A Song for the Afflicted (Psalm 90:1-17)

The 4th Book of the Psalms is from Psalm 90-106 (chart of Psalms). In brief, the Psalms teach us about what the true believer ought to experience in his or her life with God in a fallen world, what it should feel like to be a Christian.

Psalm 90:1-17 addresses the afflicted and answers the question: How do we put perspective when afflicted or distressed (Ps 90:13,15)? When the days of our life (Ps 90:4,9,12,14,15) feels overwhelming, hectic and filled with stress and distraction? How do we wrestle with our own sin, and when others sin against us? This psalm of Moses points us to God (1-6), sin (7-12), and grace (13-17), and he bids us to meditate on it, believe it, and sing it.

I. God Himself is Our Home (Ps 90:1-6).

Security. God Himself is "our dwelling place" (Ps 90:1), our refuge, our place of belonging, our place of safety, which cannot be found in this transient world. Only God is "from everlasting to everlasting" (Ps 90:2b). Only God is eternal. "Before the mountains were brought forth," before there was the world (Ps 90:2a), He was already God. Only this will center us in our crazy world.

Pressure. Moses in the wilderness was under the constant pressure of shepherding hundreds of thousands – millions – of people. He could have been caught up in the moment, in the instantaneous, in the impermanent. But He focuses his attention on the only source of stability, to God who is our dwelling place, home, refuge, city, and the place where he and God's people belong.

The eternality of God. In the hectic busyness and transience of life (Ps 90:3-6), what does Moses point us to? To theology. He points us to the eternality of God (Ps 90:2). Why? God’s eternality is the answer to our transience. He is the hope in the midst of this passing world. We have no continuing city here, but He is our dwelling place, and we seek a city to come (Heb 11:10,16).

Warning: Having God as our dwelling place does not excuse having poor relationships with others. Yet, we are sinners with blind spots, shortcomings and failures. In a recent biography, AW Tozer, while serving wholeheartedly in ministry, had a distant and cold relationship with his wife and his children, to the point that when he died, his wife remarried. She married a man who had come to faith in Christ under Tozer’s ministry. When asked after that marriage how it was, she said: “I have never been happier in my life, because I knew that Aiden Tozer loved Jesus Christ, but I know that my husband now loves me.”

Man's only home. Moses makes it clear that we’re never going to find our place of belonging, safety, the place which is our home, our dwelling place, our habitation, in the world, where there is no continuing city. We’ll find it only in God Himself who is our home, our refuge, our city, and the place where His people belong (Ps 90:1).

II. Sin, Our Fundamental Problem (Ps 90:7-12)

The problem. The only problem we face is not simply the problem of transience, of passing away, of death (Ps 90:3-6). No, death is actually rooted in another deeper problem--sin. In Ps 90:7-12, Moses bids us to think about suffering, death, and God’s judgment, and then to draw a line from those 3 things to sin.

Rejecting God because of suffering? Bart Ehrman, a brilliant young NT scholar, once was an evangelical Christian; he, like Charles Templeton, denied the faith because of suffering. In actuality, suffering proves the existence of God. Without God, suffering is not wrong; it just happens. The one who can say that suffering is wrong is one who believes in the God of the Bible, for without the God of the Bible, suffering is not wrong; suffering just happens.

Sin causes suffering. Moses, when he looks at suffering, doesn’t draw the deduction that there’s some problem with God. No, the deduction goes the opposite direction! Today, as 20th century man, we look at suffering in the world and ask, "Why suffering?" But in all ages before, wiser people asked, "Why sin?" because sin brings suffering into this world. The logic of the Christian life is we always draw a line from all misery and all death back to sin, and we learn to hate sin and fear God thereby.

Why don't we connect the dots? In spite of all the signs of God’s displeasure around us, the thought that sin leads to death never registers. The nature of sin is that men hardly ever realize the relationship between death and sin. Why? We’re always living for the moment. We’re never thinking about the last things, the final things, the permanent things. Thus, Moses says, "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Ps 90:12).

III. Grace (Ps 90:13-17)

Finally, after pointing to God (1-6) and to sin (7-12), Moses points to grace. The 5 parts of his prayer of petition are:

1. Forgive us for our sins (Ps 90:13).
2. Satisfy us with your "lovingkindness" (hesed); help us taste your grace (Ps 90:14).
3. Restore us from our affliction (Ps 90:15).
4. May your kingdom come (Ps 90:16).
5. May our labor not be in vain (Ps 90:17).
   

How did God answer this prayer of Moses, when Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land after 40 years of hard labor in serving and leading his people to the promised land? Was God a little unfair to Moses?

When Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses was there, shining brightly (Lk 9:28-31). The Lord answered Moses’ prayer in a way that he never could have imagined, far beyond all that he could ask or think. Do not think that if you will go to the loving Lord, your refuge, that He will disappoint you in His answer of grace.

Reference: Psalm 90:1-17, "Moses’ Psalm," sermon by Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III June 15, 2008.
ESV Study Bible.

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