Summer Psalms #5: Submitting To Sovereignty
You probably remember that the book of Psalms is a collection of 5 arranged books. The final order of the books of Psalms was possibly arranged by the great scribe Ezra after Israel returned from the exile.
The five books are
Book I: Psalms 1–41
Book II: Psalms 42–72
Book III: Psalms 73–89
Book IV: Psalms 90–106
Book V: Psalms 107–150
Each book begins with a doxology, a praise to God and each ends with a double
amen or hallelujah.
Many see a correlation between the arrangement of the Psalms and the 5 Books of the Law or Torah. Genesis through Deuteronomy.
Book I: Psalms 1–41 : Genesis (Man)
Book II: Psalms 42–72 : Exodus (Israel)
Book III: Psalms 73–89 : Leviticus (The Sanctuary)
Book IV: Psalms 90–106 : Numbers (Moses and the wilderness)
Book V: Psalms 107–150 : Deuteronomy (Law and the Land)
Our Psalm today, Psalms 90 is at the beginning of the 4th of the 5 books of Psalms. It is thought that the 90th Psalms was purposely made to be the center of the book. Ezra or other scribes may have placed it there as the heart of the book. Psalms 1 introduces the complete collection of the Psalms, while the 90th Palms brings us to the core of the Songbook of Israel.
Psalm Ninety is unique, it is the only Psalm that we know was written by Moses. This means it is likely the oldest of all the Psalms. It is entitled, “A Prayer by Moses the Man of God.” And it truly is a prayer to God. Beseeching God to teach a lesson about man’s life and time on earth.
Moses may have written it in relationship to Israel’s refusal to believe and obey God at Kadesh-barnea. The story is found in Numbers 13–14.
Numbers 13:31 - 14:5 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. 33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. 14:1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! 3 And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
All the spies except for Joshua and Caleb refused to follow Moses and to trust God.
Numbers 14:6-10 Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: 7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. 8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. 9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. 10 But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
God wanted to kill the people right there, immediately, but Moses prayed and pleaded for their lives. Numbers 14:15-34 Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, 16 Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. 17 And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, 18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. 19 Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
Instead of entering the land by faith, they turned back in unbelief, and God judged them. He made the nation wander for forty years in the wilderness until all the people who had been over twenty years of age at Kadesh-barnea died.
Number 14:23 23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:…25b To morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea. …33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. 34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.
If you keep this event in mind as you read Ps. 90 it adds a deeper understanding of Moses’ prayer. This may be Moses’ way of expressing his submission to God and his prayer for that submission to produce a life that would be worth living.
The prayer or Moses teaches one of the important lessons of human existence, how to make your days upon this earth mean something, to make your life count even into eternity.
This Psalms of prayer begins as most prayers in the Bible begin, with praise, a doxology to the Lord.
Infinite, Omnipotent God - Psalms 90:1-4
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.
Moses Considers God.
God is Eternal
Moses states that in God is man’s dwelling place, a place of life, safety and security. God dwells in eternity, but our existence is only because of God. It is only in Him and through Him that we exist.
In Deuteronomy 33:27, Moses stated it this ways, “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
Moses goes on considering the eternity of God, he says, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”
The prophet Malachi 3:6 speaks with God’s own voice and says, “For I am the Lord, I change not”
Paul in Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever”
The Bible, God’s revelation of Himself, tells us that He is eternal, and you should understand that there is a difference between eternal and immortal.
Must people don’t believe that man is truly immortal. We were created in the image of God and due to that image, we are immortal. God gave us a soul and that part of the image of God, cannot cease to exist.
But God is not immortal, He is eternal. We had a beginning, but God had no beginning, nor will He have an ending. Moses said that God existed before the mountains, the oldest thing that Moses could picture. But God was yet older than the mountains, He was the one who had brought those valleys and peaks into existence.
In vs. 3, Moses says God turns man to destruction, literally the word here is dust.
This verse echoes what Moses also wrote in Genesis 3 after Adam and Eve fell in sin and become mortal. Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
This is yet another example of God’s timelessness in comparison to us. One generation of mankind returns to the dust but God has decreed that another generation returns, another generation arises. We in ourselves are limited to one generation but God controls all generation from the beginning of creation to the end of all time.
Moses continues and says to God, “a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when they are past, or as a watch in the night.” Time has no bearing upon God. Time has no power over Him. Moses says to God, 000 years are but yesterday’s memory or like a short 3 hour watch in the night.
Moses in this opening stanza of the Psalm is describing the attributes or characteristics of God, especially His eternity. This is the first lesson we should learn from Psalm 90, who God is, in comparison to who we are.
First Lesson: God's Greatness
We will never learn the life lesson Moses is sharing in Ps 90, unless we see God the way that Moses saw God. No, not with these physical eyes but with the eyes of our soul and heart. Let me amplify the attributes of God a bit so that we can better understand the One we must know in order to learn how to make our life count.
The Eternity of God
Definition: By the eternity of God we mean His infinity in relation to time, we mean that He is without beginning or end; that He is free from all succession of time; and that He is the cause of time- Henry Thiessan
Isaiah echoing God’s voice in 57:15, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”
The Omniscience of God
By the omniscience of God we mean that He knows Himself and all other things, whether they be actual or merely possible, whether they be past, present, or future, and that He knows them perfectly and from all eternity. - Henry Thiesan
Psalm 147:5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
Isaiah 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done…
Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
He knows everything about everything and everybody all the time. Also, he knows the future no less than the past and the present, and possible events that never happen no less than the actual events that do. J. I. Packer, Concise Theology
The Omnipresence of God
God is in all places at all times. He is present everywhere, always.
Psalms 139: 7-10 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
Jeremiah 23:24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD
The Omnipotence of God
By the omnipotence of God, we mean that God can do anything He wills.- Henry Thiesan
Job 42:2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
Jeremiah 32:17 Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
Matthew 19:26b ...with God all things are possible.
Omnipotence means in practice the power to do everything that in His rational and moral perfection (i.e., His wisdom and goodness) God wills to do. … all that He wills and promises, He can and will do. - J. I. Packer, Concise Theology
God’s other attributes: He is Gracious, Just, Loving, and Merciful. He Is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient. He is Eternal, Immutable and Transcendent. He is Holy, Righteous and Good. He is Sovereign. He is God!
Moses is vastly qualified to write this prayer and teach us about God’s character because he was one of only a handful of people who actually entered into the presence of God in a literal way. Moses, more than any other man in the Old Testament, saw and experienced God. Moses glimpsed the glory of God on twice on Mt. Sinai, first in the burning bush and then even more dramatically and fully on the top of the mount when receiving the Ten Commandments.
Exodus 33:17-22 And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD Jehovah before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:
When Moses descended back to the camp, his encounter with God was so incredible, that the skin of his face glowed. Exodus 34:30 “And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.”
To learn to make our life count, we must also know God. It won’t be on Mt. Sinai but in a greater revealing of God through Jesus Christ, the Son. Like Moses, we must know the Lord as great God, but also as great friend, as incredible as that sounds it is what God created us for.
So, the first part of the lesson of making life count is making sure we know God as God. He must count in my life, if my life is to count.
After Moses looks at the infinite, eternal, all powerful, all knowing, always present God, then in a vast contrast he looks at the finite, mortal, weak, ignorant, limited man. The second part of this life lesson.
Finite, Impotent Man - Psalms 90:5-11
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 by thine anger, and by 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 spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
Moses Considers Who Man Is
Moses draws a contrast between the infinite God and the finite man.
First, He considers man's brevity of life Vss. 5-6 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.
God is eternal but, says Moses, man’s days are like a desert flash flood, dry to raging to dry in moments.
Man’s days are like a night’s sleep. We lay down and then wake up, not even aware of the passing of time.
Man’s life is like a short-lived grass. There is a grass in Israel that blooms and dies in a 24-hour period. Moses says that is what our life is like in comparison to God’s eternity.
And finally, he compares our life to a story, a tale that is told. The Hebrew word here is even a shorter duration, it is the word for a sigh.
So, Moses sees these two extremes, God in his eternity and power and man in his mortality and weakness. And yet even though God is omnipotent, and man is impotent, Moses sees that man is trying to fight against God, a fight that man can’t possibly win! God is sovereign and man can either submit and find fulfillment, and purpose or he can rebel and suffer judgment.
Look at vss. 7-9 Moses, probably thinking about the crossing at Kadesh – Barnea says, “For we are consumed by thine anger, and by 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.
Israel rebelled once again and said, “We will not do what God commands.” God then punished them with 40 years in the wilderness.
Moses knows that Israel can’t win when if they fight against their Creator because they are limited while God is limitless. He brings this to a fine point in
So here then is the next lesson. It is …
The Lesson of Our Limits
Not much has really changed since Moses’ time, we are still largely within that framework of an 80-year life. Some may live longer and many others live much shorter lives. But long or short our days on this earth are limited. Yet few of us prepare to live our lives as if we only had a set limit of time. Our lives race by and we don’t notice, we don’t pay attention to how quickly they are passing until it is too late.
Peter and James, the second and third pastors of Jesus’ church, taught this same lesson of life.
1Peter 1:24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Even worse than not realizing how limited our time is that we spend that little bit of time fighting against God. We refuse to acknowledge Him as the sole Sovereign of all time and eternity.
You may think, “I’m not fighting against God.” But if you have left him out of your life, or ignore His will, defy his commands and turn away from the gift of grace through Jesus Christ then you are fighting against God. You and I are rebelling, if we refuse to accept Him as Lord or refuse to submit to Him as Sovereign God.
Here is this same essential lesson taught by Jesus himself, in Luke 12
Luke 12: 16-21 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
The man in this parable probably didn’t think he was fighting against God, but he had left God out of his life and at the end of his life it was God that he had to answer to. “This night thy soul shall be required!” He had not learned the lesson of Psalm 90 and when he was called before God then all he had given his life to was worthless without God.
No one, wants to be that man, the rich fool. We don’t want to step into eternity and realize that we spent our lives on things that didn’t matter and that I left the eternal God out of my life. The last part of this lesson, the lesson of our days is in verse 11-17
Final Potential - Psalms 90:12-17
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy;
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants,
and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty 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.
Moses Considers Man’s Choice
Man has only two choices, rebellion or submission.
Rebellion is seen in vs 11, Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
God is powerful and His anger, His wrath is powerful. God who spoke the universe into existence is a God of holiness, righteousness and justice. God according to His nature of holiness and justice, will pronounce judgment upon sin and those who rejected Him. The glories of heaven to come are starkly contrasted, in equal measure, to the horrors of hell. The blessing of knowing God is contrasted to the empty despair of rejecting Him.
But there is a better choice. Submission vs 12-17 “Psalms 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Here is the heart of Moses’ prayer, “Oh Lord, teach us to number our days.” Moses is pleading with God, “Please, my God, show me how to make my days, my life, my work, my effort, count.”
Return Oh, Lord… He pleads, “Come back to us, how long before we can know your mercy.” This is repentance for himself and for his people.
He prays, “Satisfy us early that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
He says, “Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us. … For every day we have wept, dear God now give us joy.”
The Lesson of Our Choice
Here is the final part of Moses prayer and through it the life lesson we must learn. Will you rebel or will you submit to the sovereignty of God?
Each of us must come to a place, a time, where we like Moses submit to the Lord and ask, “Oh Lord, make my life count for eternity. Teach me how to number my days. To make them count for something before this life is over”
If you leave God out of your life, if you don’t submit you life to Him, then you are guilty of denying Him who is the ruler of all things and the judge we will all stand before one day.
We must see Him as our master, our Lord. If we clearly see our own weakness then we will surrender, call out and God graciously answer our call. Our life will have meaning and it will count even unto eternity.
Jesus calls to us and says, Matthew 11:28-29 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
And one day when eternity rolls around we will hear Him say, Matthew 25:21
Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
When we pray the same kind of prayer that Moses prayed, when we submit ourselves to God’s love, to his grace to his mercy and to his sovereignty, then we will also be able to say with Moses, “I will rejoice and be glad all our days."
If our lives were reduced to a scale of only a day, you can imagine 80 years in just 24 hours. On that 24-hour life clock, at 5 am you would be sweet 16, ready for your first real date or studying for you drivers exam. By 7 am you are already 23, perhaps you are married, with your first real job or right in the middle of college. By only 10 am it’s your 30's, the kids are growing up, you're looking for your first house, maybe got a new promotion at work or even started your own business. By 1 PM you're 40's arrive, you are in the prime of life. By 4 PM you're in your 50's the kids have grown up and left home for college or marriage, that crowded house with clothes on the floor and perpetual dirty dishes now seems so empty and quiet. By 8 PM it's time to retire and enjoy the fruits of your labor, now the children have children and you so wish they would come by more often and stay longer. By 10 PM you're in your 70's and life is moving slower, even your grandkids have grown up and are starting their own families. Then, suddenly, its midnight your four score and ten years are over.
What did you do with your life? Do you learn how to number your days, to make your life count, now and for eternity?
If we realized that our own life’s clock was to strike midnight today, what would we be doing now? I think we would spend our remaining time on things that count. Time with my family telling them I will be looking for them at heaven’s door. Time in God's word that I might face eternity prepared. Time in prayer that I might walk bravely with Him past the line of death. I hope I would take time to tell others about Jesus, praying that they would come to know Him. If I had enough time, I would go to God’s House and be among God’s people. To a child of God wanting to make life worthwhile there are few things worse than not being in God’s house when God’s people are assembled together. Don’t believe it? Just wait until you can’t go and see how much it will break your heart.
You know we have all faced a few “midnights” in our lives. Times when we almost stepped into eternity. None of us knows when our final midnight might come. So, be ready to pass through that final midnight by humbly submitting yourself to the Lord and His will. Every opportunity we must pray, “Oh, Lord, make my life count though you.”
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