751. Living With An Eternal Perspective

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones Senior's intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything, so he established daily chapel services today. That tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from the University travel platform today on The Daily Platform. Dr. Steve Pettit, president of Bob Jones University is continuing a study series entitled encountering God, which is a study of select chapters in the book of Psalms. Today's message is from Psalm 90 written by Moses in the heading.

In our Bible says a prayer of Moses, the man of God today. Steve will teach us how to live with a biblical perspective like to ask you take your Bibles this morning and turn with me please to the book of Psalms Psalms chapter 90 this morning. For those of you that are gas with us. We have been working through a series this semester entitled encountering God the way that we come to know God as we come to know God by his spirit through his word in the book of Psalms, specifically, was written as a hymnal where we sing and worship to God. And so there is an encountering of God as we read the Psalms so we have a select number of Psalms were looking at studying this semester and I hope that you have been blessed by the word and hope that today will be an encouragement to you as we look at Psalm chapter 90 I'd like to read the entire Psalm this morning and they will look at it in its details and the content of it today. This is a prayer of Moses, the man of God. Verse one more now is been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou has formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God thou turn this man to destruction, and say is return the children of men 4000 years in my side are but as yesterday when it is past and is a watch of the night that carries them away as with a flood, they are is asleep in the morning. They are like grass which growth up in the morning.

It flourishes and growth up in the evening.

It is cut down and whether it for we are consumed by that anger.

And by the wrath we are troubled that was set our iniquities before the our secret sins in the light of thy countenance for all our days are passed away and I ran. We spend our years is a tale that is told. The days of our years or threescore years and 10 and if by reason of strength before score years, yet is their strength, labor and sorrow for to soon cut off and we fly away to know what the power of thine anger, even according to thy fear. So is thy wrath so teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom return.

Oh Lord, how long and let it repent the concerning thy servants satisfies early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days make us glad. According to the days where and that has afflicted us in the years when we have seen evil, that thy work appear in to thy servants and my glory into their children. Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and establish thou the work of our hands or punish a the work of our hands establish thou it as we read this morning.

The title of this Psalm is called a prayer of Moses, the man of God is very clear. The person who wrote the song that is Moses.

Now Moses lived 1400 years before Christ, and he lived 400 years before King David who wrote most of the Psalms. So what we know about the Psalm is that is the oldest of all the Psalms and makes Moses the first composer of sacred hymnody and the title here calls Moses, the man of God. Why, if you go through the Old Testament, you'll find six other times spread out through the Old Testament where Moses is called the man of God.

Why well because he was the mediator.

He's the one that stood between God and the children of Israel, and he did two things he prayed for them. And secondly, he invoked Re: ask God to bless them.

So right off the bat we learn something about a man of God and that is he is always distinguished as a man of prayer. Without a doubt one of the hardest things in life to do consistently is to pray consistently and so Moses is called a man of prayer. So question then is what was then this all or what was it that Moses was praying about because it is a prayer he's praying for the children of Israel. Any specifically praying for them that they will learn something very important about life and what is the life lesson he wants them to learn. Well, it's something that obviously Moses had learned if you divide up Moses his life in the three segments of 40 years because he lived 120 years. The first 40 years he lived and grew up in the land of Egypt. He was educated very learn the ways of the world, and after 40 years of being in the Egypt and Egypt. He came out and said I'm somebody. God said well you can't use I can't use you as over the next 40 years he put them on the backside of the desert and you learn the ways of himself.

He learned about himself and the end of 40 years of the age of 80 years old. He said I'm nobody God, so I can use you now and God took nobody who thought he was a somebody in God used it let the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt to bring them into the land of Canaan, but in those 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. What he learned is he learned the ways of God and in the end, he learned that God was everything for all of us.

We all start out thinking were somebody we realize were nobody but that's not what you want to stay you will realize God is everything. And so what Moses wanted the children of Israel to learn and we wants us to learn is after being in the wilderness for 40 years what should've been a short journey from Egypt to the land of Israel turned into a 40 year death march and the reason why is because of the people sin and disobedience in the lesson that Moses wanted them to learn and he wants us to learn is that we should learn to live our life purposefully in light of eternity.

Eternity is right here. It's not far away from any of us. And so therefore we need to live in light of that eternity. The Great American theologian Jonathan Edwards prayed in this way, he said, Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs help me to live in a temporary world in a way that I live with an eternal perspective. And so that's what Psalm 90 is all about Moses, setting forth an eternal perspective and he does it with three key truth that wants to notice those truths this morning. Number one.

The first truth is that he learned is that God is eternal.

Notice what he says in verse wanted to Lord Dousman. Our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. The song begins with unfathomable truths that God is eternal God is God existed in eternity past, God created all that exists in the world presents it today, and God will continue to exist long after the world is gone before the mountains were brought forth, or even that was formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God only God is eternally fun.

Constant now by way of contrast, Moses and the children of Israel lived in a constant state of change for 40 years in the wilderness, and they lived in this constant upheaval. This blocks and there were two things that they experienced over and over in the wilderness. Number one, they packed up their tents on a regular basis to move because they did not live in a house and secondly they attended lots of funerals for over a 40 year period of time 600,000 people.

Those that were over 20 years old and upward to came out of the land of Egypt never got into the land of Canaan in a died in the wilderness, and during this period of instability. Moses stated that the only thing that gave him a feeling of home. Don't you love the word home. I love the word home. My son Michael was a little boy we would go to church every night because our revival meetings and when the service work was over with you all to look at his mother say mommy can I go home. How many of you are looking forward to going home sleeping in your bed having access to your own private bathroom. Being able to eat your mother's home cooking there something wonderful about home why it reads in us a sense of security and stability. And what did Moses say he learned something and that is in the ever-changing world that he constantly lived and he learned that the only place that he fell it felt at home was with the presence of God. Lord now is been our dwelling place in all generations 29 years our family traveled around the country like we lived in church parking lots every Saturday we pick up move our home and go to the next church parking lot so over and over and over and over.

It was just consistently inconsistent and we learn something we discovered something that where we felt most at home was in the presence of the Lord because here's the beautiful thing the Lord that Moses experienced now 2400 skews me 3400 years ago that exact same presence has not change the presence of the Lord can be with us how important it is that we learn that the Lord is our dwelling place of the first thing he learned is that God is eternal but then the second thing you learn is that we are temporal. Moses portrays the sobering reality of the frailty of our own existence and he made a number statements the Air Force Molly tells us that our destiny is quite humble. Whatever street thou turn this man to destruction, and say is return the children of men, some of suggested that the historical background to Psalm 90 actually are the events in the 20th chapter of the book of numbers. What happened in numbers will first of all, Moses's sister died. Miriam later own his brother Aaron died.

He was older than Moses and then third Moses sinned against God by striking the rock twice out of anger towards the children of Israel, and God said, because of your disobedience, you cannot enter into the land of Canaan. So in essence numbers chapter 20 is it's is a chapter about dying and Moses learn something that is this that all of us are under the judgment of God.

We are all under a curse and that curse is death. Everybody here is going to face God's judgment and death, rich and poor famous in obscure, illiterate and intellectual, humanitarian, and criminal. All of us are going to end up decomposing 6 feet underground. Genesis chapter 2 says it this way in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it was now taken for dust thou art in the dust shalt thou return.

You could say this way. Our original composition. What were made up of his dirt.

Our final destination is dirt and the best description of our lives is that we are dirt. That's pretty humbling. Our ultimate destiny. But not only did he learn that our destiny is humble but he said our lifespan is brief. Notice Psalm 90, verse four, 4000 years not cider but is yesterday when it is past and is a watch of the night. Moses contrast God's perspective on time with our viewpoint. Obviously the way we look at and why God looks at is not one of the same everything God sees is smaller in size and shorter in time. For example, when God sees the population of the earth, as he described them, Isaiah 4015 behold the nations are as a drop in a bucket taken eyeglass little shindig thing, squeezing a little water in it. Go find a bucket and squeeze it so one drop comes up and hits bottom of the dry bucket. That's the whole world to God. Similarly in God's eyes. 1000 years are like a day that is already past or four hour watching the night, what's the point when you're young. Time moves slow you come to Bob Jones and in one way you go through it you graduate. Quote wow that was really fast, but you failed to forget that some days seem like for and have in class is way too slow and you can't wait to the weekend and everything moves slow when you're young, but in reality the older you get time moves at warp speed. Our lifespan is brief in the notice. 30 said our death is swift. He says in verse five that carries them away as with a flood, there is asleep in the morning there like grass which grows up in the morning. It flourishes in growth up and in the evening.

It is cut down and whether it you know life always ends suddenly, no matter how some how old someone gets when they die. It's always a shock is always surprising and is always sad. Moses uses three natural images to the pit. How quick death is. He said death is like a flood that carries them away as a flood in the land of Israel. When the most dangerous threats to human life as a flash flood.

If you're walking in a dry riverbed call the wadi death is like a sudden back when I was a student in college in 1977 was my senior year I remember clearly hearing about the tragedy that Took Pl. in Toccoa Falls Bible college campus Toccoa Falls Bible college was flooded out with the earth and Dano Dam of Toccoa Falls which is located right above the college.

So here's the dam and here's a college below that dam broke it sent a wall of water 30 feet high, crashing onto the campus. It destroyed nine faculty homes and took 37 lines, most of them were from the college, many students and the sad thing is they didn't even know it happened because they were sleep. It was at night when it took place.

Death is so sudden it's like a flood the secondly said life is like a dream when you're asleep. He said they are as a sleep.

Have you ever notice it when you're sleeping and you're having dreams.

I just seem to be so real we can be so totally engaged in the fantasy of our dream and it suddenly we wake up to realize it was just a dream and the crazy thing is that though the dream at the moment seems so real when it's all over with.

You can't even remember what you dreamed.

Life is like that.

Think about it people are born people live. People die and people don't even remember that you ever lived most of you sitting here this morning. Can't even tell me the names of your great-grandparents, grandparents, yes great-grandparents. No, how quick does a generation, the generation go. You have the tendency to think that this is the only reality there is, but there have been scores of generations that preceded us who live just like you and and experience in many ways the same things you've experienced. And now they're gone. Life is like a dream than 30 says life is like grass in the morning. They are like grass which grows up in the morning. It flourishes it grows up in the evening it cuts down and it withered during the winter rains in the land of Israel a very light covering of grass will pop up on the Judean Hills sexy pretty cool to see it. However, the lifespan of the grass is very short from the Middle Eastern sun hits the grass.

It suddenly withers away. Spurgeon said it this way, the history of grass is this it is sown it is grown, it is blown is a moment and it is good all in the history of man is not much more. We are all like grass. Was he saying saying that our death is swift and finally he says our judgment is just, we actually get what we deserve.

He saying that the Jewish people received a firsthand experience of God's just judgment in the wilderness.

A whole generation was buried in the desert sand because of its sin. Moses learn something nobody gets away with sin. Now I'm I'm deeply grateful for the student body here Bob Jones University, but I will remind you that this is a student body of save sinners, my emphasis is on sinners and some of you say on all the time and you think you get away with it may sure you listen to me very carefully. Open up the two years that God gave you you don't get away with sin. Nobody I don't get away with sin you don't get away with sin you think like God doesn't know it. Do you live your life as if somehow God doesn't really exist in all of this is it really for real in your living in a dream world and the real world is that you're sending think get away with it. You can't, Moses says we are consumed by an angry mother. Rather, we travel that set our iniquities before you are secret sins. In light of thy countenance for all our days are passed away in the wrath we spend our years is a tale that is told. The Lord never allow be our Israelites to forget their sin, idolatry, rebellion, immorality, complaining they were reminded daily of God's judgment for what they had done the children of Israel were well aware that they were under a death sentence and Moses mentions the length of our lives. He says our days are S3 school in 10 was that mean score is 20 years threescore 6010 that 70 he says it this way.

As for the days of our years in them are 70 years. That's about our lifespan. Some people might make it to 80. If you eat more tofu maybe 82 we have enough strength to work for a few years. We get all we can escape it and suddenly we fly away wackos were all terminal. Why is this because of God's righteous curse upon sin.

The fact of death is effective sin. Few people understand God's anger against sin and that is why that this verse teaches us not to waste time. Time is not a commodity to flippantly use that we only have so much time. Remember when I dedicated my life to the Lord when I was 19 years old and make conscientious commitments to follow the Lord and graduated from college, 1978, 25 years later I went back to my 25th college reunion in a remember 25 years of passerby's like what I was 47 years old. I remember cruising around campus, thinking of the decisions I made remembering so much.

It seemed like yesterday was 25 years ago and this fall were celebrating our 40th anniversary. 40 years ago I graduated from college. Wow your old not old. I don't think old some days I feel old. Why because of life are shy. Lifespan is so short and so therefore what should we do, we should make the most of our time. I used to walk by the chapel every day and etched in granite on our chapel were the words from Ecclesiastes will one which says, remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, and I would read it every day. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth you think you have a long time.

Do you think that tomorrow is going to come and you'll be able to do what you want to do now. Life is short.

That's what you need to be saved now. That's why you need to devote your life to God. Now, that's why you need to commit your time in your future to God now putting everything in God's hand. Why because we are all temp. That leads me to the final point this morning and really the last truth that I think Moses is wanting us to learn and that his prayer is essential. Prayer is to the soul what areas to the body. We can't live without it is a Christian, you can't live without prayer in verse three God calls man returned to him. In verse 13. The Psalms calls on God to return the man. That's what we doing. We pray we say, oh Lord, were asking God to come to us what is it that Moses prayed for three things.

Number one, he prayed for mercy, God's people and suffered a long time, under God's chasing hand and Moses wondered aloud how long the Lord will discontinue God he made a covenant with his people, Abraham.

That covenant was back by God's own faithfulness and God's only love. And so he said return. Oh Lord, how long have pity on your server. God be merciful to us you know if God wasn't merciful to us over our daily sins.

Where would we be how many of you have taken first John 19 and said God you have promised to forgive me of my sins if I confess them.

Aren't you glad that God still forgives his sinful people pray for mercy. Pray God to cleanse me then secondly he said pray for joy. He says satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days once it mean to be joyful for me to find your full satisfaction in the Lord is an internal joy that God gives us of the moment of our salvation is the well of water springing up in us that Jesus spoke about in John chapter 4 is the life of the spirit and the soul of man is the communion that God gives us make us glad more than the midst of our sadness give us gladness which store our joy as a sign of restored fellowship.

Pray for joy. It's not wrong to pray for joy.

God give me your joy.

I want to find satisfaction in you alone sometimes in a hurry to busy morning. I'll sit down and I feel rushed and reading my Bible lesson. Lord, I need you when my saying.I need your joy.

I need your presence. Lord, I want you and then finally he prayed for blessing verse 16. Let your work be shown to your servants in your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord are the beauty of our Lord our God be upon us establish that the work of our hands. The wilderness was a hard place. However, God did something in them to change them forever and that is the wilderness God created within them a passionate desire to be in the place of God's blessing we make it real simple. I just want to be in the place where God blesses Lord I don't want to stray away from you, Lord, keep me from straying away. Lord, I want to live under the spec of your blessing.

The desire seen in Moses's prayer for God to do his work and what he was simply saying is this Lord fulfill your will for your own glory through my life just kinda came to the bottom line more to fulfill your will do what you want to do through my life and do it in such a way as you will receive glory and Moses finishes with a prayer for the beauty of the Lord to be upon us. It is a beautiful thing. It is a beautiful thing to be in a place of God's favor and blessing. And so Psalm 90 is saying. Live your life live today.

You don't have tomorrow. No guarantee is life is short and seek God's blessing now would you bow your head with me, please. As we pray, our heavenly father, we realize that we do not find rest until we rest in you, Lord, our sins are always before us.

God have mercy on us and forgive us Lord you are in eternal and unchanging. Our lives are brief brief and were consumed Lord by death. Lord help us to have the wisdom to use our days to fulfill your work for your glory in this world or fill us with your joy. Bless us with your presence.

Make the work that we do last prosperous Lord as we serve you and help us to do it Lord till the end of our lives. May we honor and glorify your name.

In Jesus name, amen. You've been listening to a sermon from Dr. Steve Pettit, president of Bob Jones University study series encountering God, which is a study from the book of Psalms we would urge you to get a copy of the study booklet so you can follow along as you listen to the sermons you can get the booklet on Kendall or get a printed copy from our website.

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Thanks for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue the study of Psalms here on The Daily Platform