From Everlasting to Everlasting, You Are God - Jonathan Haley
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 90.
I have been wanting to preach on this Psalm for a while now. For the first few minutes, I would like to tell you why.
My wife recently commented to me that it seems like we have been to so many funerals the last few years.
In the last five years, we have lost our beloved Letty, my twelve year old nephew Ethan, my grandfather, Leigh’s grandfather who was Linda’s father, and most recently a second cousin. We have also had some friends who have lost babies to miscarriages.
I know these losses affected some of you and you may have experienced many other losses yourself.
As we reflect on the loss of loved ones, we all have to face the harsh reality that some were older and some were much too young.
If we are honest with ourselves, it does not make sense in our minds how a good God can let babies or children die so young. It does not make sense that some die painful deaths, and others do not. It does not seem right that sometimes the good guys die before the bad guys.
We can’t wrap our human minds around how this could work itself into God’s grand design who is causing all things together for good to those who love God.
We can take some comfort in knowing that Jesus entered this world as a man and experienced suffering on a level that went beyond any human loss.
He knows our pain. But it does not make it easier for us when the times of loss come.
This wrestling with death and pain will always be present in this fallen world, but what makes us able to go through these refining moments and grow closer to God, is having knowledge of who God is and who we are.
Our knowledge of who God is what will drive our worship, trust, and love for him.
Without knowledge of him we cannot be close to him.
The most intimate relationships we have are dependent upon the knowledge of who that person is.
It works this way with God as well.
This is why we must read our Bibles. The Bible is the living breathing word of God that tells you who He is, what he has done for you, and who you are.
We can’t trust Him and His ways if we don’t know that His ways are part of His perfect plan and that His perfect plan is the best plan for our life.
And we can’t really draw close to Him unless we understand that he is a God who wants us to grow closer to Him.
We are learning of this desired intimacy in David’s sermons that he has been preaching on Song of Solomon.
And just as we need to understand who God is, and we can’t rightly worship God if we don’t understand who we are and our place in this world.
It is not our place to understand but to trust in him. Psalm 31 :15 says “My times are in your hands.”
Everything that happens in this life is part of His grand plan in some glorious sovereign way.
God may choose to reveal how the hard times help us grow, but we will never fully comprehend how God can take the billions of people who have been on this earth and weave all their actions and choices together so everything works out according to His perfect plan.
This is his sovereign power at work.
Our humanness fights this. We have a desire to understand. We want an explanation. We want to make sense of the question, “why do bad things happen?”
This is why Satan first tempted Eve with the knowledge of good and evil. In Gen 3:5 Satan said this to Eve.
5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
This desire to understand and try to make sense of how all things work together comes from our desire to be like God. We think this will give us peace.
However, ironic truth is, we will never really have peace in this world until we understand, accept, and live in the reality that we are humans and that He is God.
We are the creatures and he is the creator.
I say all that by way of introduction because Psalm 90 has really helped me come to a better realization of who God is and who we are.
It speaks not only of the power of God and his eternal nature, but of our terminal humanness and the brevity of our physical life as we know it.
This Psalm helps us find comfort in the fact that we are not God and he is sovereign and in control of all things.
Context
Context
So today I want to start looking at Psalm 90:1-2.
Psalm 90:1–2 (NASB95)
A Prayer of Moses, the Man of God - 1 Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
Tradition and most commentators ascribe this Psalm to Moses due to the heading of the Psalm.
If this is true, it is highly probable that this is the oldest Psalm in the Bible’s collection of Psalms. It is also the first Psalm in the 4th book of Psalms, as the book of Psalms is actually a collection of 5 books.
We do not for 100% sure know the context of this Psalm or when it would have been written but I think it is safe to assume that this would have been written during Moses’ time with the Israelites in the wilderness.
Although it seems to be a prayer on behalf of the Israelites we can be sure this Psalm can be applied to all of God’s people.
Paul tells is in I Corinthians 13 that the things that happened to the Israelites in the wilderness were written for our instruction.
The New Testament is constantly applying the Old Testament Psalms to NT situations and conversations.
So we can safely draw a conclusion that this Psalm applies to all of us.
“A prayer of Moses, the Man of God.”
“A prayer of Moses, the Man of God.”
The heading of this Psalm calls Moses, “the Man of God”
This is not the only place in the Bible that ascribes this title to Moses.
We see this in Deuteronomy 33:1, Joshua 14:6, and also in Ezra and 2 Chronicles.
And Moses is not the only one to have been called “the man of God.” We see Samuel, David, Elijah and other prophets were also referred to as the “men of God.”
The idea behind this label was that a “man of God” brought a message from God.
When they spoke, you listened because they were the bearers of a message from God.
So in the beginning of this Psalm, this phrase introduces us and lets us know, that this message is important because it comes from Moses, the man of God.
Thus, it contains the Holy Spirit inspired message of God to all His people.
“Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations”
“Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations”
“Lord”
The first word of this Psalm sets the tone and helps us to begin to understand a true aspect of who God is.
Moses addresses God as “Lord.”
We often pray to the Lord in our prayers, but in our minds it is a name for the Lord. But in the Hebrew this is not the normal word that is used to address the Lord.
It is fascinating to see that Moses uses the Hebrew root word “adon” here for “Lord” which means master.
It is a word that is used when someone wants to emphasize a person’s place of authority or rule.
The most common word translated Lord in the Bible is Yahweh. This is used over 5,000 times in the Bible!
You usually know the word Yahweh is being used when you see the word LORD in all caps in your Bibles.
Moses does refer to Yahweh in verse 13 but he addresses the Lord as Adon here in the opening and then in the last verse as well. “Adon” refers to the Lord about 133 times in the OT.
This is no mistake by Moses.
Why does he do this?
It is because Moses is going to tell us who God is and who we are and so He begins by emphasizing the Lord’s authority over all things.
He begins and ends this Psalm with this idea that the Lord is master over all things.
There is nothing in this life that is not upheld, affected, or sustained by God. He is the true Lord and master over all.
We should have this thought engraved on our hearts, when we think about who God is.
Anything that happens in this life should be guided by the truth that He is in control and his plan is perfect. Even when it hurts.
When things are at their worst we must remember that he is Master. He is in control of all.
The very idea that He is master over the whole world makes the next phrase all the more precious and amazing.
“You have been our dwelling place in all generations.”
God is a master with all authority who cares so much for us that he does not just give us physical dwelling places but He has become our true spiritual dwelling place.
The word that is used here for dwelling is often translated as an animal’s lair or den. It is a place you can hide and find protection. It can also carry with it a sense of help.
God helps us by allowing us to take refuge in Him. We hide ourselves in him. This is truth is all over the Bible.
9 Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies; I take refuge in You.
20 You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues.
This idea of God allowing us to hide ourselves in him is so incredible as it points to God’s plan of redemption.
If we look back to the garden we see that sin had the opposite affect on humans.
Going back to Gen 3:10
10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
Rather than hiding in God, the impulse of sin is to hide from God.
But the redeemed of the Lord now take refuge and hide in him.
The impulse to run from God is now transformed into an impulse to run to God because He has invited us into himself.
This idea of dwelling would have carried a special meaning to the Israelite nation as well.
Imagine that you are an Israelite and you have been wandering through the desert for 40 years.
Trudging through the wilderness. Setting up tents constantly. Carrying heavy packs in the heat and dust.
They were constantly exposed to the elements.
They longed for a place to call home.
They were in search of the promised land to dwell in.
But the Israelites did not understand that their true promised land was not just the physical land but that God was to be their dwelling place.
Moses speaks of this in his song after the Lord caused the Egyptian armies to drown in the Red Sea.
13 “In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed; In Your strength You have guided them to Your holy habitation.
17 “You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, The place, O Lord, which You have made for Your dwelling, The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.
In the blessing of Moses at the end of his life we read this in Deuteronomy 33:27
Deuteronomy 33:27 (NASB95)
27 “The eternal God is a dwelling place, And underneath are the everlasting arms; ’
These are different words here but the idea is similar.
There is paradoxical physical promised land and a spiritual promised land that is found in the Lord.
Our true place of refuge and promised land is not found in a place but a person.
The Lord is our Dwelling.
When Moses writes that God is our dwelling place for all generations he is referring to all God’s people from the very moment of time.
We cannot hide from God but we can hide in him.
There is indwelt within us this desire for a promised land, a dwelling place of refuge and security.
But we, like the Israelites, too often focus our attention on the physical dwellings.
Our desire for security often translates into our desire to have bigger homes in better neighborhoods, more money, or better medical care.
We tend to think that our refuge can come from physical things.
Of course, we need shelter and we need heat in the winter but we need to be aware of the more important need for taking shelter in God.
Without our hearts taking refuge in God, the physical dwellings and resting places of this world don’t mean a thing. They are passing and fading away.
Humans tend to look for answers from the created rather than the creator which is what makes verse 2 so important.
“Before the Mountains were born, or you gave birth to the earth and the world.”
“Before the Mountains were born, or you gave birth to the earth and the world.”
Psalm 90:2 (NASB95)
2 Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
I believe that in the context of this verse, the mountains and the land here represent two things.
They point to the power of God.
They can also be interpreted symbolically as all the Physical things of this world that we might put our trust in.
We may look to the mountains of this world for refuge whether it is a real mountain or it is represented by money.
Moses is showing us even the most majestic mountains to the seemingly infinite cosmos all come from God.
Even they had a beginning. But God did not.
Moses is seeking to expand our view of God which is why he starts with the mountains which is a very specific landmark, then speaks of the earth which is a broader word for territory, and then the world which means all dry land.
Moses is teaching us a lesson about the incredible power of God as well as the timelessness of God.
I have always loved to go for hikes in the woods. I am fascinated by nature not only because it is so beautiful but because I love to imagine that a big tree might have been there for 200 years. One of my favorite things to do is see a tree that was cut down in the woods and count the rings on it because I want to see how old it is.
I often imagine people from hundreds of years ago hiking in the same places that we hike because to us nature seemingly represents timelessness.
When you look to the mountains , the ocean, or the stars you are faced with the fact that they were there long before you were born and they will be there long after you die. They seem timeless.
But……when we view them in the light of who God is, we must realize that they all had a beginning. The mountains, the land, the stars, the whole universe came into being because our Lord and Master created them.
The entire universe is a but a grand and glorious display of the power of God.
But as majestic and amazing as this world is, it all had a beginning.
Only God is timeless.
In the coming verses, Moses is about to compare the timelessness of God to the short lives that we live.
And at first reading, this can feel like a depressing psalm because his view of man’s life goes something like this, “You are born, you live for a moment and then you die.”
Moses is not trying to beat you down so that you walk away thinking, “my life is pointless.”
It is actually the opposite. He is trying to show you who you are in the light of an almighty God who made himself your dwelling place.
God gave humans such beautiful things to enjoy in this world. He first gave Adam and Eve a perfect unspoiled garden.
He created beautiful and fascinating animals and put humans in charge of them.
He told us to take care of the world.
But because of the fall, many humans have taken nature and made it their god.
They have looked to the mountains, the land and the stars and gotten so lost in their beauty that they have forgotten about God.
We are a part of the Audubon society and I sometimes hear people say things like, “We want to take care of what Mother Nature has given us.”
They are replacing God with nature. They are looking to the earth for their security and not God.
But for Christians, our appreciation of nature should not end with nature itself.
The Christian should look at the mountains and not only be amazed at their beauty but be more amazed that God brought them forth.
Only he has no beginning and no end. He is the Alpha and Omega.
“Even from Everlasting to Everlasting, You are God.”
“Even from Everlasting to Everlasting, You are God.”
We come now to this great statement, “From Everlasting to Everlasting, you are God.”
He is Lord and master of all because he brought forth the whole world.
He is not bound by time and his power is limitless. His power and his unchanging eternal nature go hand in hand.
17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
God is the only reason we are here.
We are not alive because of how much we work out, how healthy we eat, or how good we are to others.
We are here because God upholds all things.
Knowing this gives us a complete picture of who God is.
Our small groups are going through an amazing study on the fear of God and the teacher in the video series uses John Calvin’s work the Institutes of the Christian Religion as an example to explain the importance of our view of God.
The Institutes, the teacher explains, were written as a sort of progressive lesson that take you from the basic elements of the Christian faith to more advanced and deeper concepts of the faith.
It is comprised of 4 books and the first book deals with the knowledge of God the creator and the second book deals with the knowledge of God the redeemer.
His point was this….if we only know God the creator we will be focused on his power and tend towards loveless fear.
We will fear his wrath. We will fear punishment for sins. But we will not love him.
But if we know Him as God the redeemer as well, we see a more complete picture and that he is not just someone who should be feared because of His Awesome power but also that he is someone who is to be adored and drawn close to because of his redeeming love.
We need to think more about God as we try to find our identity.
We are a people who spend 99% of our time thinking about ourselves, our jobs, what we do, where we are going, and who we want to be.
We tend to be focused on trying to create an identity that is shaped by earthly peripheral things.
But, we need to step back and realize that our true identity is found in our redeemer Jesus and that God upholds all things.
He and He alone is the reason we are breathing.
He is in control of all things.
You are not in control. No matter what You think you need. No matter what you think you can do or not do.
You serve a God who has been from Everlasting to Everlasting.
He is unchangeable. This is referred to as his immutability.
He has remained the same God forever. He does not change because he is perfect in all aspects.
17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
It is only when your view of God comes to include his power and his redeeming love, that you can worship him and love him the way he should be loved.
You will love him rightly when you understand that this loving God is unchanging and that he has always has been, is, and always will be your help and dwelling place.
Our fickle hearts and minds can not comprehend being unchanging.
We change our mood constantly.
It is so bad for us, our personalities even change when we are hungry. We change when people wrong us.
But God is always perfect. He is always right.
He is always God from everlasting to everlasting.
APPLICATION
APPLICATION
And so we must live this life in the awareness of the reality that we live in a temporal world that is upheld by an eternal God, who by his grace has always been and will always be our true refuge.
It does not matter how tall the mountain or how grand the canyon. God brought it forth.
He was before all things.
He has always been our dwelling place. His door is always open.
But like the Israelites it requires belief.
The generation of the Israelites who left Egypt did not experience the promised land because, they did not believe that God was their refuge.
They looked at the giants of the land, the things they had to overcome, and could not get past their unbelief that God was their help.
They could not see that He was the one who would give them the mountains and the land.
Unbelief will always look at the physical walls of Jericho and the tall enemy and think that there is no hope.
But the person who truly sees that God is the creator of all things, will live a life dwelling in God.
Nothing can destroy that person because they are protected by almighty God.
Think about where you dwell at this moment.
What is your hope really in? Are you seeking a “what” for help , or are you seeking a “who” for help?
Are you hiding in the Lord or are you hiding from the Lord?
Are you trying to understand why all the bad things that happen in this world?
It’s okay and even right to talk to God about our doubts and struggles.
I always come back to Job and Jesus. They both experienced great loss and pain. They both cried out to God. But in the end their knowledge of who God was allowed them to find refuge in the Lord.
They knew that his plan was perfect even in the pain.
We will always have pain. There will always be wars. There will always be loss in this world.
But take peace in knowing that God is the Lord from everlasting to everlasting and that his plan is perfect in his wisdom and not ours. And even when things don’t make sense he remains our refuge. He is our place of protection.
Thanks be to God.