“Life Is But a Dream” – FBC Morning Light (5/5/2023)

Well, a good Friday morning to you. I hope your week has gone well, and now that we come to the weekend pretty quickly upon us, I also hope you're looking forward to a good weekend that's going to climax on the Lord's Day in gathering with God's people and worshiping the Lord together, and just having a great day in the Lord.

I hope you're planning to do that. Well, today we're reading in our Bible reading plan 1 Samuel 11 and 12, Acts chapter 1, so we're beginning the book of Acts this morning, and then also Psalm 90. I'm going to focus on Psalm 90.

God’s Perspective on Time in Psalm 90

We have in the 90th Psalm in verse 4 a sort of a divine perspective on time, time as God looks at it, because it says this. It says, a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it's passed, like a watch in the night, like yesterday when it's passed.

That's a thousand years, a millennium. If you hold to a young earth view of creation and the existence of this planet in God's sight, it's like the earth is not even seven days old, not even a week old.

It hasn't even really entered the Sabbath yet, if you look at it from God's perspective. A thousand years are like yesterday when it's passed. I thought about this from another way, because of how the passage goes on to speak of how the years are carried away like a flood, they're like a sleep.

In the morning they're like grass which grows up, in the morning it flourishes and grows up, in the evening it's cut down and withers, and that's speaking of the years of the children of men, the years of the children of men.

Life Is Brief and Fleeting

So our days, our lifetime, our lifetime is like a sleep, or the ESV translates that, a dream, like a dream. You had any dreams in your sleep lately? You have them and they're very brief. Scientists and sleep study doctors tell us that the dream state and the dreams that we have, they're just a few seconds long, they're not very long at all, and if you remember them, you know how quickly they pass, like a dream.

Like in the morning, it's like grass, it grows up and in the morning it grows up and flourishes, in the evening it cut down and withers. A thousand years are like this in God's sight, they just come and go so quickly.

I did a little calculation and I realized that every hour, if a thousand years is like yesterday in God's sight, then you take a 24-hour period, then every 24 hours in God's sight, almost 42 years pass.

In other words, the entire lifetime of the average person doesn't even last two hours in God's view of time. When we get down to verse 12, you see how vital it is that we pray this prayer and live it out.

Numbering Our Days for Wisdom

Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. I didn't calculate further, but if you take, as verse 10 says, the days of our lives that are 70 years, and if by reason of strength they get to be 80 years, almost two hours of time in God's sight, God's view of time, almost two hours, our lifetime, break that down.

You take that 80 years, take two hours, divide it by 80, how many minutes is represented by each year? I didn't do the math, and I'm not that quick at math, so you'd have to figure it out if you want to.

The point is very clear, isn't it? The point is very clear. Our lifetimes pass so quickly, life is so brief, and given the brevity of life, should we not number our days? Shouldn't we pay particular attention to how I live this day so that I might have wisdom to live this day well?

I often pray this prayer every morning, oh Lord, teach me to number my days that I may get a heart of wisdom so that this day may count for something worthwhile. Or maybe alternatively, I may have a heart of wisdom so that this day would be truly fruitful in your sight.

I try to pray that every day, and I wish I could say I live the full day in that perspective every day. I'm afraid I don't, but I know I want to. I'd love to live out the remainder of my minutes on this planet in that very way.

I think that's the challenge of this particular chapter, this particular psalm, that given the eternality of our God and the brevity of this life, oh, that we would live wisely. Our Father and our God, I pray, challenge us with this thought today, and I pray that we would number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.

We pray this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. All right, well listen, again, on the Lord's Day, if you can come and join us for Bible study at 9 .30 in the morning, I'd encourage you to do that, and then the morning service at 10 .30.

This Sunday evening we have our monthly home fellowship groups and the young married single adult group meeting, so we won't be having service at the church on Sunday evening, but I encourage you to come Sunday morning, join with us as we worship together.

All right, have a good weekend. May the Lord bless.