PSALM 90 OUR ETERNAL HOME. "Lord Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." The author of the psalm is Moses and the term 'Man of God@ is used more than 40 times. It is often applied to Elijah and Elisha. In the pastoral epistles it designates a minister of the Gospel. This psalm is given the title, 'A prayer of Moses the man of God.' At the end of Moses' life, after he had seen all his contemporaries die in the wilderness, (sentenced for unbelief), this man of God led a new generation to the river Jordan so that they might enter into Canaan. Moses himself died before that crossing over Jordan, because of one great act of anger and disobedience. He struck the rock to which God had commanded him to speak - that rock was Christ. The incident warns us to beware of disobeying God and being angry with Him, such an attitude always causes us to miss something wonderful. This psalm, although it tells of dying generation after generation, is not a psalm of death. It is a psalm of life and victory. It celebrates God our Abode, a dwelling place, generation after generation. Consider a few facts. Abram, was 25 years old when he was called out of Haram. From 25 years of age until he died he had no fixed abode. But Abram was not a tramp, he was a believer following God. He went out not knowing where he was going, but he knew God was leading him. He lived each day with God, and in that sense God was his abode. Isaac and Jacob were no less unsettled. They were sojourners on the earth. Their abode was in God. In Egypt, Israel were strangers and slaves for some 400 years and at the time of this psalm they had been wandering for 40 years. They were looking for a better place to dwell in. Since the left Egypt, God had literally been a home for them to all generations. One hymnist declares, "While place we seek or place we shun, the soul finds happiness! in none.". WE must be content to find our happiness IN GOD. HIMSELF. When the Son of God came among us He made this stupendous promise, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you." (John 15.7.). "If ye abide in Me." Where we abide is our abode. How do we abide in God?. We keep his commandments. It is wonderful to feel at home with God. He is our Eternal Dwelling Place, and each believer can truly testify that he has a little bit of heaven in his heart right now. The psalm also celebrates God our Alpha and Omega. We have a God who never changes - The beginning and the ending. The Bible speaks of a time when things began, and people ridicule it. The Bible speaks of a time when things will end, and people laugh at it. But, no matter how greatly they scoff, we all have a beginning and an end. As far as the believers are concerned, as long as we are here on earth we will make God our abiding place. He is from everlasting to everlasting - eternity before and eternity to come. But God has no succession of moments - hours - days - years - ages - or cycles. He is there before it begins and he will be there after it ends. His unchanging, constant, presence is spoken of in contrast with the brevity of man's life. God hasn't got a watch, He has a plan, and all will run according to His Will. He is wonderful in all His doings, Always on time, though dwelling in eternity. He is always there. In His sight a thousand years are but as yesterday whe! n it is past. He turns man to BREAKING. Seeking the cause of death is a waste of time, we all break at the end. The tale of man is a cycle of generations, the saving element however is always there. God's mercies are new every morning, and His loving kindness like a rising tide. Moses surveys the fast moving panorama of earth. Like the fantastic speeding up of a video, a thousand years pass by as though it were but yesterday. They are all carried away by the flood. Watch the raindrops the next time you are in a storm., and consider as you watch, the fact that humanity are leaving the earth as fast as the raindrops fall. There is also the amazing fact that humanity is coming into the world at a faster rate than it is leaving it. Moses had seen some 2,000,000 people die during the forty years in the wilderness. His picture of humanity was, 'like the green grass, cut in the morning and withered in the evening.@ One statement used by Moses in this psalm is argued by many as the standard length of human life. "The days of our years are three score years and ten". This is not a Divine Edict. Moses himself was about 120 years old at the time. He was referring to what he had observed in 40 years of wandering. He adds "If by reason of strength they be four score (80) years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow. Moses had had his share of labour and sorrow. He had had his share of problems and difficulties. Even at his advanced age he had to deal daily with the problems of a nation on the move. Yet, he opens the psalm with the tremendous truth, "Lord, you are our abode." We dwell in God. When we are 'cut off' we fly away. The word fly here implies becoming weary or faint. We weary of this old world. There was Moses, 120 years old, all his contemporaries gone, his body strong but his age telling, everything around him changing. There were now only two people left with him, who had be! en with him from the start. Then, Moses speaks of the anger of God. "We are spent by your anger and troubled by your displeasure." God is always angry with sin. Even our best friends would hate us if they knew us as God does - but HE does not hate us. "Our days pass away in His anger." His wrath is the agent which speeds the passing of our days. Until the sin principle is dealt with. we live a dying, whining, complaining existence. Moses cries out, "Who knows the power of thine anger?" He knew that God had barred him from entering the promised land because of his disobedience. Moses had struck the rock, when God had told him to speak to it. There are those who revel in rebellion, but their days slip quickly away. Moses gives an assessment of life. "O teach us to number our days." Give us a true assessment of life that we may be wise. He asks God to satisfy us early with His mercy, that we may rejoice all our days. The earlier in life we get to know God the better our lives will be. He ends with a prayer which had a wonderful fulfilment, "Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil." This prayer was answered. The generation which grew up under those displays of wrath and mercy in the wilderness, were the best generation of Israelites that ever lived. Here is God's compensation. Those who murmured and complained against God, died in the wilderness. But a new generation arose, and they were a wonderful people. The answer to the human problem is LIVING WITH GOD. He is our abode - our Eternal Home. Copyright (c) 1996, Hedley Palmer. All rights reserved. ---------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/hpalmer/psalms: ps-090.txt .