5/19/2023 0 Comments Teach me to number my days![]() God can return man to dust simply by saying “Return.” The Frailty of Humanity: Over and against the Eternal and all-powerful God, Moses now describes the frailty and fragility on people. ![]() He’s all-powerful, and, in Christ, he is for us. Moses’ testimony is that it is our God created them and formed earth and he has always existed. When you think of something that has permanence, a mountain is apt representative. Our dwelling place existed before he brought forth the mountains. Or ever you had formed the earth and the world,įrom everlasting to everlasting you are God. This Psalm inspired Isaac Watts 300 years ago to write one of the great hymns of the church. So, Christians have consistently through the ages sung this Psalm sometimes at funerals and sometimes during crises. God is our refuge, our shelter, our provision, our hope. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. In the Faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11, the writer says this about the patriarchs: We’ve seen that during the 1 Peter series, when Peter addresses the Christians as elect exiles, aliens, sojourners. (Psalm 71:3)Ĭhristians have rightly identified with this nomadic existence under the care of our Heavenly Father. (Deuteronomy 33:26-27)įor you are my rock and my fortress. Who rides through the heavens to your help,Īnd underneath are the everlasting arms. You have been a dwelling place to a people that had no permanent dwelling place.Īnd Moses wants to ensure that Israel always views God that way. ![]() Moses opens this Psalm with a declaration: Lord, you have been our dwelling in all generations. The Hebrew word place is often translated Refuge. They were strangers in Egypt and now they’ve been wandering around the wilderness for 40 years. He addresses God as our dwelling place to nation that had no dwelling place. Moses knew that God is our only permanent refuge and hope and so he begins by addressing him as such. When God looks into the future, he never learns anything. Nothing about God ever changes: his power, his wisdom, his knowledge. Moses knew of the greatness or God and of how uncertain life is. The Infinite power and eternality of God. Transition: With the exception of Isaiah 40 there is no other passage in the Bible so contrasts the greatness of God with the fragility of humans. In light of human frailty our fleeting lives can only have real value and purpose if we live wisely before the everlasting God. He wants us to remember that life is a fleeting and fragile thing.Īnd here’s the key. But then his reflection has a somber tone from verses 3-12 as he considers mankind. He soars in the first two verses as he considers God. Moses is looking back over his life, in a way, and the nation of Israel for the past 40 years. It is a lament complete with a complaint and an appeal to God for mercy. The other Song of Moses appears in Deuteronomy 32 which is really a prophecy of warning as the nation prepares to go in to Promised Land.īut Psalm 90, while containing some similarities to Deuteronomy differs. One appears in Exodus 15 and was written to celebrate God’s victory of the Egyptian army at the Red Sea. And it makes Moses the oldest Psalmist as far as we know. This Psalm was written by Moses making it the oldest in the entire Book of Psalms. Most of them were written with the intent that they would be sung during their time of worship. ![]() ![]() Psalm 90 marks the beginning of Book IV in the Book of Psalms. ![]()
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