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. — Psalm 90:1-2

Reading: Psalm 90

Reflection:

Moses has been leading hundreds of thousands of Israelites through the desert for forty years. They are a group of desert nomads with no place to call their home. They are tired, weary, complaining, and wondering when their nomadic lifestyle is going to come to an end.

Put yourself in their situation. You were supposed to enter the Promised Land and now you have been wandering in the desert for forty years. You have seen thousands of other Israelites die in the desert, and you yourself are beginning to wonder if you are ever going to see the Promised Land. And there you are, all beat up by this nomadic lifestyle of forty years in a desert, and your leader says, 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 (vv. 1-2).

Moses is pleading with a million desert nomads who desperately want a piece of land to call their home to realize that they have a home, and it’s not a place, but a person. This person is God; and he is so much better than any earthly home they could have, because he is from everlasting to everlasting. The maker of heaven and earth is their dwelling place. 

Moses knows the Israelites are putting all their hope, all their security, and all their future joy in any earthly place they can call home. For the Israelites, finding a place where they can dwell on earth has become their salvation. 

In verses 3-10, Moses turns from the grandeur of God to the condition of man. 

Many people read this passage and they say, “This is the God of the Old Testament — angry, wrathful, and indignant. He loves returning man to dust in his anger." But it is not so. Our God is the same God from everlasting to everlasting, and throughout the Psalms, God is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and compassionate toward his children. We must see and believe that God is not intrinsically angry. 

It is not God’s intention to turn man into dust. It is not God’s intention that man’s days be like a dream or that our years be seventy or eighty. So why has the story gone this way? What has happened?

We have sinned. And our sin has brought death into the world. Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death. Death is an alien intruder. The Biblical story doesn’t start with the fact that we are sinners, but that we are creatures made by God, for God. We were made to live with him and enjoy him forever.

God has not forgotten us. We have forgotten God. He has not stopped pursuing us. We have stopped pursuing him. 

Moses doesn’t make the comparison of the grandeur of God to the insignificance of man to belittle man. Moses makes the comparison to say that man, created in the image of God, finds true significance only in God. 

In verse 12, Moses prays that God will teach the Israelites to number their days. Moses realizes time is of the essence — life is passing by quickly. We are here one day and gone the next, and there is no time to waste. Like the Israelites, we need a heart of wisdom. A heart that fears God, turns away from evil, and believes in the promises of God. We need to live in desperate need of God, fearful of life without him.

When Moses says, Return, O Lord! in verse 13, he is turning around verse 3, where God says, Return [to dust], O children of man! Hear Moses interceding on behalf of the Israelites. Hear him crying out for God’s mercy. See him on his knees, crying, “Return us not to the dust, O Lord, but return to us with mercy and compassion.”

And Moses says this to God: Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days (v. 14). In the morning, right when we wake up, satisfy us then, God, before we seek satisfaction from anything else. 

Moses ends the Psalm by praying, Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! (v. 17).

Moses intentionally connects the favor of the Lord with work. Moses is praying that God will grant his favor to be upon the Israelites as they do the work he has given them. I think he does this so that the Israelites will see their work as a gift from God — a gift to advance his kingdom by working with skill and care and compassion. Even if you are retired, God has given you an avenue to advance his kingdom. May the favor of the Lord our God be upon us as we do all that God has given us so that a lost and dying world will inquire about our work and our lives, and so we can tell them the greatest news in the world. 

Response: 

1. Be honest with yourself: what are you seeking to be your dwelling place here on earth? What are you seeking to be your security, your hope, your future joy (and if you just get that one thing, you will be okay)?
   
   
2. We all want to live for something bigger than ourselves. We all want purpose and happiness. We all want to be known by someone bigger than ourselves. We all want to live forever. Read and meditate on Ezekiel 37:27 and Revelation 21:3. Trust God to be enough, to be your dwelling place. Thank him that he has "tabernacled" among us (John 1:14). 
   
   
3. Who in your life needs to hear this message? All people want to live for something greater than themselves. All people want their lives to count. Give them the message of Psalm 90 — that our lives are only significant when we lose ourselves in Christ.