Psalm 90:1-17

Moses was a man of great accomplishments.  He was miraculously spared as an infant and then was well educated in the home of Pharaoh.  After striking down an Egyptian who was abusing his countryman he was forced to flee and spent forty years tending sheep thinking that his life was over.  By the time he was eighty God called Him to set the children of Israel free from Egypt and God used him to confront Pharaoh with miraculous plagues until they were liberated.  God used Moses to open the Red Sea, deliver the people from countless battles and provide food, water and direction to the people.  Moses was the most prolific author of Scripture and God revealed Himself to Moses in ways that were different from any other man.  However, by far the majority of his ministry was spent leading the children of Israel on a forty year trek through the desert walking in circles while every man under the age of twenty when the people refused to enter The Promised Land, died.  Certainly it must have seemed like an endless and pointless exercise.  Certainly it was during this time in the wilderness that Moses wrote this psalm which is a record of his prayer to the Lord.

THE ETERNALITY OF GOD: God is everlasting and the glorious Creator of the entire universe.  The dwelling place of man is in Him and for all generations we will stand ever accountable to Him.  He is the all-powerful God of the universe and is in control of the history of the planet and all who dwell on the face of the earth.  A thousand years to the Lord seems like only yesterday and passes by like only one night.  The wrath of God is severe and seems even more severe to those who are so limited by the time of their lives.  It is not that God exists outside of time it is that He is eternal and His time is without limits.  His perspective of time is far different than ours because of His eternality.  We too will one day live in an eternal state with Him and will gain His perspective.  As we consider the greatness of God we cannot help but simply to bow down and worship Him.

THE FRAILTY OF MAN: Man, in stark contrast to God, is frail, weak and, in this life, is very limited in his time.  Due to the curse of sin, our bodies die and we are returned to dust.  Our days are swept away by God like the passing of a dream or like grass that grows in a day and then withers that same evening.  The children of Israel were living out a period of forty years under the wrath of God for their disobedience.  Their sin left them condemned before God.  All of their years of life end up passing by like a sigh.  Man may reach seventy or eighty years, but they are years of toil and trouble that are very soon simply gone.  We must learn to make our days on earth count for the glory of God.  We must recognize our frailty and depend on the Lord to help us number our days and live them to the fullest.  We must seek our joy and satisfaction in Him and not allow our frailty to lead us into futility.  Rather, we must use our days for the work that the Lord has established for us.