Psalm 90 (NRSV) Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You turn us back to dust, and say, “Turn back, you mortals.” 4 For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning; 6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are consumed by your anger; by your wrath we are overwhelmed. 8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; our years come to an end like a sigh. 10 The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. 11 Who considers the power of your anger? Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. 12 So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. 13 Turn, O Lord! How long? Have compassion on your servants! 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil. 16 Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. 17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands— O prosper the work of our hands!
Prosper our hands. Give us wisdom. Take away your wrath! Have compassion. Everything in Psalm 90 is about Moses’ relationship with God. Not so today. Many (week)days and even Sundays can go by without even thinking about God, to our shame.
God the Father’s wrath against us has been poured out on His Son. One grave is empty already. Ho hum? Someone is dead because of us. Our eternal life is restored. Not worth mentioning to self and family? Not worth worship and thanks? Our old nature wants happy talk. But our new nature needs comfort and assurance in this broken world. Only one place: IN CHRIST, LORD AND SAVIOR.
When I prepare parents for a baptism, I teach that baptism day is the DEATH of the broken relationship with God and the NEW BIRTH of a living eternal relationship, IN CHRIST. Every parent needs to remind their children of that daily and to worship their Lord together weekly, to say thank you with the best of one’s time commitments! Every Christian needs to gather to hear this good news again and again.
Now the personal part: May 4th marks my first 70th birthday. May 26th marks my second 70th birthday, into eternity, when I was baptized. Mom and Dad made sure I learned about that daily and worshiped weekly. I cannot thank them enough. Toil and trouble, soon cut off and fly away! Not the end of the story! For me: How long here? 70 years (v.10a), or 80 (v.10b), or? Who but the Lord knows! But then? Eternity! Thank you Lord! Hallelujah! Every day!
Pastor Tom Trapp, Mission Pastor
Walking the Emmaus Road with the Risen Lord
(Originally published in Emmaus Footprints, Vol. XVII, Number 10, May 2016)