Our text tonight is found in
Psalm 90 and the third verse. Psalm 90 and the third verse. Thou turnest man to destruction,
and sayest, Return, ye children of men. Psalm 90 and verse 3. In the psalm, of course, we observe
quite clearly two things, the weakness of man and the great purpose and power of God. In fact, isn't that the title
or the summary that we have at the beginning of 1139. It speaks of man as frail and of
God as eternal and it is of course the paraphrase of the first five
verses written by Isaac Watts. Here then we see again those
Two things that Calvin, at the beginning of his Christian Institutes,
speaks of as the sum and substance of all real knowledge, that is,
the knowledge of ourselves and the knowledge of God. And I want, as we look at this
particular verse tonight, simply to follow that twofold division. first of all to say something
with regards to the weakness of man, and then secondly to
consider the purpose and the power of the God who is eternal
in the heavens. First of all though, we turn
to man. Thou turnest man to destruction,
and sayeth, Return, ye children of men. And we can consider man's
weakness in that twofold sense. Firstly, as a creature, and then
secondly, as a sinner. Clearly, we're reminded in the
Psalm of the truth that man is but feeble and frail in his creatureliness. In verse 2, 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 my sight are but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch
in the night." Here is the context then in which Moses speaks of
man's frailty in comparison with the one who is his great creator. God is from everlasting to everlasting. A thousand years in the sight
of God are but as yesterday. And in the midst of these statements
we read of man in all his weakness. It is that then in the context
that reminds us of what man is. God's the Eternal One, but man
himself experiencing all those limitations of time and of space. In verse 12 he says, So teach
us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Coming to the actual words that
we have in the text of verse 3, We might understand these
two clauses as parallel statements. Remember, that is one of the
features of Hebrew poetry. whereas our poetry in the West
is associated with rhyme and so forth. The poetry of the Hebrews
as we have it here in the book of Psalms is evidenced in these
sort of parallel statements that we find time and again. And are
these statements parallels? Is it the same truth that is
being declared here in a slightly different fashion. Thou turnest
man to destruction, and sayest, Return ye children of men. Now, in the paraphrase that we
sang as our opening praise, certainly that is how Isaac Watts interprets
the verse. Look at verse 4, Thy word commands
our flesh to dust. Return ye sons of men, all nations
rose from earth at first and turn to earth again. Clearly the poet is thinking
here in terms of the statements of our text being parallel. God turns man to destruction.
How does God turn man to destruction? When he says, return. Thus thou
art. Unto dust shalt thou return. Remember what we're told concerning
creation and the creation of the man who stands, of course,
at the very apex of all that great work that we read of in
Genesis 1 and 2. Whereas God creates by faith,
he but speaks the word, by the word of the Lord were the heavens
made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He
spoke and it was done. He commanded and he stood fast. God said and it was so. But when we come to the creation
of man We see how there is that consultation in the Godhead,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, of a council concerning this
creature who is to bear God's image and God's likeness. Let
us make man, says God, speaking as it were, to himself is consulting
between the three persons. Let us make man in our image
after our likeness. And then we have the detail concerning
that creation in Genesis chapter 2, how the Lord God formed man
of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life. and he became a living soul. But then, alas, how that divine
image is despoiled. We have the record in chapter
3 of Genesis of the fall of our first parents, the partaking
of the forbidden fruit and giving that through to her husband and
Adam also, with his eyes wide open, partaking of what God had
commanded they should not eat. And so we have the fall, the
disobedience, the entrance of sin into this world. And there, in the paradise of
God, our first parents in their foolishness, follow the temptation
that came from the devil. And the consequence, of course,
is that curse, that curse that comes upon the creature, that
curse that comes upon man himself. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, says God, till thou return unto the ground.
For out of it was thou taken, for thus thou art. and unto dust
shalt thou return. And so we have it here, you see.
Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest, return ye children
of men. It's the same truth that we have
in each part of the verse. It's speaking of man's frailty
and the certainty of man's death. Then shall the dust return to
the earth as it was, says the preacher. and the Spirit unto
God who gave it. And so, we can understand the
text when we think in terms of man as a creature, we can understand
the text in this sense. These statements, as you would compliment one another,
expound one another. But we don't have to necessarily
consider the verse in that fashion. We don't have to see it really
as being parallel statements, but rather we could say that
these are contrasting statements. And what is it that we see in
the first statement? Thou turnest man to destruction. Speaking of man as a sinner,
you see. Doesn't God, when he begins to
deal with the sinner, when he brings conviction into the soul
of the sinner, doesn't God cause that man to see what his true
state and condition is? He's either open. We know all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And all are
sinners in God's sight. But how true are the words of
the hymn writer, Though all are sinners in God's sight, there
are but few so in their own. And it's when God deals with
the man and shows him what he is in his fallen natural condition
that the man is turned to destruction. Speaking then The first part
of the text is speaking of that ministration of the law, and
the law we know is a ministration of death. It's a ministration
of destruction. We read that passage concerning
the ministry of the law in contrast to the ministry of the gospel
in the third chapter of 2 Corinthians. And we have it mentioned there.
The law, says Paul at verse 7, is a ministration of death. He says, concerning the law,
the letter killeth. Now, wasn't the apostle himself
taught that use and that purpose of the law of God? Here is Saul
of Tarsus Here is a man who was a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee
and he thought that he kept the law of God, as he says in Philippians
chapter 3, in those days, touching the righteousness of the law,
he was blameless. He lived the life of the Pharisee. He thought that his life in every
detail should conform to the Holy Lord of God, that he should
keep all of the commandments of God and he really imagined in his own vain mind that that
was true that he was one who was obedient to the law of God
but really he didn't know the law he didn't know the law until
God dealt with him and turned him to destruction thou turnest
man to destruction. Look at the way he speaks there
in that great seventh chapter of the epistle to the Romans. There in Romans chapter 7 at
verse 9 following we find these words. Paul says, I was alive
without the law once but when the commandment came sin revived
and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin taking
occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me." Oh, it
was a ministration of death to him. He was made to feel what
his true state and condition was. And he says, does he not,
Again, writing there in Romans chapter 3, he speaks of what
the ministry of the law is all about. We know that what thing
soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty
before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. He is speaking
then of what the point, the purpose, the ministry of the law is all
about. It is that ministration of death. Again, look at the language that
he uses there in that 7th chapter. Verse 7, what shall we say then,
he asks. Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay,
I have not known sin but by the law, for I have not known lust,
except the law had said thou shalt not commit. but sin taking
occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence."
Literally, all manner of evil desire. For without the law,
sin was dead. When the law came to him, and
he came to him in terms of the 10th commandment, that's what
he's saying, the commandment which says, they shall not covet,
as a Pharisee he was keeping the letter of the law, But coveting
has to do with the attitude of one's heart. What is covetousness? It's desire, evil desire. And
when this commandment was applied by the Holy Spirit, he saw that
his heart was full of all manner of evil desire. And so the Lord comes and kills
him. Kills him to all trust and all confidence in himself. thou turnest man to destruction
this is how the apostle was dealt with made to see himself in that
mirror of God's holy law made to see the awful deformity of
his soul that he was dead in trespasses and in sins but the
law is not only a ministration of death There in 2nd Corinthians
chapter 3 and verse 9 it's also spoken of as the ministration
of condemnation. It's a ministration of condemnation.
It condemns the sinner. It shuts the sinner up, like
a condemned criminal. He's shut up to what he is. He's
shut up to his sinnership. And Heman cries out, does he
not, in another psalm, Psalm 88, I am shut up, he says, and
I cannot come forth. Well, this is another important
aspect of that ministry of the Lord of God. Here is the man,
he's a creature, the feeble, frail creature of a day, contrasted
with the eternal creator here in the psalm, but he's not only
a creature, he's a sinner and he has to learn his sinnership
again, the same apostle writing in Galatians says, before faith
came we were kept under the law, shut up to the faith which should
afterward be revealed out God, you see, shuts the man up to
what he is thou turnest man to destruction. Verse 8 it says,
Thou hast set our iniquities before them, 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 the Lord is spoken of here
in the opening clause of the text. that law that God makes
use of in order to show the creature his fallen condition to bring
him to that place where he is made to recognize that he can
find no comfort anywhere in himself all hope in self is completely
and utterly cut off and yet In such a ministry as that, doesn't
God have a gracious end in real? That's the amazing thing. He
says to Israel of old, I know the thoughts that I think toward
you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you unexpected
end. See, the text doesn't finish
with that single clause, that just forms the first part of
our text tonight. Thou turnest man to destruction,
yes, and sayest, return ye children of me. Though man is condemned,
though the law comes as administration of condemnation and administration
of death, God doesn't leave the man there. There is a second part to the
text, is there not? God says, return, return ye children
of men. And friends, this is really the
lawful use of the law, is it not? Oh, there is a lawful use
of the law. And you know how the same apostle Paul speaks
of it when he writes to Timothy there in the opening chapter
of the first epistle in verse 8 he says we know that the Lord
is good if a man use it lawfully knowing this that the Lord is
not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient
for the ungodly and for sinners for unholy and profane and so
on its lawful use is to show the man, the woman, what they
are as sinners. And he comes to this in verse
11, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which
was committed to my trust. How the law is that that is made to serve
the gospel. That's what he's saying. The
gospel must have the priority. The law is good when it is used
lawfully. And what is that lawful use?
It is to bring the man to this position where he sees himself
as a sinner and that prepares him, does it not, for the good
news of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
in the course of his ministry says he came not to call the
righteous but sinners to repentant. Oh God, as a good end in view,
a gracious end in view. He doesn't leave the sinner in
that condemned cell. He doesn't leave the sinner shut
up and shut in to what he is in all his depravity, in all
his impotence, in all his dreadful spiritual inability. He cannot
deliver himself But there is a purpose of God, you see. God
speaks the word, return. Return ye children of men. And so, let us come in the second
place to consider God here. We thought of man, we thought
of man in his weakness and frailty as a creature, made of the dust,
returning to the dust. We thought of man as a sinner,
that God has to deal with him. and make him to see and feel
his sinnership and shut him in and shut him up to what he is.
O, but let us in the second place turn to this gracious purpose
of God. Thou turnest man to destruction,
and sayest, Return, ye children of men. Again, Paul writing to
the Corinthians there in the opening chapter of the second
epistle says we have the sentence of death in ourselves that we
should not trust in ourselves but in God that riseth the dead
oh there's the blessed angel the sinner must be brought to
the end of himself that we should not trust in ourselves but to
trust in God And what is it that the sinner
trusts in? He trusts in God, who is the eternal God, who is
the omnipotent God, the God to whom nothing is impossible, the
God who is able to save from the uttermost to the uttermost. Now, here in the psalm, As I said,
we're reminded of God's eternity. He's from everlasting to everlasting. As we're told in verse 2, a thousand
years in God's sight are but as yesterday, when it is passed,
a thousand years as a day. He's eternal. And doesn't Peter
allude to these things himself? when he writes in his second
epistle. If you turn to that second epistle
of Peter in chapter 3 and there he writes in verses 8 and 9,
Be not ignorant, 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 can slackness, but He is longsuffering to us who
are not willing that any should perish, but that all should come
to repentance. Now, that ninth verse is one
that is often abused. People quote that in a very general
and universal sense and say that it teaches us that God is not
willing that anyone at all should perish, that God desires to save
everyone. Well, He doesn't say that, does
He? He says that God is long-suffering to us. Why? It's not a general statement.
Who is Peter writing to? Who is Peter writing to? He's
writing to a certain and a particular and a specific people. To them
that have obtained like precious faith with us, it says. in the
opening verse of this epistle. If we go back to the first epistle,
it's to those who were scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. He's writing to the elect, he's
writing to those who are to obtain light, precious faith. And what
does he say? that God is long-suffering to
these people. These particular specific people,
He's long-suffering towards them, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. All those that God desires to
save, God saves. There's no disputing that. But
you see how Peter is clearly alluding here to the words that
we have in Psalm 90 in verse 8 when he says, that one day
is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as
one day. And then he goes on to speak
about God is not slack concerning His promise, that His longsuffering,
not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Oh, this is what God will have
His people come to, you see. He will have them come to repentance. this is why God deals with them,
they turn us man to destruction and say us to turn out the sinners
return to God they turn to God by way of faith and repentance
do they not and is not the Lord Jesus Christ the one who is exalted
a prince and a saviour to give repentance to Israel and the
forgiveness of sin Are we not to be those who are looking on
to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith? He is the author,
the finisher of faith, He is the one who gives repentance.
But how does God deal with His people in order to bring them
to that faith and that repentance? Well, as I've already intimated,
God deals with them in such a fashion as to bring them to the end of
themselves. He deals with them so that they
see that they cannot of themselves produce faith or produce repentance. They have to be made to see their
impotence, their utter inability to do anything for themselves.
Job says, He shutteth up a man and there can be no opening. Thou turnest man to destruction. And there's no way of escape,
so far as self is concerned. God will have his people to learn
it, you see. To learn that awful doctrine
of the sinner's total depravity. and he will have the sinner to
learn it in an experimental sense not just to see it on the page
of the Bible and to ascend to it that by nature we are dead
in trespasses and in sins no, when God deals with us he teaches
us in our experience does he not? we have to come to terms with our inability
to help ourselves Paul says not that we are sufficient of ourselves
to think anything as of ourselves. Can't even think the right thoughts. What we have to come to is this,
that we really believe what God says in his word concerning the
fall of man and we believe it because we feel it. We feel it
in our own souls. Wasn't this the experience of
the godly of all? This was the experience of David.
Now David, remember, is the man after God's own heart. David clearly was a man in possession
of the divine nature that Peter speaks of. What is that divine
nature? It's when the sinner is born
again, born from above. Well, David was a sinner, that's
evident, as we read the history of David in the historic books,
but then also, of course, we read of David here in the Psalms,
and we see, as David has to confess his sins
in those great penitential Psalms, Psalm 51, for example, or the
things he says in Psalm 32. But look at how David speaks
of himself in another psalm, in that 38th psalm, David's psalm
to bring to remembrance. For David will not forget, he
will remember these things concerning himself. What does he say? There is no soundness in my flesh
because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones
because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone
over mine head, as an heavy burden now too heavy for me my wounds
stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness I am troubled
I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long for
my loins are filled with a loathsome disease there is no soundness
in my flesh I am feeble and sore broken I have wrought by reason
of the disquietness of my heart. And this man feels it, you see.
He knew what it was to return to destruction. He believed in
that terrible doctrine of the sinner's total depravity because
he felt it, and he felt it in his very bones. He knew something
of his sinnership. and such a sinner as that has
to deal with God and deal with the wholeness of the word of
God and acknowledge what God's word says the natural man receiveth
not the things of the spirit of God they are foolishness to
him neither can he know them because they are spiritually
discerned that's the natural man there is that man who is
a natural descendant from Adam and Eve which is true of all
of us the only person who is accepted of course is the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ this is why we have the miracle of
the virgin birth and that great mystery of godliness and God
was manifest in the flesh by that great mystery that we read
of in the Gospels where the power of the highest comes over Mary
and she's with child of the Holy Ghost that is conceived in her
womb is free from every taint of sin. That holy thing It says
in Luke, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be
called the Son of God. That's the only exception. The
Lord Jesus Christ, the sinless man, holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens,
who comes of course as the last Adam, who comes to undo all that awful sin that was brought in
by the first Adam, who comes to reconcile sinners to God,
who comes to make the great sacrifice for sins, who bears in his own
person that punishment that was the just desert of those that
he came to save. But all others besides Christ
are the natural descendants of Adam and Eve. And the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are
foolishness to him. Neither can he know them. From whence then can this man
obtain that saving faith and that evangelical repentance?
Well, that same Christ, as I've said, is exalted, a Prince and
a Saviour, to give repentance. And with repentance he gives
the forgiveness of sin. And he is that one who is the
author and finisher of faith, is he not? Now we need that,
friends, we need that faith that is of the operation of God. God
has to save the world, you see. Return! Thou turnest man to destruction.
shuts the sinner up to what he is and God says to that sinner
return and as God speaks the word return there is all that
communication of faith and the sinner comes the sinner comes
because he has that faith that he is of the operation of God
when Paul is writing to the Corinthians and remember there was much pride
there at Corinth And some of them they despised Paul and his
ministry. And he has to write to them and
deal with these matters. They were very gifted people
really. It was a gifted church at Corinth.
But what does Paul say concerning saving faith? He says that your
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power
of God. Oh, they set themselves up, you
see, they were wise. Though, says Paul, you need faith
that's not in man's wisdom, but faith that is in the power of
God. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse
5. God is the one who says, return,
for that's the power of God. Thou turnest man to destruction
and sayest, return, ye children of men." Well, God knows, you
see, He knows the thoughts that He thinks towards His people.
Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give them unexpected
end. That's the expected end. God
will save the sinner. Isn't that what we're about?
Isn't that the Gospel? Salvation is of the Lord. and it is of the Lord in every
sense. It's the great purpose of the Father. From eternity
He purposed His salvation. It's that work that was accomplished
in time by God the Son in the fullness of the time God sent
forth His Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law. The salvation has been procured
and purchased by the doings of the Lord Jesus Christ in time,
and that salvation must be brought into the experience of the sinner. And that is the work of God the
Holy Ghost. When God says to that sinner, return. And the
sinner turns and knows the great salvation. But what do we see
here? Do we not see the priority of
the Gospel? God purposed salvation, as I
say, from all eternity. The Gospel has the priority over
the Lord of God, does it not? And so, the law is given to serve
the Gospel. Now, Paul brings this truth out
So clearly, when he writes to the church at Galatia, in Galatians
chapter 3, and there at verse 17, rather verse 19, he asks
the question in verse 19 of Galatians 3, Wherefore then serveth the
law It was added because of transgression, till the seed should come to
whom the promise was made. And it was ordained by angels
in the hand of a mediator. Here is the question, what is
the purpose of the law? Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions,
till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. Who
is the seed? but he says previously in verse
16, "...and to thy seed which is Christ." Christ is the promised
seed. And in this chapter he speaks
quite clearly of the antiquity of the gospel, how the gospel
in a sense predates the law. Look at verse 17, this I say,
that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the
law which was 430 years after, cannot disannul, that it should
make the promise of none effect. He is saying, is he not, that
the covenant of grace, the gospel, is 430 years before the law. Now how would you explain that?
Again, Dr. Gill, makes this observation,
how the Jews reckon 430 years from that covenant that God makes
with Abraham in Genesis chapter 15. They count 430 years from
Genesis 15 to the deliverance of the children of Israel out
of Egypt in the book of Exodus. And Genesis 15 is the covenant. The covenant with Abraham is
the covenant of grace. How that grace as the priority
the law was our schoolmaster he says there in Galatians chapter
3 the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we
might be justified by faith and that's what we have here in the
text you see it's by the ministration of the
law, the ministration of condemnation, the ministration of Death, that
God brings a man to destruction. All his own works, his imagined
righteousness, all that he can do for himself, all that's destroyed,
there's no hope in self. The only hope of the poor sinner
is to be found in God and in the Gospel of his Christ. Isn't that what Paul says in
Galatians chapter 3 isn't that the same truth that we have here in Psalm 90 the writing of Moses
the man of God. Our scripture speaks with one
voice only one way of salvation and that salvation to be found
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So again I would direct you to what Paul
says in that first chapter of Timothy, where he speaks of the
lawful use of the law. We know that the law is good,
he says, if a man use it lawfully. And then this in verse 11, it's
all according, according to the glorious gospel. of the blessed
God which was committed to my trust. O God, grant then that
we might know in some measure in our own souls' experiences
what these men of old experienced and wrote of under the inspiration
of the Spirit here in the Scriptures of Truth. Thou turnest man to
destruction and sayest, you children of me. Amen.