Our God Our Dwelling Place (Psalm 90)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:05.280 Turn in God's word to Psalm Ninety. We heard from Psalm Eighty nine this 2 00:00:05.559 --> 00:00:11.910 morning, and so, continuing from the questions raised in Psalm Eighty nine, 3 00:00:11.949 --> 00:00:16.949 we see how Psalm Ninety is situated right here, the beginning of book, 4 00:00:17.030 --> 00:00:24.460 for of the five book of books within the Psalter so psalm ninety, beginning 5 00:00:24.539 --> 00:00:26.820 verse one. Listen, for this is the word of the Lord, a 6 00:00:28.579 --> 00:00:32.100 prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our 7 00:00:32.100 --> 00:00:37.289 dwelling place in all generations, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever 8 00:00:37.369 --> 00:00:42.770 you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting. You are 9 00:00:43.090 --> 00:00:48.090 God. You return man to dust and say return, oh children of man, 10 00:00:48.810 --> 00:00:52.359 for a thousand years in your sight, are but as yesterday when it 11 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:56.880 is passed, or as a watch in the night. You swept them away 12 00:00:56.920 --> 00:01:00.200 as with a flood. They are like a dream, like grass that is 13 00:01:00.280 --> 00:01:03.510 renewed in the morning. In the morning it flourishes and is renewed in the 14 00:01:03.670 --> 00:01:08.390 evening it fades and withers. For we are brought to an end by your 15 00:01:08.549 --> 00:01:12.150 anger, by your wrath. We are dismayed. You have set our iniquities 16 00:01:12.189 --> 00:01:17.670 before you, our secret sins, in the light of your presence for all 17 00:01:17.750 --> 00:01:22.739 our days pass away under your wrath. We bring our years to an end 18 00:01:23.019 --> 00:01:26.739 like a sigh. The years of our life, our seventy or even, 19 00:01:26.780 --> 00:01:32.219 by reason of strength, eighty, get their span is but toil and trouble. 20 00:01:32.299 --> 00:01:36.609 They are soon gone and we fly away. WHO considers the power of 21 00:01:36.969 --> 00:01:41.810 your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you? So teach us 22 00:01:41.890 --> 00:01:45.769 to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return. 23 00:01:45.810 --> 00:01:49.760 Oh Lord, how long have pity on your servants? Satisfy us in the 24 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:55.439 morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 25 00:01:56.519 --> 00:01:59.879 Make US glad for as many days as you have afflicted us and for 26 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:02.670 as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to 27 00:02:02.750 --> 00:02:07.710 your servants and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the 28 00:02:07.870 --> 00:02:12.110 Lord, our God, be upon us and establish the work of our hands. 29 00:02:12.590 --> 00:02:16.780 Establish us, yes, establish the work of our hands, that's by 30 00:02:16.819 --> 00:02:20.699 the reading of God's word. May he bless it to us. Men, 31 00:02:20.740 --> 00:02:32.770 you may be seated, as we saw this morning. Give you a brief 32 00:02:32.849 --> 00:02:38.930 glimpse of the structure to this psalter. You have book one in the beginning 33 00:02:39.009 --> 00:02:44.719 of the Book of Psalms a book. Book One is primarily about King David 34 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:50.960 Right. Book two ends at the culmination of David's life. Psalm seventy two 35 00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:54.680 is David's prayer. You can picture it, written on his deathbed, basically 36 00:02:54.719 --> 00:03:00.990 a prayer for his son Solomon. And, as we saw this morning, 37 00:03:00.030 --> 00:03:06.270 Psalm Eighty nine concludes book three, which is not just found at the end 38 00:03:06.310 --> 00:03:12.310 of David's life but what appears to be the end of David's dynasty, the 39 00:03:12.469 --> 00:03:21.620 end of Israel, as as Israel is facing destruction. So there's a structure 40 00:03:21.659 --> 00:03:25.699 to these first three books of the PSALTER which are focused heavily on David and 41 00:03:25.819 --> 00:03:31.689 God's covenant with David. And yet book three ends asking these terrifying questions, 42 00:03:31.810 --> 00:03:42.120 questions wondering, is this the end? Questions ending in despair, mourning and 43 00:03:42.199 --> 00:03:47.000 questioning God's faithfulness to David. Book three ends with this terrible question. Has 44 00:03:47.159 --> 00:03:53.439 God forgotten his promise to David, a promise which psalm eighty nine even says 45 00:03:53.599 --> 00:04:01.430 was eternal, everlasting? As King David's dynasty has been removed from the throne, 46 00:04:01.509 --> 00:04:05.669 as God's people have been carried in exile, Psalm Eighty nine asks how 47 00:04:05.830 --> 00:04:11.699 long, Old Lord, in Verse Forty Six, will you hide yourself forever? 48 00:04:11.819 --> 00:04:16.740 How long will your wrath burn like fire, so that not just eight 49 00:04:16.779 --> 00:04:21.300 psalm eighty nine, but book three of this psalter ends with this great sense 50 00:04:21.420 --> 00:04:29.290 of loss and it almost carries a sense of finality when psalm eighty nine says 51 00:04:29.290 --> 00:04:32.089 in verse forty seven, remember how short my time is, for what vanity 52 00:04:32.170 --> 00:04:35.930 you've created all the children of Man. What man can live and never see 53 00:04:36.009 --> 00:04:43.360 death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Cherhol? But be 54 00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:48.639 comforted, because the psalms don't end there, do they? Book three is 55 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:54.709 not the last word of this psalter. There's a book for, there's a 56 00:04:54.750 --> 00:05:00.470 book five. We we'll see this evening. Is that the despair and the 57 00:05:00.629 --> 00:05:06.939 confusion we hear in psalm eighty nine is exactly what's being addressed and answered in 58 00:05:06.980 --> 00:05:13.100 Psalm Ninety. We have to view these two psalms as belonging together. The 59 00:05:13.620 --> 00:05:16.860 questions raised in Psalm Eighty nine are put to rest in the response here from 60 00:05:16.860 --> 00:05:26.129 Psalm Ninety, and it look at what these two psalms are mean. Doesn't 61 00:05:26.129 --> 00:05:30.050 psalm eighty nine seem to be written in light of the fall of Jerusalem, 62 00:05:30.410 --> 00:05:40.040 this exile of God's people. What's this first line in Psalm Ninety? It's 63 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:45.879 called a prayer of Moses, the man of God. And so these two 64 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:51.750 psalms that we have, they're separated by a thousand years and yet are now, 65 00:05:51.790 --> 00:05:56.509 by the guidance, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are placed 66 00:05:56.550 --> 00:06:00.029 side by side for us. Obviously, this, this placement, then, 67 00:06:00.230 --> 00:06:04.620 is intentional, as psalm eighty nine ends in defeat, the nation is conquered, 68 00:06:05.060 --> 00:06:12.019 the Lord's anointed as being mocked, and so this Psalm of Moses is 69 00:06:12.180 --> 00:06:16.259 to be respread as a response to this broken estate. And yet it was 70 00:06:16.300 --> 00:06:21.970 written a thousand years before it for notice how it responds to this question. 71 00:06:24.490 --> 00:06:27.769 It responds, first of all by looking backwards, by looking back upon the 72 00:06:27.889 --> 00:06:34.480 past. Psalm eighty nine was focused on God's promise, God's covenant to David, 73 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:45.480 but now psalmninety looks backwards, far beyond that promise. What is verse 74 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:51.189 one say? Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations, 75 00:06:53.550 --> 00:06:57.350 before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and 76 00:06:57.470 --> 00:07:04.339 the world from everlasting to everlasting. You are God. Of course this is 77 00:07:04.500 --> 00:07:10.579 a psalm which will look forward in hopeful expectation, but when it does, 78 00:07:10.620 --> 00:07:14.699 it does so because that hope is grounded upon what has been founded in the 79 00:07:14.819 --> 00:07:20.610 past. If Psalm Eighty nine comes in light of the exile, at the 80 00:07:20.689 --> 00:07:27.529 end of Israel's time in the Promised Land, then psalm nineties stands on the 81 00:07:27.689 --> 00:07:32.439 other side of the promised land, before Israel ever entered into the promised land. 82 00:07:32.439 --> 00:07:38.480 And these first two verses call us to confess what has always been true. 83 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:47.350 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Do you 84 00:07:47.470 --> 00:07:54.110 see what a fresh perspective this springs for those who were suffering under the very 85 00:07:54.269 --> 00:08:01.379 curse of the exile it? Psalm Eighty nine depicts a confused people who have 86 00:08:01.819 --> 00:08:09.220 lost their homes and their possessions, and so Psalm Ninety answers with the perspective 87 00:08:09.220 --> 00:08:15.490 of a pilgrim. Before you had the land, before you had your homes, 88 00:08:15.529 --> 00:08:18.569 before you had your possessions, when your fathers were wandering in the desert, 89 00:08:18.610 --> 00:08:22.930 when their fathers were in slavery in Egypt, when Abraham, Isaac and 90 00:08:22.970 --> 00:08:26.639 Jacob lived in tents, your true home has always been in the Lord. 91 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:37.399 Your true identity has always been that of a pilgrim, and so this psalm 92 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:43.509 offers an eternal perspective to answer. Psalm eighty nine present questions of suffering and 93 00:08:43.669 --> 00:08:50.909 loss. Here Moses is calling us to proclaim where our true home is found. 94 00:08:50.950 --> 00:08:54.940 And it's not found intense it's not found in Egypt, not found in 95 00:08:56.139 --> 00:09:01.500 lands flowing with milk and honey, whether in plenty or in want. Our 96 00:09:01.659 --> 00:09:07.740 actual dwelling place is the Lord. Proceed to dwell in the presence of the 97 00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:15.129 Lord is life itself. This is what we were created for, to live 98 00:09:15.169 --> 00:09:20.769 in harmony with our Lord. But ever since Adam and eves exile from the 99 00:09:20.809 --> 00:09:26.679 Garden of Eden, our existence has not matched this reality, and verse three 100 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:31.120 tells us why that is. You return man to dust and say return O, 101 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:35.360 children of man for a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday, 102 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:39.070 when it is past or is a watch in the night, you sweep 103 00:09:39.070 --> 00:09:41.830 them away as with a flood. They are like a dream, like grass 104 00:09:43.149 --> 00:09:46.429 that is renewed in the morning. In the morning it flourishes and is renewed 105 00:09:46.950 --> 00:09:52.470 in the evening it fades and withers. And so Moses also gives us a 106 00:09:52.860 --> 00:10:03.539 sober reminder on the briefness of life, the brevity of life. This morning 107 00:10:03.580 --> 00:10:07.929 we saying the hymn our God, our help in ages pass, which phrases 108 00:10:09.090 --> 00:10:13.090 this line this way. Time, like an ever rolling stream, bears all 109 00:10:13.169 --> 00:10:16.049 its sons away. They fly forgotten as a dream dies at the opening day. 110 00:10:18.090 --> 00:10:24.120 While our God is everlasting, while our God is eternal and all sufficient, 111 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:31.399 the Psalm reminds us that we are not. We our lives get cut 112 00:10:31.399 --> 00:10:35.990 off, and we ought to be umbled by this truth. To The Lord, 113 00:10:37.029 --> 00:10:41.950 a thousand years are as a day, and I've heard someone put it 114 00:10:41.990 --> 00:10:46.230 this way. Think of all that we've accomplished as a society over the past 115 00:10:46.350 --> 00:10:50.779 thousand years. Think of all the expectations we have for what this world may 116 00:10:50.820 --> 00:10:56.940 accomplish over the next thousand years. To Our Lord, who is the creator 117 00:10:58.019 --> 00:11:03.740 of time itself, all that time, all that progress, is as significant 118 00:11:03.779 --> 00:11:15.169 as last Wednesday. Were you really affected by last Wednesday? Did anything truly 119 00:11:15.210 --> 00:11:20.120 monumental happened to you last Wednesday? Do you remember what you had for lunch 120 00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:24.519 last Wednesday? All our years, all our cares, all our advancements and 121 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:28.120 all our Stra ivings do very little to impress the one who created time itself. 122 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:35.429 While our God is everlasting, standing above and outside of time itself. 123 00:11:35.429 --> 00:11:39.509 We are like grass that is bright and fresh in the morning, the Psalm 124 00:11:39.590 --> 00:11:45.750 says, withers and dries by the evening. And reminded that he is God 125 00:11:46.870 --> 00:11:52.659 and we are not, in verse three tells us why it is, why 126 00:11:52.740 --> 00:11:56.700 this is the present state of things, though we were created to live forever 127 00:11:56.820 --> 00:12:01.970 in God's presence. Verse Three says you return man to dust. And Say 128 00:12:03.129 --> 00:12:07.210 Return, Oh child, children of man, or could be rephrased children of 129 00:12:07.250 --> 00:12:13.250 Adam, for the ultimate reason for the brevity of human life under the sun 130 00:12:13.370 --> 00:12:18.960 is because of the curse upon Adam. Here's the psalm quotes from Genesis three, 131 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:22.279 when God cursed Adam. God said, by the sweat of your face, 132 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:26.399 you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of 133 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:28.960 it you were taken, for you are dust, and too dust, you 134 00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:33.789 shall return. And this soalm continues in verse seven by declaring that not only 135 00:12:33.870 --> 00:12:39.190 are our lives short, but what is it that defines our short lives? 136 00:12:39.549 --> 00:12:46.179 What are incredibly brief lives filled with? Or seven further humbles us by showing 137 00:12:46.220 --> 00:12:52.340 how incredibly, how are incredibly brief lives are actually filled with an incredible amount 138 00:12:52.340 --> 00:12:58.419 of sin. As verse seven says, we are brought to an end by 139 00:12:58.539 --> 00:13:01.730 your anger, by your wrath. We are dismayed. You have set our 140 00:13:01.889 --> 00:13:07.049 iniquities before you. Are Secret Sins in the light of your presence, for 141 00:13:07.169 --> 00:13:11.850 all our days pass away under your wrath. We bring our years to an 142 00:13:11.889 --> 00:13:15.840 end like a sigh. The years of our lives are seventy or even, 143 00:13:15.879 --> 00:13:20.120 by reason of strength, eighty. GET THEIR SPAN is but toil and trouble. 144 00:13:20.759 --> 00:13:24.080 They are soon gone and we fly away. WHO considers the power of 145 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:30.669 your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you, and so teach 146 00:13:30.669 --> 00:13:35.990 us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. So, 147 00:13:35.149 --> 00:13:37.429 basically, what he's saying is we live in a world that is under 148 00:13:37.429 --> 00:13:43.019 God's curse because of the fall. We live in a world affected by sin 149 00:13:43.179 --> 00:13:46.980 because of the curse. We live in a world affected by God's judgment upon 150 00:13:46.139 --> 00:13:52.539 sin. And do you see how appropriately this truth would resonate within Israel, 151 00:13:52.580 --> 00:13:58.529 who is in exile? They are experiencing the curse of God in a in 152 00:13:58.610 --> 00:14:03.450 a unique way. And yet this same truth was necessary even long ago, 153 00:14:03.610 --> 00:14:09.279 in Moses's Day. So the whether we're in Israel or not, whether we're 154 00:14:09.320 --> 00:14:13.879 in the land or not, whether we're in the days of Noah or our 155 00:14:13.879 --> 00:14:18.360 own last days before Christ's return, whatever Arrow wherein we are bound under the 156 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:24.110 same common curse of Genesis Three. For here you're told that not only are 157 00:14:24.149 --> 00:14:31.750 your life short, but they are also filled with sin. And so do 158 00:14:31.789 --> 00:14:35.870 you see how this is already giving a response to Psalm Eighty nine? Psalm 159 00:14:35.950 --> 00:14:41.940 eighty nine lamented mankinds returned to the dust, lamented the futility and shortness of 160 00:14:43.059 --> 00:14:48.379 life. So many nine verse forty six cried out. How long will your 161 00:14:48.419 --> 00:14:52.340 wrath burn like fire? Remember how short my time is, for what vanity 162 00:14:52.379 --> 00:14:54.610 you've created all the children of Man. What man can live and never see 163 00:14:54.649 --> 00:15:01.450 death? And now Moses is psalm comes alongside this truth, not denying those 164 00:15:01.490 --> 00:15:09.600 things. In answering Psalm Eighty nine, psalm ninety is not correcting psalm eighty 165 00:15:09.639 --> 00:15:16.639 nine. Rather, it's telling the rest of the story, for this psalm 166 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:20.710 sounds a lot like the book of ECCLESIASTS, please, as these is essentially 167 00:15:20.710 --> 00:15:28.830 a commentary on this common curse of genesis three, where mankind longs for permanence, 168 00:15:28.909 --> 00:15:31.629 though we know we can never achieve it. We build memorials, we 169 00:15:31.750 --> 00:15:35.019 build statues, hoping that our names will live on. We have children, 170 00:15:35.139 --> 00:15:41.820 hoping that our lives will be remembered through them, but even our greatest deeds 171 00:15:41.860 --> 00:15:46.580 are quickly forgotten. We are remembered by our children, by our grandchildren, 172 00:15:48.340 --> 00:15:54.409 but perhaps not much longer than that. The end of a lifetime, what 173 00:15:54.490 --> 00:15:56.649 do we have to show for it? After a lifetime of working, of 174 00:15:56.769 --> 00:16:03.210 striving, of toiling, what is our hands produced of true, lasting value? 175 00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:11.559 But in this reality of life under the Sun, it's not meant to 176 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:17.200 depress us. It's given to us to sober us up to the reality of 177 00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:21.509 life living in a broken and cursed world, which is why Moses says in 178 00:16:21.549 --> 00:16:23.590 verse twelve, so teach us to number our days, that we may get 179 00:16:23.590 --> 00:16:27.870 a heart of wisdom, knowing what little time we have, knowing that our 180 00:16:27.909 --> 00:16:33.019 lives are incredibly short, it should not cause us to stop our toilsome labors. 181 00:16:34.179 --> 00:16:37.740 Moses isn't saying what your jobs and move to the foothills and wait for 182 00:16:37.779 --> 00:16:44.220 Christ to return, but they were gaining a proper perspective on what to expect 183 00:16:44.340 --> 00:16:48.970 from our labors in a world that's sinful, in a world that is broken, 184 00:16:48.690 --> 00:16:52.970 as a people who are still far too sinful and far too broken. 185 00:16:52.009 --> 00:16:57.970 Were being reminded that this world is not our home. This world will disappoint 186 00:16:59.009 --> 00:17:00.799 you, this world will use you up in this world will kill you. 187 00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:07.000 But the Psalm doesn't stop there. We're not just called to reflect up on 188 00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:11.880 what this life has in store. We're also called to see what the world 189 00:17:11.960 --> 00:17:18.309 to come has in store. Remember where this Psalm begins. God has been 190 00:17:18.470 --> 00:17:25.509 our dwelling place from the beginning, even though that doesn't seem to align with 191 00:17:25.589 --> 00:17:30.539 our experiences. We're to gain wisdom by knowing that our days are short, 192 00:17:30.579 --> 00:17:34.539 by knowing that this life will come to an end, by knowing that our 193 00:17:34.660 --> 00:17:41.900 work in this life is not lasting. But because God's faithfulness in the past, 194 00:17:42.380 --> 00:17:47.970 because he's been faithful to his people all along, there is cause to 195 00:17:48.089 --> 00:17:52.490 look to the future in hopeful expectation, as verse thirteen says. Return. 196 00:17:52.650 --> 00:17:57.880 Oh Lord, how long have pity on your servants? Satisfy us in the 197 00:17:57.960 --> 00:18:02.640 morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 198 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:04.480 Make US glad for as many days as you have afflicted us and for 199 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:08.119 as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to 200 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:12.750 your servants and your glorious power to their children. But the favor of the 201 00:18:12.789 --> 00:18:15.990 Lord, our God, be upon us and establish the work of our hands 202 00:18:17.109 --> 00:18:22.950 upon us, yes, establish the work of our hands in light of the 203 00:18:22.029 --> 00:18:26.859 common curse that afflicts and affects all of us, in light of the brevity 204 00:18:26.900 --> 00:18:33.940 of our lives and in light of the frequent and ongoing sins of the ninety. 205 00:18:33.980 --> 00:18:38.819 Here directs us to our true and lasting hope, our true hope which 206 00:18:38.859 --> 00:18:45.329 is the return of the Lord. Verse Fourteen says, satisfy us in the 207 00:18:45.569 --> 00:18:52.289 morning with your steadfast love. With this reference to the morning, what imagery 208 00:18:52.410 --> 00:19:00.759 is he drawing upon? What imagery is being expressed? Does it mourning signify 209 00:19:00.920 --> 00:19:06.440 the dawn of a new day? In the Bible, the imagery of darkness 210 00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:11.630 and sleep is used to express sin, it's used to express death, and 211 00:19:11.829 --> 00:19:17.349 so to the imagery of mourning signifies the spiritual reality of the day of the 212 00:19:17.509 --> 00:19:25.019 Lord. The Psalm isn't praying for just one more morning in a long line 213 00:19:25.059 --> 00:19:29.099 of mornings which all eventually turned to dusk and end, like the thousands of 214 00:19:29.140 --> 00:19:33.700 other mornings that we've had here. We're being called to long for a day 215 00:19:33.859 --> 00:19:38.769 that will never become night. We're called the long for that final day of 216 00:19:38.809 --> 00:19:45.849 the Lord, called the long for that final Sabbath rest, where we will 217 00:19:45.890 --> 00:19:51.369 finally rest from the weariness, from the brokenness of this world, or we 218 00:19:51.410 --> 00:19:56.720 will finally be at rest from pain and from loss, where our sin will, 219 00:19:56.839 --> 00:20:02.200 once and for all, be fully and finally done away with. As 220 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:10.069 Paul says in Romans A, that creation itself is longing for recreation. Romans 221 00:20:10.150 --> 00:20:14.670 Eight, verse twenty, for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly 222 00:20:15.430 --> 00:20:18.109 but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will 223 00:20:18.150 --> 00:20:22.460 be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory 224 00:20:22.579 --> 00:20:26.339 of the Children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been 225 00:20:26.380 --> 00:20:33.900 groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. Therefore, since our works 226 00:20:33.980 --> 00:20:40.690 profit us nothing, since our works obtain little lasting value for us, where's 227 00:20:40.730 --> 00:20:48.250 our hope? Is Verse Sixteen say, Let your work be shown to your 228 00:20:48.369 --> 00:20:55.160 servants and your glorious power to their children. Do you see whose work is 229 00:20:55.279 --> 00:21:02.680 being exalted? It's the Lord's. He's the one who's from everlasting to everlasting. 230 00:21:02.759 --> 00:21:07.509 He's the one whose work produces lasting value and benefit. It's the work 231 00:21:07.589 --> 00:21:15.309 of Christ that is of eternal and everlasting blessing, his work and his glorious 232 00:21:15.309 --> 00:21:22.779 power, which is still being shown to our children today. The work of 233 00:21:22.819 --> 00:21:26.259 Christ in his life, death, resurrect and ascension was sufficient not just for 234 00:21:26.380 --> 00:21:33.369 his generation but for all generations. It's only because of his work that your 235 00:21:33.529 --> 00:21:37.529 work may be established. It's only because of him that you and I do 236 00:21:37.650 --> 00:21:44.170 not Labor in vain, for he has been your dwelling place for all generations 237 00:21:45.369 --> 00:21:48.559 because, as Paul says an Ephesians, you were chosen if you just one 238 00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:52.160 verse, for in Him. You were chosen in him before the foundation of 239 00:21:52.319 --> 00:22:00.119 the world. So Psalm Eighty nine, the end of book three, was 240 00:22:00.200 --> 00:22:07.950 reflecting on a divine promise that seemed to be in jeopardy. The same thing 241 00:22:07.990 --> 00:22:12.230 happened to Moses, didn't it? At Mount Sinai, when God's Divine Promise 242 00:22:12.349 --> 00:22:15.980 to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob seemed to be in jeopardy due to the People's 243 00:22:17.019 --> 00:22:22.380 Sin of worshiping the Golden Calf. There Moses interceded for the people, reminding 244 00:22:22.740 --> 00:22:27.460 God of his promise to their fathers. Now here. We come to Psalm 245 00:22:27.500 --> 00:22:33.890 Ninety, and it's as if Moses is again interceding for God's people, once 246 00:22:33.930 --> 00:22:38.529 more calling God to return, calling God to finally do away with sin. 247 00:22:41.450 --> 00:22:45.200 And therefore this psalm is directing us to the one who is greater than Moses, 248 00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:49.400 in the person of Jesus Christ. It is our very, ever last 249 00:22:49.559 --> 00:22:55.880 sing Lord, the immortal who took on mortality, the Lord who cursed this 250 00:22:56.119 --> 00:23:00.829 world, subjected, as only son, to the full weight of the common 251 00:23:00.950 --> 00:23:07.750 curse and the individual curse each one of us deserves for our sin. So 252 00:23:07.910 --> 00:23:14.660 only in Christ has the this pattern of brief life and permanent death been overturned, 253 00:23:15.539 --> 00:23:19.980 whereby one man's disobedience, this death cycle began. Through the one man, 254 00:23:21.059 --> 00:23:25.900 Jesus Christ, all who believe in him will experience his eternal life. 255 00:23:26.019 --> 00:23:33.210 This eternal life is yours by faith in Christ. And this is the same 256 00:23:33.250 --> 00:23:37.410 Jesus who taught us to pray your kingdom come, your will be done on 257 00:23:37.569 --> 00:23:44.920 earth as it is in heaven, so that we still hope, we still 258 00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:49.359 long for the return of our Lord, and we do so knowing that our 259 00:23:49.599 --> 00:23:53.960 savior, who has defeated death itself, is longing for the same thing, 260 00:23:56.509 --> 00:24:00.470 and he now intercedes for us. He's now praying to the father on our 261 00:24:00.630 --> 00:24:07.190 behalf, this same prayer. How long? And so it's no surprise that 262 00:24:07.269 --> 00:24:12.500 when this psalm is referenced in the New Testament, it's used in reference to 263 00:24:12.539 --> 00:24:19.539 the return of Christ. Second Peter, Chapter Three, verse eight. Peter 264 00:24:19.660 --> 00:24:25.849 reminds his hearers do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the 265 00:24:26.009 --> 00:24:29.250 Lord, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as 266 00:24:29.289 --> 00:24:32.849 as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as 267 00:24:32.890 --> 00:24:37.369 some counts slowness, but his patient towards you, not wishing that any should 268 00:24:37.369 --> 00:24:42.680 perish, but that all should reach repentance. So we do long for the 269 00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:48.680 Lord's return, but we do so not in despair. Let us long with 270 00:24:49.079 --> 00:24:55.190 Joy, knowing that his delay is not a lack of faithfulness. He is 271 00:24:55.349 --> 00:24:59.470 not slow, he's not subject to the futility that faces our own works. 272 00:25:00.029 --> 00:25:03.509 The resurrection of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, declares to us that the common 273 00:25:03.589 --> 00:25:10.220 curse is being overturned, and it declares to you that your life is hidden 274 00:25:10.220 --> 00:25:17.539 in Christ, with God, for he is your dwelling place. Let us 275 00:25:17.539 --> 00:25:22.170 therefore live lives of humility, knowing what this world has in store for us, 276 00:25:22.210 --> 00:25:27.690 and let us endure these things knowing that in that great and final day, 277 00:25:29.809 --> 00:25:33.890 we will fully know and see what it means to have the Lord for 278 00:25:33.089 --> 00:25:40.640 a dwelling for all generations. Amen. Let's pray.