reason for my selecting this
particular scripture, the reason is found in verse 10. The days of our years are threescore
and ten. The Lord willing, in just eight
days, I'll have reached that point. three score and ten. And it appealed to me to try
to say something on this subject. The days of our years are three
score and ten, and if by reason of strength, of health, God's
grace, and God's will, they be four score, eighty, yet is their
strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly
away. I'm going to resist the temptation
to enlarge on particular points tonight and see if we can cover
all 17 verses. I proved that I could do that
in my Sunday school class this morning. I covered 36 verses
in about 36 minutes. And I'm going to try tonight
to speak from this entire psalm and see what Moses is saying.
This is a psalm of Moses. You see there under Psalm 90,
a prayer of Moses, the man of God. This is a psalm of Moses
who led the people of Israel out of Egypt and across the wilderness. And Spurgeon says this psalm
needs to be considered as written of those tribes in the desert
as they went across the wilderness of sin for 40 years. Forty years. And it applies to us because
we're sojourners in a wilderness of sin. And David said, yea,
we walked through a valley of the shadow of death. But in verse
1, Moses says, Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place from
generation to generation, in all generations. Thou art our
dwelling place. On this earth, we live in tents
with vessels of clay. We live in tabernacles that soon
will be folded up and put away. But actually, the Lord Jehovah
is our dwelling place. We dwell in him. Boxes have holes
and birds of the air have nests, but believers dwell in God. He's always been our dwelling
place from generation to generation. Believers dwell in God. Look across to Psalm 91. He that
dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide
under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he's
my dwelling place, he's my refuge, he's my fortress, he's my God,
in him I trust. So in all generations and every
generation, God is our dwelling place. Lord, thou hast been. Thou art now and always will
be the believer's dwelling place. In all and every generation where
our fathers dwelt hundreds of generations ago, now we dwell
in Him. Now look at verse 2. Now if our God were a creature
of time as we are, He'd be a mighty poor dwelling place, wouldn't
He? He'd be a mighty poor refuge, a mighty poor fortress. But it
says, listen, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou
hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting
to everlasting, thou art God. Our God cannot change. He's the
same. If He could change and not be
God, where would we be? But Moses said, Even from everlasting
to everlasting, thou art our God and our dwelling place. And the mountains and the earth
and the worlds are but babes born of our great eternal God. God was when nothing else was,
and all of it came from him. And the eternal existence of
God is mentioned to set forward the security of his people. God is our dwelling place. And
our God is unchangeable from everlasting to everlasting. Now watch verse 3. He says, thou
turnest man to destruction. Now this is what he's saying.
You turn man back to the dust. Back to the dust. Turn to Genesis
3. Genesis 3. See the reference
there? Genesis 3, 19, in your center reference. Genesis 3,
19. What did he say to Adam in Genesis
3, verse 19? In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it
was thou taken. For dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return. And thou turnest man back to
the dust." And you say, listen, and you say, return ye children
of men back to the dust. God created man out of the dust
by his and he goes back to the dust,
not God's Word. A Word created and a Word destroys. God resolves and man dissolves. You turn man back to the dust,
back to destruction. He goes into nothing. Nothing is left but just a handful
of dust. And you say, return to the dust
from which you came. By his word we were created and
by his word we'll go back to the dust. Listen to me. Believers do not die because
they get old. Believers do not die because
they get sick. Believers do not die Because
of a decree of faith, believers die when God says, die. That's so. Go back to Job 14. Job chapter 14, verse 5. Seeing man's days are determined. Job 14, 5. The number of his
months are with thee. Thou hast appointed his bounds,
and he cannot pass. Believers do not die because
they get old, or because of a disease that attacks them, or because
of a decree of some kind of fate. Fate would have it, somebody
said. No, by the will and the word of God. And one old hymn
writer said this. Even an angel cannot save me
from the grave, nor can 10,000 angels put me
there. You hear what he's saying? An
angel could not save me from the grave when God says go. But
until he says go, 10,000 angels couldn't put me there. least
of all some human beings. Oh, my, look at verse 4. For
a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday. A thousand
years, that's a long time to us. A thousand years, a millennium. Oh, how much is crowded into
a thousand Someone said a thousand years
could be called the limit of modern history. You don't even
go back that far in your teaching to a thousand years. And yet in God's sight, a thousand
years are but as yesterday. When I read that, I sat and thought
about, when I read that before I came to church, I sat and thought
about yesterday. trying to remember what day it
was, Saturday. It's gone. While I was living
that day, it seemed like a pretty good while, 24 hours, but it's
gone, and it doesn't seem like a puff of smoke now. I can't
even remember all that was done yesterday. And my friends, God
is so great, so infinite, so everlasting, so timeless, that
a thousand years, the whole limit of modern history is to him like
Saturday. Gone. Gone. A thousand years is so brief
compared to his eternality. Look at the next line. And as
a watch in the night, you old sailors know about that, don't
I think the soldiers did too. Didn't you stand watch? The Jewish
people had four watches in the night, from six to six, three-hour
watches. The Navy has three watches, four-hour
watches. We used to stand watch from eight
to twelve and twelve to four and four to eight. And a watch
went by so quickly. And that's what he said a thousand
years, like a watch in the night. Like when you go up to the conning
Tyre Richard and stand watch, and then you come down, it's
over. A thousand years. A thousand years just to watch
in the night. Look at verse 5. And thou carry'st
them away as with a flood. That's interesting. Us eastern
Kentuckys know something about this picture. Swept away like
a flood. It falls, the mountains, the
water falls on these mountains and swiftly runs down into the
valleys and these little creeks get up, seven or eight times
their size and everything is just swept down the river, swept
down the river as a flood of water rushes down the river bed
and carries everything with it. So does the Lord sweep away the
generations of men and women, generations, whole generations
swept away as by a flood. I read something one day, someone
said, a man's like a bubble, a bubble in the flood. Ever watch
the flood, the water as it swirls around and little bubbles pop
up. Everyone saw all these bubbles. You seen the bubbles pop up?
That's what he said, man, it's like a bubble. And all the world
is a storm. And men rise up in their generation
like bubbles, here and there and yonder, just bubbles. Some
of them instantly sink down, having no other business in the
world but to be born so that they can die. Some float around
two or three times, spring up and go down, spring up and go
down, spring up and go down. And those who remain around the
longest finally sink to the depths. And the change is not all that
great because a bubble is nothing when it comes up and nothing when it goes down. Isn't that something? Thou car'st
them away with the flood, here today, gone tomorrow, and by
most people remembered no more." And he says next, they're like
sleep. They're stuff that dreams are
made of, vague. They're soon forgotten. And another picture he has of
us, he said, in the morning they're like grass which grows up. Watch
this now, in the morning it flourisheth and groweth up. In the evening,
it cut down and withered. Go out in the morning, look on
that field, and the wind's blowing across
the field, The green grass is waving in the breeze. You can
see it just like a wave across the hay field. Go into town to
buy some supplies and come back and the farmer puts a side to
it and it's flat. In the morning, our lives in
the morning are like the green grass that flourishes and grows
up and then in the evening it's hay. Withered. Hey, what a change in such a
short time. Turn to Isaiah 40 and listen. Isaiah 40, verse 6. Isaiah 40, verse 6. The boy said, cry. He said, what
shall I cry? Cry this, all flesh is grass. and 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." Verse 7, why do men die? Why do we die? Doctors and philosophers have
disputed and debated the cause of death. They're working as
hard as they can to do away with death. Do you know that? That's
their ultimate goal. They figure if they can keep
transplanting hearts, they can keep us around. If they can keep
giving us inoculations to ward off diseases, they can keep us
around. You take away the cause of death, you take away death.
That's a fact. So we've got to find out what the cause of it
is. And Moses declares right here the cause of death. We are
consumed by thine anger. By thy wrath are we troubled.
This is, a lot of the preachers are denying this. But I'll tell
you the truth. You listen to me. The cause of
death, the cause of death is not in this material of which
I'm made. No weakness in the material.
God made this body. How wonderfully we're made. God
made this body. The cause of death is not in
the defect of the fluids of the body or the parts of the body.
The cause of death is not what I eat. Dogs eat out of the garbage
can, live 17 years. Cows eat hay and live 16 years. The cause of death is not what
I eat or what I encounter. The cause of death is S-I-N,
sin. That's the cause of death. God's
angry. That's the cause of death. That's
what he said. We are consumed by God's anger. By one man, sin entered this
world, and death. Wherefore, by one man, sin entered
this world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men,
for all men sinned. That's the problem. And I said,
if you can get rid of the cause of death, you get rid of death. And that's what my Lord did on
the cross. He got rid of the cause of it.
He put away sin. by the sacrifice of himself,
and I'm never going to die. Never, ever, ever. I'm going
to go to sleep someday, but I'm never going to die. It's not
death to die, not for a believer. He said, I'm the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth on me will
never die. Never, ever die. Never, ever die. That's the cause of, we're consumed
by God's anger. And the preachers, the modern
preachers are failing their congregations by preaching nothing but God's
love, God's love, God's love. And they're putting forth a false,
a false picture of the character of God. God's angry with the
wicked. God's angry. By thy wrath are
we troubled. Listen to verse 8. You set our
iniquities before thee. I tell you, when God sees sin,
God's got to punish it. You set our iniquities before
you and our secret sins in the light of your holiness, in the
light of your countenance. And the only way that God cannot
punish sin is for that sin to be covered with the blood. That's what that Old Testament
priest pictured when he sacrificed the lamb and burned its body
on the altar and collected its blood and brought the blood into
the Holy of Holies and dipped the hyssop and sprinkled it on
the mercy seat, covering the broken law. A propitiation, a
covering, an atonement, and God's wrath was stayed. When I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. That's the only way. Otherwise,
thou hast set our iniquities before thee, and our secret sins
in the light of thy holiness, and God must understand. He's got to. He just has to. He just has to. Christ said,
I'm come that thou might have life, and have it more abundantly. This is the record. God had given
us eternal life. This life's in his Son. He that
hath the Son of God hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. It's the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul. He said, I've given you the blood
upon the altar. It's the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us from sin. Verse 9, I looked at verse 9
and I somehow just couldn't connect it with a believer. I don't think
believers experience this. I think those guys in the wilderness
did. Those people Moses led across
that wilderness, I think verse 9 applies to them. Listen, all
our days, 40 years, are passed away in thy wrath. When Israel,
listen to this and see if it helps, when Israel wandered in
the wilderness, they passed that 40 years under God's wrath. You know, they came to the promised
land they wouldn't enter. They turned back. And God said,
because you didn't believe, every one of you, every one of you,
except Caleb and Joshua, Every one of you that left Egypt over
20 years of age will die in the wilderness. And they passed that
40 years under God's wrath. And everywhere they stopped to
camp became a graveyard. Everywhere they camped for any
length of time, they marked their march through the wilderness
by the tombs they left behind. When they started out, he said,
your shoes won't give out, your clothes won't wear out, and I'll
feed you from heaven. And that bunch came to the promised
land and said, we don't believe God. He said, all right, I'll
bury you in the wilderness. That's what he did. Their whole
march across that wilderness was marked by tombs. We passed
all our days under God's wrath. But believers don't pass their
days under God's wrath, do we? The Lord is my shepherd. I'm
a sheep. I pass my days under His rod,
but His rod and staff comfort me. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in pairs of righteousness
for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. Thou art with
me. Thou rod and thou staff comfort me. Thou preparest a table before
me even in the presence of my enemies in this desert. Thou
knowest my head withal and my cup runs over. And surely, goodness
and mercy, not wrath and judgment, shall follow me all the days
of my life." So Bob, that's not us, is it? Our days aren't passed
away in his wrath. Our days are passed away in his
love. But old Israel, something else
is said about them. We spend our years as a tale
that's told. A tale that's told. A tale that's
told, that's a gossip's tale. Depends on who you hear and as
to what you hear. All depends on who tells it. Add a little this, a little of
that, a little imagination, a little of the other, and our years is
a tale that's told. But the believer's life is not
a gossip's tale of lies, it's a gospel story of truth and love.
And our lives are the story of love, His love for us. The story
of goodness, His goodness. The story of divine providence,
all things work together for good to them that love Him, who
are called according to His purpose. The story of His grace, and it's
the story that will never end. It's just started. Somebody said one time, won't
you write the story of your life? It ain't over yet. I've got a whole lot more. I've
got thousands of years yet. It will never end. So this verse,
yeah, I see Israel here, rebellious Israel, sinful Israel. Our days
are passed under God's wrath. Passed away in wrath. And we
spend our years as a tale that's told. People tell about us for
generations. But the believer passes his days
in love and grace and God's good providence. Nothing can separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ. And the days of
our years, listen, are three score and ten. How many is that? Seventy. Seventy. That's about the average. And if by reason of strength,
if by good health and strength and God's providence, they're
80 or 90, yet these extra years, and some of you know it, experienced
it, land us in a region where we experience weariness and pain
and weakness and labor and sorrow. Those extra years, oh, they're
good years. They're good years, but they're
years of weakness and years of labor and years of sorrow and
years of weariness and years of pain. And finally, those years
are over too, like the 70, and the chain is snapped, and the
ego mounts up in full strength. and beauty to his eternal home
with Christ. Wish I had the wings the psalmist
said of a dove, I'd fly away. Fly away. And one of these days
we will. Fly away. Spurgeon was such a brilliant young man When he was 22 years old, he
came to a man in his church who was 70 years old, a 70-year-old
elder in his church. And this young pastor looked
at this elderly man and he said to him, Brother, there's not
a man in this church I envy like I envy you. And the old timer
said, Pastor, You envy me? Pastor, I'm 70 years old. My
life is almost over. Why would a young man like you, in the prime of life, envy me? Now listen. Spurgeon said for five reasons.
Number one, I envy you. because you're so much nearer
home than I am. In a very short time, my brother,
you're going to see the Lord. Your eyes are going to look upon
Him in His glory. You're going to stand in His
presence, delivered from all the sin and darkness and pain
and suffering of this world. I envy you. You're going to soon
be with the Lord. Secondly, I envy you because
you can not only talk about the promises of God, you've experienced
them. See us young fellows, we have
the promises of God, all the promises of God, my God shall
supply all your need, my God will never leave nor forsake
you, my God will give you grace in time of trouble. All these
promises we young people have, but to us they're still just
promises. The old believer has cashed many a check on God's
bank of promises. And they've all been good, haven't
they? We've cashed a lot of checks. We found out by experience His
grace is sufficient. Not just talk. I promise you,
it's not just talk. And thirdly, he said, I envy
you. Because you're not alarmed and swayed by all the new loud
voices that spring up, and all the claims of new revelations,
and new methods, and new prophecies, and new knowledge, and new directions,
and new methods, and new ways. For all your years you've watched
these new ways and voices spring up, spout off, and fade away. while the gospel of God's sovereign
grace in Christ Jesus just moves on unchanged. The old believer won't take up
with a novice nor follow a new voice until it's proven. And he said, I envy you. I'm
given to impulsiveness. Fourthly, I envy you because
your failures and your fobbles have left you more dependent
on Christ and less confident of your own strength and knowledge
and ability. We young people have a tendency
to speak of ourselves and of our houses for years to come,
and what we're going to do and what we're not going to do, and
what our children will do and what they won't do. And you old
believers say with David, although it be not so with my house, God's
made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure,
this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make
it not to grow. My confidence and rest is not
what I'm going to do, it's what he has done. And then fifthly, he said, I
envy you because the old tested tribe believer has entertained
no doubts about the doctrines of grace and the gospel of substitution. And you can say with Paul, if
any man preach any other gospel than that gospel which I preach,
let him be accursed. I say again, if any man preach
any other gospel than that gospel I preach, let God curse him. That's how sure we are. I've proven one thing through
the years, salvation can't be any way but by grace. That's
the fact. Amen. Three score and ten. It's
here. It's here. Now verse 11, here's an interesting
verse. Who knoweth the power of God's
anger? Who knoweth the power of God's
anger? The love of Christ is unspeakable.
Let me tell you something, the wrath of God is unspeakable too. Who can fathom the height and
depth and width and breadth of his love? For who can fathom
the height and depth and width and breadth of his wrath? No
one knows the power of God's wrath because that power has
never been seen in its full strength. Oh, we've seen Sodom burn and
Gomorrah burn and the world destroyed by flood, but nobody's ever seen
God's full anger and wrath displayed, not like it will be. You know, you'd think that Israel,
having seen the judgment of God on Egypt, would have learned
something of the power of his anger, but they didn't. And that's the reason he says
the next line, even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
The more a man fears the wrath of God, the more he sees the
wrath of God. By the fear of the Lord, men
depart from evil. But no matter how high the fear,
he still hasn't reached the full wrath. So, teach us, Lord. God help us. Teach us. We have to be taught. We don't
know it by nature. Lord, be my teacher. Don't leave
me to my own judgment, my own ways. If any man lack wisdom,
let him ask of God. And God, I'm asking, I'm asking
you, teach me, Lord, teach me. Teach us to do what? To number our days. Well, what's
their usual number? Seventy? I'm here. How many are already passed?
Seventy? How many are here? I don't know. That's uncertain. How many of
those years have been spent totally occupied with His flesh? And how many of those years have
been spent occupied with His grace? That's why I need to be
taught to number my days that I may apply my heart to wisdom. That wisdom is Christ. Christ. To seek wisdom, not riches, not
honor, not pleasure. Solomon said, I've tried all
that. I found it's all vanity. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Teach me to number my days that
I may apply my heart to Christ." Apply what? My heart to Christ. We were talking today after lunch about this business of man can
know some doctrine and not know Christ. Man can have a head full
of doctrine. But that's not what we need.
We need a heart full of Christ. Teach me to number my days, that
I may apply my heart, my heart to Christ. That's who the wisdom
is, it's Christ Jesus. And then let me give you this.
Return, O Lord. How long? Let it repent thee
concerning thy servants. Lord, revoke the sentence against
us. That's my prayer. Revoke. There's a sentence against
every son of Adam because of sin. Revoke it. Take it away. Remove it in Christ. Turn from
your fierce anger and look upon us in grace. That's my prayer. Teach me the number of my days
that I may apply my heart to wisdom. Revoke the sentence of
wrath against me. Look upon me with favor. Verse
14, Satisfy us early in our youth Oh, I'm glad I heard the gospel
when I was 24 years old. I'm so glad. Satisfy me early with your mercy
that I may rejoice and be glad all my days. Young people, listen
to me. That's what he's saying. Satisfy
me with your mercy and your love and kindness in early days that
I may spend my days Rejoicing in the Lord. Be glad. And make us glad in proportion
to the days that we've been sad. We have those sad days. Days
when He afflicted us and days when we've seen evil. Days when
we've had heartache. Days when the sun just didn't
ever seem to shine. but make us glad according to
the days wherein thou hast afflicted us in proportion to the days
we've been afflicted. Satisfy us and delight us with
good days. And Lord, verse 16, let your
work, the personal work of Christ, the satisfaction of Christ, the
substitutionary work of Christ, the death of our Lord Jesus,
His obedience, His perfect righteousness, let thy work appear to thy servants. Reveal Christ to us. Reveal him
in his incarnate deity. Sacrifice, resurrection, exalted
glory. Reveal Christ. And reveal your glory to our
children. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants, thy saving He that has begun a good work in you
will finish it. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. Reveal that work to us and show
your glory to our children. And let the beauty of the Lord
God, Lord our God, be upon us. You know that deserted infant
that he pounded in the field. Polluted in his blood and he
washed it anointed it with oil and clothed it With his garment
of righteousness and then he said this Listen, let me turn
to it read it to you and he said Over here in Ezekiel 16 he said
you were decked with gold and silver and your arraignment was
fine linen silk and broader work, and your renown went forth among
the heathen for your beauty. It was perfect through my comeliness
which I put on you, saith the Lord. It wasn't your beauty,
it was mine." And that's what he's saying, let the beauty of
the Lord, the grace of God, the righteousness of Christ be upon
us. And you read this right, he said,
establish thou the work of our hands upon us. I know his work. But you know, Paul, Paul the apostle, often wrote something like this. He said, I hope I hadn't labored in vain.
You remember? When those Galatians turned to
the law again, he said, I hope I hadn't labored in vain with
you fellas. That would be something to come to the end of 70 years
and a lot of years in the ministry and find out you labored in vain.
That's what Moses said here. Establish thou the work of our
hands. Yea, the work of our hands establish
thou. It's his work, no question about
it. It's God that worketh in you.
Paul said, I labored more abundantly than all of you, yet not I, but
Christ in me. But nevertheless, when a preacher
comes to the end of his journey, in 1 Corinthians 3, he wants
it to be gold, silver, precious stone, not wood, hay, and stuff. And that's the reason he's saying
that. Reveal your work to us and your
glory to our children, and Lord, Establish this church. Make it
last. Make it last. Isn't that right? That's what,
make it last. Make it last. All right, let's sing a song,
509. Let's sing a song, Brother Mike. This is the sands of time,
number 509.