May we turn to Psalm 90.
A Prayer of Moses the man of God.
Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place
In all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.
Thou turnest man to destruction,
And sayest, Return, ye children of men.
For a thousand years in Thy sight
Are but as yesterday when it is past,
And as a watch in the night.
Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep:
In the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up;
In the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
For we are consumed in Thine anger,
And in Thy wrath are we troubled.
Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee,
Our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance.
For all our days are passed away in Thy wrath:
We bring our years to an end as a sigh.
The days of our years are threescore years and ten;
And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,
Yet is their pride but labor and sorrow;
For it is soon gone, and we fly away.
Who knoweth the power of Thine anger,
And Thy wrath according to the fear that is due unto Thee?
So teach us to number our days,
That we may get us a heart of wisdom.
Return, O Lord; how long?
And let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants.
Oh, satisfy us in the morning with Thy lovingkindness,
That we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us,
And according to the years wherein we have seen evil.
Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants,
And Thy glory upon their children.
And let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;
And establish Thou the work of our hands upon us;
Yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it.
Let us look to the Lord.
Our Father, we do praise and thank Thee that we may continue in Thy presence. We ask Thee, O Lord, that the light of Thy countenance shall shine upon us and reveal Thy mind to us. We pray that we may be drawn into Thy very thought and into Thy very heart.
We ask Thee, O Lord, that whatever the psalmist says may become a reality to every one of us. We just commit this time into Thy hands for Thy praise and glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Psalm 90 was written by Moses, the man of God. It is the oldest of the 150 psalms. We know that the collection of 150 psalms is sometimes called The Treasury of David. David, the sweet singer of Israel, composed by inspiration most of these psalms. But Psalm 90 was composed by Moses, and therefore this is considered the oldest of all the psalms.
Most likely, he composed this psalm toward the end of the forty years of wilderness journey. As a man of God, he looked back through the years, reflected upon that which had happened, and offered a prayer to God.
In a very real sense, this psalm is relevant to us today. Why? Because we too are journeying through the wilderness. The world, to us believers, is but a wilderness. We are strangers and sojourners on this earth.
As we pass through this wilderness, and especially when we are toward the end of our journey, I do believe that we are approaching the end. Because we know that this age is soon to pass, and the Lord is coming soon.
So I feel that, as we are toward the end of our journey, it is time for us to reflect. And through reflection, hopefully it may lead to repentance; and through repentance, to recovery.
At the very outset, you will find that Moses made a statement, a declaration of faith:
Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place
In all generations.
I think a better translation would be, “Lord, Thou hast been our home in all generations,” because “dwelling place” actually is “home.”
Egypt was not the home of the children of Israel, even though they sojourned there for over four hundred years. But Egypt to them was a fiery furnace. There they were severely tested.
Now the children of Israel were journeying in the wilderness. The wilderness was not their home. As a matter of fact, the wilderness was their tomb, because that first generation all died and were buried in the wilderness.
Probably we think that Canaan must be their home, their dwelling place. In a sense, it is true that God promised Canaan to the children of Israel, to give that land to them as their inheritance, that they might settle down and dwell there.
But, brothers and sisters, as we read the history of the children of Israel, we find that as long as they obeyed God and kept His covenant, they could stay in that promised land. But if they rebelled against God and did not keep His covenant, they were scattered to the four corners of the world. And that is what happened later on.
So, in a very real sense, even Canaan was not their home. Now, what was to be their home? No doubt, it was God. God has been, and is, home to His people.
Moses, as he wrote this psalm, looked back not only to his own generation, but he looked even way back to the generations preceding his—to the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he could declare by faith that God was their home in all generations. Quite a declaration of faith.
Brothers and sisters, can we make the same declaration—that God is our home?
Sometimes we are asked, “Where is your home?” Sometimes we have to fill out a form: “Where is your temporary address, and where is your permanent address?” Now, probably when we are asked to write down our permanent address, we will write down a certain number on a certain street in a spot on this globe. But is this our permanent address?
We are strangers and sojourners. We are passing by. This is not our home. Our home is God Himself.
It is true that God is our refuge. When we are in trouble, we can flee to the city of refuge. But, dear brothers and sisters, God is more than a refuge to us in time of trouble. He is our home.
It is not for us just to flee to Him occasionally when we are in trouble. It is for us to dwell in Him permanently, to abide in Him, because He is our home.
There is nothing better than home—home, sweet home. I think we all know that song; it is a very popular song. And do you know how this song was written—“Home, Sweet Home,” “There’s no place like home”? It was written by a preacher, a minister of the gospel.
Because of the preaching of the gospel, he had to travel a great deal in his life. And once, during Christmas Eve, he was in a strange city. He knew nobody. He stayed in a hotel, and on that night he walked the street all alone by himself.
He passed by a house. He looked through the window, and he saw there within the room the family gathered around the fire. They were having a wonderful time, and he was on the street looking into that window.
He was so touched. He wrote a song: “Home, Sweet Home. There is no place like home.” Why? Because home is a place of love. It is a place of understanding. It is a place of comfort. It is a place of satisfaction. That is what a home is.
My dear brothers and sisters, can we find love anywhere else other than God? Can we find understanding more than we can find in Him? Can we find our comfort and our satisfaction other than in our God Himself?
The psalmist declares with faith that God is their home. God has been, God is always, their home.
When our Lord Jesus was on earth, He had no place to lay His head. Once He said:
The foxes have holes,
And the birds of the air have nests;
But the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.
Our Lord Jesus, when He was on earth, was a wandering Man, but He was always home. Why? Because God was His home. Always wandering, and yet always home.
Brothers and sisters, is this true with all of us? In our sense, we are wanderers. We are strangers. We are sojourners. There is no permanent home for us on this earth.
But in another sense, if we are all people of faith, no matter where we are, no matter under what circumstances we may be, we are always home. We have never left.
But is it true? Do we really make our home in God? Do we really abide in Him?
In Colossians 3:3, we are told that our life is hid with Christ in God. That is to say, we make our home in God. We remain there. We stay there. We continue there.
Now, if this is true, after Moses makes such a declaration that God has been home in all generations, then he looks over the years of wanderings in the wilderness. He observes the condition of the children of Israel. And what does he find there?
He finds a contrast, a contradiction. He finds that God is the eternal God. Before the world was formed, even from eternity to eternity, God is God. Our God is the eternal God. He is the self-existing God. He has no beginning, and He has no end.
This is God. But what is man? We find that man is made of dust, and God says, “Return, children of men, to dust.” We see the eternity of God and the brevity of man’s life.
We see the almightiness of God. God created the earth and the world. And yet, on the other hand, we see the frailty of man.
Thou turnest man to destruction,
And sayest, Return, ye children of men.
It is true: God created man in His own image. He formed the body of man with the dust of the earth. And probably we will say, if man is made of dust, then he should return to dust.
Oftentimes, when we attend funerals, the last thing we do is to announce, “Dust returns to dust.” But does God create man that he may return to dust?
It is true that God made man out of dust. Man is a mortal man. But it is not God’s will that dust should return to dust. Why? Because He wants to put His eternal life in man and to make man immortal.
It is the will of God that we should inherit immortality.
You remember Ecclesiastes 3:11. It says that God makes everything beautiful in its time, and He has put eternity in their hearts. Some translations say “the world,” but actually, in the original, it is “eternity” in their hearts.
You know, God created everything beautiful in its time. For instance, a flower—a cactus flower. Now, in China, in our literature, we find that a certain flower is celebrated and often written about. Actually, it is a kind of cactus flower.
That kind of cactus flower blooms only once, and only for a few hours. But when it blooms, it is most beautiful. Usually, the blooming of the flower can be predicted. And when you know when the flower is going to bloom, you gather your friends, and there will be drinking and making poems.
You see the flower begin to come up, and it becomes in full bloom. In a few hours, it withers. The poets often write about this flower, saying that it just appeared and suddenly disappeared. What sadness!
But if you ask that flower—and if that flower could talk—the flower would say, “Now, do not be sorry for me, because I am made just for this time. This is what I am made for. God has made everything beautiful in its time, so I am beautiful in my time. I fulfill my mission, and that is it.”
But man is different. Why? Because God has put eternity in the heart of man. Even if you live to be one hundred years old, you will regret that you should die so early. Why? Because man was not created just for time. Man is created for eternity.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the difference between man and all creation. God has put eternity in our heart. Even though you are made of dust, mortal, yet God’s purpose with man is immortality. He wants us to receive His life and live forever with Him in glory.
Now, that is God’s will. That is God’s purpose. And yet Moses heard God saying to the children of Israel, “Return to dust. You come out of dust; now you return to dust.”
Moses witnessed this every day. Every day Moses had to see hundreds and thousands fall down in the wilderness. Every day Moses saw hundreds and thousands buried in the sand. The dust returned to dust. How tragic!
So far as God is concerned, a thousand years is just like a day. Why? Because if you compare a thousand years with eternity, that is just a day.
You remember, as Peter says, to God a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day. A thousand years is like a day. In other words, it goes so quickly in the eyes of God.
And yet a day can be a thousand years. In other words, God can do work in a day that will take others a thousand years to fulfill it.
You remember the Apostle John, at the end of his Gospel according to John, said that if he should record all the things that Christ had done while He was on earth, even the earth could not contain the books.
Now remember, our Lord Jesus walked on earth only for thirty-three and a half years, and He worked only three and a half years. He traveled in a very small place in the world. And yet, what He did during those three years and more—if everything was recorded—even this earth could not contain the books.
In other words, to Him a day is like a thousand years. But a thousand years is like a day to God. It goes so swiftly, so quickly. It is almost like nothing.
Time flies swiftly, and with the passing of time we are carried away as with a flood.
As a matter of fact, a thousand years to God is like a day—no, it is like a watch in the night. You know, it depends on customs. In some places you have four watches in the night; in other places, only three watches. When you go to sleep and suddenly find that a watch has gone, it goes so quickly, so quickly.
And we are all carried away as with a flood. I do not know if you have ever seen a flood. Once I was traveling in interior China. In the afternoon, we crossed a river to spend the night on the other side, with the idea that we would cross the river back in the morning.
But when we woke again in the morning, the whole place was flooded. The bridge was gone. We could not cross the river until we found a motorboat. We were told that when the river floods, it comes so quickly that even people walking on the bridge cannot escape.
Dear brothers and sisters, that is what happens to man. Time flies so quickly, and we are carried away like a flood. There is no escape. Before you notice it, you are gone.
It is like a sleep, so unreal. It is like grass that grows up in the morning and flourishes, but in the evening it is cut down and withers.
Brothers and sisters, this is what Moses found as he looked at the children of Israel in the wilderness. And is it not what we find today, as we look at the world today? We find the futility and brevity of man. We find that everywhere. We find that it is like a dream, so unreal.
But why? We mentioned before that it is not God’s will that dust should return to dust. But why do we find such things around us?
So, in verse 7, Moses began to explain it:
For we are consumed in Thine anger,
And in Thy wrath are we troubled.
Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee,
Our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance.
The reason why the children of Israel fell in the wilderness was because they sinned against God. They rebelled against God. Their open sins and their secret sins were in the light of the countenance of God.
In other words, God saw everything that happened in the lives of the children of Israel—not only those who were openly rebelling, but also those secret thoughts in their hearts. Their hearts were hardened, and because of their sins, God was angry.
Brothers and sisters, think: God is the just and righteous God. He is the holy God. And all the sins of God’s people rose before Him, and He saw every one of them. What pain, what hurt, it must give to the just and righteous God. No wonder He was angry.
And because He was angry with the children of Israel, they were consumed.
All our days are passed away in Thy wrath:
We bring our years to an end as a sigh.
They lived under the wrath of God, and they passed away like a passing thought, or like a tale that is told.
Moses says, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if one is strong, fourscore years.” You know, if you read the Bible and look at Genesis 5, you will find that all those fathers lived eight hundred or nine hundred years.
The one who lived longest was Methuselah. He lived 969 years old, not quite a thousand. A thousand years to God is like a day, and nobody seemed to live a whole day. Methuselah lived 969 years, and he died.
But then, when you read Genesis 11, you find that the fathers lived to about five hundred years old. Half the time already; half was cut. And then, if you read from verse 18 onward, you will find it is around two hundred years—another half.
In the days of Abraham, he lived to 175 years old, and the Bible said he lived to a good old age, a full age. Yet he was only 175 years old.
But then, when you come to the time of Moses, another half: only seventy years old, and if he is strong, eighty years old. So you find that the lifespan of man was getting shorter and shorter and shorter. Even Moses lived for 120 years, but that was unusual.
Why? Because we are under the wrath of God. Sins have increased. Pollution everywhere. So lifespan gets shorter and shorter.
But even with these seventy or eighty years, what can we boast of? Is there anything that we can boast of within seventy or eighty years?
And Moses said, “Yet their pride is labor and vanity; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”
It is almost like reading Ecclesiastes. You know, Solomon, the wisest of all men, after he had experienced everything that he could experience in this world, wrote Ecclesiastes and said, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. There is nothing new under the sun.”
What you can boast of is vexation. It is like catching the wind. It is like trying to stamp on your shadow. Everything is vanity; all is vanity. And here you find Moses saying the same thing.
Dear brothers and sisters, man’s life that is lived under the wrath of God has nothing to boast of. It is just labor and vanity. That is all. It is written upon every man.
But the saddest thing is, even though men live under the wrath of God, they do not know it.
Who knoweth the power of Thine anger,
And Thy wrath according to the fear that is due unto Thee?
Even though man’s life is so shortened, so fragile, so weak, so under the wrath of God, yet people live on this earth and do not fear God.
Some people will say, “Well, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Since life is so short, let us enjoy ourselves, and let us die.
And other people, even though the lifespan is so short, think that they will live for eternity. They try to store up things and hold things, like that rich man. He said, “I will tear down my barns and make bigger ones, and put all my produce in them. Then I will say to my soul, ‘You do not need to worry anymore.’”
And the Lord said, “You fool. Tonight I require your soul.” Dear brothers and sisters, man lives under the wrath of God, and still men do not fear God. I think that is the most tragic thing in the tragic life that he lives.
So when Moses looked at the condition of the children of Israel through the forty years of wilderness, he saw that it was just a contradiction to what it should be. Therefore, he prayed:
So teach us to number our days,
That we may get us a heart of wisdom.
Teach us to number our days. What does it mean? It does not mean that you number your days: well, you are thirty years old now, and you calculate that you have forty years yet to live. Or if you are already sixty-five, you say, “Well, I do not have much time yet.”
No, that is not the way to number your days. Even if you are a child, you do not know what will happen tomorrow. To number our days simply means to see that every day is precious.
As long as God gives us life on earth, we should use that day for our eternal good.
Even though time goes swiftly, even though the days are evil, yet we should seize our opportunity and redeem our time, that we may use our days as a preparation for eternity.
It is said of George Whitefield, that great evangelist, that whenever he preached, he preached as if eternity were before him.
Brothers and sisters, do we have eternity before us? Or do we just live day by day and let it slip by?
It is the will of God that, even though the days are evil, these days are opportunities. These days are given to us by God that we may seize our opportunity and prepare ourselves for eternity.
As a matter of fact, eternity is prepared by the time we have today. We need to number our days. We do not have many days. Therefore, let us press on. Let us be diligent. Let us not fall back. Let us not think that there is yet time.
Brothers and sisters, redeem the time, that we may have a wise heart. How do we number our days? The way to number our days is to see that we stay at home in God.
Any day that is spent outside of God is a wasted day. But if we stay in God, if we make our home in God, if we abide in Christ, dear brothers and sisters, we will find that our days are well spent.
Because we are living in eternity. We are at home with God today. One day when we go home, we are not strangers, because we have never left home.
Dear brothers and sisters, the most important thing is this: do you make your home in God?
So, from verse 13 to verse 17, it is Moses’ prayer:
Return, O Lord; how long?
And let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants.
Oh, satisfy us in the morning with Thy lovingkindness,
That we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
You will notice that Moses suddenly changed the name of God. In the beginning of the psalm, he said, “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.” He addressed God as Lord. He is the Lord of all. He is the Creator, the Owner of everything.
But here you find that he addresses God by His covenant name. And we know that this is a memorial name of God. God has covenanted with His people.
When Moses went up to the mountain to intercede for the children of Israel, God proclaimed His name and said that the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and quick to forgive.
Dear brothers and sisters, here you find Moses pleading with God, not on the basis of God as their Creator, because they had forfeited their privilege through sin. But he pleaded with God on the basis of the covenant of God, of the covenant mercy of God.
And Moses said, “Return, O Lord; how long?”
During the forty years in the wilderness, how many times God turned through the intercession of Moses! God wanted to wipe out that whole generation, wipe out the whole nation, and make Moses a nation. But Moses pleaded before God, asking for mercy.
And God turned time and again to the children of Israel. He returned His lovingkindness and tender mercies. But unfortunately, they were hardened in their hearts, and the result was that whole generation fell in the wilderness.
But for us today, we do thank God. Why? Because God has turned to us in Christ Jesus.
So far as our life without Christ is concerned, our days were spent under the wrath of God. But thank God, He has turned to us in the redemption of our Lord Jesus.
He has repented—not in the sense that He has anything to repent of, but in the sense that He changed His ways with us. Instead of coming to us in wrath, He now comes to us in lovingkindness.
Brothers and sisters, are we not today under the lovingkindness of God? And because we receive so much of His kindness, shall we not rejoice and be glad all our days?
Instead of seeing that our days are evil, and moaning and groaning under them, let us be glad and rejoice in them.
Why? He makes us glad according to the days in which He has afflicted us. He will restore the days that have been consumed by locusts.
Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants,
And Thy glory upon their children.
What is God’s work? God has only one work to do. You will find that “work” here is singular in number. God has only one work to do, and He has been doing that in us.
And what is it? In Romans 8, we are told that whom He foreknew, He foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son. Whom He foreknew, He called; whom He called, He justified; whom He justified, He glorified.
Dear brothers and sisters, thank God. He comes to us in lovingkindness, and He is working in us. His work is none other than to transform us and to conform us to the image of His Son.
This is how our days should be spent. Instead of wasting our days under the wrath of God, today we find that the days still with us are days in which God is working in us. He is transforming us from glory to glory.
He is conforming us to the image of His Son, that His Son may be the firstborn among many brethren.
Isn’t that wonderful? Instead of seeing that our days are so dark, so hopeless, brothers and sisters, today we who are the Lord’s find that even though around us the days are evil, and we are still living in evil days, God is doing a marvelous work in us.
It does not mean that we will not have trials and troubles and all these things. The world is under the wrath of God, and yet, in spite of all, we who live here on earth find that God is doing a marvelous work in us.
He is working His own beauty in us.
And let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us.
Oh, that the beauty of Christ may be manifested through us. This is what the Holy Spirit is doing today. This is our opportunity. This is the time in which God is preparing us for eternity.
And Moses said:
Establish Thou the work of our hands upon us;
Yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it.
What is the work of our hands? Brothers and sisters, what is your occupation? Probably you say, “I am an engineer.” Or you say, “I am a housewife.” Or you say, “I am a doctor. I am a student. I am a nurse.”
But, brothers and sisters, what is your occupation? What is the work of your hands? These are just avocations to us. Our real vocation, the work of our hands, is none other than God’s work.
God is working, and we are working together with Him. We cooperate with God in His work. We take His work as the work of our hands.
Brothers and sisters, this is what Philippians says: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Now we are working. We are working out our salvation with fear and trembling, according to the working of God in us.
This is our work. Your work is not a hospital. Your work is not even your house. Your work is not your office. It is true that we have to do all these things to earn a living.
But, dear brothers and sisters, the real work of our hands is working together with God. In this short period of time, God is working for eternity. That is wonderful.
But for lovingkindness and tender mercy, just as the psalmist says, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life”; for us to be glad and rejoice in our days; for us to know the work of God; for us to see the beauty of Christ manifested in us; and for us to work together with God—one thing is basic: you must make God your home.
All these are things that happen only if you dwell in God. If you do not live in Christ, if you do not abide in Him, then, brothers and sisters, you will not see His lovingkindness. You will not be able to rejoice.
The work of God will not be able to be done in you. You will not cooperate with Him, and the beauty of Christ will not be completed. The secret is making God your home.
My burden this morning is just this: make your home in God. God is our home. Do not leave your home. Abide in Him.
You know, oftentimes we think of how we are making God a home. Now, that is true. We are God’s home. I often say God does not have a home; He only has an office.
The heaven is the place of His throne, and the earth is His footstool. Now, that is an office. And God is making a home for Himself. He uses us to be His own; He is making us His home.
But for us to be His home, we have to be at home in God first. If we are at home in God, then God will make us His home. That is the only way.
If we do not make our home in God, we do not allow God to make us His home. I hope, brothers and sisters, you will think about it.
Shall we pray?
O heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee, because Thou art our home in all generations.
It is true that oftentimes we live outside of home, and because of that we feel our days are under Thy wrath. They are fragile. They are short. They are tragic. They are vain.
But how we praise and thank Thee that when we make our home in Thee, we find that Thy lovingkindness is always with us. We find that we may rejoice all the days of our life.
We find that Thou art working in us, and we work together with Thee. Truly, the beauty of Christ is being formed in us.
Oh, how we praise and thank Thee. Thou art making us Thy home, and the day is coming that we shall be home together forever and ever.
Lord, do impress upon us that we may number our days and acquire a wise heart. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.