's Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song, the Song of Solomon.
And Christ is everywhere in this wisdom literature. We see him
so clearly there in the 8th chapter of Proverbs. Doth not wisdom
cry? And understanding put forth a
voice. Do you remember how the Lord
speaks there at verse 22? He says, The Lord possessed me
in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. O the
Eternal Son, I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning,
whatever the earth was. When there were no depths, I
was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills, was I brought forth. While as yet ye had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest parts of the dust
of the world. When he prepared the heavens,
I was there. When he set the compass upon
the face of the depth, when he established the clouds above,
when He strengthened the fountains of the deep, when He gave to
the seas decree that the waters should not pass by His commandment,
when He appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by Him
as one brought up with Him, and I was daily as delight, rejoicing
always before Him." Who is it? this wisdom that he's spoken
of, this wisdom that he's speaking, it's the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Oh, it's that one who of God
is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,
that as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the
Lord. This is that wisdom then, that
is from above, that He's first pure and then peaceable and gentle
and easy to be entreated and full of mercy and good fruits
and without partiality and without hypocrisy it's the Lord Jesus
Christ if we're those who would redeem the time what are we to
do? we're to look to the Lord Jesus
Christ we're to come to the Lord Jesus Christ we're to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ And again I remind you of the hymn
that we were just singing and it did strike me so forcibly
as we sang that hymn this morning, that fourth verse in 1085, Be
this my great, my only care, my chief pursuit, my ardent prayer
and interest in the Saviour's blood, my pardon sealed, and
peace with God. People speak of New Year resolutions
at this time of the year, but what a resolution is that? What
a determination is that? To be those who are looking onto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Here we have Moses, the author
of the psalm under the inspiration of the Spirit, In the title of
prayer of Moses it says, the man of God. And what of Moses? Well, we read of Moses there
in Hebrews 11. He's mentioned in that great
catalogue of the men, the women of faith from the Old Testament. And there's much that's said
concerning the man. All we read of him seeing him
who is invisible. That's how Moses lived his life. He saw the Invisible God. Now
how is it possible to see the Invisible God? Well, we see the
Invisible God by faith. That's the only way we will ever
see Him. No other way. We walk by faith, says Paul,
and not by sight. We are to recognize God from
day to day, moment by moment. Again, think of the practical
aspect that we so often find in these New Testament epistles.
Many a time we turn to the former part of the epistles, the doctrinal
part, But let's not overlook what's recorded in the later
chapters. Much practical advice and instruction
and direction. Look at the language then of
James. There in James 4, verse 13, go to now. ye that say, Today or tomorrow
we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and
buy, and sell, and gain, whereas ye know not what shall be on
the morrow. For what is your life? It is
even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth
away. For that ye ought to say, If
the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that. If we're
those who are walking by faith, seeing Him who is invisible,
won't that short passage describe something of the way in which
we seek to conduct ourselves? We won't presume with God. We'll
live day by day, moment by moment, as those who are subject to His
sovereign will, recognizing that all our times are in His hands. So teach us. to number our days
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom, or to redeem the
time then, knowing that fear of the Lord, knowing that saving
faith, that life of faith. And how is it evidenced? Finally,
we see it, do we not, in believing prayer. It's in believing prayer. as I've already said the psalm
is a prayer the prayer of Moses and what is the text? well our
text is one of the petitions of the prayer it's a request
being made to God so teach us to number our days that we may
apply our hearts unto wisdom that God would cause our hearts
to come onto wisdom. Or without faith it's impossible
to please Him. But either cometh to Him, I believe,
that He is, and that He is a rewarder of all them that diligently seek
Him. Or God make us more and more
a praying people. And you know, if we do but pray
we cannot seek His face in vain. how He would have us to plead
with Him. Or we desire to see a gracious in gathering, but
do we pray for it? He has said He will be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do it for them. He will do it,
but He will have His people inquire, He will have His people plead
and pray. I think again of the language of
another Psalm, Psalm 39 and verse 4. Lord, make me to know my end and the
measure of my day is what it is that I may know how frail
I am or as we come from one year to
another do we not feel our frailty time is passing we don't grow
stronger we grow weaker we have to recognize that and
acknowledge that But as we feel our frailty, we also look to
a God who is faithful, a God who is sovereign in all His ways,
in all His dealings, and a God who will ever always hear us
in prayer. He extends to us, yes, the day
of grace. He has said, I have heard thee
in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored
thee. Behold now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of
salvation. All this time in which we're
living, what a day it is. It's a day of grace. It's the
gospel day. It's that day in which we have
every liberty to come before the throne of grace and there
obtain mercy and there find grace to help in every time of need. Also teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. May the Lord be
pleased to bless his word to us.