A Sober Song of Moses

(Psalm 90)

Introduction

Psalm 90 is a song about the transience of life and the desire to make it count. It has been read over the mortal dust at many a funeral for centuries.

It has been described as “perhaps the most sublime¹ of human compositions, the deepest in feeling, the loftiest in theological conception, the most magnificent in it imagery.”²

This psalm is urgently needed in a culture swimming in prideful confidence in human flesh and an obsession for temporal pleasures. The consideration of life as a vapor is a great classroom (Eccl. 7:1-4).

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A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.

The superscription attributes this psalm to Moses, and there is no need to doubt it. It is the only psalm written by Moses³, and the oldest song in the Psalter.

Outline

I. The Eternality of God and Brevity of Man (vv. 1-6)

1. Eternal God

B. Ephemeral Man

II. Man Under Wrath and Futility (vv. 7-11)

III. Plea For Deliverance (vv. 12-17)

1. Wisdom of Carpe Diem (v. 12)

2. Satisfaction of His Covenant Love (vv. 13-16)

3. Meaningful Labor (v. 17)

Exposition

I. The Eternality of God and Brevity of Man (vv. 1-6)

The psalmist compares the eternality of God with the transitoriness of man.

1. Eternal God

¹Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.

The psalm begins with an affirmation that God is “Lord” (Adonai), the Creator and Ruler of the universe. He also is, and always has been, the dwelling-place of His people. “Dwelling-place is “an oasis of refreshment and encampment.”⁴

This is very similar to the last image of God that Moses left with his people: “There is none like the God of Jeshurun⁵, Who rides the heavens to your help, and through the skies in His majesty. The eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Deut. 33:26-27)

 ²Before the mountains were born
Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

Before You created the earth or its land, even from eternity past and to eternity future, You are God.

A.Ephemeral Man

³You turn man back into dust
And say, "Return, O children of men."

Man, by contrast, is merely a creature of dust. In a clear allusion to Genesis 3:19, God commands man to return to dust. The term for “man” in verse 3, enosh, means man as a frail being. God is eternal, but man is mortal and frail.

⁴For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it passes by,
Or as a watch in the night.

⁵You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep;
In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.

⁶In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew;
Toward evening it fades and withers away.

Man is not only mortal, but extremely short-lived as well. For God, a thousand years are like a day already passed, or like a four-hour watch in the night. In contrast to divine timelessness, human life is like the new grass, which flourishes in the morning but is withered by evening. All men are eventually swept away by the flood of death.

Casting Crowns sing a song that captures this truth, but couples it with the magnificent wonder of God’s care for a mere transitory creature:

I am a flower quickly fading,

Here today and gone tomorrow,

A wave tossed in the ocean (ocean),

A vapor in the wind,

Still You hear me when I'm calling,

Lord, You catch me when I'm falling,

And You've told me who I am.. I am Yours.

II. Man Under Wrath and Futility (vv. 7-11)

⁷For we have been consumed by Your anger
And by Your wrath we have been dismayed.

The psalmist moves from the subject matter of God’s eternality to His wrath. The change, however, is not arbitrary. The word “For” introduces an explanatory clause. Thus, the explanation or reason man is short-lived is because his sin has provoked the wrath of God. “Man’s life is ‘short and sour’ because we are sinners living under the righteous judgment of God.”⁶

⁸You have placed our iniquities before You,
Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.

 ⁹For all our days have declined in Your fury;
We have finished our years like a sigh.

Our sins are before Him. What we secretly do in darkness is exposed before the light of His glory. As a result, our days are tinged with things that are difficult, hence the “sigh” (or “with a moan,” NIV). This side of glory, life has a bittersweet element to it. That is life under the curse.

“Finished our years like a sigh” is similar to a line from T. S. Eliot’s poem, “The Hollow Men”:

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

Eliot’s eschatology (doctrine of end times) is wrong, because the world “will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat” (2 Peter 3:10). But Moses’ anthropology is right, as our days end with the sigh of difficulty.

¹⁰As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,
Or if due to strength, eighty years,
Yet their pride is but trouble and sorrow;
For soon it is gone and we fly away.

¹¹Who understands the power of Your anger
And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?

Under the wrath of God, our days are short and sour. Nobody really understands the power of God’s wrath.

III. Prayer For Deliverance (vv. 12-17)

Moses prays that the Lord would temper the difficulty of life in a fallen world. He has three specific requests.

1. The Wisdom of Carpe Diem (v. 12)

¹²So teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

Moses prays for God to help him value his days, because wisdom, or skillful living, requires it. Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord (v. 11; cf. Prov. 9:10). Wisdom is also manifested by an appreciation of the brevity of life and the greatness of God, provoking one to value our days and order each one so as to please Him.

It was the first-century B.C. Roman poet and philosopher Horace who wrote the Latin phrase Carpe Diem.⁷ Carpe Diem meant “seize the day” or “enjoy the moment.” The point was to make the most of the time you have. Moses wants to value each day, and order it in such a way that it shows a skillful heart.

• Purpose

• Passion

• Power

2. Satisfaction of His Covenant Love (vv. 13-15)

¹³Do return, O LORD; how long will it be?
And be sorry for Your servants.

¹⁴O satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love,
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

¹⁵Make us glad as many days as You have afflicted us,
And the years we have seen evil.

He prays that the Lord will turn from, or relent of, His wrath and be compassionate toward His people.

He asks the Lord satisfy them with His loyal love, which would compel them to sing and be glad. Moses desires that he and his people would be glad and satisfied in the experience of God’s covenant love.

To pray for satisfaction and gladness in the experience of God’s unfailing love is the most fundamental of all prayers.

“In a fascinating little phrase, John Piper unites the two most powerful forces in the universe, namely, God’s passion to be glorified and your passion to be satisfied: ‘God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.’

The glorious news is that, contrary to what the church has been told for centuries, these are not mutually exclusive passions. The glory of God and the gladness of your heart go together like love and marriage, like a horse and carriage!

If that is the case, then my principal motivation in life must be to increase my pleasure in God. In fact, my prayer every day is ‘Oh God, mobilize all your power on my behalf to maximize my pleasure and delight in You.’ Don’t misunderstand what I am suggesting. I’m not saying that pleasure is put above God, nor that pleasure is God. I’m saying that our pleasure must be in God. The pleasure or satisfaction we seek is God Himself. God is not a tool for finding pleasure. God is not the shovel, so to speak, with which we dig for buried jewels. God is Himself that treasure. The Christian’s pursuit of happiness is consummated when we find in God our all in all. He and He alone is our exceeding great reward. He is not a means to a higher end. He is the end.

So let me say it again: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Therefore, it is incumbent on us to do everything we can to increase, expand, and intensify our pleasure and happiness in God.”⁸

C. Generational Blessing (v. 16)

¹⁶Let Your deeds be shown to Your servants
And Your splendour to their children.

Meaning and satisfaction in our temporal, earthly existence will come from a heritage for our children. Someone has said, “Children are a statement one makes to a generation he will not see.” My life is short-lived, but my influence can go beyond its brevity, in the lives of my children. Moses prays that our children’s heritage would be the majesty and power of God.

Oh that God would visit my children with a vision of His majestic holiness, like Isaiah, and the realization of His powerful works!

D. Meaningful Labor (v. 17)

¹⁷Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;
And establish for us the work of our hands;
Yes, establish the work of our hands.

Finally, Moses prays that the Lord’s favor would give meaning to man’s work. Everyone wants to know that his/her work is not in vain. (Eccl. 2:18-24)

Where is meaning in our work?

• Utilitarian value for others

• Provisional value for my family & God’s work

• Imaging God who is a worker

Conclusion

Moses has observed God’s eternality and contrasted it with man, who is sinful and consequently lives in mortality, trouble, and sorrow. That provokes him to pray to God to enrich our lives with wisdom, gladness, generational influence, and meaningful labor.

Psalm 90 has much to say to our time and culture. Derek Kidner, a contemporary Hebrew scholar, observed, “In an age which was readier than our own to reflect on mortality and judgment, this psalm was an appointed reading (with 1 Cor. 15) at the burial of the dead; a rehearsal of the facts of death and life which, if it was harsh at such a moment, wounded to heal.”⁹

The healing of which Kidner speaks is the message of Moses’ prayer (vv. 12-17). We must pray for the wisdom to value our days, satisfaction in Him, generational blessing, and meaningful labor.

In 1719, Isaac Watts paraphrased much of Psalm 90:1-5 in the hymn, “O God, Our Help In Ages Past.”

O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home:

Under the shadow of thy throne,
thy saints have dwelt secure;
sufficient is thine arm alone,
and our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
or earth received her frame,
from everlasting thou art God,
to endless years the same.

A thousand ages in thy sight
are like an evening gone;
short as the watch that ends the night
before the rising sun.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
bears all its sons away;
they fly, forgotten, as a dream
dies at the opening day.

O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
be thou our guide while troubles last,
and our eternal home!