Moses wrote this Psalm, probably as an old man. Looking back at his long, eventful life, his distilled view is that life is short and full of trouble.
He begins, though, with God: “Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born... from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
Moses’ experience is that God is solid, eternal, secure, unchanging. (v1-4)
People, on the other hand, are temporary and decaying: swept away and withered like sun-scorched grass (v5).
Moses had seen incredible acts of God’s power as He freed His people from slavery in Egypt. He experienced God’s patience and kindness as He led them towards the land He promised.
Moses had also seen people grumble, resist, complain, argue, disagree and forget. He had experienced loneliness and publicity, failure and victory and no doubt a full range of emotions. He had seen many people get old and frail and ‘finish their years with a moan’ (v9).
As well as this contrast between God’s eternity and our brevity, there is also a sense of God’s curse being part of the human experience in verses 7-9 and 11: “we are consumed by your anger... you have set our iniquities before you... (we are) under your wrath”.
A bit of a dark, pessimistic view of the human experience?
He seems to suggest that it is wise to look death and sin squarely in the face. “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (v12)
Beginning with verse 12, the rest of the Psalm is a series of six requests to God:
- Teach us wisdom
- Relent/ have compassion (was there a particular crisis the Israelites were in when Moses wrote this? Or in general asking God to turn His anger away?)
- Satisfy us with your love
- Make us glad (in contrast to their years of trouble)
- Show us your glory
- Establish the work of our hands
These are requests for salvation, for hope, for joy, for the sense that our days and work can have meaning, for our lives not to be short and full of trouble, for a taste of God’s never-failing love and for death not to be the end.
Moses had a strong sense of what God is like. Just asking those questions of Him suggests that Moses thought those requests were possibilities.
Prayer:
God, make us wise, whatever our age. Help us to say, throughout our years, that you are our dwelling place. Help us to study and meditate on the unchanging wisdom of your word, letting it change us. Help us to remember our lives are short and to use each day thoughtfully. Help us to look our sin squarely in the face and confess it. Thank you that in Jesus we have forgiveness of sins and a certain hope of eternal life united with you. Thank you too that we can participate in your eternal kingdom-building work. Help us to do that today.
Photo: Christopher Burn www.unsplash.com
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