Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 90 | Date: February 16, 2025 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

The Confidence of Moses

Psalm 90, the 90th Psalm. All of the sickness and much of it so serious that has been going around at RBC recently, I actually am a little bit uneasy reaching from Psalm 90 this morning with all of its big theme on death and dying. But that is the Lord’s providence; we come to that today. We hope this will not be a prophecy, but hope we’ll be able to learn from it as Moses, the author of this psalm, has intended for us.

Psalm 90. Why don’t we stand together for the reading of the word? The prayer of Moses, the man of God. The expression, “the man of God,” means a prophet.

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, 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.

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, eighty; 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 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.

You may be seated. As you might have guessed, this is the oldest of all of the Psalms, being a Psalm of Moses. This is the only Mosaic Psalm that we have in the Psalter. Many have noticed verbal similarities to Moses’ final song found in Deuteronomy chapters 32 and 33, or his final song as it’s called, and blessing to Israel. It’s worth noting, I think, that Moses was previously mentioned in the Psalter only one time. That’s back in Psalm 77. Now at the opening of Book 4 of the Psalter, we have it opening with the Psalm by Moses. And then now six more times in Book 4 of the Psalter, we have Moses mentioned.

I think it’s significant that Moses’ psalm is placed here. Moses, as you know, was the great intercessor for the people of God, Israel, under the Old Covenant. In Psalm 89, we came last time to the climax of Book 3 of the Psalms, and the lament there by Ethan was over the seeming collapse of the Davidic promise. The Davidic covenant had been made that David’s son would rule and it seems now, looking at the exile and the carrying away of the king into Babylon, it appears that that promise has failed. And Ethan then in Psalm 89 is lamenting that and asking God to return his steadfast love as he has promised.

And now then, we turn the page, Book 4 of the Psalms, and we open with Psalm 90. And we have a prayer of Moses, the man of God, a prophet, and his prayer now is for the people of God and he prays for the deliverance from their affliction. So we turn from this lament of the collapse of the kingdom to a prayer for God to act on behalf of his people and turn the affliction back. We’ll have more to say about that as we go along.

This is a psalm of community lament. You remember there are individual lament psalms. We see many of those from David himself where the individual is lamenting and then of course it’s brought to the temple for the congregation to sing with him, but it is an individual lament. But then there are also community laments as well, and this is one of them where the community comes together. After some tragedy or some difficulty, they form their lament into this song and they sing it together. This is a psalm of community lament. Moses is the author, but he writes throughout, and are speaking for the entire congregation of Israel.

It’s evidently written at the end of Israel’s 40-year sojourn in the wilderness. It had been a terrible time for them, a difficult time. Some have suggested that this is what spurred the psalm as the events of Numbers chapter 20, the death of Moses’ sister Miriam and his brother Aaron. But at any rate, Moses here is lamenting death and he’s giving voice to corporate Israel. Keep in mind this would then be the younger generation of Israel. Remember that older generation has died off now all but entirely before they go into the land. And he’s given voice to the lament of death that has surrounded them now for some 40 years.

It has the ring of a funeral dirge. I think if we were to sing the entire psalm, we would probably have to write it in a minor key. It has that kind of a ring to it, and that’s—we have this entire generation that has died off in that wilderness cemetery, and they’re not allowed to see the land that God has promised to the nation, and that’s the gloomy backdrop of Psalm 90.

Psalm 90 is one of the better known of the Psalms. I think in any list that you find of favorite Psalms, this is surely to find a place there. It is the favorite of many. It’s made more famous by Isaac Watts’ famous hymn, widely acclaimed as one of the greatest hymns in the English language, “O God, Our Help in Ages Past, Our Hope for Years to Come,” taken from Psalm 90. There, verse one, but the verses throughout the psalm reflect that song; that hymn reflects verses from this psalm as well.

As I say, it’s a psalm of community lament, but—and you’ve come to expect this now with the Lament Psalms—one of the leading characteristics of the Lament Psalms is it also has this strong affirmation of confidence and trust in the Lord. So we sense in the psalm on the one hand that Moses and Israel have become weary, and we’ll see that as we go through, worn out from this 40 years of everybody dying off. And yet at the same time, he sets all of that against what they know of the greatness of God.

So by way of overview, Psalm 90, we have the standard components of a lament song that you’ve come to expect. We have the direct address at the beginning: “Lord.” That’s always a signal that this is a lament psalm. And then we have the confidence section or the expression of trust in verses one and two. And then verses three through 12, we have the lament of God’s harsh discipline of humankind and of Israel herself. And then verses 13 through 17, he ends with a series of petitions. Seven petitions, but the seventh one is repeated, so we have eight total.

All right, we’ll work our way through. Verses one and two, we have Moses’ confidence: “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.” And when Moses says here that, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place,” he recalls God’s covenant, God’s promise to Abraham, and more recently, God’s covenant promises to Israel herself at Sinai, promising to be their God. God had made promises. He had followed up with those promises with marvelous providence and sometimes even miraculous interventions on behalf of this people. Israel’s very identity was caught up in trusting and waiting on God to keep the promises that he had made to them.

And so Moses here, when he says, “You’ve been our dwelling place in all generations,” he’s expressing his humble trust in God’s care and his provisions in keeping with the promises that he had made. I think to get the psalm we have to try to enter into the emotional state of Moses and of Israel as he writes this psalm. Throughout those 40 years, God had miraculously brought them out of slavery. He brought them out of Egypt. He’s entered into covenant with them. He’s made them a nation. He made promises to that nation, but it was a nation without a homeland. He had promised a homeland and all they have is that promise. And at the outset, the nation failed to promise God and keep their part of the covenant in trusting God and valuing His word.

And so for the next 40 years, the entire adult population of Israel dies off. There’s still no home. They’re just out here in nowhere’s land. And every day, every day, every day marked by funerals in the plural. Throughout that gloomy wilderness era, Moses says, it was God’s promise and provision that carried us. He’s been our dwelling place. And so he laments throughout the psalm as we’ll see beginning with verse three, but it’s a lament that’s couched in the context of trust and praise. Lord, you’ve been our dwelling place and you remain our hope forever. Ever since Abraham, ever since you brought us out of Egypt, ever since Sinai, all through the wilderness, you remain our God and our stay.

Now once you say that—and if it is implied here, as I say, that he’s looking all the way back to Abraham, “You’ve been our dwelling place for all generations”—once you say that, that implies something about God. And that’s what he makes explicit in verse two. “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God,” from creation onwards. Abraham, to Egypt, Sinai, and now to us, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

Implicit in that are a number of attributes of God that we love to expound, and we could take the rest of several weeks doing it. God’s eternality—He has no beginning, no end. God is not affected by time. He’s not within time as we are and not affected by it as we are. He’s eternal. And once you’ve said that, you’ve implied something else. You’ve implied His immutability—He doesn’t change. And once you’ve said He’s eternal and He’s immutable in a context like this, the point of it becomes that He’s trustworthy. He’s the eternal God who doesn’t change. He’s made promises. Those promises you can bank on because God doesn’t change. And so His promises still stand as long as God Himself remains.

So we have a grand view of God that’s brought for us both in verses one and two right off at the beginning. And so before he begins his lament, he affirms his confidence in God with this wonderful doxology of God who is eternally God and unaffected by external things. God, you are God. You are God unchanging, God unchanged. You’re God from creation. You’re the God of Abraham. You’re the God of the Exodus. You’re our God who has made us promises and you remain forever our refuge for all generations.

Just again, a reminder, this is what we’ve seen in the Lament Psalms. One of the remarks of lament is always praise. So in a while you’ll hear someone say that, well, it’s okay to complain to God. You find Lament Psalms in the Psalter, and that is true, but let’s follow the example. Always with the complaint in a context of praise and trust.

The Lament

Well, that brings us to verses 3 through 12, the lament.

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. 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, eighty; and 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.

So what Moses is lamenting here, of course, is death. God never dies. He exists from one generation to the next unchanged. He’s just acknowledged that in verses 1 and 2. We now, by contrast, verses 3 through 12, we live our short little lives and then we die. Verse three: we return to the dust from which God made us. Verse five: we live and then suddenly we’re gone as though we’re swept away by a flood. Later in verse five: we’re like a dream. In the morning it’s forgotten. Watts reflects this in his hymn as well: “Time like an ever-rolling stream bears all its sons away. They fly forgotten as a dream dies at opening day.” Ever wake up in the morning and think, “I had a lot of dreams last night. What’d you dream?” I forgot. Don’t know. You ever have that? Moses says that’s like life itself.

Verses five and six: we’re like grass that flourishes in the morning, withers in the evening. Remarkably short lives. God remains forever. We have 70, perhaps 80 years, and they pass so quickly. One hymn that we sing that as far as I’m concerned doesn’t get near enough attention that it deserves, “Abide with Me,” reflects this thinking right here exactly: “Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day.” Captures Moses’ thinking here exactly.

Some of you are young; maybe you can’t relate. I certainly can. Seems only a few days ago I was young, full of zeal and energy and newly married, and we’re eager to pursue life together. Seems like yesterday our children were young and at home and healthy. A few blinks ago, maybe, I was finally thinking, “Okay, I’m getting this, understanding how to read and understand the Bible, eager to share it with others.” And now at this point, it’s about all behind me. You think, “Where did life go?” And that of course is the history of humanity. One generation comes, it’s gone. Another generation comes, it’s gone.

You read that first in Genesis chapter five, don’t you? Adam lived so many years, had a son, lived so many years, and died. Seth lived so many years, had a son, lived so many years, and he died. Lamech lived so many years, had a son, and he died. And he had a son, and he died. And he had sons, and he died. And he had sons, and he died. And he had sons, and he died. And somewhere along the line, and there you’ve got Enoch, and he’s the outlier. But he has a son named Methuselah and people might have thought he was going to live forever. But no, he died as well, and he had a son and he died, and he had a son and he died. And that’s the whole history of humanity. One generation after another, it comes and it comes and it goes and goes. And it’s humbling to consider.

Moses is saying here something to the effect that when you think about it, our momentary life is so brief. It seems insignificant. We live, and then we die, and then you think, “What was the point of it all?” And you might even wonder, thinking through Moses’ thinking here, you might even wonder if Psalm 90 lies in the thinking behind Solomon’s Book of Ecclesiastes. It just seems futile. Life’s little day is here and it’s gone. And what was the point of it?

In verse 10, it’s more than that. Life is not just brief; it’s difficult. Verse 10: “The years of our life are 70 or even by reason of strength 80, yet their span is but toil and trouble.” Well, that’s what they’ve experienced in the wilderness. And again, this sounds like the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter one in verse two: life is full of toil and vanity, futility. Paul reflects that in Romans chapter eight. We in the whole created order groan with travail. What marks life, the one constant thing in life, is death. And each of us takes our turn.

More to the point still, in Moses’ thinking, verses 3 and following, all of this—the brevity of life, the difficulty of life—all of this is God’s doing. That’s verses 3 and following. Verse 3: “You return man to dust and say, ‘Return, O children of men.'” Verse 5: “You sweep them away as with a flood.” Verse 7: “We are brought to an end by your anger, by your wrath we’re dismayed.” Verse nine: “All our days pass away under your wrath.” It is God Himself who has made human life so short, and He’s done so as an act of judgment, reflecting here, of course, on Genesis chapter three. Sin has entered the world, God has answered in judgment, and death has entered into the world.

And if verse three can sound rather abstract, like you’re just speaking theologically—people die, you return man to dust, say “Return, O children of man”—it can sound abstract. By the time we get to verse seven, Moses makes it very personal. He’s lamenting the experience of Israel herself in the wilderness. Verse seven: “We are brought to an end by your anger. By your wrath, we are dismayed.” Verses eight through 10, the same. Moses is writing for Israel to lament this together, what God has brought about.

So Moses’ reflections on life are sobering, but they are realistic. All of us—rich, poor, young, old—eventually this is the one thing we all have in common. We die. In every funeral we are reminded of it. We each take our own little turn; our brief little day is gone. Like James said in James chapter four, we’re like a mist, a vapor that appears for a little time, and it’s gone.

Now in verses 11 and 12, Moses is continuing his lament, but it’s turned into something of a prayer. Verses 11 and 12, he says, no one ever thinks about this. I guess it’s too uncomfortable. This is not a subject we like to talk about. “Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you?” These realities that we’re all aware of ought to drive us to think, and it ought to drive us to think in larger perspective. But Moses says we don’t. Who considers these things? We seldom consider that we will die. We spend our lives wandering on our own little wilderness of trivialities. We fritter around with temporal nothings. We seldom think in the big picture. We seldom can think, verse 10, we will soon be gone, and life’s little day will be over. Our focus is here and now, as though this here and now were the whole of our existence.

Moses’ 40 years of experience in the wilderness had led him to think. And he’s thinking something like, “If only at Kadesh Barnea we had thought. If only at Kadesh Barnea we had thought in the big picture, valued God’s word, trusted Him. How different life could have been.” And so in verse 12 he prays with an implied repentance: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Teach us to consider life’s brevity. If life is brief, what significance does that give to each day?

So in verses 11 and 12, Moses alters the form of the Lament Psalm just a bit. He’s been lamenting and he’s still lamenting, but now verses 11 and 12 take the form of what we would find in a wisdom psalm. And he’s exhorting: Think, take note, consider. Number your days. Recognize that life is brief. Come to grips with the reality. Sober up; you will die. And what does that say about today?

And so Moses has come to grips with the reality of death. And in verses 11 and 12, he’s praying that we all do the same. We, each of us, and our loved ones, all of them, will die. Verse five: He sweeps us away like a flood. We’re like a dream in the morning; it’s gone. We’re like grass that flourishes in the morning; in the evening, it withers. And as each generation passes, each next generation must come to grips with the fact that the only constant, the only steady that we have in our lives, is God Himself. Verse one: He is the dwelling place of God’s people in every generation. And every next generation of God’s people must learn to live on God’s promise and His accompanying providence.

Those of you who have experienced, as we have, the loss of loved ones, this is the truth you find to be true, that God Himself is our only constant refuge. We can only wonder how many of us here today—attendance is down a bit today because so much sickness and things—we can only wonder how many of us here today will still be here this time next year. We have a plaque, a couple of plaques now on the back wall of the auditorium, memorializing members of the church who have passed on before. Beloved members, all of whom will soon be forgotten. And one day, my name will be back there. One of these days, your name will be back there. There’ll be new elders leading the congregation, new deacons serving, new teachers in the classrooms, new children there. And we like to think somebody will remember us and they will for a little while, then we’ll be forgotten.

And each next generation of God’s people here will rest in the same truth that each previous generation has had to learn: that God is our refuge and strength; that He has been our dwelling place in every generation; and that through Jesus Christ, He is our refuge. Jesus Christ has secured for us a great future and we live on His promise and we live on His providence, and these shape our lives. So in verses 11 and 12, Moses prays that we’ll consider these truths. Sober up. Teach us to number our days. Give us a soberness of heart to think about death responsibly. This cursed world we live in, that’s what marks it: death. And nothing remains. Nothing remains but God Himself.

Specific Petitions

But these considerations lead Moses to do more than just think. These considerations are leading Moses to pray. Now, as I mentioned, verses 11 and 12, they are stated in the kind of prayer as well. He’s still lamenting, though. These verses are a bit of a transition, and by the time we get to verse 13, Moses is turning to God with a sense of helplessness and a series of specific petitions that he brings in light of all of this. Seven of them, the seventh repeated.

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’ve 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.

Verse 13, he addresses the Lord by name. See the capitals there? “Yahweh” reminds him of his covenant relationship with his people and he appeals accordingly. And he says in verse 13, “Return.” Years ago you showed us the mercy of deliverance. Come back and do it again. Or as he says in the rest of the verse, “Have pity on us.” Have compassion on your people. End this affliction.

Verse 14: “Satisfy us in the morning.” It’s an interesting expression. He’s viewing this present experience that we live through as night. We’re living through this nighttime of affliction and death. Satisfy us in the morning with a new experience of your favor and your steadfast love so that we may be joyful again.

Verse 15: This is an especially bold request. He asks God to compensate their sufferings proportionately to the time of their affliction. For as long as we’ve been afflicted, make us happy again. Verse 16: Let us and our children see your work on our behalf. And then verse 17: Restore us to your favor and establish the work of our hands.

Moses began the psalm looking backwards: “For all generations, you’ve been our dwelling place.” He spends the bulk of the psalm lamenting—lamenting the death and the affliction that they experience. Whatever happiness they had, it’s overshadowed by another “how many funerals today.” And now he concludes in verses 13 and following, looking ahead with an assurance of God’s steadfast love, still trusting God’s promise. He says, in effect, turn this whole situation back. Make us rejoice again in a new experience of your favor. Make us the people, make us the nation that you’ve promised we would be. Take us into the land, give it to us as you’ve promised. Bring our time of affliction to an end. And put all this death to death.

And there the psalm ends with petitions that God would reverse this horrible, morbid situation that we live in. Well, reading the psalm then from our standpoint, our New Testament eyes, how do we read this? Was Moses’ prayer answered? How was it answered?

Well, first of all, we should look at the psalm in the context of the Psalter itself. Why did the editors of the Psalter put this psalm where they did? I won’t—it’s a little bit too tedious to demonstrate it all. There are plenty of verbal connections and thematic connections as well. Correlation of thought between Psalm 89 and Psalm 90. I won’t work through them all, but I’ll give you a couple of examples.

Psalm 89, verse 47, Ethan says, “Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you’ve created all the children of men.” It’s a lament of death. That, of course, is the whole theme of Psalm 90. We have the emphasis in Psalm 89 of the foreverness of God and the foreverness of His promise. We have that in Psalm 90 in verse 2 as well, “from everlasting to everlasting.” Some of the same verbal connections there. Psalm 89 in verse 1: “With my mouth I’ll make known your faithfulness to all generations.” We have that reflected in Psalm 90 in verse 1. Near the end of Psalm 89 we have the expression in verse 46, “forever.” Psalm 90 verse 13: “Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants.”

There are also indications through these kinds of connections that the editors see an answer to Moses’ prayer in Psalm 90 in connection with the Davidic hope that is still alive in Psalm 89. Book three, as you know, as we’ve seen, is a lament. It climaxes with this horrible lament of Psalm 89 with this lamenting of the seeming collapse of the Davidic promise. The kingly line’s been cut off. God can’t keep His promise, and yet His promise is sure and forever. Lord, how long? Bring it back.

But if in Psalm 90 it is God who is eternal, in Psalm 89, it’s David’s throne that is eternal. And there are other connections like that that seem to equate God’s throne with David’s throne. Of course, as we work through the Psalter, that’s always the case—that God will reign. We’ll see it in the following Psalms, Psalm 93 and following. “The Lord reigns, the Lord reigns.” We’ll see that everywhere, but always it is the Lord reigning through His anointed king. And we’ll turn from Psalm 90 to Psalm 91, an assurance that Messiah will reign and be successful and unscathed even. Psalm 92, we have another expression of a messianic Psalm and the success that God will give him. And then this whole section of Psalms in the late 90s, 93 and following, the “Lord reigns” Psalms—the Lord reigns, the Lord reigns. You’ll find that expression over and again. The connection is God will reign and He’ll reign through His king.

So Moses’ prayer is answered and it’s answered in connection with His promise to David that his son will rule. Well, that’s no surprise to you; you’ve read the New Testament, of course. Of course that’s the case. When we come to the whole Bible context, we find the same thing. This whole problem of death is definitively answered for us in the person and work of Jesus. He took all the sin of His people to Himself, bore the curse and the judgment of God against sin, rose from the dead in triumph over death, and not by Himself only, but as the forerunner of His people, He rises from the dead, bringing us with Him. We wait for the day of His return when He will raise His people to reign with Him forever. And He’ll destroy all of His enemies, the last of which, we read in 1 Corinthians 15, is even death itself He will put to death. And so Moses’ prayer will be answered and it will be answered through David’s greater son, Jesus Christ, and in Him He is. We find in Him our eternal refuge in God.

Now does this have any bearing on today? Is all this future? Well, Moses certainly hopes that it has bearing on today. Verse 16: “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. Establish the work of our hands upon us. Yes, establish the work of our hands.” Help us to learn from this. Teach us to number our days. Make us wise. Deliver us from this affliction. And don’t let our lives have been for nothing. Give them meaning. Establish the work of our hands. Give us the land that you’ve promised. Give us the success that you promised for us.

And we pray the same way. Let us do something that outlasts life. Don’t let it be that this life ends up being totally insignificant. Help us to do something that outlasts this life. Establish the work of our hands so that our children can see it. Help us to see that our children are safe in Christ. Help us to see that our grandchildren are safe in Christ. Enable us to minister to and to bless others so that their faith is nourished. Make our witness effective.

And I think there’s probably even an echo of this in Luke chapter 16, where Jesus tells us in effect that we ought to have the sense to spend our money in a way that it comes back to meet us in the resurrection. One day the Lord Jesus Christ will return. He’ll raise His people from the dead to eternal life. And not only will the affliction and death of God’s people all be in the past forever, but according to 1 Corinthians 3 and other places, for every work that they have done for Him, He will give them reward and they’ll shine with Him forever and forever. And Moses’ prayer will be answered.