Our Refuge in Uncertain Times - Psalm 90 (Psalms 90)

1:05They were wandering and suffering the consequences of not trusting in the Lord. They were suffering the consequence that all men and women above a certain age would be passing away, dying in the wilderness before they got a chance to enter their land. And you can imagine that those people would be. Frightened. You can imagine that those people would be thinking about the opportunities that they lost, the sins they had committed, the difference between life before and life after.

1:48Death was on their mind, and the fragility of life was on their mind, the shortness of life, the power of God, and the complete lack of power of men to control their own lives. Where do you turn in times like this? We also today are facing uncertain times. We also are being forced to consider the frailty of human life. We also are experiencing threats that are most dangerous for those over a certain age. And because of this, we also are remembering the sins we've committed, opportunities that we lost, the difference between life before this trial and life now.

2:45We're reminded that life is indeed short. So, where will we turn in times like this? How should we think about God? How should we pray? In Psalm 90, we'll learn four truths for uncertain times. Four truths for uncertain times. And at the end, we'll see four prayers in response to these truths. So, four truths and four prayers. Follow along as I read in Psalm 90, verse 1. A prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

3:32Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You return man to dust and say, Return, O children of man, for a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood. They are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning. In the morning it flourishes and is renewed. In the evening it fades and withers, for we are brought to an end by your anger. By your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence, for all our days pass away under your wrath. We bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy or even by reason of strength age.

4:30Yet their span is but toil and trouble. They are soon gone and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger and the wrath according to the fear of you? So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord. How long? Have pity on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. Let's pray before we begin. Father, as we come to this text tonight, a 3,500-year-old song that gives honor and praise and glory to you, a song that reminds us of the shortness of our life.

5:52May we pay attention. Help us understand. Help us worship. And apply the truths in this text. Help us grow closer to you, even tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. The first truth for uncertain times is that God is our home. God is our home. Look at verse 1. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. So, Moses, the man of God, begins this psalm by remembering that God is our Lord, by remembering that God is our master, the ruler over our life. He begins his psalm by remembering that God is in all generations.

6:49But the main point of this first line is that God is our dwelling place. God is our dwelling place. The word that he uses for dwelling place is actually used all over the Old Testament, and it just means the place where you live, the place where you dwell. It can be used of animals to speak about the dens of animals. It can even be used of God when Scripture says something like God left his holy habitation, his holy dwelling to come down to earth. But it just refers to the place where you shelter, the place where you live, your home. God is your home. God is our home. Home.

7:33The Israelites, during the time of their wandering in the wilderness, they were homeless. The generation that was passing away would be buried in the wilderness away from a home, but they could still trust in the Lord and find their home in Him. We, on the other hand, are the opposite. We've been forced to spend more time than ever in our homes this week. We shelter in our homes to protect ourselves or to at least protect those around us. But as we do, let's not forget where our true home is.

8:14This text is not talking about our true home in heaven, like other texts of Scripture talk about. It's not talking about our new bodies that we'll be living in after the resurrection, like other texts talk about. No, this text is speaking of God Himself. He is our home. He is our dwelling place. So let me ask you, you've had more time than ever to rest this week. Are you finding your rest in the Lord? Have you taken shelter in His Word?

8:58Or have you taken shelter in His word? And Netflix. I know you haven't been watching sports, but have you made TV shows your place of refuge? Have you made novels your rest? You know, as always, there's nothing wrong with these things in and of themselves. But now that you finally have downtime, after a busy season, after a long time, maybe of you saying that you haven't had time to be in the Word, you haven't had time to spend with the Lord. Now that that's over, where did you run?

9:41What did you run to, and what does that say about your heart? Let's find our rest and take our refuge. Quiet our heart with the Lord Himself, our true home. The second truth for uncertain times is that God is eternal. God is eternal. Verse 1 again: Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

10:19In the midst of a changing world when everything seems to be upended, what could be more comforted than knowing that our God is such a rock? As this, you know, if I asked you what is the biggest, most immovable thing on earth, you might say a mountain. It's a good answer. They're big and hard for us to move. But if you're really clever, you might say the earth itself, the world itself. That's the hardest thing on the earth to move. Giant, immovable, firm beneath our feet.

10:57And yet, verse 2: God is even more timeless than these. Before the mountains were brought forth, wherever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. God does not change. God never began. God will never end. Businesses close. Viruses mutate. Jobs disappear. Loved ones leave us behind. But not God. From everlasting to everlasting, you are God, is what the text says. The Apostle James says there is no variation or shifting shadow with God. He is always good. He is always in control. He always sees us. He always hears us. He knows his own, and none of his sheep will be lost.

12:00From everlasting to everlasting, God knows us and he knows our times. He has known what was going to happen in this trial from before time began. So, when death is on our minds, like it was for Moses, as we'll see in a few verses, when death is on our minds, we do well to remember that God has always been God, and God will always be God, and all of creation is under his rule. So, God is our home, God is eternal. The third truth for uncertain times is that God controls our lifespan, and maybe this is one of the most comforting for us to think about in this trial. God controls our lifetime. Look at verse 3: You return man to dust and say, Return, O children of man, for a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood. They are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning. In the morning, it flourishes and is renewed. In the evening, it fades and withers.

13:24This section and the next section focus on the shortness of life. In the speed that time passes us by. But this section primarily emphasizes that it's God Himself who's in charge of all this, He's the one who's in control. Verse 5: You sweep them. That's the children of man. You sweep them away as with a flood. You return man to dust in verse 3. You return man to dust and say, Return, O children of man. It's God that gives the command for us to enter the grave.

14:02It's God that gives the command for us to return to the dust that we're made from. Man's life comes and goes. God has seen it billions of times before. God is in control of time, and God is in control of our lives. This might not sound like the most comforting truth: that it is God who gives the command to send us back to the grave, to return to the dust, but it's true. And if God was your home, then it would be comforting.

14:56It would be comforting to know that the one that you Rest with even this week. The one that you rest with, having been justified by the blood of Christ, to know that this home is the very person that you're going to when He decides it's time for you to be swept away. That is a comfort, it's the only comfort we have in death. And really, it's the thrill of life while we're still alive. The fact that we, even now, get to spend time with His Word, that we get to rest in Him while we wait for Him to return us to the dust.

15:41It is a comfort that God controls our lifespan. Our fourth and final truth for uncertain times that we see in Psalm 90 goes hand in hand with the third: that life is short and sinful. Life is short and sinful. Look at verse 7. For we are brought to an end by your anger, by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days pass away under your wrath. We bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are 70, or even by reason of strength. 80. Yet their span is but toil and trouble. They are soon gone and we fly away.

16:41Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you? God is wrathful over sin. He is angry over wrongdoing. God told Adam that he would die if he sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, and he ate and he died, and we sin and we die. Even long lives don't go much past 70 or 80 years. A blink in the history of the world. And for that entire blink, we still remain under the curse of Adam with hard toil and trouble, like it says in verse 10.

17:34For that entire blink, our sin is right in front of a holy God, like it says in verse 8. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins, in the light of your presence. The holy God, untouched by sin, looks at our sin as if it is right before him. Our most secret of sins, hidden from all other men, are wide open, visible in the light of his presence.

18:28The light that exposes every nook and cranny of our secret sin. How can this God be our home? In fact, before, when we were talking about God being our dwelling place, being our home, you might have thought, you know, what a pleasant religious thought. What a friendly and kind God the Christians have. But let me tell you that if you are not one of his people, he is not your home. Not yet, at least. All that awaits you is a fearful expectation of judgment.

19:13Terror upon terror upon terror. Terrors that make COVID-19 seem as small as nothing because your sin is right before him. But Jesus Christ has made a way for you to be forgiven, completely separated from your sin as far as the East is from the West, so that you are justified before God, clean and pure, so that you can find your rest in Him. Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty of sin, so that anyone who comes and repents of their sin and places their faith in Him and trusts His Word can find full and free forgiveness. Christians, this is your hope in a life that is short and sinful.

20:14Your life is moving quickly by. It is busy. It is full of trouble. But you have found your rest in Him. You know, this trial that the world is in, it reminds us of this truth, that life is short, that we are not in control, that our lives are fleeting, and our death is soon. But this trial cannot teach us the rest of the truths that we've seen in this text. Yes, life is. Short and sinful. But it is God who controls our lifespan.

21:07This God is the everlasting rock where we can find rest and refuge. The truths that are in this 3,500-year-old song are the same truths that we need to depend on this week. This is what we're supposed to think. This is the truth that God is our dwelling place in all generations. Moses finishes this psalm in prayer, specifically making requests to the everlasting God. Let's quickly step through those prayer requests so that we can learn to pray in the same way. First, Moses in verse 12 prays that God would teach us wisdom. Teach us wisdom. Verse 12. So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. And this certainly is the same wisdom that we should have in this present trial, right? Our days are numbered. Our lives are so short.

22:30Live 50 years or 120 years. Our lives are short. They are a blink. Our days are numbered. And the heart of wisdom knows this. The heart of wisdom pays attention to the fact that we're only here for a short time. That soon God will sweep away our lives and say, Return, O children of man, as we return to the dust. Young adults, and even children, your days are numbered, even if it doesn't feel like it. So ask God to teach you to number your days, that you may have a heart of wisdom.

23:20Yes, it's painful to look back on your lives and regret the sins you've committed and the opportunities you lost. And so let this text, even tonight, let this trial, even tonight, drive you to make the most of your short time, to number your days, to think wisely about this. And if you do number your days, if you do realize how brief this life is, won't that make you fly to your home? Won't that make you run to the one rock you have? If your life is Is a vapor. What else can you do? So pray that God would teach you wisdom, teach us wisdom. Next, Moses prays, restore our relationship. Restore our relationship. Verse 13, return, O Lord, how long? Have pity on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad for all our days.

24:27Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. So Moses is asking for God's presence. He's asking for God's pity on them. And he's asking to be satisfied, but not just with any satisfaction. He's asking to be satisfied in the morning with God's steadfast love. God's steadfast love is what will make God's people rejoice and be glad. Will you make that your own prayer this week? That the Lord would satisfy you with his own presence, that he would restore your relationship.

25:16Where did you run when this wave of free time came your way? What did you seek to be satisfied with? Was it God's steadfast? Confess love. That's what will satisfy the people of God. What will make you rejoice and be glad all your days, like Moses says? Is it the TV? Of course not. So pray that God will restore your relationship and cause you to be satisfied in Him. Our hearts are messed up. Our hearts run all over the place instead of to the Lord. So pray that He'll restore your relationship. The next prayer is really intermingled with the second. Help us see your hand. Help us see your hand. Verse 15: Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children. So since it is God's love and God's work that makes us glad and makes us rejoice, then the man of God prays that God's work would be shown to God's people. Now remember that Moses' generation had seen God work in amazing ways. They saw the plagues. They saw his glorious power. They saw the splitting of the Red Sea.

26:48They were also afflicted for many days. They had also seen evil for years, like it says in verse 15. And so, as Moses is asking for that relationship and the gladness and the satisfaction to be renewed, he also asks if he can see God's work again. And we haven't seen the power of God in the same way that Moses did, but we do see God's power in creation, in his good creation. We see God's power in the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation. We see the power of God as he changes hearts and makes alive those who were once dead in their trespasses and sin. And we can trust that God is working in the trial that we see today.

27:46Moses has prayed, teach us wisdom, restore our relationship, help us see your hand. And finally, he prays, let our toil count. Let our toil count for something. Look at verse 17. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. Yes, this life is short and sinful. It is rapidly passing by. It is a time of toil and trouble. But does that mean that we are useless if we have such a brief life? Has anything We've ever done counted for anything if life is so short.

28:39As he thinks of death, Moses prays for God's favor, that God would show favor toward his people and that God would establish the work of their hands. He says it twice: establish the work of our hands. Let the things that their hands had done stand. Let them be firm and established instead of useless and temporary. And I think this is what we have to pray if we're really thinking about the brevity of life. How short it is, here today and gone tomorrow. Now, what else can we do? Do we just panic? No.

29:21We trust God, but we also ask for His favor that for the blink that we're here, our hands will do things that last. Our finances might be taking a hit as the stock market slides. Our children could be leaving our homes any day now as they go off to careers and college. Opportunities come and go. But while we work at our jobs, while we work in our children's lives, while we work to bless and edify our church body, we can pray. That God, by his grace, would establish the work of our hands, that he would make our toil count for something.

30:18There's so much for us to learn from this song of Moses, and it's so fitting for our times. I hope you've seen that. Uncertain times. And so, what can we remember during all of the craziness that's going on around us in the world? What hope can we offer to a world that's frightened? How can we be Christians that don't fear anything that's frightening? What should we remember when we're tempted to fear? Well, let's remember that there is an everlasting, unchanging rock, and that God is in control of our short lives, even now. And even now, he is our home.

31:07He is our refuge, our shelter. And in response to these truths, we can pray that God will use this trial to teach us, to number our days. We can pray that God will use this time to restore our relationship with Him. We can pray that God will. Make us trust that he's still working, that he's still sovereign. And we can pray that God will, by his grace, allow us to join in his work and be used by him for something that'll stand.

31:50Let's pray. Father, we do pray these things. We do ask that you would teach us to number our days, to let it sink in, to let us not forget, even after this trial is over, to number our days, to remember that our lives are short, that everything in this life is fleeting, everything is passing quickly by, and that there's only one rock that we can turn to. There's only one God that has existed from everlasting to everlasting.

32:35There's only one home that we can take shelter in. We pray that you would teach us wisdom. We pray that you would restore our relationship with you. I pray for those who are listening that have never trusted. In Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of their sins, I pray that even tonight, even now, they would come to you, Father, and ask for forgiveness, ask to be paid for by the blood of Christ on the cross. I pray that all of us would turn to you, that all of us in this church body would be courageous and lean on the rock that's everlasting and take shelter in our true home.

33:43Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.