Ps

Ps. 90

10/28/2007

“You Have Been Our Dwelling Place”

Regardless of the status of our homes, the fires last week have taught us that we take many things for granted, the many gifts God has given to us--our life, our health, our family, our church family, etc. Many of us are thankful to be back at our homes. Yet there are some of us, who are still waiting anxiously to get back to our homes. But all of us gathered here can be thankful that our homes are still standing. As we renew our thankfulness for God’s gifts and His protection last week, we have come also to see how fragile our dwelling places are and whatever security we have placed in them. One breath of God and they can be gone! Today as we come to this psalm, I hope that the Lord would direct our eyes to Himself, our eternal and everlasting home, and provide us the security of our eternal Home!

This Psalm is divided into three sections: vv. 1-2; vv. 3-11; vv. 12-17.

In the first section (v. 1-2), Moses begins by exalting the Lord as our dwelling place in all generations: “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations” (v. 1). Think of this declaration in the context of Israel’s wilderness journey. For forty years the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness. For those long years they did not know the comfort of settling in a home. They lived in pitched tents. When they pitched their tents, they did not know when they had to pack up and get moving again: they had to get going whenever the glory cloud started moving. Sometimes they pitched tents only for a night (Num. 9:21). At other times it was for a year (or even more; Num. 9:22). They did not know how long they would stay at a place. The Lord did not announce in advance how long they would stay at any particular location. We can imagine how unsettled they must have felt at all times. And we wonder why God did not tell them how long their sojourn would be. We can imagine how helpful it would be to know just how long. And it was not like God did not know just how long He intended to have them at each place. Why did the Lord not tell them?

First of all, although the Israelites had to live like nomads for forty years, God never intended the wilderness to be their home. Their home was in the promised land. You see, the wilderness was not meant to be a place where the Israelites should feel settled, no matter where they happened to be--even if they had found an oasis and even if they were allowed to stay there for many years. How poignant this point is for us! For Israel’s wilderness journey is a picture of our journey to heaven through this world. This world, then, is not our home. God never intended us to feel settled and at home in this world. There are times when we sing (after a long trip or a few days of evacuation), “Home, home, sweet, sweet home, / There is no place like home, / There is no place like home.” But we cannot forget that our earthly home is but a tent, pitched only for a time, destined to be dismantled someday. Because we do not live in tents but in apartments and houses, we can easily forget that they not our true home. We must not let these buildings’ appearance of permanency trick us. Have we not seen how quickly our homes can turn into ashes? Especially because we live in this wonderful country of ours, our challenges are greater: our longing for heaven may be quite weak, weak enough to desire an indefinite postponement on our entrance into heaven. How foolish!

More importantly, we must recognize that the wilderness was meant to be a training ground where the people of Israel were to learn to trust the Lord. A moment’s reflection would make this point an obvious one. They were in the wilderness--over two million of them. Clearly they could not expect their sustenance to come from the wilderness but from the Lord, who led them there. The Lord brought them there to teach them that man did not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord (Deut. 8:3). For the word of the Lord was not just any word: it was the word of the almighty God, who created all things by the power of His word! If God could bring all things out of nothing, how easy it would be for Him to sustain a nation in the wilderness? And what could be more important for anyone than to learn to trust the sovereign Lord, who preserves and governs all creatures and all their actions? Who and what of this world will not disappoint us someday? He who places his hope in anything other than God will be disappointed. Even the fertile land of Egypt experienced famine. Even the promised land would not be free from drought if the Lord did not water the land with the rain from heaven in its season.

Moses affirms that none other than the Lord is our dwelling place in all generations! He is our eternal abode, for He is eternal in His being: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (v. 2). Our dwelling places change from time to time, from place to place. But through all these changes, God remains our true dwelling place in all generations. For it is ultimately in Him and from Him that we receive our shelter and sustenance. This is true for all men because we all live and move and have our being in God the Creator (Acts 17:28). Whether we are Christian or not, we are but creatures wholly dependent on God for our existence and sustenance. Which of us can add a single hour to our span of life? If God should require us of our soul at this moment, who can stop Him?

But, as we move into the second section (vv. 3-11), we quickly realize that not all is well. We begin to sense a discord between God our dwelling place and us. While God is eternal, man is not. A thousand years in God’s sight are but as yesterday, or as a watch in the night (v. 4). But what is the span of our individual lives compared to a thousand years? “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away” (v. 10). Moses observes, “You sweep away [the children of man] as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers” (vv. 5-6). God is eternal and man is mortal.

But to Moses man’s mortality is not just a biological fact; it is a theological one. The children of Man do not die simply because they lived out their biological years and their organs failed and their genes stopped reproducing themselves. We die because God returns man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” The expression, “children of man”, is significant. It usually refers to men in general. But it has a strong redemptive historical connotation. You see, the word “man” in Hebrew is “Adam”. So then, especially in our context, this expression takes us back to the Fall and God’s judgment upon Adam, particularly its last portion: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). You can easily see how the words in v. 3 are clearly reminiscent of the words of God’s death sentence to Adam and his descendants. Death came into the world through sin (Rom. 5:12). We die ultimately because of sin (Rom. 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death…”). So we read in vv. 7-9, “For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.” In these short verses God’s anger is mentioned three times, all in different words (“aph”, “chemah” and “ebrah”, translated as “anger”, “wrath” and “fury”, respectively). Using all these different words gives an impression that God is angry with all of His anger in every way.

Do you agree with Moses’ assessment? Is that how life is in this fallen world--constantly under God’s anger, wrath and fury? Did Moses live in a particularly bad time in history? No! It was rather a time of God’s great redemption, a time of many spectacular miracles and extraordinary provision of God. Yes, Moses witnessed more than his share of the ugliness of sin in his lifetime. He saw the pagan idolatry rampant in Egypt. He also saw Pharaoh’s stubbornness, which brought destruction upon himself and his kingdom. But there was something even more sinister and uglier about the sins that the people of Israel committed. They committed their sins after they experienced their deliverance from Egypt by the mighty power of God, while they saw the glory-cloud of God resting upon the tabernacle and leading their way, while they received daily God’s miraculous provision of the manna. What excuse did they have for their sins of unbelief after witnessing countless miracles of God one after another? How could they account for their sins of ingratitude and grumbling after all the mercies God had shown them day after day? Moses had to intercede for them many a time for their many grievous and heinous sins against their God?

But do you see how Moses does not distinguish himself from the rest of the Israelites? Throughout the psalm Moses says “we” again and again. He does not set himself apart. He is a part of the “we”, who deserve God’s just anger, wrath and fury. It was not because Moses was particularly evil that he says what he says about the condition of man. Neither was it because he lived in a particularly evil period in man’s history. Rather, it was because Moses saw himself and the things around him with a heart of wisdom (v. 12), with a conscience awakened by the Holy Spirit. This was the kind of awakened conscience, which compelled Paul to confess that he was the chief of all sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). This is not some kind of false humility. This happens when we are closest to the truth of who God is and who we are before Him. When the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see the true reality, we can never say, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector” (Luke 18:11). Instead we say, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13)!

So we see the big chasm between the initial declaration that God is our dwelling place in all generations and the fallen condition of man under the just wrath of God. How unbearable is this discord especially when we can have no true rest if God be not our dwelling place? Out of this discord and unrest arise Moses’ urgent petitions. As we survey these petitions, then, we can see quite vividly what it is like to be out of favor with God, under God’s wrath.

Moses asks the Lord to return in v. 13. This doesn’t mean that God is no longer present with them. God is omnipresent. Even sinners cannot run away from God’s presence, not even in hell. For there, even in hell, God is present as the everlasting, consuming fire. What Moses asks for in this petition is not God’s omnipresence but His particular, gracious presence, which is what distinguishes heaven from hell. So he goes on to pray in the same verse, “Have pity on your servants!” And he prays in v. 17, “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us….” For without God’s pity and favor, what can we expect but judgment and punishment in the end?

In v. 14 Moses asks the Lord to satisfy them in the morning with His steadfast love. This shows that there can be no true satisfaction when man is in rebellion against God. Think about our relationship with others--how uncomfortable and uneasy it is when we are in conflict or discord with them, even if the other party is not so close to us, even if the discord is only with a co-worker. If so, how can we be truly satisfied if our relationship with God is strained, when it is in God we live and move and have our being, when God is the most immediate and ultimate context of our life? Have you tried cutting the meat against its grain? Have you tried to install a computer program that is not compatible with the operating system? Such is our life when we are not in harmony with God. When we refuse to be satisfied with God and try to fill that void with something or someone else, what can we expect but a life full of frustration and futility? We can truly rejoice and be glad only when God satisfies us in the morning with His steadfast love (v. 14). We cannot be glad all the days of our life if our joy is dependent on the things that are subject to change and decay. If our joy is not anchored in our unchangeable God, how can we rejoice all the days of our life?

And lastly Moses prays that God would show His work and establish the work of their hands (vv. 16, 17). We all know how frustrating it is when our work does not progress or our projects fail. If we don’t try hard, we should not expect our efforts to be successful. But we also know that our endeavors may prove to be utterly abortive and futile even when we do our best. For so many things that affect the outcome are out of our control. Ultimately the results are up to the Lord, who is sovereign over all His creatures and their actions. As we read in Ps. 127:1-2, “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” So Moses prays to God that He would show His work and establish the work of their hands. For without the Lord’s blessings all our works are in vain.

But as we listen to these petitions, we cannot help but wonder about some things. Moses asks the Lord to return in v. 13. But all throughout Israel’s wilderness journey the glory-cloud went before them as a testimony to God’s presence in their midst. Moses asks the Lord to satisfy them in the morning with His steadfast love in v. 14. But did God not show His steadfast love for them in the morning--every morning, in fact!--with the manna He rained down from heaven for their daily sustenance? Moses asks the Lord to show His work in v. 16. But the Lord had done many great and mighty things in their midst--dividing the Red Sea so that Israel could walk through the sea on a dry ground; feeding that wandering nation with the bread from heaven and the quails that fell from the sky; making the water gush of the rock and changing bitter waters to sweet ones, etc., not to mention the terrible plagues by which He judged Pharaoh and delivered them from Egypt. And in v. 17 Moses asks God to establish the work of their hands. What was the greatest of their works in the wilderness? Was it not building the tabernacle and did they not succeed in building it? Then why these prayers? Because what they had were not enough!

We have already affirmed that only God can satisfy us fully and completely. He alone can make us truly rejoice and be glad all our days with a joy undying and everlasting. God alone can establish the work of our hands unto eternal significance. But what about the gap between God and man? Who or what can bridge the gap between God and us, between the eternal, everlasting God and finite, mortal men? But God and men are separated by a double-infinity. For the chasm is not only between an eternal God and mortal men but also between a holy God and sinful men! Who or what can bridge such a gap, a chasm of double infinity? Moses cries out desperately, “Return, O LORD!” But how can the holy God return to the sinful people without condemning them and destroying them? Yes, God was present in their midst in the tabernacle but the people of God were separated from that presence of God by curtains and veils. Such was the imperfection of that arrangement? Why? Because of the total incompatibility between the holiness of God and the sinfulness of men.

The only way God can return to His people without destroying them is by taking care of the sin problem. If we are going to be satisfied with God’s steadfast love, His justice must be satisfied. If we are going to rejoice and be glad all our days, His anger that consumes sinners, His wrath that terrifies sinners and His fury that strikes the death blow to sinners must be appeased. If the work of our hands is to be established, then the destructive, polluting work of sin must be destroyed.

When Moses prayed, “Return, O LORD!” I wonder whether he knew what he was really asking for. There are only two occurrences of the word “return” in this psalm. In v. 3 we read the Lord saying, “Return, O children of man!” As we saw, this is an echo of God’s death sentence to Adam and his descendants. Then we see the word again in Moses’ prayer to the Lord to return. What happens when we bring these together? What does it mean for God to return to show His steadfast love to sinners and restore their joy? In other words, what does it mean for the Lord to return to redeem those who must return to dust under the wrath of God?

God must come all the way to dust, to which the sinful man is condemned! He, who breathed the breath of life into man’s nostrils to make him a living soul, must breathe His last on the cross to give man His eternal life. He, who is God from everlasting to everlasting, must come in the frailty of human flesh to die the death of sinners. He, who is our dwelling place in all generations, must come as the Son of Man, who had no place to lay His head, though even foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests. He, who is the source of true joy, must suffer the excruciating pain of sorrow that He might satisfy us in the morning with His steadfast love. He who came to the Garden of Eden to deliver the death sentence to the fallen man, Adam, must return--this time, all the way to dust, all the way to the inferno of hell to bear the punishment of our sin! Such was our need. So great was our need that only God could meet it. But how could we even think about asking God to pay such a price to save us wretched sinners?

All we can do is to praise God in awe and amazement that He was willing even before we asked! Before the mountains were brought forth, before He formed the earth and the world, He desired that He should be our dwelling place in all generations--indeed, we be His dwelling place, His holy temple, through all eternity. No price was too dear and costly, for so great was His desire for us! He was willing to return to the scene of crime, not just to deliver the death sentence but also to bear the punishment in our place so that we might be delivered from hell’s inferno. Not only that, He who died to bear the punishment of our sins also rose again unto eternal, resurrection life in order that, in Him, we might indeed have our dwelling place in all generations through all eternity. So now we can be truly sing, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning, new every morning--great is Thy faithfulness of Lord; great is Thy faithfulness!” Do you realize that, now, the morning in which God renews His faithfulness is the morning of the resurrection life? This morning does not fade into the darkness of the night. This morning never loses its heavenly brightness. For Christ was raised on that glorious Easter morning and He brought us into the everlasting morning of glory! It shall never pass away from us! So now we can truly rejoice and be glad all our days. For the wrath of God has passed from us forever--no more curse, no more condemnation. Now we know that the favor of the Lord our God is upon us and lead us all the days of our life all through our journey toward heaven. And we know that the work of our hands are not in vain, for the most awesome work of God was done in the frailty of His Son. As surely as He was raised from the dead unto eternal glory, we too will be raised unto eternal glory in Him!

Brothers and sisters, who can satisfy us like God? Think about all the things we are obsessed with. Think about all the new acquisitions that excite us. How long does the excitement last? What joy do you have, which is without the tinge of disappointment, even of regrets? Yes, all good things are from God to be received with gratitude. They are an expression of God’s grace and mercy toward us. But these good gifts, though they are from God, are not God. They point us to God but they are not God, who alone can satisfy our soul as no one can. The satisfaction that is in God grows and deeper, even when, especially when we experience profound loss. “When peace like a river attendeth my way; when sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, ‘It is well, it is well, with my soul!” It is when we experience great loss that we see the surpassing value of God in a special way--haven’t we all experienced that exhilarating sense of liberation and renewed and deepened fellowship with God? May that be still our confession even if we have lost everything in the fire, that God is our eternal dwelling place! If God has spared us, let us be humbled by His mercy! And let us remind ourselves that our homes are but tents, a temporary shelter, which we must leave behind to dwell in our heavenly home, our God! And as we recognize that we are but stewards of all that we have in this life, we will open up our hearts and our homes as a place of love and fellowship and hospitality. Let us have the people know that the generosity they see from us flows from the security and abundance of our heavenly home in God--until that day when we shall behold they surpassing beauty and glory of our eternal home in heaven! Let us therefore set our minds on the things that are above where Christ is, not on the things that are on earth!