Thank you, Jeanette, thank you, John. Psalm 90, a fitting message, I believe, timely in these trouble-filled days with all the noisome pestilence, the arrows that are flying by day. troubles that surround us. The word of the Lord is full of wisdom and comfort and none more so than these psalms. It's the only source of wisdom. It's our only source of comfort, God's word. He's the God of all comfort and he wrote these things for his glory and for our comfort, the comfort of God's people.

Words, I entitled it Words of Life, about this life. Life in Christ, words about death. We need to think about it, don't we? And words about fear, the things that man fears, we need not fear. We need to fear the Lord. And faith, words of faith to encourage us to trust our Lord.

Verses one and two, Psalm 90. Lord, this is one of the oldest psalms in the collection of psalms, Moses. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Who is Moses speaking of? Our Lord Jesus Christ said, Moses wrote of me. While this world does not believe that man named Jesus was God, we do, don't we? We know it's Him. We know it's Him. He said that, Moses wrote of me.

The Lord said unto my Lord, The Lord Jesus Christ, he's our Lord, our God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. These three are one, one God, but equal. Our Lord, our God, our creator, our savior, our life, our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.

Everlasting, everlasting, he's God. Always has been, always will be. Hebrews 13, eight, Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, before the world began, today, and forever. He's the I am. So here we have the eternal God. The eternal God is our refuge, isn't it? All through the Psalms, he says that. We take refuge in him, not in finite man, because verses three and following talk about just how frail and sinful Now turn this man to destruction and say, return you children of men.

Who kills? Who makes a light? Deuteronomy 32, 39. See now, I, even I am he, there is no God with me. I kill, I make a light, I wound and I heal. Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. If I lift up my hand, I lift up my hand to heaven and say, I live forever. If I wet my glittering sword and my hand take hold of judgment, I will render vengeance to my enemy.

That's what the Lord said. Who do you hear preaching that today? All of God's true preachers and God's people know he's gonna talk about the fear of the Lord in him. He's gonna talk about wrath. He's gonna talk about a lot in this. We know our God's holy. Our God is just. Our God will by no means clear the guilty. That is what necessitated Jesus Christ coming to this earth to die, isn't it? We know that. We must know that why Christ had to die. Not a martyr, not an example, a substitute for sinners in the hands of an angry God.

So look at verses four through six in our text. He says, a thousand years in thy sight, but as yesterday. You remember, Peter said, don't be ignorant of this one thing. Peter in second Peter three talks about the end. And that's another passage we need to read over and over again. Seeing that all these things be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be? What should we be thinking about? What should we be pursuing? So we need this, don't we? We need this.

I told you that I counted in our roll 20 some people that are over 70 years old Tonight they're a dozen in here. They're over 70 years old And we're going to see how he says three score ten Maybe four score, right? So we need to be wise about this and think about it Thousand years to God or nothing. It was yesterday when it's passed. It's watching the night. God carries them away as with the flood. The years just rushing by, aren't they? The older you get, the faster they go by. So, when you're young, you think, oh, I've got my whole life ahead of me. Look at verse five. It said, they're like asleep. I went to sleep yesterday and I was 17. I woke up today, I'm 70. I'm telling you, that's how quick it is in Endeavor. You're 70. Y'all did know that she's 70. You can't put it into words except it's unbelievable. I can't believe this has happened. But the Lord said it would. And it did. 70 years of mercy, mind you. 70 years gone by. It's like the grass that grows up. In the morning it flourishes and groweth up. Begins as a tender little plant, a little sawyer. Have you ever seen anything prettier than that? Isn't he beautiful?

Man, oh man. Today is my daughter's 41st birthday. It just seemed like 41 days ago she was born. Really. It happens that quick. In the morning it flourishes, and groweth up, and in the evening it is cut down and withereth. Wrinkles, old age, come so quickly. Verse 7. We are consumed by thy anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. That is mankind.

God's people are not under the wrath of God. You do understand that, don't you? Oh, no. His wrath abides on the ungodly. Those that don't believe him. The wrath of God fell on Jesus Christ, the substitute of his people. His wrath doesn't abide on God's people. He loves us. He loves us. But mankind is consumed by his wrath. Man's troubled, though he doesn't believe God is behind all of this trouble, yet he stays troubled, doesn't he? He can't get any peace.

Why is that? Because God said there's no rest for the wicked, no peace for the wicked. Those that don't acknowledge their creator, those that don't worship their creator and thank their creator, those that don't acknowledge God's Son, God's not going to give them any peace, no lasting peace. Verse eight, why?

Because our iniquities are before them. Our secret sins in the light of the countenance. Sin and iniquity is the source of all sorrow and sadness. That's how it started in this world, isn't it? Sin, and man makes light of it. Boasts of it. So is it any wonder that God doesn't give man any peace? until he acknowledges his sin against his creator, David.

Here's repentance, Psalm 51. And you know Psalm 51. It's God's people, one of our favorite songs in it. In fact, many, if not most of the martyrs went to their deaths, quoting Psalm 51. Have mercy on me, oh God. According to thy loving kindness. according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned and done this evil, and I say, wash me throughly from under, purge me with hyssop. That's what the high priest would take and sprinkle the blood and put it on the doorpost.

You know what that means. That's repentance. God will hear that. That's true repentance. He'll hear that. And He'll cover our sins under the blood. Verse nine, all our days or passed away in thy wrath. All our days, Romans 1, 18, I quote often, and you should read Romans 1 often, because it's such a description of this present evil generation in them. Romans 2 is a description of this present evil religious generation in them.

And then from Romans 3 on tells us our hope is won by one, by one man. Sin entered the world by one man. Even so, righteousness came. I could go on and on there. But Romans 1, he says, the wrath of God is revealed. from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold or suppress the truth in unrighteousness."

And he goes on to talk about how they do not glorify God as God. Change the truth of God at preachers and people. And he's going to pray here that the Lord would make us glad through his work. To let his work of redemption. appear unto us and our children, His glory, because that's God's greatest glory. All right, look at verse 9. Our years are as a tale that is told. I love the way Brother Chapman described our lives. A tale that is told, you know, it's a short story in our lives compared to Methuselah.

They lived eight, nine hundred years or more, almost a thousand years. But, you know, it went by that quickly to them too. I can hear Methuselah now. Where have the last 900 years gone? Man thinks, if only I could live 700 or 800 years. It went by that quick too. Doesn't matter how long you live.

It's brief. But Brother Chapman said, you see, of persons that has passed away, you see their birth year and their death year behind their name in parenthesis. And there's a little dash between it. If I die this year, 1955, 2026, and that little dash, John said, that's our life. Just a little blip in the space of time. And in a moment, in a twinkle of an eye, we're gonna wake up and all this is gonna be over. And then no more time.

No more dying. Now who wouldn't look forward to that? When we talk about wrath and we talk about judgment and we talk about dying, it's not a morbid or depressing subject. To the child of God, it should be exciting. Lift up your hands. Look up. Ecclesiastes 7, real quickly. You need to know where this verse is. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes 7. You need to know where this is and you need to consider it always. Look at it. Ecclesiastes 7, verse 1. It says, a good name is better than precious ointment. All right? Song of Solomon, chapter one, verse three says, the savor of thy good ointments and thy name is as ointment poured forth. Therefore do your virgins love you. They run to you. His name, to bear his name.

Brothers and sisters, the Montgomerys, the name's gonna perish. The Davises, the name is gonna perish. Mahan, never be brought up again. Sheasley, Pendry. We're all gonna bear one name. Sons of God. Christians. Oh, I'm gonna be Paul, and you're gonna be Kelly, and you're gonna be Helen, and you're gonna be Stephen, and we're gonna be who we were, and we'll know each other. We'll know Moses, won't we? John and Peter and James did. Well, there's Moses. There's Elijah. How do you know him? We'll know as we've been known. But our last name, our surnames, we're not going to be sons of Adam. Sons of God. That's wonderful. Look at the next line.

Ecclesiastes 7.1. A good name better than precious ointment, and the day of death better than the day of birth. Did you read that? We need to read that over and over again. Nowhere. And our Lord said, our Lord Jesus Christ, he said this, he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Didn't he? Is that exaggeration? The Lord doesn't judge you. He can't lie.

He said, he that liveth, that is, is alive, born again, born of God, and believeth in me shall never die. You believe this? He said that to Martha. Mary, do you believe this? Oh yeah, Lord. I believe he'll live in the resurrection. He said, I am the resurrection. He'll never die. When he went to Lazarus, he purposely waited for Lazarus to die. He took his life. And he waited to perform that wonderful resurrection. But he said to his disciples, our friend Lazarus sleepeth. I go to wake him up. And that's what our death's gonna be. Sleep. Sleep. What's not to look forward to that? Read on.

Says, the days of our year are threescore years and 10, if by reason of strength, God-given strength, they'd be fourscore, 80. Yet strength, that is early on, you're strong, but it's all for labor. That's what he told Adam, didn't it? The sweat of your brow, women and childbirth, greatly multiply your sorrow, he said, labor. Labor in the field, labor in childbirth, labor, labor, labor, for what? Our Lord said, why do you labor for that which is not bread? Didn't it? And in sorrow, what do we get for all that we labor? What do we get for it? Sorrow. Why? Because we lose everything we labor for. Now what's wisdom? Was it wise to labor for things that That's all Ecclesiastes is.

Three score years and ten, seventy years. The last time I preached of this, I had a thousand and twenty-five days left. They're gone. I remember distinctly telling you, at sixty-seven, I had a thousand and twenty-five days left. If I can live it up, gone. Now what? I'm on borrowed time. Did you hear the message by Brother Edmondson? Redeeming the time? Right here is redeeming the time.

It's the best time you can spend on this earth right here. Don't let anybody or anything keep you from this right here. This is wisdom. And this is comfort. There is no comfort anywhere else, especially in this trouble filled day. Right? All right. Because you're not going to hear any of this on the news. Soon cut off, we fly away. Where to?

Job asked that question. Man, shall man live again? There's hope of a tree if you water it, cut it down, water it, and it'll bud. But what about man? Job said, oh, if I had the wings of a dove, I'd fly away and be at rest. We do. And Revelation 12 talks about the woman in the wilderness given two wings like an eagle. She may fly away.

Do we not, when we come in here, hear this blessed gospel, it gives us peace and comfort. Do we not rise above these troubles? Do we not feel like we have some freedom from this fear? Who knoweth, verse 11, the power of his anger? even according to thy fear. See, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So as I rest, so teach us. And he said, Psalm 36, come, I'll teach you the fear of the Lord. Didn't he say that? Come, my children, I'll teach you the fear of the Lord. Psalm 34. Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

What is wisdom? Do you wanna turn to Proverbs 8? If you don't know where this is, you need to know. What is wisdom? Proverbs 8, wisdom is a person. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, didn't he? And he said, we speak wisdom, not as man speak, but wisdom from above, because that's where Christ came from. Proverbs 8, this is wonderful. Proverbs 8, look at verse 1.

Doth not wisdom cry and understanding put forth her voice? And that's Christ who speaks in the context of His church where the Gospels pray. She standeth in the top of high places, Mount Zion, by the way in the places of the paths, she crieth at the gates. at the entry of the city, to coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call my voices to the sons of man.

O ye simple, understand wisdom. Ye fools, be of an understanding heart. Here I will speak excellent things. Opening of my lips shall be right things. Cannot lie. Right thing. My mouth shall speak truth. Wickedness is an abomination to my lip. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness. Just, holy, right, true. Nothing forward or perverse, hidden. They're all plain to him that understand it and right to them that find knowledge. Look at verse 11. Wisdom's better than rubies. Christ is better than rubies. All things that may be desired are not to be compared to it or him. Verse 17.

I love them that love me. Those that seek me early shall find me, riches and honor with me, durable riches and righteousness. Verse 34, blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gate, waiting at the post of my door. Whoso findeth me findeth life and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. All that hate me love death. Christ is wisdom. Teach us to number our day and apply our hearts unto it. Our hearts. Set your affection on things above. Verse 13.

Return, O Lord, how long? David, Psalm 13, says this several times. How long, O Lord, how long? How long is this gonna go on? When are you coming back for us? That's what Moses is praying, and those that know him, they do too. Come quickly, Lord. Return, O Lord. Let it repent thee concerning thy servants. That is, when our Lord destroyed the world by flood, he said, it repented me, thy made man. In language that we understand. But God has turned his wrath from his people. and poured it out on his son, didn't he? His servants are those who serve his cause, like David. Is there not a cause? Christ and him crucified, the kingdom of God.

Verse 14, satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. It's a good thing that a young man bear the yoke in his youth, isn't it? What a blessing it is if the Lord revealed himself to you in your early age. Before the world really got a hold of you. What a blessing that is.

We ask the Lord to reveal himself to our young people so that that won't be the case, so they won't go out there and get such a taste of this world. Because it's hard to get rid of. Satisfy us early, we may rejoice in the Lord in all our day and be glad all our days. Look at verse 15. Make us glad according to the days thou hast afflicted us. Who afflicts us?

Who sends affliction? The Lord does. All trials, all troubles, all affliction are from the hands of the Lord and they're good. They're mercy. Make us glad, make us see that whom the Lord loves He chastens, and whom the Lord loves He afflicts, and sends troubles and tribulation.

All of His people go through troubles and tribulation, because if we didn't see our sins and our iniquities, If he didn't bring us to repentant, fear of the Lord, bring us to repentant, to see Christ hanging on the cross, dying for our sins and our iniquity, if we didn't know something of sin and iniquity and the source of our troubles, if he didn't send these troubles, we wouldn't ever think about God, ever. And even people that don't know God, the only time they ever think about Him is when they get in trouble, isn't it? Well, God's people are not that way. But unless he had convicted us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, we'd want to stay here forever and we wouldn't give God one thought. We wouldn't care if Jesus Christ had come or not. Isn't that right? That's where we were until he convicted us and showed us sin's your trouble.

And you're going to be in it and with it all your days on earth. And I'm going to deliver you from it. Make us glad. Make us glad. It's all good. David said, it's good that I've been afflicted that I might learn thy statute. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. So make us glad. The years we've seen evil, that is that we think is evil. The next Psalm says, no evil shall follow you. Look at verse 16. Let thy work appear unto thy servants. and thy glory upon their children. What is God's work? Creation's glorious work. But his greatest work is his work of redemption. The work of Christ on the cross.

Look across the page at Psalm 92, verse four. Thou, Lord, has made me glad through thy work. I will triumph in the works of thy hand. That is those hands that were nailed to that tree. That's his great word. Let thy glory appear unto their children. Moses said, show me thy glory. Moses said, okay. God said, okay, I'm going to make all my goodness best for you. I'm going to be merciful to him that way. I'm going to be gracious.

There's a place by me. You're going to stand on the rock. I'm going to put you in the cleft of the rock. You know what that is. You're so glad. That's Christ crucified. Christ, the solid rock I stand in Christ, the cleft of the rock. Rock of ages, cleft for me. How many people really know what that song means?

All of God's people. That's His glory, that's His work. Oh, let that appear to our children. Verse 17, let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. There's nothing beautiful about us. We're all together ugly. But our Lord Jesus Christ is all together lovely. Our beauty comes from His comeliness to us, His righteousness upon us. I want to be clothed in His righteousness, don't you?

Not my filthy rag. Establish thou the work of our hands upon us. What is our work? What are you doing right now? Worshiping the Lord. What am I doing? Just declaring the Lord. Declaring his word. That's the work. That's the cause that we're about. Establish our work. Yea, the work of our hands. Establish thou yet. Now he that dwelleth. I'm not gonna be much longer, I promise. But this is time well spent.

He that dwelleth in a secret place, the secret to most, Christ is the secret place. The Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, David or Moses, whoever wrote Psalm 91, He's my refuge and my fortune. How about you? Who do you seek refuge in? Who is your hiding place? In Him will I trust. That's on our money, isn't it? How hypocritical is that? They trust in riches, don't they? We really do, in God we trust, we really do.

Verse three, surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and the noisome pestilence. All the trouble you hear around and the great troublemaker, God of this world, surely he shall deliver thee. That's good news. He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust. You know how many times it says that?

Cover you with His feathers under His wings. Why does the Lord use wings as a type, an emblem of Himself? Eagle, mount up on wigs of eagles. As an eagle, that's Psalm, Deuteronomy 32, fluttereth over a young, you know, her nest. Why does He use an eagle? Because when you see an eagle flying through the air, he's so above this place.

He's just floating around. He sees everything. There's no predators. Nobody can touch him. And all these poor earthlings, groveling with all these predators and all that, he's just sore right there. Wouldn't you like to do that? Our Lord said, be of good cheer. I've overcome this world. I see all, I know all. I'm above this world. I know you're groveling, but you're under my wing. You're under his protection. And until we get our wings, we need to know that. We need to believe that. And someday we're going to mount up on wings, like a little eagle, you know, in the nest. I've told you this story before and maybe some of you haven't heard it and I never get tired of telling it. We had a little farm and had some chickens. Charles Hudson gave us our first chicken. And the best chicken we had was the oldest and the ugliest. She was ugliest. There was no beauty about her that you would desire, but boy, was she a layer. Every day, didn't she mean, every single day of the year.

Some of them pretty, pretty hens, you know. I said, you better start laying her. You're in the frying pan. But not her. She was fruitful, and boy, was she a good mother. We let her hatch some babies, and she had little bitties. Big storm rose. And we had a little hen house. Me and you had curtains on the window. Anyway, I went out looking for them. They were all in the hen house except that mama and her babies. I went looking for them. And she's out there under my tractor. There she was. I said, honey, there you are. Come here. And I picked her up.

I said, where are your babies? Where are your babies? Where are your babies? And all of a sudden, They fell out from under her wings. She had them all up under her wings. Oh, there they are. And I scooped her and them both up and put them in the house. Under his wings.

That's what Boaz said to Ruth. He said, the Lord's going to reward you with His salvation, because under whose wings you've come to trust. You left your home, your family. You said to Naomi, your God is my God, your people are my God, and where you die, I'll die. That's where I want to be forever, and the Lord's going to reward that. Under whose wings you've come to trust. Trust Him. He'd been under his wings all along.

Verse 11, he says, he'll give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy way. And those verses before that says, you need not be afraid of any of these things. A thousand fall at thy side and 10,000 at thy right hand. Hello, if you've lived 70 years, you know how many thousands have fallen at your right hand and your left hand?

Think about flying down the highway in a big piece of steel and you're three feet from another car. All those years. Minnie and I have traveled over half a million miles together. It's amazing isn't it? Who does that? You see that? A thousand have fallen at your right hand. Ten thousand at your right hand.

And it won't come to you. God's people are immortal until He says it's time. And then nothing is going to stop it. And you don't want it to. Job 14. Our days are determined. The number of our months with the Lord. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad you don't know when your time is? Aren't you glad?

Just leave it up to the Lord. He does all things well. My mother sure would like to know. She thinks it's gonna go on forever. No, it's not. He says, verse nine, you've made the Lord my refuge, your most high, your habitation. No evil shall befall you. All things work together for good, not evil. He gives his angel charge over thee. They'll bear thee up in their hands. Oh, I could tell you story after story of angels sent to do God's work for his people and protect them.

Like in 2 Kings 5, remember that young man, that servant of Elijah, went outside and all his enemies, the hills were full of enemies. Oh no, terrorists everywhere. And Elijah said, Elijah said, Lord, open his eyes. And he opened and he saw they that were for them were more than those that were against them.

So it is with them. He goes on to talk about verse 13, and he won't even let you stump your toe unless it's necessary. He goes on to talk about the lion, the adder, treading upon it, the young lion, the dragon, who's that? That's Satan and his devils. They're everywhere. That's what Martin Luther wrote.

Though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God has willed his truth to triumph through us. His truth is our shield and buckler in it for the fiery darts of the wicked of unbelief and fear. And he'll bruise Satan under our feet shortly, people. No more adversary. No more sin.

Because, verse 14, he has set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. Didn't Paul say in Colossians 3, verse 2, set your affection on things above. If by the grace of God, he allows you to do that, causes you to do that, God's gonna set you on high. He's gonna lift you up. That's what Hannah prayed, didn't you? He's gonna, listen to this. I wanted us to turn to this, but I'll turn for you.

Said the Lord bringeth low and lifteth up. He bringeth to the grave, but he bringeth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, lifted up the beggar from the dunghill, a sit among princes. Keeps getting higher and higher and higher. Make them inherit the throne of glory. That's a woman who was so full of sorrow, now she's just full of so gladness. Verse 15. He shall call upon me, those that trust in the Lord, and call upon him in the name of their Lord, I will answer him.

I will be with him in trouble. All trouble. He said, when you pass through the fire, I'll be with you. When you go through the waters, I'll be with you. though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Don't fear evil. Why? Because thou art with me. I will deliver him and honor him with long life will I satisfy. How long? Eternal life. That's better than this short life, isn't it? And show him, what's it all about? What's this all about? His salvation. I'll show him my salvation.

All Israel, when they crossed over that Red Sea, and they saw the sea close in on the Egyptians, and they saw them all dead on the seashore, their enemies, their adversary couldn't touch them, they were all dead. It says, all Israel saw that great work of the Lord. They all, without exception, said, the Lord did this. We're safe, clean over, because the Lord did this, because of that blood on that doorpost, and because the Lord delivered us with his mighty hand, and sent his angel before us. Even so, come quickly. Can you say that? Oh, may the Lord teach us this lesson. Stand with me.