But on my King I'll pray. God have mercy on me, but don't
be scared to pray. For there is no other glory I'll
be better than. Thank you. John and Sherry. Sherry, I think that's one of
your favorite hymns. You're overdue to sing that.
Psalm 90. We looked at this recently. We need to look at it often.
And so much more as we see the day approaching, our home going. You notice under the psalm it
says, a prayer of Moses, the man of God. This whole psalm
is a prayer like so many psalms are. And Moses was a chosen,
called and redeemed child of God, taught of God, man of God. And if I am a man of God, this
is my prayer. And this is what I want to preach
and teach you as Moses did. And if you are a man or a woman,
of God, this is your prayer. This is your heart's desire.
Verse 12, it sums this prayer up after he says many things.
He says in verse 12, so, teach us to number our days that we
may apply our hearts unto wisdom. So if there was a title, it would
be this. This is a short life. We need
to seek wisdom. Seek wisdom. Lord, He says in
verse 1, Thou hast been our dwelling place. in all generations, our
dwelling place in whom we live and move and have our being and
whose hands our breath is in all our ways. David wrote in
one of the Psalms, he said, my times are in thine hands. And we sang a song years ago,
I don't think it's in our book, My times are in Thy hands, my
God. I wish them there. And I do too. But this is so much more than
just him watching over us. Psalm 91 says, He that dwelleth
in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty." There's such a unity that we actually are
in Him. Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica,
he said, to the church that's in God and in Christ Jesus. And I can't really explain this
except to say that we are absolutely engulfed by and dwell in, surrounded
by Him. In Him. We're in Him. Not just in His heart, in His
mind, but that's the best I can do with that. Because it's a
mystery. But there's a oneness. There's a unity. He said, I'll
never leave you. I'm with you. You're in Me. I'm
in you. Like Christ said, I'm in the
Father and the Father's in Me. It's a mystery. But He's been
our dwelling place, talking to the people of God here. So He's
talking about and He says many things here about the infinite
God and our brevity. Verse 2, before the mountains
were brought forth, Wherever thou hast formed the earth and
the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God,
the eternal Creator, our God. We saw Sunday. something of His
mighty power and Godhead, our eternal Creator. And we are sure
glad, aren't we? We're sure glad. We want to be
owned by Him and controlled by Him. And we're sure thankful.
And it gives us great peace that our God reigneth. A dear brother,
Jim Eccles, the church in Ashland, he and his wife Juanita came
here many times over the years. Well, he passed away recently,
just recently. And his dying words were, My
God, Raina. Let that be our dying word. Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 32,
the eternal God is our refuge. Underneath are the everlasting
arms. Underneath us. And Isaiah 46,
he said, I have carried you. He said, I have borne you from
the cradle and I will carry you to your old age. That's how we're
in Him. And He's the eternal God. No
beginning or end. Psalm 90, verse 2. He's the eternal
God. And from everlasting to everlasting,
He has no beginning, no end, and He doesn't change. And that's a great comfort. Our
God changes not. So He said, therefore, you sons
of Jacob who are so given to change are not consented. Now he talks about the finiteness
of man, our infinite God, and how finite we are. Verse 3, Thou
turnest man to destruction and sayest, Return, ye children of
man. And this is what Ecclesiastes
says, man goes back to his dust. Thus thou art, and to thus thou
shalt return." He returns us to the dust from which we are
made. And I thought about this, though.
Our greatest need is for Him to turn us in repentance. As David said, Lord, You turn
us and we'll be turned. Please, turn us from destruction. Grant repentance toward Thee
and faith in Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And repent Thee. And that's another verse. But
verse 3, he says, Thou turnest man. The Lord's the one that
does it. He said, I kill. I kill. And I've quoted to you,
I've told you several times some numbers, but in this nation alone,
in this country alone, 6,900 people die every day. Every day. Four people a minute. How many people have gone since
we've met tonight? The Lord kills. The Lord makes
a life. He's the one that does this.
He says, all souls are mine. And He says, and the soul returns
to the God who made it to do with it as He pleases. How needful
is this prayer. for us to pray to Him. Lord, return us unto Thyself. Verse 4, he talks about the brevity
of time. A thousand years in Thy sight
are but as yesterday when it is past, as a watch in the night.
You know, Peter told us this in his last epistle, in the last
chapter of that epistle, 2 Peter 3. He said, Brethren, don't be
ignorant of this. Don't forget how short time is. The time is
so short. Paul said the same thing. He
said, redeem the time. Oh, how much time we waste, don't
we? Redeem the time. And Peter said, Beloved, don't
be ignorant of this, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, a thousand years is a day, but the Lord is not slack concerning
His promise. He's returning back, although
the world mocks and scoffs and says, Where's the promise of
His coming? We don't see any sign of His return. We do. He's blind in their minds, but
often the world of the things blind us to, to the brevity of
time. And we should be hasting His
coming like Peter. Peter is the one that said that
too, hasting the coming of the Lord. Everything is about to
be, about to pass away. It's like a watch, he said in
verse 4, a watch in the night. That was a three hour period,
a watch in the night. In verse 5, Thou carriest them
away, that is these years, as with the flood The Lord has promised
never to destroy us by flood again. And however, the years
are just rushing by, aren't they? I often wondered where we got
that old saying, that's so much water under the bridge. Perhaps
from this, that the years go by so quickly, just rushing by,
aren't they? Rushing by. A thousand years
like that. They're like a sleep, he said
in verse 5. Like a sleep. You go to sleep,
and by the way, you know, a believer, the Lord giveth his beloved sleep.
He calls death, he doesn't call it death, he calls it sleep.
And how we look forward to going to sleep, don't we? And in a
moment, you go to sleep, don't you? And you know sooner you
go to sleep than you're wide awake at 2 a.m., depending on
your age, 4 a.m. or something. But you go to sleep,
you blink your eyes, you're awake again. So that's this life. That's how quickly it goes by. It's like a sleep. In the morning,
verse 5, It's like grass that groweth up in the morning, verse
6, it flourisheth and groweth up. In the evening, it's cut
down. The Lord cuts it down, withereth
and is cut down. It's like the grass. It flourisheth
for a while. My, my, these young ones, these
babies, You know, they're so beautiful and tender, and yet
they become infants so quickly, and then they become children,
and then they become adolescents, and then they become teenagers,
and then they become mothers and fathers. I told Gabe and
Hannah the other day, I still call Isabella Hannah, because
it's gone by that quickly. I still am always calling her
Hannah, aren't I? Because it's gone by that quick.
And I told Gabe and Hannah, I said, you will be us tomorrow. Isabel will be you, Lord will
them. And I'll be, we'll be my old parents. It's going to be
that quick, isn't it? Just that quick. That's why we
should be wise, consider our lettering, and number our days.
He said in verse 7, we're consumed by thine anger. Consumed by thy
anger and by thy wrath are we troubled. This is for those that are taught
of God, these words. This whole psalm is for God's
people that understand it. We know something of the holy
and just and righteous God who is a consuming fire. The world
doesn't even believe God. let alone that He's holy and
just and angry and wrath and all that. The world just doesn't
believe that. But we do, don't we? We've been taught of God.
We plainly see His eternal power in His Godhead, don't we? And
like Romans 1 says, the wrath of God is clearly revealed from
heaven. against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth, that is, suppress it in unrighteousness. We clearly see, don't we, all
of the calamities and disasters and sicknesses and diseases and
death. We see that as the hand of God,
don't we? Clearly see that. And the world is blind. They
don't see that. Like the story of the Egyptians,
the children of Israel in Egypt, and the Lord was sending all
of these evident plagues, evident, weren't they, of God's judgment
against sin. And yet the Egyptians didn't
see it, and as far as we can tell, well, there may have been
some that we don't know about. What we don't hear are the Egyptians
calling and crying out to God, Spare them from the wrath of
God. And you don't hear many people today. Save us from thy
wrath. But God's people understand something
about this. We do. We do. The world thinks these things
are just natural causes. No. God is the cause. Well, God sends it. Sin is the
cause. This is the next verse. He says,
You set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins even, in the
light of Thy countenance, the sins of open rebellion. And even
secret sins, men think are secret. They think. They say things like,
the psalm says, How doth God know? Doth God see? Oh yeah,
the light and the darkness are the same thing. And the time
to To understand the time is when,
like Sodom in Isaiah 3, it says, "...the show of their countenance
doth witness against them." They declare their sin as Sodom. They hide it not. And when men and women, when
the world begins to shake their fist, as it were, to taunt God
in their sin and rebellion, the end is nigh, like Sodom,
like Sodom. But we understand this, don't
we? By God's grace, by God's Spirit, thankfully, He's made
these things known unto us. And so we see, and remember David
said, Lord, purge me from my iniquity. David said, keep back
thy servant from secret sins. Cleanse me. Wash me throughly
from all my iniquity. Let no sin have dominion over
me. Only God's people pray that prayer.
Psalm 51. That's why it's so dear to us. But the world is troubled, verse
7, by the wrath and anger of God, but they don't see it as
being from Him. We do. Verse 9, he says, all
our days. Now here, he's going to teach
us the fear of the Lord. All our days are passed away
in thy wrath. We spend our years as the tale
is told. Verse 11, who knows the power
of thine anger? According to thy fear, so is
thy wrath. Wrath because of sin, suffering
and pain, and ultimately death, the wages of sin. Right? You know the Scriptures. By one
man sin entered into the world, and what? Death, my sin. And death passed upon all men.
The wages of sin is death sent by God because of His wrath.
And it says in verse 9, all our days are passed away in thy wrath
quickly. Remember, man used to live 700
or 800 years, some longer. Now it's down to 70 or 80. Why? Because the Lord says, I can't take them any longer
than that. Because of sin, he went down to 120 and he said,
that's too long to put up with them. That's the reason. Cut it down to a tenth. Seventy
or eighty years. Because of wrath. We spend our
years, verse 9, as a tale that is told. It's so brief. It's so brief, our life. It's like a tale. And somebody's going to say about
us when we die, did you hear that old John Sheasley died? Old John Sheasley, he died. No,
did he? Well, that's too bad. In a few
days, You know, like a tale that's
told. I read these fairy tales to Isabella
and Sophie when they come to stay with us in the Lion Bed.
I read these tales and they take about three minutes and it's over. There's nothing to it. It's over.
Our lives are so short and vanity. We're just not very important.
You know that? It's just not very important.
Psalm 103, which I love, some of you love dearly. Psalm 103
says the wind is going to pass over where we were and the place
there, I will know it no more. If the Lord doesn't come back,
there will be a generation that won't know we ever existed. And
it won't take long. I watched a little squirrel cross
the road one day. I watched a car run over that
squirrel. And there it lay in its body right there, still warm. Next day, next day, next day. And you know, in about two weeks'
time, you couldn't tell that squirrel had ever been there.
It was gone. There was no trace of it. That's
us. That's us. Oh, teach us. Teach us to number our days.
Apply our hearts to wisdom. The tale that's told. The days
of our years, verse 10. Now here's all He's promised.
That's what I told Brother John when I'd go out to see him. Brother
John, you're 80 years old now. 78, 79. He was 80 when he died.
I said, John, you're past the time. I know it, Paul. We're promised
70 years. That's it. When we hit 70, we
start getting close. Oh, how we ought to be. So serious
about this. So much more as we see the day
approaching. Seventy years, if by reason of
strength, not yours, God-given strength. Nothing you do adds
a day to your life. Our days are determined. The number of our months are
with the Lord. He hath set our bounds we cannot pass. Nothing
you eat or don't eat. It's going to add a day. It might
keep you from getting a gout, but it's not going to add a day
to your life. Remember that. You know that.
We know these things. The world doesn't know that.
There's a proverb that says their secret thought is that they're
going to live forever. They're hoping, they're hoping against
hope that somebody's going to find the fountain of youth. We know the fountain of youth,
don't we? There is a fountain. filled with blood, drawn from
Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood, the
dew of youth is going to be on their brow forever. Our years are four score years
at most, at best. Boy, Mom, 91. Yet, in all those
years, Beginning early, there's strength,
labor, and sorrow, and then it's soon cut off and we fly away. Fly away. Back to God. The soul goes back to God who
gave it. Fly away. We start out strong. Boy, we
get weak fast. I just started a new exercise
regimen guaranteed to make me fit in three weeks. I'm 60 now, and it ain't going
to work. But I'm trying anyway. We get
weak. I'm weak as a kitten these days,
and I'm trying to accept it. Strong, begin strong. Quickly
get weak. And there's labor. It's all full of labor. Our whole life, isn't that what
our Lord said to Adam and Eve when He sent them out of the
garden? He said, by the sweat of your brow. And He told the
woman, He said, in sorrow, all your days you're going to be
filled with sorrow and childbearing and childraising and family,
you're going to be full of sorrow. Strength, labor and sorrow and
cut off. Why then? Did we labor for that which is
not bread? Isn't that what the Lord said?
Oh, that they were wise. Consider the latter end. Not
labor for those things that perish. Perishing things of clay born
but for one brief day pass from my heart away. Oh, Lord Jesus,
You be my portion. Verse 11, Who knows the power
of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so
is thy wrath. Who knows? Few do. Do you know? How blessed
you are if you do. Who hath believed our report,
Isaiah said? Who hath believed our report?
Not many. Do you? Blessed are thou, sister. Blessed are you. You believe
the report? To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? That's Isaiah 53. Is the arm
of the Lord revealed unto you? That you're under His arm? Has He made bare His arm of salvation? Christ? Has He? Oh. You know
something then about His anger. You know something of His fear.
God has taught you to fear Him. You know something of His wrath.
And so, verse 12, He says, teach us to number our days. Number our days that we may apply
our hearts unto wisdom. And this means so much more than
actually numbering our days, although I did that. And it's
very, very revealing, very shocking if you actually, I didn't write
it down this time, but if you actually number 70 days, I forget
how many thousands of days, 35,000 or something like that. And if
you're 60, what, day and 69? Might as well be. It's going to be tomorrow in
65, something like that. You've just got a few days left. Honestly. 1,500 days. Days, mind you. Number our days. And this also is to tell us,
boast not thyself of tomorrow, you know not what a day, this
may be your last day. There's a day appointed for our
death, and we don't know the day. It's going to be a day. And that date has already been
recorded by our God. Many of you know the day. The
date, remember well, the birth of your children, your spouses,
your parents, you know the day of their death. You don't need
to write it down. It was firmly imprinted in your
mind and in your heart. Well, God wrote their names,
their birth, first birth, second birth, in the palm of their hand,
and home going. It's already written down on
his breastplate. And he's looking forward to that
day. Do you believe that? Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saint. I look forward to seeing my grandchildren.
I just count the days when they're to come with us and there's no
sooner here than they're gone. And I already miss them badly
when they're gone. But our Lord, can you believe?
Can you believe? that He loves His people so much
and desires for them to be with Him. He's got that day written
down and looks forward to that day. And when that day comes,
He gets the angels ready. Huh? Oh, yeah. Much more than
you or me. That's a fact. That's not too
good to be true. It's just God. God is love. Number our days in that this
might be the last day. Number our blessings. Every day,
every morning, His mercies are new. Every morning we ought to
wake up and thank Him for His mercies, His compassions that
fail not. Every day is a new day of mercy. And as our days, what does he
say? So shall our strength be. He's
promised that. So teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts, our hearts, out of the heart,
the issues of life, with the heart man believeth. Write these
on the table of our hearts. Apply our hearts unto wisdom. Wisdom. Now, who knows what wisdom is? If you had asked the world, if
I were to stand up before any so-called church today and say,
what is wisdom? It would give you many things,
wouldn't it? If I had asked this congregation, every person in
here, including our youngest children, would say, Christ. Oh my, how blessed we are. Now,
to consider our latter end, that's wisdom. But to consider and to
think on and apply our hearts to know the Lord Jesus Christ,
now that's wisdom. Paul said, for me to live, for
me to continue to live, it's Christ. He said, Oh, that I might
win Christ and be found in Him. He said, Oh, that I might know
Him and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His supper.
That's wisdom. Christ is wisdom. He's made unto
us wisdom. And to have a few good days left, whatever we have
left, is to apply our hearts to His cause and His service. You know, our Lord knew He had
33 years. from however old he was where
he's conscious of, you know, probably earlier than any of
us, six months. What a mystery. What a mystery. At any rate, however old he was,
he began to think about, I've got 33 years, just 33 years to
do a great work. Oh, he didn't waste any time,
did he? Matthew Henry said that. If we
don't want to spend our lives as just a tale, an idle tale
that's been told, then let's be about the Lord's business.
The Lord told the story of Moses and it took a good while. Joseph,
he was in the cause. David said, is there not a cause? Our Lord, the whole book is about
His story. Thirty-three years. Thirty-three
short years. Oh, what did He accomplish? So
great salvation. And he knew that though, and
he spent his days wisely. May I say that? Yes. It's worth
thinking about. He didn't spend his days thinking
about stuff. He didn't spend his days thinking
about self. All his days were spent thinking
about his Father, his glory, his honor, and his people. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but took upon Himself the form of a servant,
made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and served His people. Oh, Lord, apply our hearts to
this wisdom. This is wisdom. Our Lord said
it's more blessed to give. You'll see a few good days. You
don't have many left. You spend it on yourself. You spend it on others like our
Lord, you'll be a happy person. Here's wisdom. Why am I here?
Here's wisdom. Why am I here on planet Earth? Why am I here in Central Grace
Church? That's wisdom. Thy kingdom come. Didn't He tell us to pray? This
is what you pray. First thing, hallowed be Thy
name. Second thing, Thy kingdom come. I'm a part of it. This is what
I'm about. It's supposed to be about. Verse
13, He says, Return, O Lord. How long? Moses saw the Lord
on that mountain. Remember? He was standing on
the rock. The Lord revealed Himself to him. He said, I'm going to
come down and stand by you. And I said, I'm going to put
you in the cleft of the rock. He saw the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm convinced of it. Moses saw the Lord Jesus Christ.
It says the Lord came down and stood with him there. Though
he was with him, yet he wasn't. And I believe Moses is saying,
Lord, I'd like to see you again. I'd like to see you again. Would
you return? How long is it going to be, Lord? Oh, my. We've seen His glory
in the sanctuary. We've seen something of Him.
Lord, return. Return. Come quickly, Lord. How long,
Lord? Let it repent thee concerning
thy servants. Repent. Turn from anger. Look
upon Christ. Turn us. Reconcile us. Let us
truly be thy servants. Let it repent thee concerning
thy servants. Satisfy us, verse 14. Satisfy,
oh, satisfy us early with Thy mercy, that we may rejoice and
be glad all our day. Oh, it's good for a man to bear
the yoke in his youth. Oh, my, remember now Thy Creator
and the days of Thy youth. Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way by taking heed of the Word of God? O Lord, put
the yoke upon us and our children in our youth, that we may rejoice
and be glad all our days." Lord, You do. You pray for our children.
You pray for Your own. You pray for all our children,
don't You? Earnestly, intensely, daily. We pray daily for Your
children. I know You do. for ours. We pray
for our children. They're our children. We've seen
them born here and raised. And we pray for them. Lord, put
the yoke upon them early. Early. Show them Thy mercy that
they may rejoice in the Lord and be glad all our day. Verse
15, I like this. Make us glad according to the
days wherein Thou hast afflicted us. The years wherein we've seen
evil. Make us glad that you've afflicted
us. We know something about this,
don't we? We can say with David, it's good for me that I've been
afflicted. Only a believer can say this. David said, it's good
for me that I've been afflicted. Why, David? That I might learn
thy statute. That I might look to thee. That
you might turn my eyes from beholding vanity. That you might wean me
from this world. And whom the Lord loveth, he..."
Don't forget this, Paul wrote in Hebrew. Don't forget this,
brethren. "...And whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth." How blessed
we are. Lord, make us glad when you chasten
us. Make us glad when you afflict
us. Brethren, know this, Peter wrote,
the same afflictions The same afflictions are accomplished. Accomplish the same end. Increase
our faith. Wean us from this world. Cause
us to look to Him. Cause us to be merciful and gracious
to one another. These same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren throughout the world. God had one Son, my pastor
always said this, God had one Son without sin. He had no sons
without affliction. No. It's good for me. It's good. Evil? Remember that? Isaiah 45, 5-7. The years we've seen evil, the
world thinks it's evil. But you know, brethren, it's
all good. It's all good. God worketh it all for good.
Verse 16, "...let thy work appear unto thy servants, and Thy glory
unto their children. Thy work. What is God's one great
work? The work of redemption. So great
salvation that Christ accomplished on Calvary. Lord, let that work
always be before mine eye. Let it appear always unto Thy
servants. And Thy glory. This is His glory. Let our children Behold His glory. O Lord, reveal Yourself to us
and our children. Thy glory. And verse 17, in closing,
he says, and let the beauty, the beauty of the Lord our God
be upon us, the beauty of holiness. I quote it often. I love it,
the verse. David said, I will behold Your
face in righteousness. How can God bring a clean thing
out of an unclean? How can He be clean that's born
of woman? I'll tell you how. Jesus Christ is crucified. He's
going to wash us thoroughly. Has washed us. Cleansed us from
all unrighteousness, being conformed to His blessed image, a new creature
in Christ, holiness unto the Lord. It doth not yet appear
what we shall be. But David said, I'll be satisfied
when I wake with thy light. So that's what Moses is praying. Establish thou the work of our
hands upon us. Lord, I'm so sick and tired of
me. Would You make me like Christ?
Would You use these hands for Thy glory and honor? And for
once in my life, Let me serve Thy cause. Yea, the work of our
hands, establish Thou it. Let us be like Christ and live
out the rest of our days with some worth, some value to His
cause. That's a good prayer, isn't it?
So teach us, Lord. Alright, stand with me. Our Father, oh, how we thank
You for Your Word. It is our meat, our drink, our
water to quench our thirst, our bread, our food to eat, to satisfy
our hunger. It's our clothing. It is our
help, it is our instruction, it is our chastening, it is our
direction, our compass, as it speaks of Christ. It's not a
thing, but it's a person. Christ the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. And as we look to Him, Lord,
we have peace and are changed into His likeness. Oh, Lord,
cause us to keep looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Teach us to
number our days, Lord. We don't have many left. Most
in this room. We're getting older and we don't
have many days left. Teach us, Lord. Teach us. Send
Thy Holy Spirit to teach us, lead us, guide us, set our affection
on things above where Christ is and use us, Lord. Oh, use
us. What days we have left, use us
for Thy glory and Thy honor. And Lord, please have mercy upon
our children, we pray for Christ's sake. Amen.