These days aren't ever subtracted, unfortunately. They're only added to, right? Psalm 90 talks about life's one-way street. It talks about its transitoryness, its brevity. Psalm 90 is not pessimistic, but it is realistic. It tells us what life is really like. Psalm 90 was written by Moses. It's the only psalm written by that man of God. We understand why he wrote as he did when we remember what he experienced during the 40 years that the children of Israel were in the wilderness.
A whole generation of Israelites died there. Undoubtedly, that impacted greatly what he writes in Psalm 90. The psalm contrasts the eternity of God with the frailty of man. He says, Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born, or thou didst give birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Where is the eternity of God, and it seems that there are three measurements for it.
The first one is in the history of God's people, from generation to generation to generation to generation. In the history of God's people, there is a measurement of God's sameness, God's eternity. The second measurement is found in verse 2 in creation. Even before God created what he has, he was God and is God. The third measurement is found in the imagination, for he says at the end of verse 2, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Can you think of something being everlasting or eternal, having no beginning, no ending? That stretches our minds, that stretches our imagination. Well, that's the way God is. God is eternal. And in contrast to his changeless eternity is man's frailty. In verses 3 through 11, this is illustrated. It's illustrated by dust. It's illustrated by flood waters that pass quickly in verse 5.
It's illustrated by grass which grows in the morning because of its shallow roots, then withers by the evening, it fades and is gone. That's what man's frailty is like. It's like grass that quickly fades away. He explains why man is frail when he speaks about our iniquities in verse 8 and our secret sins which are in the light of his presence. There we have the final cause for man's frailty. It is our sin. But the cause, the operative cause, we might put it, is the wrath of God.
Because of our sinfulness, God's wrath is upon humankind. And he speaks about the fury of God, the wrath of God. And he says the result of that is, verse 9, we have finished our years like a sigh or a groan or a whisper. Some of us got up this morning and we groaned. That's how we finished 1988. And we begin 1989 the same way. The thing he's talking about here is the end of our years. We finish it with just a whisper, a sigh. Have you ever been with someone who died?
Sometimes this is exactly how it ends. With just a sigh, the final breath, and the person is gone. He says at the end of verse 10, soon life is gone and we fly away. That is, we depart. We leave where we have lived these earthly years in our bodies. So he describes here the frailty of man, and all of this brings him to a prayer, an entreaty that begins in verse 12, which I think is the key verse to the whole psalm.
He says, so teach us to number our days that we may present to thee a heart of wisdom. Moses prays. Now remember, he's in the wilderness. There is death all around him. A whole generation is in the midst of dying, and he himself is facing death. And he says, Lord, teach us to live wisely because of the few years that we have in this world. That's what he prays here. Teach us to live wisely in light of our soon coming end.
As you and I face a new year, it seems to me that our prayer ought to be similar to that of Moses. Lord, help us to live this year wisely, to take into account the brevity and the frailty of life, and in light of that, to live wisely. How are we going to live wisely in 1989? I believe in verses 13 through 17, we have five essential truths which, if applied to our lives, will enable us to live wisely in this year.
I believe that our prayer as we move into the new year should be, Lord, teach us the brevity of life, that we might learn from that to live wisely every day that we have in this world. If that prayer is going to be answered, there are five truths that we want to apply to our lives. The first one is in verse 13. You will notice that all of this now is a prayer, but we're going to find in the petition that is offered up some truth to be applied to our life. In verse 13, the first one is this.
We must see life as service to the Lord. If you and I want to live wisely this year, that's where it must begin. We must see life as service to the Lord. Notice the language in verse 13. Do return, O Lord. How long will it be? And be sorry for thy servants. We have an entreaty here that God would no longer turn his back on the children of Israel. That's how they were feeling there in the wilderness. Have you ever felt that God turned his back on you?
Or have you ever felt that God was taking plenty of time coming through with the great need that you had in your life? Well, the children of God in all ages have had those kinds of feelings. Not only here in this psalm, but in Psalm 6, Psalm 13, Psalm 80, you see those kinds of feelings coming out in the poet's language. But the point here in verse 13 that I want to get to is this. Israel was the servant of God, and therefore God surely would not continue his chastisement of them.
We too are the servants of God in our day. And if we're going to live wisely, then we must see ourselves as the servants of the Lord. We need to perceive life as a privilege of service to him. The very breath that we have is a gift from him in the first place, isn't it? We live and move and have our being in him. But beyond that, those of us who are saved, who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we've been purchased so that we are not our own.
We are bought with a price, says the Apostle Paul. And because he is our master, our owner, and we are his servants, we need to see life as just what it is, a time given to us to serve him. In coming to Jesus Christ for salvation, we must realize that we are exchanging one kind of servitude for another. Before we served sin, but now we have the joy and the liberty to serve Jesus Christ. That's what life is all about.
So if you want to live 1989 wisely, I plead with you to apply that truth first of all. See this year as a year of service to the Lord, because that's the essence of the Christian's life. There's a second truth that I see in verse 14. He says, oh, satisfy us in the morning with thy loving kindness that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Truth number two, we must seek satisfaction in life from God only.
In our day and in our culture, we tend to seek satisfaction in things other than the spiritual, in material possessions, in personal relationships, in our reputations, in our job prestige or security. And to some extent, because we are human beings, that's normal. But if taken to a greater extent, that kind of self-satisfaction is worldly. All of these things that I've mentioned—reputation, possessions, job, prestige, relationships—are a part of life which is transitory.
These things can change with the hour. Job would be glad to come here this morning and give witness to that, because in one day he lost all of those things. Moses calls for us here to learn a great lesson early in life that true satisfaction comes only from God. Oh, that we could all learn that as early in our lives as possible, in the morning.
Oh, that as young people, as junior-hires, senior-hires, as college students, as career men and women, as young couples, as early in life as we can to learn that lesson, that satisfaction comes from God alone. If you want to live 1989 wisely, there is a truth to apply. Look for your satisfaction in the Lord and in your relationship to him.
God's covenant faithfulness or his loving kindness, as it's put here in this verse, must not be measured by the events of the moment but by the result in the end. Coming to know God will bring joy and gladness to the experience of your life in 1989, whatever the events may be. If you come to know him, joy and gladness will be your inheritance this year. Lesson number two. We must seek satisfaction from God only. Now look at verse 15, a third truth.
He prays this way, make us glad according to the days thou hast afflicted us and the years we have seen evil. The third truth that I see, if we want to live wisely in 1989, we must recognize the sovereignty of God. Whether joys or afflictions enter our days, we come back to this basic fundamental truth about life, and that is that God is in control. If we forget that, then we will make stupid mistakes this year and we will begin to think ungodly ways if we forget that God is in control.
None of us can possibly know what the New Year holds, of course, but God is the author of our lives. We can trust him with the directions that we take. There are certain decisions, certain steps, certain directions that we can ourselves take, but let us remember that behind all of those is the sovereignty of God, he is in control. This last summer we were driving along a raging mountain stream in Colorado, and there were some very brave individuals who were coming down the stream in kayaks.
I admired their bravery, but I admired their skill as well, because they were able to take the oar that they had and to maneuver that small craft. And yet one thing struck me, though they were able to avoid some of the rocks and some of the whirlpools, they nonetheless were carried along by the current of that stream at an amazing speed. It seems to me that there is an illustration there of how you and I can make some decisions in life.
We can take some steps, but let us never forget that whatever we do, we are being carried along by the stream of God's sovereign purpose for us. There is an important lesson to apply if we want to live wisely in 1989. It is the sovereignty of God. We do not know what tomorrow holds, but as the songwriter says, we know who holds tomorrow. The New Year holds in store happenings that we cannot predict or anticipate, but we can trust God for all of them.
So let us not look at the New Year in fear and with trepidation at what may happen, but let us look up to the Lord who is sovereign and trust Him. If we want to live wisely in 1989, we must recognize the sovereignty of God and rest by faith in that. Let Thy work appear to Thy servants and Thy majesty to their children. If we want to live wisely this year, then there is another truth that we must apply to our lives. We must be aware of God's kingdom work in the world.
In praise, let Thy work appear, or let Thy work become apparent, is what he says. You and I need to see history with a sign over it that says, God at work. When we listen to the news or we read it in the newspaper, what we are doing really is making ourselves aware of what God is up to in the world. When we hear statements by political leaders or religious leaders, let us remember that in the background God is working.
When we hear of positions that nations take or we hear of actions that nations might possibly take, let us remember that God is at work in history, particularly when we hear about developments in the Middle East. Let us remember that God's kingdom is being worked out. When we hear about economic trends, and most of those trends are not exactly encouraging, let us remember that God is at work at it all, bringing about in the end His purpose and His kingdom.
I believe that this next year we need to receive news accounts with a heart that is sensitive, sensitive to know how they might impact God's kingdom work. I think an illustration of this was taught to me graphically three years ago when Mike Gessler and I had the privilege of representing you in Poland. For at that time we were all pretty excited about what was happening with Solidarity. You remember then Solidarity had some problems about that time.
When we went over there we asked a pastor of an evangelical church about Solidarity, expecting that he would be quite supportive of this movement in that land. And do you know he was excited that Solidarity had been limited? You say, why was he excited about that? Because he knew that if Solidarity had more and more freedom, that the Polish people would have something on earth to look to rather than to God.
They would place their hope in a political movement or a social movement rather than in the living God who is the final and real source of their spiritual needs. I thought to myself, now isn't that interesting? There I was sitting in the United States evaluating Solidarity from a purely human perspective, forgetting about how that might impact God's kingdom work in the world. If we want to live 1989 wisely, we must be aware of God's kingdom work in this world in which we live.
How does Glosnost or Perestroika affect the church in Russia? Have you thought about that? How is it going to affect missions in that part of the world? If we want to live wisely this year, then let's be aware of what God is doing as He works out His sovereign purposes. And then a final lesson that I want to point out in verse 17. He says, let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and do confirm for us the work of our hands. Yes, confirm the work of our hands.
Lesson number five to be applied is this. We must realize that success comes from God. It is His favor or His fullness of grace that brings us success. Whatever our dreams, whatever our plans, whatever our accomplishments may be, if anything succeeds, we need to learn to see God in it. That will keep us from becoming proud and independent of Him if we succeed. It will keep us from becoming destroyed and devastated if we don't succeed. Let's see God work in our lives.
If He is not in our successes anyway, it's all in vain. By the way, we need to let God teach us what success really is from eternity's perspective, don't we? If you and I want to live 1989 wisely, then we must realize that true success, as God defines it, is a gift from Him, and we must learn to give thanks to Him and put Him first place in our lives. G. Campbell Morgan made an interesting statement.
He said, satisfaction, gladness, success in work must all come from right relationship of man in his frailty to the eternal God. I want to ask you a question as you begin a new year. What is your relationship, frail person, to the eternal God? Is that relationship what it ought to be? Is it what you want it to be? Is it one of trusting obedience, one of faith?
If this were to be your last year on the earth, if you heard a doctor give the prognosis that Mark's grandfather heard, how would you spend your last months, your last year in the world? What changes would you make? What steps, what actions would you take? You see, that's a fundamental question. If we want to live wisely in 1989, we ought to be living that way because 1989 may very well be the last year for some of us.
As we look to the future and what it holds, we have great confidence in the God who is said to be our dwelling place. Is that your home? Is that where you find your security in Him? Daniel Webster Whittle was born in Massachusetts in 1840. In his mid-teens, he moved to Chicago and there became a cashier at the Wells Fargo Bank. When the Civil War broke out, he joined the Illinois infantry and fought, but was taken prisoner.
During that time that he was a prisoner, he received a New Testament from his mother back in Massachusetts and began to read it. As a result of reading the New Testament, he became a fervent Christian. At the end of the war, he was promoted to the rank of Major and became known as Major Whittle. He returned to Chicago to become the treasurer of the Elgin Watch Corporation until the early 1870s. During that time, he became a good friend of an evangelist in Chicago by the name of
D.L. Moody. Moody encouraged his friend, Major Whittle, to become an evangelist, and he did. He preached across the United States and as well in Great Britain. In the Spanish-American War, he did a great work in the soldier camps of the American soldiers and died just after the turn of the century in 1901. Major D.W. Whittle wrote over 200 hymns. One of them is one we're going to close with now.
It's number 288. It seems to me it's a great statement of confidence and faith for us as we begin a new year. I want you to especially notice the third verse that says, I know not what of good or ill may be reserved for me, of weary ways or golden days until his face I see, but I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day. You will recognize the chorus as 2 Timothy 1, 12 in the King James Version.
Would you stand with me please as we sing together, number 288?