Misc. - "Praying like an OldTimer" - Psalm 90

“Here, then, must be the oldest of all the Psalms, sublime among the most ancient songs in Hebrew poetry. It is the prayer of an aged servant, a man of God who remembers the brevity of life, and asks for the beauty and the blessing of God to be upon the people and their service, and for gladness and wisdom in that service.” - J.M. Flanigan

Verses 7-10 - Mortality and Sin

Verses 11-17 - A Prayer of WIsdom

“How few they are, who, in their short lifetime, seem to appreciate the power of God’s anger and wrath. How few who render to Him the fear which is His due.”

“This is not a morbid living in fear of death, counting the days and anticipating dying. the purpose is that, considering how short the time is, it may be redeemed and the heart applied to wisdom.”

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Phillips

Introduction:

Moses wrote it and it is the oldest psalm in history.

“One of the grandest psalms ever penned, and the first great masterpiece of the Hebrew hymnbook. “

“Those who collected the various psalms, arranged them, and put them into their proper order placed this psalm strategically. They divided their hymnbook into five lesser books, each of which corresponds with one o the books of Moses. The fourth book of psalms begins with Psalm 90, and its songs are songs of the wilderness. It corresponds in tone and teaching with the book of Numbers.”

Only eight people called ‘man of God’ - Moses, Samuel, David, Elisha, Elijah, Shemaiah, Igdaliah, and timothy

The Right Perspective (90:1-6)

The Sovereignty of God

A Tremendous God

Adonai

A Tender God

God is our dwelling place or our “den.”

Cozy and warm place

A Timeless God

God is from everlasting to everlasting

But not so big that He’s cold and not loving!

The Sympathy of God (v. 3-4)

God knows he Tyranny the Tomb has over us (v. 3)

:He returns man to the dust, and then He returns the dust back to man!”

How could Moses say that?

He didn’t know exactly what was coming, but He did understand God made a promise to resurrect the people.

“God’s sympathy sees the tyranny the tomb has over us, but it is a conquered tomb.”

God knows the tyranny the Time has over us (v. 4)

The Severity of God (V. 5-6)

Drawing upon his recent memories of Kadesh-Barnea. Moses sees how long the people - people who recevied grace after grace - complained, criticized, disobeyed and doubted.

God’s judgment came.

The Real Problem (V. 7-12)

“He is speaking now in first person, and now speaks of the things taken right out of recent history, things with which the people who first sang this song were all too sadly familiar. In this section he harps on two ntoes - man’s sin and God’s sentence.”

Our Lives are So Sinful (v. 7-8)

There is no such thing as secret sin. God sees what we do, hears what we say, and puts what we fondly imagine to be our secret sins right out in the open.

He will reveal them

Our Lives are so short (v. 9-10)

“They were men living in the past. Their tale was told, they had no future. They could think about their redemption from Egypt, but they could never look forward to life in Canaan.”

Our lives are so serious (v. 11-12)

We should never shrug at indifference.

The Spirit of God is teaching us to number our days so that we may walk in wisdom!!!

The unsaved:

Get the great white throne judgment in perspective and accept christ

the saved:

get the bema seat in perspective and be about His business

John Beekman

The Resulting Prayer (v. 13-17)

life which has its perspectives right, which has its greatest problems solved, will be occupied in a definite direction. One clearly seen in Moses’ Prayer.

A fresh evidence of the moving of God (v. 13)

“How long...” was like what God said to Moses in Numbers 14:11-12 “11 And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? 12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.”

God changed His mind and led the people into Canaan.

We need to pray like this.

A Fresh Enduement of the Mercy of God (v. 14-15)

A Fresh Expression of the Might of God (V. 16)

“The future of Israel after Kadesh-barnea lay with the children. It always does. The children are the ones who have to step into our shoes and carry on the purposes of God. God is intensely interested in our children. We need to see God’s mighty arm made bare in their lives. We need to pray that He will do His work in them. They need to see His glory for themselves. As they look at us they see failure. Our failures have brought us where we are, but God can overrule even our failures and show His glory through them. Let us plead for a fresh expression of the might of God, for a work pointed by God directly into the hearts of our children and young people.

In Israel every child up to the age of nineteen was destined for the promised land in the sovereign purpose of God. Let us lay hold of something like that for our children.”

A fresh Effulgence of the Majesty of God (v. 17)

Let the beauty of the Lord be on us.

Like the beauty being in the hut of Jochobed.

Like the beauty of the LORD being on a ruddy shepherd boy.

Like the beauty of the Lord being in a firey furnace.