Living in Light of our Eternal God - Pastor Jason Austin

I'll commonly use this psalm in the context of a funeral.

It speaks about the eternal nature of our God and Jason will be pressing upon

us, instructing us on how we ought to live in the light of our understanding of his eternal nature.

It's a prayer of Moses.

The only psalm that we have recorded of Moses in the collection of psalms,

Psalm 90.

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought

forth, wherever 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 and in the morning it flourishes and is renewed and in the evening it fades

and withers.

For we are brought to an end by your anger, by your wrath we are dismayed.

You set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

For all our days pass under your wrath, we bring our years to an end

like a sigh.

The years of our life are 70, or if by reason of strength 80, yet their

span is but toil and trouble.

They are soon gone and we fly away.

Who considers the power of your anger and your 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 sown to your servants and your glorious power to their children.

And 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.

Thank you, Father, for your word.

We pray that you would help us, our God, to understand who you are in the light of

your eternal nature.

Help us, our Lord, to understand how we can best apply this in the way we think and the way we

live out our lives each day before you.

And so bless Pastor Jason now as he comes.

May you help him, our God, to present your word clearly, forcefully to us.

Give his ears to hear, give us an understanding heart, and may you conform our wills to your will,

for we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Morning, everybody.

It's nice to preach to a full house, or rather a socially distanced full house.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning.

We thank you that we're able to gather together and proclaim your name.

We pray, Lord, that you would help us as we go through this passage.

We pray that the result would be a better understanding of who you are, a better

understanding of what you've done for us, and how we need to live our lives in light of this truth.

So, Lord, be gracious with us now.

Thank you, in Jesus' name, amen.

One of my all -time favorite authors is J .C. Ryle, and he wrote the following words in the

late 19th century.

Today's subject is one which the wisest man can only take in a little at a time.

We have no eyes to see it fully, and no mind to grasp it, and yet

we must not refuse to consider it.

There is a depth of stars in the heavens above us which the most powerful telescope cannot pierce, yet

it is well worth it to look into them and learn something, even if we cannot

learn everything.

There are heights and depths about this subject which mortal man will never comprehend, but God has spoken

of it, and we have no right to turn away from it.

The subject to which Ryle is referring is eternity.

Our God is an eternal God.

Eternity is a very difficult concept for man to grasp, God having no beginning,

God having no end, God having no succession of moments in

his own being, God existing outside of time, God

seeing all time equally and vividly, and yet God still sees events in

time and acts in time.

I think one of the reasons we struggle with this concept is because we live

in a temporary world.

In the world in which we live, there is always a beginning, and there is always an end.

In the world in which we live, nothing lasts.

Our world is ever -changing, and its present form, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 .31,

is passing away.

Landscapes will change and pass away.

Nations will change and pass away.

Families and relationships will change and pass away.

Careers, plans, possessions, all of these things are temporary, and all of these

things will eventually pass away.

In our culture today, there is an unhealthy preoccupation with the temporal.

Life is filled with the pursuit of comforts and entertainments.

Life is filled with the pursuit of pleasures and amusements that absorb and consume our hearts

and our minds, pleasures and amusements that will not last.

Beloved, everything in this world is decaying.

Everything in this world is dying.

Everything in this world is coming to an abrupt end.

But our God, our God is eternal.

What I find especially disturbing about this temporal world is that while knowing these things,

while knowing that the world is passing away, the focus of many Christians is not on the

eternal things of God, but on the temporal things of this world.

Many Christians are so preoccupied with the temporal that they have completely lost sight of the

eternal.

And you know what?

This shows in their lives.

It shows in their relationships, in their homes, as it does in the church.

Well, what's the fix?

How do we redirect our focus from the temporal life that is right in front of us to the eternal

life that God calls us to live?

How do we refocus our gaze from the temporal to the eternal?

Well, we do so by directing our focus to the Lord God.

We do so by having a right concept of God.

A right and correct view of God will redirect our focus away from that which is passing away

away from the temporal things of this world to the lasting and eternal things

of the Lord God.

A .W. Tozer in his book, Knowledge of the Holy, which addresses the nature and the character of

God, he writes, the church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God

and has substituted for one so low, so ignoble as to be

utterly unworthy of thinking worshiping men.

This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge.

And her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.

This low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the

cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us.

A whole new philosophy of Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our

religious thinking.

Now in this statement, Tozer really hits the nail on the head.

He is right on the money.

Today's church has lost her awareness and her understanding of the

splendor and the magnificence of the Lord God.

The church has lost her sense of the majestic glory of our creator,

our King and our Father God.

The Lord God has been refashioned.

The Lord God has been dumbed down.

What is revealed about God in the scriptures has been twisted and distorted

so that the God who is worshiped today is not the God of the scriptures, but a God

of their own making.

A God who has been crafted and fashioned into their own image.

Or another way of putting it, as Paul does in Romans 121, the revealed truth of God has been

exchanged for a lie and the creature is now worshiped rather than the

creator.

And today the effects of this exchange are clearly seen in our cities, in our

nation, in the world.

Beloved, we must have a right view of God.

We must have an accurate view of God.

Our view of God must conform to the scriptures.

The biggest responsibility of the church today, the biggest responsibility of this church, First

Baptist Church, is to exalt and magnify and lift up our concept of

God to a height that is worthy of the splendor and the majesty of God.

And we must proclaim this truth.

And this is what I'm hoping we accomplish this morning.

Please turn with me to the book of Psalms, Psalm 90.

Psalm 90 is a very familiar psalm, yet it's a very sobering psalm.

It contrasts the brevity and miseries of human life against the eternal grandeur

of our Lord God.

Psalm 90 can be broken up into four parts.

Verses one and two, the eternality of God, verses three through six, the

frailty of man, verses seven through 11, man's sin and God's wrath,

and verses 12 through 17, man's need of God's grace.

Let's read the psalm again.

Psalm 90, verse one.

A prayer of Moses, the man of God.

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.

You return man to dust and say, return, oh 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 of 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.

Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you?

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Return, oh 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.

This Psalm describes in beautiful detail the nature and the character

of our God.

It mentions God as a faithful dwelling place, as an eternal refuge.

It mentions his immutability.

God does not nor will not change.

Our God is unchanging.

It mentions that he is just, that he is angry, that he is wrathful, that he is all -knowing,

that he is all -powerful, and that he is eternal.

Our God is from everlasting to everlasting.

Psalm 90 is unique in that it's the only psalm in the scriptures that is attributed to the prophet Moses.

It is entitled, A Prayer of Moses, the Man of God.

Now given his life, he was certainly qualified to write such a psalm.

He had a very unique relationship with the Lord God.

In the book of Numbers, which is the record of Israel's wilderness wanderings after their exodus from Egypt,

the sister and brother of Moses, Miriam and Aaron, were openly critical

of Moses.

Numbers 12, one and two, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had

married, for he had married a Cushite woman.

And they said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses?

Has he not spoken through us also?

And the Lord heard it.

The Lord God heard their criticism of Moses, and the Lord answered their criticism

in verses six through eight.

He said, hear my words, if there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself

known to him in a vision.

I will speak to him in a dream.

Not so with my servant Moses.

He is faithful in all my house.

With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly and not in riddles.

And he beholds the form of the Lord.

Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

The Lord God describes Moses as faithful.

He was faithful in all my house.

And unlike other prophets, the Lord God spoke to Moses mouth to mouth, not in riddles

or with dark sayings, but with transparent clarity.

In the book of Exodus, we read something similar.

Exodus 33, 11.

Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.

Moses was more than competent to write this psalm because he knew God intimately.

He conversed with God face to face and mouth to mouth.

I'm not sure anyone else would have had as strong a sense of the greatness and grandeur

of the glory of God.

For Moses beheld the very form of God.

The historical setting of this psalm is also important to consider.

While there's some disagreement on the specific time in Moses' life that he wrote this psalm, I believe

the setting is best understood by the incidents that were recorded in numbers.

Studying the themes of this psalm suggests that it's probably a reflection of the circumstances from psalm, from Numbers

chapter 20.

To give you a little background information on what's happening in this book, the book of Numbers, the Lord God had just

delivered the Israelites from Egypt and had given them the promised land.

The Israelites sent out 12 spies to view and report the land.

And upon their return, 10 of the spies brought back an evil report, while two of the spies

brought back.

A favorable report.

Now the evil report from the 10 spies really disillusioned the people, so much

so that they grumbled against the Lord God.

And the consequence of their rebellion is recorded in Numbers 14.

But truly as I live, as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have

seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and yet have put me to the

test these 10 times and have not obeyed my voice shall see the land that I swore to give

their fathers.

And none of those who despised me shall see it.

In verse 31, he says, but your little ones who you said would become prey,

I will bring in.

And they shall know the land that you have rejected.

But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

The consequence of their unbelief and their contempt and their rebellion against the Lord God

cost them entrance into the promised land.

All of that generation who were miraculously brought out of Egypt by great signs and great

wonders were forced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until their

bodies fell in the wilderness.

Now this is the sobering and solemn setting of our song.

But it gets even worse.

In Numbers 20 verse one, Miriam, the sister of Moses dies.

And then in Numbers 20 verses two through 13, the Lord God commands Moses to speak to the rock to bring

forth water, but Moses disobeys the Lord God and strikes the rock with his rod.

Verse 12, and the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not believe in me to

uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly

into the land that I had given them.

And in the last verse of this chapter, Numbers 20, 29, the brother of

Moses dies.

Aaron passes.

Now think just for a moment about the setting of this psalm.

Try to put yourself in the position of Moses.

You've been aimlessly wandering in the wilderness for 40 years because of the sin and unbelief

of other people.

You've been waiting for a whole generation to die off.

And every time you break camp, you leave a host of graves behind as you wander from camp

to camp to camp.

Then your sister Miriam dies, one of the few people whom you could reminisce about your former life in

Egypt.

Miriam's death would have been a reminder of God's impending judgment on that generation.

And then in one single foolish act, rather than speaking to the rock, you strike the rock and

you're told by the Lord God that because of your disobedience and your unbelief, you will never

enter the promised land.

Moses was almost 120 years old at this time.

And for 38 years, he had served the Lord God faithfully.

And he looked forward to entering into the promised land.

But now his sin prevented his entrance into the land that he had so greatly

desired.

And then his brother Aaron dies.

And this is the backdrop of Psalm 90.

Now let's dig into the details.

Take a look at verses one and two, which discusses the eternal grandeur of God.

A prayer of Moses, the man of God.

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth, wherever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to

everlasting, you are God.

Moses begins his prayer with an affirmation of God as

Adonai, as Lord.

The creator and ruler of the heavens and the earth, he who alone is sovereign was their dwelling place

in all generations.

Even though at this time Moses and the Israelites were homeless, they were wandering,

they had no country, they had no permanence, Moses recognized that their home was

not in the land that was promised by God, but their home was in

God himself.

Moses understood the difference between the temporary and the eternal.

Moses knew that life was uncertain at best.

So he did not fix his hope on the land, but rather he fixed his hope on Adonai, the Lord.

Moses knew that the Lord was the one foundation for everything and that the person who anchors himself to the

Lord and trusts in the Lord will be secure.

In the midst of the desert wanderings and the rising death toll, Moses found relief in the

character of God.

Moses found comfort in the eternality of God.

In a decaying and dying and ever -changing world, Moses recognized that the Lord God is

unchanging and that the Lord God was his home and that the Lord God was his only

refuge for himself and his people.

Before the mountains were born, before the creation of the earth, from everlasting to everlasting, God

is infinite.

God is immutable and God is eternal.

Well, like Moses and all those throughout the history of the church, we too are

wanderers.

We too are exiles.

We are pilgrims.

We have no fixed earthly home.

In our lives, there is no permanence.

There is nothing that remains unchanged.

In a moment of time, everything we currently possess could be taken away or lost.

Our freedom, our church, our homes, our family, our health, our jobs, our security,

our comfort, our rights, even our lives.

Everything we are, everything we have is subject to change.

Everything that is earthly is fading away.

So like Moses, take comfort in the character of God.

Like Moses and all those throughout the history of the church, be looking to the Lord God and for the city

which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

2 Corinthians 4 .16, so we do not lose heart though our outer self is

wasting away.

Our inner self is being renewed day by day for this momentary light

affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

As we look not to the things that are seen but at the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Beloved, do you ever reflect upon the eternality of God?

Does the eternality of God affect your daily life?

Does it change the way you view your present circumstances?

Are you looking daily to the eternal or are you looking

to the temporal?

Are you looking daily at the things that are seen or at the things that are not seen?

Are you living by sight or are you living by faith?

From everlasting to everlasting, God is God.

From everlasting to everlasting, God is Adonai.

God has created, God has decreed, God is ruling, God is working through history

and God is upholding all things by the word of his power.

Beloved, never lose heart, never be discouraged.

Yes, the world is passing away but our God is eternal.

Yes, the world is decaying and dying but our God is lasting and the purposes

of our God will stand forever.

From everlasting to everlasting, he is God.

In stark contrast with the eternality of God, Moses now directs our attention

to the frailty and the brevity of man.

Psalm 90 verses three through six.

"'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.'".

God is eternal, man is dust.

God is eternal but man is like a passing memory that is removed from our thoughts as quickly as

a watch passing in the night.

God is eternal but man is like a drop of water that is swept away by the flood of time.

God is eternal, man is like a dream.

God is eternal but man is like a blade of grass that flourishes in the morning and then

fades in the evening.

God is eternal, man is not.

Commenting on these verses, Spurgeon writes, the frailty of man is thus forcibly set forth.

God creates him out of the dust and back to the dust he goes at the word of his

creator.

God resolves and man dissolves.

Now here's a statistical fact.

The mortality rate amongst men is 100%.

Death is a sure thing, death is a certainty.

The Lord God has placed us here on the earth and he turns us about on a circuit and when we have reached the last

point, he draws us back to himself.

In a moment, we return to dust.

Moses likens our lives to a watch in the night at which time you're fast asleep.

At night, you lay down, you put your head on the pillow, you fall asleep and when you awake, you are

barely aware that any time has passed.

How speedily our lives disappear, as quickly as a dream in the night,

as quickly as a blade of grass in the hot sun.

As a college student, I had the privilege of going to Israel for a semester abroad and I also

had the opportunity to take part in an archeological dig at the site of Masada, which was one of Herod

the Great's fortresses.

It had been taken over by the rebellion in the 60s and 70s, the last Jewish

holdout was there and rather than surrender to the Romans, these zealots

killed themselves, just as the Romans breached the walls.

And one night, we were camping at the foot of Masada and it had rained very briefly during the night, which was rare because

it's a very arid spot and by the morning, there were patches of green grass that was

sprung up all around us but within a few hours after the sun came out, it looked like a desert again.

It was there and then it was gone and Moses is saying that human life is like that

grass.

It's fresh and it's green in the morning but later in the evening, it's faded and withered.

Man, in comparison to the eternal God, is as brief and frail as a blade of

grass in dry and arid soil with the hot sun beating down upon it.

In fact, the entire history of man is not much more than this, a scorched blade of grass

withers and disappears.

As disturbing as this truth may be, the brevity and the frailty of human life is not even close to

being man's greatest problem.

In continuing his prayer, Moses recognizes that our greatest problem is not our brevity.

It's not our frailty but sin, which subjects us

to the just wrath of an eternal God.

Verses seven to 11.

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.

Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you?

It must have been a very sad and distressing sight for Moses to see the whole nation of Israel

fall in the wilderness during those 40 years of wandering.

Just imagine, all of those that came out of the nation of Egypt,

in 40 years, none of them remained.

Every one of them was gone.

Their deaths were not accidental.

Their deaths were brought about by the divine anger and wrath of the Lord God.

Their iniquities and their secret sins were placed before the Lord God in the light of his presence, and

thus his anger and wrath was provoked, which resulted in their death.

This is a terrifying thought.

Imagine your iniquities, imagine your secret sins, the sins of your heart, the sins that

no one else knows about, visibly laid out in the presence of an almighty,

omniscient and thrice holy God.

Beloved, this is happening right now.

This terrifying notion occurs every moment of every minute of every hour of every day of your life.

The exact same anger, the exact same wrath and fury that weighed heavy upon the Israelites

weighs heavy on sinners.

God hates sin.

Sin is a constant offense to him.

It's a constant irritation to him.

It is a constant annoyance to him.

God takes notice of sin and God will punish sin.

Proverbs 5 .21, for a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord and he ponders all his paths.

There is no sin that is unseen by the Lord God.

Nahum 1 .3, the Lord is slow to anger and great in power and the Lord will by no means clear the

guilty.

His way is in the whirlwind and storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

There is no sin that will go unpunished with the Lord God.

Hebrews 9 .27, and just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that

comes judgment.

Just as certain as death is judgment.

Judgment is coming and you may try to live your entire life in denial of this truth,

but your denial will only exacerbate your guilt and it will intensify your judgment.

You may avoid death for many years.

You may live to be 70 years old.

You may live to be 80 years old or even more, but just as the Israelites lived under the constant

solemn cloud of God's judgment, so do all men and your

life will soon be gone.

It will fade away like a blade of grass and you will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous

judge, and you will give account.

As a young man, I gave very little thought to my own mortality.

My whole life was ahead of me.

I had plenty of time, but now I'm in my mid 40s and I think I'm just starting to realize

how quickly time passes and how my time could end at any moment.

Most people don't like to think about their own mortality and if they do consider it, they think of death as

being something that is very far off in the distance and the point of Psalm 90 verses

nine through 10 is that what initially appears long at the end appears very

short and our lives are soon gone.

Our life flies away.

The span of our lives is toil and trouble.

The years of our lives come to an end with a sigh.

The cause of our grief is sin.

Sin is the cause of our misery.

It's the cause of our brief yet troublesome lives.

Sin is the cause of death.

What is it that brings forth death?

Sin.

Sin always leads to death.

Sin leads to the death of dreams, the death of hopes, the death of relationships and sin will eventually

lead you to your spiritual death.

Separation from the Lord God forever.

Death is the just judgment for man's sin.

Psalm 90 verse 11.

Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you?

I find this verse to be a little more clear in the King James Version.

It reads, who knoweth the power of thine anger?

Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

The power of God's anger and fury is relational to the amount of fear and

reverence that we give him.

The wicked have no reverence for God and thus will experience the full weight of God's

wrath.

The wicked are not children of God, but children of God's wrath, objects of his just

and condemning judgment.

If you are aware of this truth, then you will not treat sin lightly.

If you're aware of this truth, then you will not mock at sin.

Rather, you will entreat the Lord God for his mercy, for his grace and favor,

which is precisely what Moses does.

In verses one and two, Moses exalts the eternality of God.

In verses three through six, he contrasts the eternal God with temporal man.

In verses seven through 11, Moses recognizes the sinfulness of man and the just and

holy wrath of God.

And in verses 12 through 17, the only thing left for Moses to do is to

appeal to God for an outpouring of his grace.

Moses, recognizing that man is quickly passing away, petitions the Lord God for three

things.

God, in light of your eternity, in light of our frailty, in light of our sin, and in light

of your anger and your fury, verse 12, 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.

Yes, establish the work of our hands.

Moses was a man just like you and just like me.

He knew the difficulties of living in a temporary world.

And as Moses reflected on eternal God and finite man, he

asks for the Lord God's help.

Psalm 90, 20 is a prayer that God will help the Israelites to live holy lives, which is

the path of true wisdom.

To number our days is to make every day count for God.

One of the most foolish things that a Christian can do is waste time and waste opportunity, to

squander one's life away in selfish living or in half -hearted service to the Lord God.

To number our days means that we will take full advantage of every opportunity to serve and

glorify the Lord God.

To number our days is to take every opportunity to please God, redeeming the time

for his glory.

James 4, 13, come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town

and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

What is your life?

For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Life is a mist.

Life is a vapor.

It appears only for a brief time and then it vanishes.

Life is as quick as a flash of lightning, the blink of an eye, the snap of a finger.

It's over before you realize it.

Jonathan Edwards was one of America's greatest theologians.

And over the course of his life, he wrote 70 resolutions to help govern his life,

especially in the use of his time.

Resolution number seven, he writes, resolved never to do anything which I should

be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.

Resolution 17, resolve that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I

come to die.

No regrets.

He wanted to live with no regrets.

Resolution 41, resolve to ask myself at the end of every day, week, month, and year

wherein I could possibly in any respect have done better.

Self -examination was a daily part of his life.

It needs to be a part of ours.

Resolution 52, I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live if they were to live

their lives over again.

Resolve that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done supposing

I live to an old age.

Resolution 55, resolve to endeavor to my utmost to act as I can

think I should do if I had already seen the happiness of heaven and hell torments.

Jonathan Edwards was a man who numbered his days.

He was disciplined in the planning of his time.

He was disciplined in the use of his time.

It's clear from these resolutions that Edwards' perspective was not focused on the temporal or the

temporary, but on the eternal things of God.

His entire ministry, his entire existence was to exalt, to lift up, and to

glorify the Lord God.

Beloved, make every day count.

Make every one of your days count for eternity.

Ephesians 4 .15, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise,

but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

The days are evil.

So make every effort to number your days and to live them out for God's glory.

Pray to the Lord God that he would give you wisdom.

Resolve to use your time, your talents, your treasures, all that you are and all that you have

in service of King Jesus.

Number your days that you may get a heart of wisdom.

The second petition, verses 14 through 15.

Moses writes, 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, for as many years as we have seen

evil.

Here, Moses is praying for satisfaction.

He prays for the satisfaction that only God can provide.

Moses is asking for God's steadfast love, for joy, for gladness,

because Moses knows that there is no satisfaction in the temporal.

There is no satisfaction in earthly pleasures.

There is no satisfaction apart from the Lord God.

And this is something that every one of us need to be reminded of.

Only the eternal God can truly satisfy our hearts.

Only the eternal God can give you inexpressible joy and gladness and contentment.

And if your life is void of such satisfaction, if your life is void of joy and

gladness and contentment, then you must go to the Lord God to find

it.

Augustine of Hippo prayed, you made us for yourself and our hearts find no

peace until they find rest in you.

King David prayed in Psalm 15, as for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness.

When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

Like King David, our satisfaction is in seeing the face of the Lord God and in being

like him.

Our satisfaction, our joy, our gladness, our contentment, it should come from the

same thing, from knowing and seeing the face of God.

From having an intimate knowledge and understanding of who God is and what God has

accomplished.

In a temporary and fading world, in the midst of ongoing change and uncertainty, nothing

but delight in the Almighty will fill your days with lasting joy,

lasting gladness and lasting contentment.

Nothing but the steadfast love of God will fill your soul.

Petition number three, verses 16 through 17.

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.

In closing, Moses asks that the Lord God would display his work and his majesty

to the Israelites and to their children.

He asks that God would reveal himself and that he would extend his favor to them

rather than consuming them in his anger and wrath.

Moses is essentially saying, let your servants and their children see the beauty of the Lord

God in that just as you are able to punish, so you are able to bless.

Even though life is short, help us to be fruitful in all our endeavors and firmly

establish the work of our hands.

Every day that the Lord God has given to us is a gift.

And as long as we are here, we must live and work for the eternal, not the

temporal.

We must live and work, not for our own glory and honor, but for the glory

and honor of God alone.

Consider the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John.

John 6, 27, do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures

to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

For on him, God the Father has set his seal.

The food that perishes refers to the things of this world.

While we live, these things may temporarily feed our bellies but they will never truly satisfy

our hunger.

They will never satisfy our hearts.

And at any given moment, these things can disappear as quickly as they appear.

Proverbs 23, 5 says, when your eyes light on it, it is gone for suddenly it sprouts

wings flying like an eagle toward heaven.

The things of this world must not be our chief care or concern.

Rather, the things of God, that which will endure to eternal life must be

first and foremost.

Moses petitioned the Lord God that he would help them number their days.

He petitioned that they would find joy and satisfaction in the Lord God.

He petitioned the Lord God for an outpouring of his grace that the favor of God would rest upon them

and that their work would be established.

Beloved, our God is an eternal God.

Our God is from everlasting to everlasting.

And while we live in a world that is temporary and passing away, we are all moving

towards eternal life with one of two destinations, heaven

or hell.

For those of you who know the Lord Jesus Christ and obey him, make sure you live your

life, your earthly life with an eternal perspective.

Remember, your days are numbered.

Your days are a mist, a vapor, here today and gone tomorrow.

So make the best use of your time.

Live your life for the glory of God alone.

For those of you who don't know the Lord Jesus Christ nor obey him, your

iniquities and your secret sins are laid bare before him.

And you are living under his wrath.

And one day, maybe soon, you will give an account.

Don't be like the foolish man of Luke 12 who tore down his barns to build up bigger ones.

And then he said to his soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come.

Take your ease, eat, drink, and be married.

God said to him, you fool.

This very night, your soul is required of you.

If you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're not walking in obedience to him, pray to the Lord God for his

mercy.

Pray to the Lord God for his grace.

Pray for his forgiveness and redemption.

Repent and place your trust in him.

My prayer for all of you is King David's prayer in Psalm 39, verses four through

seven.

O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days.

Let me know how fleeting I am.

Behold, you have made my days a few hand breaths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you.

Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath.

Surely a man goes about as a shadow.

Surely for nothing they are in turmoil.

Man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather.

And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?

My hope is in you.

Beloved, our hope, our only hope, is in an eternal God.

So live your life in light of an eternal God.

Don't be distracted with the temporal.

Look beyond the temporal to the eternal.

Seek the things that are above.

Set your mind on the things that are above.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are not seen are eternal.

Let's pray.

Our Father, we confess that many of us don't number our days.

We get caught up in this world.

We get caught up in politics.

We get caught up in what's happening around us.

And our focus, our gaze, is taken off of you and onto man.

And Lord, that makes us anxious.

It makes us worrying.

It makes us fearful.

Lord, we confess these things to you.

We pray that our gaze would always be on you, on your son, Jesus Christ, on his work, on the

gospel, on your character, your nature.

Lord, give us a clear picture of who you are.

Give us a clear picture of what you've done on our behalf.

And Lord, help us live out every day of our lives to your glory and honor.

Help us to truly mean this, Lord.

If we don't mean it, convict us.

Put heavy weight upon us, Lord.

Break us so that we might follow you.

Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.