Categories
Writings on Christianity

Numbering Our Days PSALM 90 Sermon

Here’s the sermon notes for my sermon on Psalm 90 “Numbering Our Days” preached at Cross of Christ Fellowship in Naperville. You can listen to the audio on our sermon page.

“Numbering Our Days” (Psalm 90) 1/1/2023

INTRO: 2022 year is complete. 2023 is upon us.
      -New resolutions, new plans, new hopes, new fears, new concerns, new burdens.
                  -How should we approach 2023? How can we be wise? What does God’s Word say?
      -A good place to look is Psalm 90. Here we are shown a wise and godly perspective on the future.
                   M.S. If we are to be wise as we look to 2023, we must learn to number our days.
TODAY’S TEXT: Psalm 90 is written by Moses, a Man of God. Used by God’s people for thousands of years.
      -This Psalm leads us to worship God together.
      -This Psalm teaches us about God and how to live and pray as a man or woman of God.
                  -The key to the Psalm is v 12: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
2 MOVEMENTS:
      1st Movement: We Behold the God Who Numbers our Days (1-11)
      2nd Movement: We Number our days before God (12-17)

I. Behold the God who Numbers Our Days (1-11)
The first part of the Psalm (1-11), leads us to behold and worship God. It reminds key truths of who God is. We behold God!      -We Behold the God who #’s our days=He decides how many days we have.                       

-God is Personal and Always There for His People (1) Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
      -The God of Scripture—the one true, living God—is a personal God: our “dwelling place” (also translated “refuge”).
                   -We come to God, find refuge and help.
                               -He is there for us in this life, and in the life after.
      -This God is God of His people in “all generations”: EVERY generation
                   
-MOSES vantage point: those before him (Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, 400 years in Egypt)
                               -Our vantage point: rest of OT, NT, church history, our parents, our descendants

-God is Eternal (2,4)
God is unlike us in that He is eternal.
      –God Before all of Creation: 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
      –Everlasting God: from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
                  -1,000 is nothing to God: 4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
-Paul Helm in his book “Eternal God” teaches that it is best to think of God as timeless: created universe with time.
                  -Objection from skeptics ‘Who created God?’ Christian: no one, God is eternal and timeless.
      -The eternal nature of God should lead us worship Him.
                  -God is unlike us and supremely great!

-God is Taker of Life (3, 5a)
God is eternal and Creator, but also the one who takes our lives away.
      -God Takes life (3, 5a):  3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”
                                5 You sweep them away as with a flood;
                  -Challenges our view: We don’t get to decide how long we live: God does.
                              -Job saw this: Job 1:21-22

-Our Life is Fragile Before God (5b-6, 9b-10)
A important truth brought out in this Psalm is the incredibly fragile and brief nature of our lives compared to God.
      -Our lives are like a dream (5b): they are like a dream,
     
-We’re like the grass (5c-6): like grass that is renewed in the morning:
                                           6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
     
-Our life is like a SIGH (9b):  we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
     
-Our lifespan is not long (10): 10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty;
                 
-Average USA lifespan (Male 76, Female 81)
      -Our short lives have pain (10b) : yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.    

 -MOSES perspective: Firstborn in Egypt, Aaron’s sons (Nadab and Abihu), Aaron and Mariam
      -Our perspective: loved ones die so suddenly and unexpectedly.
                  -We are not in control of our lives, God is.

-God is the Judge of Our Sins (8)
An important truth to remember is reality of sin. We sin and God is the judge of our sins.
      -God holds our sins to account and judge us: 8 You have set our iniquities before you,
     
-God sees ALL our sins (8b): our secret sins in the light of your presence.
                 
-Our culture makes light of sin.
                              -God takes sin seriously, and will bring an accounting of it: Hebrews 4:13

-Our Sins Provoke God’s Just Wrath (7,9, 11)
God is love, but He also has wrath. Wrath is God’s anger toward sin and toward sinners.
      -Wrath experienced (7, 9, 11): 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.
                               9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.            
                                                            11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?

-Moses’ Perspective: Korah and crew (Num 16), Whole faithless generation (40 years in dessert)
      -NT wrath: Wrath in this life (Roman 1:18); eternal Wrath in hell (Matt 5:27-30)

APP: As we look begin a new year, may we daily behold the God who numbers our days.
      -Read the Scriptures daily. Let them be the first thing you read in the morning.

II. We Number our Days before God (12-17)
The second half of the Psalm is mainly petitions to God. It is requests for help as we live out our brief lives.
      The path to wisdom is numbering our day before God and seeking His help and grace in this life.
-Numbering Our Days (12)
12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
     
-Asking God to teach us to number our days. God does teach us in this life (primarily through Word by his Spirit)
                  -“number our days”=considering how short they are and using them wisely before God
                              -Edwards 70 resolutions:5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.”
                  -“that we may get a heart of wisdom”= a wise person does not squander their time before God.
                              -Dating Rach and counting precious few days we had together
                                          -Jesus’ story about the fool Luke 12:13-21
     
-Pray this often in 2023: God, teach me to number my days!

-A Humble Posture that Relies on God’s Mercy (13)
A man or woman of God relies on God’s mercy and grace, not their own merit.
      –
Relying on God’s Mercy (13): 13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!

                  -In the gospel, we rely on God’s mercy: Hebrews 2:17


-Coming to God for Our Hearts’ Satisfaction (14-15)
We were made for joy and satisfaction, a thing that only God can provide.
      -Numbering our days involves going to God for our ultimate joy and satisfaction (not other things)
                  -Prayer for God to satisfy us (14-15): 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
                                                       Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.

      -The greater danger we face in Naperville is pleasure rather than pain

-Living Faithfully in this Brief Life (16-17)
After considering the briefness of life, we might be tempted to despair or think it is futile to even try to do good works.
      -But this not the posture of a man or woman of God.
                  -We are saved by grace, but saved to do good works: Eph 2:8-10
      -Faithful living relies on God (16):16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
     
-Faithful living depends on God’s favor (17a): 17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
     
-Faithful living works and prays (17b): and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!


-God’s Good works for us in 2023:
                  -Work of discipleship
                  -Work of evangelism
                  -Work of prayer
                  -Work of serving others and giving generously.
                              -Long, hard, often perplexing work, of planting a church
ENCOURAGEMENT: 1 Cor 15:58-59

By Tom Schmidt

Christian, husband of Rach, Church Planter,musician,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *