Psalm 90

Cody Westcott

Lent 2022 • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

Psalm 90

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Intro

Wesleyan theological emphasis: Holy Love

We often do well to consider the “love” part, but not always so great at considering the “Holy” part

Holy, קדש, “set apart”, entirely “other” than us, unlike anything else, utterly unique

This is why we are to worship God with “fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12)

Psalm 90 takes such holiness seriously. It magnifies the glory of the Lord.

God Eternal

v. 1-4

As the Holy One, God is eternal.

He is “from everlasting to everlasting”

There is no beginning or end to God

God is older than the mountains and the earth.

There is nothing before God

God as non-contingent

God is the One who Began all beginnings

God never ends

God is not mortal, he has no fear of death.

He always was and always will be

“A Thousand years…” (v.4)

Our entire lives pass before God as a moment

Centuries stretch on forever from our view, but to God they pass in a blink

God is the “Ancient of Days”

God Almighty

v. 5-7

God is not just eternal, but all powerful

God is Governor of all History, Sovereign over all that was, is, and will be

“You sweep them away...”

There is nothing that happens apart from God

Not that God meticulously controls all things, but even things that come to pass from human freedom are only possible because God allows them

There is nothing that God cannot do

There is no threat to God, especially no threat from mortal men

“by your wrath we are overwhelmed.” (v. 7)

Human Frailty

v. 7-10

In the face of such a God, what are we?

Our lives are short, a blink of God’s eye

“Our years come to an end like a sigh...” (v. 9-10)

Even the mightiest of men, even the dreaded nuclear forces of humanities most terrible armies, are as nothing to God

“Who comprehends the power of your anger...” (v. 11)

Rom 9:19-23

The New Revised Standard Version God’s Wrath and Mercy

You will say to me then, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction; 23 and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—

Isaiah 6:1-5

The New Revised Standard Version A Vision of God in the Temple

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Who are we, mere mortals before God?

Wisdom and Transcendence

v. 11-12

And so Psalm 90 moves us toward wisdom from this understanding of God’s might and power

v. 12, “Teach us to count our days, that we may gain a wise heart”

Proverbs 9:10

The New Revised Standard Version General Maxims

10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,

and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Wisdom is understanding our utter dependence on God. There is no life apart from God.

We are weak, and God is strong. Apart from God, we are like dust and grass that withers.

And thus we can but pray to God with fear and trembling, hoping he will turn his fearsome gaze away from us, so that our short miserable lives are not made shorter by the wrath of God.

The Immanent God

v. 13-17; v. 1

Is that all there is to say, then?

Is God utterly transcendent, out of our reach, and we can only hope and pray he doesn’t strike us from afar?

Is God all “Holy” without the “Love”?

v. 13-17 offer a surprising twist.

The psalm spends its entirety speaking of the fear inspiring awe of God, his might, his eternality, his holiness, and then dares to ask, “Have compassion on your servants...”

Everything already said is true, and yet...

The transcendent God is also immanently close to us

The Almighty One who made the stars may yet, “prosper the work of our hands.

Psalm 8

The New Revised Standard Version Divine Majesty and Human Dignity

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars that you have established;

4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,

mortals that you care for them?

5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,

and crowned them with glory and honor.

6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;

you have put all things under their feet,

7 all sheep and oxen,

and also the beasts of the field,

8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,

whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Sovereign,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

This same God who is eternal, all powerful, Holy of Holies, beyond our comprehension, has come down to dwell with us in Jesus Christ. Has had his feet wiped with perfume, has even knelt to wash our feet, has gone even to death on a cross for our sake

Wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Wisdom is understanding that we are frail, mortal creatures, and that we are utterly dependent on God.

Wisdom also means understanding that this same Lord has drawn hear to us, is not only Holy but is Love, and thus we must insist on that Holy one drawing closer to us, transforming even our frail lives, that this withering grass might live.

Thus, finally, the Lord becomes “our dwelling place, from generation to generation” (v. 1). We find our home in God, we find our life in God. The Holy One, the Ancient of Days, the LORD Almighty, who came down to us in Jesus.

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