“A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God. You return man to dust and say, ‘Return, O children of man!'” Psalm 90:1-3
Devotional Thought For The Day
I have become intimately familiar with this psalm over the years. It is the one of the principle recommended texts for funerals. I have been reading it and meditating on it for over 30 years now, and it has become one of the deepest and most meaningful portions of Scripture for me. While it is fairly short and straightforward, it distills the most basic issues of human life, death, history, and God’s loving will for mankind: that we receive His wisdom, know His steadfast love and favor by faith in Jesus Christ, and trust in His power and His promises for eternal life. If these be true [and they are], and when one knows the goodness and kindness of God, then even in the face of our “return to dust” and the apparent futility and meaninglessness of our labor, pain, sorrow, and death, there is ongoing meaning for our “work,” and eternal hope in God’s work of salvation for all of His dear children of faith.
The origin of the psalm is of great interest, written by Moses some 3,400 years ago. We view and contemplate the words of this psalm knowing all of the great and compelling events in human history over these past centuries, and immediately grasp its profound pertinence and enduring applicability. We wonder how Moses could have written such a timeless piece of literature when the history of mankind was so relatively fresh and new. Only 400 years earlier Abraham had been called from Haran, a small town in what is now Iraq, away from polytheism and ignorance of God to faith in the Lord, and to know God’s gracious mercy, forgiveness, and love, so that he became a close friend of God and the father of many nations, the father in faith of all Christians, all who know and believe the love that God has for us in Christ Jesus. Moses wrote in the wilderness of Sinai, with God’s magnificent deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt close in mind, but with the fulfillment of His promises of land and prosperity in Canaan as yet unfulfilled. How was Moses blessed with such wisdom and vision, such faith and knowledge of God’s goodness, power, and love?
The simple power of the realities that God reveals to us through the words of Moses is astounding. Remember that God is our “dwelling place” for all generations. More so than our house, the town we live in, the country we hold citizenship in, the earth and cosmos, God is our “dwelling place.” “In Him we live and move and have our being” [Acts 17:28], and “in Him [Christ] all things hold together” [Col. 1:17], for “He [Christ] upholds the universe by the Word of his power.” [Heb. 1:3] You are “home” with God, in God, always, in every way, and in every place – because of His grace, mercy, love, and power! Before creation and time the Lord is God, the only True and Living God – there are no other gods [perish the ridiculous thought!], and forever this is reality, when all nations and history have passed, when the Lord Jesus returns in glory, when “the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed [2 Pet. 3:10], the Lord will remain, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and as in all generations He will be our God, our blessedness, our eternal joy.
Our death is in His hands. He has imposed physical death upon all who sin – “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die” [Gen. 2:17]; “the soul that sinneth it shall die” [Ezek. 18:20]; “the wages of sin is death.” [Rom. 6:23] In that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, we must face this dismal reality, but God has promised and guaranteed forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation to all who repent, who confess their sin, and who rejoice in His redemption, His atonement in Christ Jesus, His forgiveness and mercy, to all who are friends of God through faith in Jesus [John 15:15]. And it is God Himself Who “returns” us to dust, Who calls to each of us “Return, O children of man!” It is a loving and friendly voice, one of blessing and kindness, for His dear children. For in Christ Jesus even our death is “blessed,” for it is in God’s loving and powerful hands, that we may rest from our labors and inherit the kingdom prepared for us [Rev. 14:13; Matt. 25:34]. From everlasting to everlasting He is God, our God, our dwelling place in all generations – and because He is God, the God of our salvation, the Redeemer and Savior, all is well for us even in the worst of circumstances, even when we are returned to dust.
These are powerful words, of the most basic substance and foundation, words of blessing and strength and power, words to die by, but more importantly words to live by! For “He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living!” [Mark 12:27]
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus Christ, Glorious Lord God of heaven and earth and all creation, grant us eternal wisdom and knowledge through Your Word, grace to humbly grasp Your awesome and wondrous love, and strength to live our earthly days in You, and to Your glory, until You bring us into Your glory in heaven. Amen.