Sermon Tone Analysis

O God Our Help

Good morrning!

I am Pastor Garey I pastor the small church plant that meets in the afternoons right here after you all meet.

We, as a church, are deeply thankful for the opportunity to have a place that we might call home and thank you all very much.

So, when Pastor Dan asked if I would be willing to fill in for him while he was on vacation it was an obvious answer for me.

To provide for him and his family the opportunity to rest and relax is just a small way that we might be able to say thank you to him and to you all as well.

This morning we are going to be looking at Psalm chapter 90.

It is a very significant Psalm within the Psalter.

For one it is the only Psalm that is said to have been written by Moses.

Next it is important in its placement within the book of Psalms as well.

It follows a grouping of Psalms that were written after the nation of Israel had seen glorious times under King David and then the Davidic lineage, but now it finds itself in ruins and much of the nation was being led away into exile.

I find it interesting that these deeply troubled Psalms just prior are now followed up by Psalm 90.

In fact Psalm 91 continues the theme that we are going to see begun today and so we will be looking at that Psalm next week.

In fact Psalm 90 sets the tone for the next seventeen Psalms.

Also this is said, in the title of the Psalm to be a prayer of Moses.

It’s as though God in ordering the Psalms is saying, “Do not worry about the loss of the monarchy, I am God, and I was, am, and will always be your one true king!

I was King in the time of Moses before David was even born, and I am still king to this very day and my kingship will last into eternity.

When the people of Israel faced struggles as they did when they fled Israel during the time of Moses and then wandered in the desert for forty years, and then later as they watched the glory of their nation crumble before their very eyes as the greatest, the brightest, and the youngest were carried away into exile and the nation was brought to ruin.

We too are going to face dark and difficult days.

Days when it is going to feel as though God is far from us and we have been abandoned in the midst of this sin soaked fallen world.

As the people of Israel during these times in their history may have felt hopeless we too will experience these same emotions.

Perhaps because we have lost a loved one, or sickness has come knocking at our door, or the loss of a job.

Struggles and trials and the anxiety and depression and junk that come with living in the midst of a fallen world are going to be all too real for all of us here at some point in our lives.

And so God chose to preserve for us this great Psalm.

So that we might be reminded just as Moses was, just as the people were when the wandered in the desert, and then later as they were taken into exile.

They were reminded by Psalm 90 that Jesus is our King and His is our Refuge.

And so today my hope is that when those times come or perhaps they are for some of us here today, I hope that we might come to find our refuge in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

So let’s look at Psalm chapter 90.

It begins in verse one and reads.

Our creator, Our God, is first and foremost shown to have always been a place of rest and comfort for his people regardless of their circumstance and throughout all generations.

Moses prays this prayer while wandering aimlessly in the midst of the desert.

As God leads them in circles simply waiting patiently for forty years.

For the entire generation who had come out of Egypt as adults had died.

And so that a new generation had then arisen.

Moses has seen the care, the compassion, and the comfort that God had brought during these uncertain times.

And then later when the people of Israel read this Psalm watching their nation crumble around them they could lean on the fact that the loss of the human king did not change reality of God’s kingship in any way, shape, or form.

God has reigned supreme over the whole of creation from before the time of Moses, or David, or the Davidic Kings, and he will continue to reign following the loss of the Davidic line.

Jesus is still and will always be the dwelling place of His people.

In fact we could say that Jesus is the only dwelling place that truly matters in life.

Israel saw themselves, and Jerusalem, and the Temple as being impenetrable.

God is the one that had founded the nation.

But the idea that God is our dwelling place goes so far beyond the ideas of a nation, a temple, a sanctuary, or a refuge.

The ultimate expression of went it meant for God’s people to dwell securely was never meant to be find in a city, or a temple, or even in a church.

But, rather, always spiritually in their God.

What we are being encourage to do in this verse is to find spiritual refuge and strength in God.

Because when we do we will find that this has real implications for living life in real terms.

Then in verse two we read.

The very essence of our security is found in the eternal and unchangeable nature of our God.

Before the earth and all of creation had been formed God was God.

His was the great and high creator God.

He was and is still sovereign over all that he has made.

Moses is focused on the eternality of our God.

We worship Jesus as the God who was, who is, and who is to come.

In the next few verses Moses is going to contrast that with the shortness of human life.

This is meant as a reminder that all of the individual events of human history although significant to each and every generation are but a moment from God’s perspective.

And every single one of those events is under his control as our Creator and the one who ordains both life and death.

And so we next read in verse three.

God’s sovereignty and eternality gives him complete control over the days of all mankind.

Moses is simply stating the obvious here, that all of humanity sprang from dust from the beginning of the creation of man as written in Genesis chapter two verse seven and all of humanity must eventually return dust after their death which we read in Genesis chapter three verse nineteen.

And it is the brevity or shortness of life that Moses is going to focus on in the next several verses bring before our eyes this grand contrast between the eternal nature of God and the finite nature of humanity.

In verse four we read.

And then in verse five and six we read.

The point that Moses is making is that true security can only be found in the everlasting strength and stability of our God.

Because all of us are marked by the frailty and temporary nature of the human condition.

God is in control because he is the Eternal Creator God.

Now Moses is going to shift gears in the next several verses.

And so we have seen God’s eternal nature compared to our finite nature.

And now Moses is going to discuss God’s need as our perfect Father to at time rebuke us in His anger towards our sin.

And so in verse seven we read.

The words referencing Gods anger and wrath are meant as reminders of God’s warnings from the book of Deuteronomy concerning what would happen to the nation if they failed to keep the covenant once they had entered the land.

And of course we know that they failed to do so.

And so God’s anger and His wrath were poured out upon the nation of Israel.

It is this combination of words that were associated with the ultimate punishment that Israel might face if they became unfaithful to God and His covenant with the people.

And that punishment was exile.

And so we should not see God’s wrath and anger as capricious.

These words reflect a righteous response to a persistently rebellious people.

Moses continues in verse eight and he writes

This is the very reason for God’s anger and his wrath.

Sin will always provoke a response from God.

We have essentially the same thing said twice here.

Moses uses simply two different words for sin, our iniquities and our secret sins.

And he combines them both with simply two different ways of representing the idea of presence.

They are “before you” and they are in the light of your presence.

I believe, Moses does this so as to magnify the situation that we all face.

We all face a very real problem.

And this is the problem.

How can an absolutely holy God live among a sinful people?

God’s anger is brought about by the continuous sins both known and unknown of his people.

And the only means for the relationship that we so desire, so desperately need, between ourselves and God, is a complete and utter dependence upon the grace of God.

Then in verses nine and ten we read

Moses is now pouring out his heart before His God.

He is saying that experiencing God’s anger simply adds to the frustration of living such a brief and troubled life.

It is possible that a short life might be live in beautiful communion with our God, but a life lived under God’s wrath is both bitter and frustrating.

And this is the life that Moses knew.

Life can be both short and full of difficulty and grief, and in the end often times we groan our last breath and we simply pass away.

Moses continues in verse eleven and he writes

This is what Moses wants you to hear more than anything else.

When we experience the righteous anger of God in our lives how do we respond?

We should have a response of faithfulness to a faithful father who justly corrects his children.