«A prayer of Moses, the man of God.» I think this Psalm has been very much misunderstood, because the title has been forgotten. It is not a Psalm for us in its entirety: it cannot be read by the Christian man and taken as it stands. It is a Psalm of Moses as far as Moses can get. It goes a long way, but there was a Joshua that led the people into the promised land, and there is a Jesus who has «brought life and immortality to light by the gospel.» That light shines through the gloomy haze of this dark Psalm. Please remember that Moses was a man peculiarly tried. We have never duly given weight to the afflictions of Moses. All the people that he brought out of Egypt, with two exceptions, died, and he saw most of them die: himself having the sentence of death in himself, that he, like the rest, must not cross into the Land of Promise; so that with two millions or more of people round about him, that forty years he stood in the valley of the shadow of death, and with all the mercies that surrounded him; yet, still, he must have had continual sorrow of heart, all his old friends and companions passing away one by one. It is a brave Psalm, if you read it in that light: it is a grand specimen of heroic faith.
Psalms 90:1. Lord, thou has been our dwelling place in all generations.
All thy saints abide in thee. Thy fiery, cloudy pillar covers and protects us.
Psalms 90:2. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Oh! that is grand to feel that there is something stable: there is a rock that never crumbles god from everlasting to everlasting the same. As for us, what are we?
Psalms 90:3. Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
A breath gave them life: a word makes them die.
Psalms 90:4-6. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up, in the evening it is cut down and withereth.
We have seen this over and over again, as we shall see it yet again this year in the flourishing and the cutting down of the grass; but we forget it for ourselves. Too often we forget it for our companions: we think that they are immortal where all are mortal. Let us correct our estimate that we may somewhat correct our sorrows.
Psalms 90:7. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
Which was true of that generation. They died because of God's anger; but we bless God: as many of us as have believed in Christ Jesus are not under the divine anger: it is taken away. When it does fall upon us it is as a father is angry with his children it troubles and consumes us; but, blessed be God we usually walk in the light of his countenance, and joy, and rejoice therein. Let us value his mercy as we see the misery of his wrath.
Psalms 90:8. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
That is true of you that know not God. Your sins are always before his face, but it is not true of believers. Thou hast cast all their sins behind thy back. God has forgotten the sins of his chosen, according to his own promise, «Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more for ever.» O blessed gospel, Moses cannot reach to that.
Psalms 90:9. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
«For all our days are passed away in thy wrath.» So it was with those that were round about Moses; but our days are passed in God's goodness: they shall pass away in infinite love, «We spend our years as a tale that is told.»
Psalms 90:10. The days of our years are three-score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Speaking of the mass of men, this is all that can be said of them; but as for the godly, where do they fly? They fly into his bosom who has loved them with an everlasting love. What is death but an open cage to bid us fly and build our happy nests on high? Blessed be God that we do fly away. Have not we often wished for it and said, «O that I had the wings of a dove that I might fly away and be at rest» that will come bye-and-bye.
Psalms 90:11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
As he is greatly to be reverenced, so is he greatly to be feared. But the Lord has said of his people, «As I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.» Blessed be his name.
Psalms 90:12-14. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto Wisdom. Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Poor Israel was greatly afflicted. These deaths in the wilderness made her a perpetual mourner, but Moses asks that God will return to his people, cheer and encourage them, and let the few days they have to live be bright with his presence.
Psalms 90:15-17. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 90:1 and Psalms 119:21-32.