Rev. David Holwick ZN Psalms
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
December 28, 2014
Psalm 90:1-17
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I. A serious psalm for a serious age.
A. A bummer thought for the new year.
A man went in for his annual checkup.
A couple of days later, his doctor phoned.
"I'm afraid I have bad news for you."
"What is it?" the man asked.
Doc answered, "You have only 48 hours to live."
The patient was shocked. "That is bad news!"
But Doc continued.
"I'm afraid I have even worse news."
"What could be worse than just 48 hours to live?" the
patient stammered.
"I've been trying to call you since yesterday."
Sermon #27535
Sometimes an hour means more than it usually does.
That can be true of a day, a year, or even a decade.
It all depends on how you choose to look at it.
B. We are on the verge of a new year.
1) It is an old tradition to note the passing of time.
2) New Years looks back more than it looks ahead.
a) The Week magazine - roundup of famous deaths this year.
1> These are people most of us know, and you reflect
that a part of your past is now gone.
b) Christmas letters often sound like this as well.
A friend of Celeste's wrote us this week to
let us it was a sad year for her.
Her mom died, and soon after that, a close friend
died.
Both deaths were unexpected.
Her sister lost everything in a fire in October,
then died in December.
She wrote in conclusion, "Unfortunately this
Christmas will be sadder than any I have
experienced."
1> Psalm 90, verse 9, says, "We finish our years
with a moan."
2> Life can be very tough.
II. Is there anything to look forward to?
A. Psalm 90 offers more than morbidity.
1) Although it is especially noted for its morbidity.
a) Traditionally, it has been a favorite at funerals.
b) At least, back when people were concerned about their
eternal destiny.
2) Its dark side makes its positive points even stronger.
B. The psalm begins by saying God should be our dwelling place.
1) He should be our center, our home.
2) The Apostle Paul preached the same truth to the people
of Athens.
After talking about how God provides our daily needs,
he even quotes two of their own philosophers:
Acts 17:27-28
"God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach
out for him and find him, though he is not far from
each one of us.
'For in him we live and move and have our being.'
As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his
offspring.'"
3) Modern people can have a hard time sensing this.
Nancy Bartolec's recent newsletter mentions a conversation
she had at a home she was visiting.
One of the other guests didn't have much interest in God,
and let everyone know it.
In his exhaustion of trying to have all things make sense,
he simply and softly said,
"Why does He have to make it so hard to believe in Him?"
He was an intelligent and caring person and Nancy could
relate to his struggle.
Maybe you can, too.
C. This psalm explores the tensions of that struggle.
1) It lists three areas we must confront.
2) It also gives blessings that can be ours.
III. We must come to grips with Eternity.
A. Only God is eternal.
1) God is older than everything.
2) He is older than the mountains, or anything else in the
universe.
3) Only God is from everlasting to everlasting. 90:2
B. We are not eternal, at least naturally.
1) Our natural destiny is to return to dust. 90:3
a) This reflects Genesis 3 and the curse of Adam.
b) One of the most poignant parts of any funeral I perform
is when I say, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes,
dust to dust."
1> Often people will mouth those words as I say them.
2> We know what it means.
2) We are definitely mortal.
a) From God's perspective, a thousand years is nothing.
1> To us, it is a big chunk of time.
b) Verse 4 is often used to support the idea there will
be 7,000 years of human history.
1> It calculates each day of Creation as 1,000 years.
2> On the other hand, it is also used to suggest the
days of Creation were longer than 24 hours.
c) The point here is different.
1> Note that 1,000 years is like a day, or even
less (a watch in the night, a few hours).
2> He is saying our lifespans don't amount to a
hill of beans.
3) Verse 10 gives our life expectancy as 70 or 80.
a) That's still pretty accurate.
b) I will be 70 in about 4,000 days.
1> That doesn't sound like a lot of time, and it's not.
C. Be wise about your time.
1) Verse 12 calls on us to "number our days aright." 90:12
a) D.J. DePree, who worked for the Radio Bible Class
for many years, lived to be almost 100.
He had an interesting habit.
When someone asked them how old he was, he answered
immediately with the number of days.
He took Psalm 90:12 very literally.
Mr. DePree must have been a little obsessive, too.
#35716
2) It is not so much the days we have, as how we use them.
George McGovern, one-time presidential candidate, wrote a
book about his daughter Terry who died of alcoholism.
In 1994 she was found frozen to death in a snow bank where
she'd fallen in a drunken stupor.
After his daughter died, McGovern poured over Terry's
diaries and talked to her friends trying to figure out
what she was thinking.
He discovered that he was not as good a father as he thought
he had been.
While he was spending 18-hour days fighting for political
causes, his daughter Terry was at home writing in her
diary that she missed her daddy.
But he probably didn't miss her because he probably didn't
care about her.
As he reflected on this he wrote, "I'd give everything I
have - and I mean everything - for one more afternoon
with Terry.
Just to tell her how much I love her and have one more of
those happy times that we used to have all too
infrequently."
There are all kinds of things literally crying for our time.
May God help us to use our time on what matters most.
We need to nurture our relationship with God, nurture our
relationship with our family, and build and establish
loving relationships with the people around us.
The best use of life is love.
The best expression of love is time.
#64668
IV. We must come to grips with Sin.
A. Psalm 90 has a chastising tone.
1) Verse 7 mentions God's anger and indignation at our actions.
2) Verse 9 mentions God's wrath and our moaning.
3) Verse 11 again talks about the power of God's anger.
B. Why all the severity?
1) You should not get the impression that God woke up grumpy
and wants to whack someone.
2) Rev. Ray Stedman points out that according to the Bible,
the wrath of God is God's moral integrity.
a) Our sin causes sorrow, injustice and pain.
b) It is God's way of saying to humans, "You must face
the consequences of your actions that go against
my standards."
1> The intention is to teach us, to warn us.
2> Even our secret sins are known to God.
A> (These are the sins that are secrets even to us.)
3) Tragic events in a hard world highlight our feebleness.
In the closing days of World War II the city of Berlin came
under a terrible siege.
American and British planes by the thousands bombed the
city by night while Russian artillery began pulverizing
it by day.
After four years of war, 78-year-old World War I veteran
Konrad "Papa" Saenger had refused to be intimidated.
In fact, it had taken all of Erna Saenger's powers of
persuasion to prevent her husband from going out for
his customary meeting with his World War I buddies.
She gave him the job of burying her jelly preserves in the
garden to hide them, but when he was done he had gone
out into the streets against everyone's warnings.
They had found his shrapnel-riddled body in the bushes
outside the burning wreckage of Pastor Martin
Niemoller's house, only a short way from home.
While shells blanketed the district, the family brought
Papa home in a wheelbarrow.
As she walked alongside the cart, Erna remembered their
last conversation together.
She had had a slight difference of opinion with Konrad as
to which Biblical quotation was more appropriate for
the times.
Papa maintained the "one can only live by the 90th Psalm,
especially the fourth verse:
'For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday
when it is past, and as a watch in the night.'"
Erna had disagreed.
"Personally," she told him, "I think that psalm is much
too pessimistic.
I prefer the 46th: 'God is our refuge and strength, a very
present help in trouble.'"
It was too dangerous to go to the cemetery so they left
papa's body on the porch.
Erna found two small pieces of wood and nailed them
together for a cross.
Gently, she placed the crucifix between her husband's hands.
As she looked down a Papa, she wished she could tell him
that he had been right, for the 90th Psalm continued:
"We are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we
troubled."
#19557
C. Do you fear God?
1) He is not to be trifled with.
2) Our sins are so serious that the only way he could deal
with them was to become a sacrifice for us.
3) If you have pleaded with him for forgiveness, don't
slap him in the face by taking it for granted.
V. We must come to grips with Grace.
A. The psalm ends with joy and hope.
1) In verse 13, the word "relent" is the same as "return" in
verse 3.
2) Just as we inevitably return to dust, God inevitably will
return to compassion and forgiveness.
3) Three promises are held out to us in the conclusion of
the psalm.
B. Joy can come in the morning.
1) Nights do not last forever.
2) God's unfailing love will break through to us.
3) Some see a balancing act here - for as much as God has
afflicted us, he will bless us.
a) I would not want to argue for a tit-for-tat arrangement
but I have seen that those who see the most darkness
also tend to experience the most joy.
b) If you are still in darkness, don't give up hope.
C. God's blessing can extend to your children. 90:16
1) Your relationship with God has a lasting impact, even
down to other generations.
2) It may be that we ourselves will never experience the
full healing of God, but our kids can.
D. Our efforts will make a difference. 90:17
1) Our labor will have its reward.
2) Ray Stedman says the last result of God's love is to make
our labor, our work, meaningful, valuable and enduring.
3) The work of our hands becomes an enduring thing, impressive,
affecting others, having in itself great value.
4) All this is available to those who take God seriously, who
love him with all their heart.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
The sermon title was borrowed from one used by Dr. Philip W. McLarty.
The sermon “A Song Of Realities” by Rev. Ray C. Stedman (Kerux Sermon
#5099) was also very helpful.
#19557 “A Psalm For Terrible Days,” adapted by David Holwick from
Cornelius Ryan, The Last Battle (Doubleday, 1966), pp. 454-455.
[not used in preached version]
#35716 “Life's Countdown,” R. W. DeHaan, Radio Bible Class, Our Daily
Bread, (no date), Abe Kudra Collection.
#64668 “He Would Give Everything For One More Day With Her, Rev. Mark
Murphy of Ypsilanti Free Methodist Church in Ypsilanti,
Michigan.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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