Times Up! (Psalm 90)

Summer in the Psalms

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

Aug 1, 2021

Times Up! (Ps 90)

Let’s turn to Psalm 90. This past week Janice and I went to a reunion of our Bible school classmates. It’s been nearly 40 years since we saw them last and yet somehow there was a very real sense of friendship and connection even after all these years. It was a small Bible school and I think allowed for a uniquely deep connection.

So full disclosure, I am returning to a Psalm that I preached on 3 years ago but the beautiful thing about scripture is we can never exhaust all that it has to say to us and this message will be a bit different than that message three years ago. Let’s read the entire psalm, pray and then we’ll jump in.

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. ² Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. ³ You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” ⁴ For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.⁵ You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: ⁶ in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.

⁷ For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. ⁸ You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. ⁹ For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. ¹⁰ The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.

¹¹ Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?

¹² So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. ¹³ Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants! ¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.¹⁶ Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.¹⁷ Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! Ps. 90:1-17

Time. That’s the theme of Psalm 90. From first to last every verse refers to time. The signature verse many of us remember is verse 12: teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. To live wisely we need to understand our lives in the light of time. Time is the atmosphere we live in.

We can’t turn the hands of time back, we can’t speed the hands of time up. We all have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to get done what we need to get done and to live our life.

Psalm 90 is the only psalm written by Moses and Moses’ life timeline is an interesting one. He spent 40 years as the adopted son of Pharaoh. Then he spent 40 years in the wilderness. And he spent the last 40 years of his life leading Israel in the wilderness. When he died, he died strong and vigorous. He didn’t get old or frail or sickly, he just died. The Lord said, your time is up Moses - and I will bury you myself so no one knows where your body is.

I find this psalm to be a very hopeful psalm.

1. God’s timelessness is contrasted with our brief life span

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. ² Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. ³ You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” ⁴ For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.⁵ You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: ⁶ in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. Vv. 1-6

Moses begins with a massively hopeful declaration: Lord you have been our dwelling place- our home - from generation to generation. People try to make this world their home but everything about this world is temporary. The Lord is an eternal home to all who will make Him such.

He then goes on to contrast God’s timelessness to the brief time span of our lives.

If you had a mayfly land on the chair next to you, there would be an incredible contrast between your life span and his/hers. Some mayflies have a life span of just two hours. N hour long service takes up a small part of your day, it takes up half of their lives.

Another thing you’d notice if you looked real close is that God didn’t give the mayfly a mouth. He’ll be dead before he’s hungry.

Time means something different to a mayfly than it does to us, how much more does time means something different to God than us. His existence spans forever in both directions: past and future. A thousand years is a day to the Lord. A thousand years is 13 lifetimes to us. We all have a day when the Lord says to us, “return”. God formed Adam from the dust and the day comes for all of u when God says, time’s up. Return to the dust.

At our Bible school reunion there was a list of those who are no longer with us. I know their with Jesus but I still found it sobering to read through it. One of those names is Brad Kaufmann. Brad was a couple years younger than me and he and I hung out a lot in school. He passed away from COVID in 2021, leaving behind a wife and two children. Brad not being at the reunion was a stark reminder of our brief time span on this earth. In contrast to God we are mayflies, we live a few hours. Like grass we spring up in the morning and wither by evening.

Recognizing that isn’t fatalistic, it’s just being real. God is everlasting, we are fleeting.

2. We live under the weight of God’s curse on the earth because of sin

⁷ For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. ⁸ You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. ⁹ For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. ¹⁰ The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Vv. 7-10

When I read these verses it makes me think of God’s curse over Adam, that the earth would produce thorns and thistles and he would have to work by the sweat of his brow to the day he dies. This isn’t just about gardens and farming - we live under a weight that is God’s curse over sin. The earth is still beautiful, sometimes breathtakingly so, but there is a drag on life. It’s like running with a big weight attached to our back, and that weight gets heavier and heavier until we end our years with a sigh.

All our days pass away under your wrath. That sense of slogging through life, that weariness and sadness we all sometimes feel, that hollowness, that “nothing ever quite satisfies” feeling isn’t the result of God’s creation, it’s the result of sin entering the world. God has given us a hope that tethers us beyond the veil, but that hope doesn’t remove all the weight of our personal sins or the heaviness of God’s curse over the world.

There is so much beauty, but God isn’t going to renovate the world, He’s going to destroy it and start over creating a new heaven and earth. The world is groaning for that day and so are we. To make this world all we live for is an empty pursuit. As Randy Alcorn writes, when we store our treasures in this world, we are always heading away from our treasures. When we store our treasures in heaven we are always heading towards our treasures.

Jesus said “you will always have the poor with you.” We will always have injustice, oppression, corruption, lying, betrayal, fighting and war, sickness and death, anger and hatred, suffering and sorrow. It’s deeply embedded in this fallen planet and we all feel it weighing on us. And then we’re gone and we fly away with a sigh. Time’s up.

3. Those who make Christ their home are blessed with God’s steadfast love, glad days, and productive lives

¹¹ Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?

¹² So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. ¹³ Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants! ¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.¹⁶ Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.¹⁷ Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! Vv. 11-17

All is not hopeless. These last verses turn us in a different direction, help us to number our days and interpret our lives in light of the steadfast love of God. What does it mean to consider the power of God’s anger (for sin) and His wrath according to the fear of you? In a word, it means making God our dwelling place, it means making Christ our home. Jesus bore the wrath of God so that those who trust in him would never have to. I’m so glad God isn’t going to give me what I deserve - He’s going to give me grace because Jesus is my home. If Jesus is your Savior, then you’re in him and he’s your home and the anger of God for our sin will never touch us on judgment day.

Teach me O Lord to number my days. Satisfy me with your steadfast love. Help me live with gladness and make the work of my hands mean something!

Numbering our days means valuing every day as if it were our last. When I shared this message on August 1, 2021, our dear brother Mike Reade was in the hospital having had a serious heart attack he wasn’t supposed to survive. God was kind and healed him and we so thank God He did! Our days are numbered and none of us know the day when God says “times up!”

We who trust in Christ know that because of the cross and resurrection that day won’t mean the end, it will mean the beginning of an eternity with the Lord. And the weight of this groaning world and these groaning tents we live in will be replaced with a new body and sinless spirit and what a day that will be!

But until that day, we are to live this life dependent on our gracious and loving God. Moses says teach us to number our days - and make every day count! As we long for the Lord to make everything right again, let’s wake up every morning and be satisfied with the steadfast love of God!

His love makes the weariness and sighing lighter and can fill us with gladness and joy. When we live under His steadfast love every area of life can become so precious. Don’t take today for granted - make it count! Love more and worry less! Serve others more and indulge yourself less! Be in the moment as much as you can. Hug your loved ones, treasure the laughter, make those memories, celebrate every birthday, and let it remind us that our days are numbered. For the believer that’s not a sad thought it just means make every day on this old world count because we never know when God will say, “time’s up!”

I have to admit I’ve been enjoying some country music a bit more. I find they tell stories and often impart life lessons that are pretty wise. There’s a song by Cody Johnson that says what Moses says in a little different way.

[Verse 1]
You can tell your old man you'll do some large-mouth fishin' another time
You just got too much on your plate to bait and cast a line
You can always put a rain check in his hand - 'Til you can't

[Verse 2]
You can keep puttin' off forever with that girl who's heart you hold
Swearin' that you'll ask someday further down the road
You can always put a diamond on her hand - 'Til you can't

[Bridge]
So take that phone call from your mama - Just talk away
'Cause you'll never know how bad you wanna 'Til you can't some day
Don't wait on tomorrow 'cause tomorrow may not show Say your sorry's, I love you's
'Cause, man, you never know

[Chorus]
If you got a chance take it Take it while you got a chance
If you got a dream chase it 'Cause a dream won't chase you back
If you're gonna love somebody Hold 'em as long and as strong and as close as you can
'Til you can't

Till you can’t. Teach us to number our days Lord that we may gain a heart of wisdom, establish the work of our hands. Make our lives count as we make each day count! Knowing one day You will say, “time’s up!”