SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
5/20/2012 7:19:39 AM
My Worship Time Focus: God
is our home
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Psalm
90:1-2
Message
of the verses: In today’s SD we will
begin to look at Psalm 90 which is the first psalm of the forth and last book
that make up the book of Psalms. We will
look at several introductions from different Bible commentators to aid us in
our understanding of Psalm 90.
“TITLE: A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Many
attempts have been made to prove that Moses did not write this Psalm, but we
remain unmoved in the conviction that he did so. The condition of Israel in the wilderness is
so preeminently illustrative of each verse, and the turns, expressions, and
words are so similar to many in the Pentateuch, that the difficulties suggested
are, to our mind, light as air in comparison with the internal evidence in
favour of its Mosaic origin. Moses was mighty in word as well as deed, and this
Psalm we believe to be one of his weighty utterances, worthy to stand side by
side with his glorious oration recorded in Deuteronomy. Moses was peculiarly a
man of God and God’s man; chosen of God, inspired of God, honored of God, and
faithful to God in all his house, he well deserved the name which is here given
him. The Psalm is called a prayer, for the closing petitions enter into its
essence, and the preceding verses are a meditation preparatory to the
supplication. Men of God are sure to be men of prayer. This was not the only
prayer of Moses, indeed it is but a specimen of the manner in which the seer of
Horeb was leant to commune with heaven, and intercede for the good of Israel.
This is the oldest of the Psalms, and stands between two books of Psalms as a
composition unique in its grandeur, and alone in its sublime antiquity. Many generations of mourners have listened to
this Psalm when standing around the open grave, and have been consoled thereby,
even when they have not perceived its special application to Israel in the
wilderness and have failed to remember the far higher ground upon which
believers now stand.
“SUBJECT AND DIVISIONS: — Moses sings of the frailty
of man, and the shortness of life, contrasting therewith the eternity of God,
and founding thereon earnest appeals for compassion. The only division which
will be useful separates the contemplation #Ps 90:1-11 from the #Ps 90:12-17
there is indeed no need to make even this break, for the unity is well
preserved throughout.” (Charles H. Spurgeon)
“The thrust of this magnificent
prayer is to ask God to have mercy on frail human beings living in a sin-cursed
universe. Moses begins the psalm with a
reflection on God’s eternality, then expresses his somber thoughts about the sorrows
and brevity of life in their relationship to God’s anger, and concludes with a
plea that God would enable His people to live a significant life. The psalm seems to have been composed as the
older generation of Israelites who had left Egypt were dying off in the
wilderness. (Nu. 14)” (The John
MacArthur Study Bible)
“This is the oldest psalm in The
Psalms and it was written by Moses, the man of God (Josh. 14:6; Ezra 3:2). It deals with themes that began with the fall
of our first parents and will continue to be important and puzzling until the
return of our Savior: eternal God and
frail humans, a holy God and sinful man, life and death, and the meaning of
life in a confused and difficult world.
It’s possible that Moses wrote this psalm after Israel’s failure of
faith at Kadesh Barnea (Num. 13-14), when the nation was condemned to journey
in the wilderness for forty years until the older generation had died. That tragedy was followed by the death of
Moses’ sister Miriam (Nu. 20:1) and his brother Aaron (Num. 20: 22-29), and
between those two deaths, Moses disobeyed the Lord and struck the rock (Num.
20:2-13). How did Moses manage to become
a ‘man of God’ after forty years in pagan Egypt that ended in failure, forty
years in Midian and as a humble shepherd, and forty more leading a funeral
march through the wilderness? Life was
not easy for Moses, but he triumphed, and in this psalm he shared his insights
so that we too, might have strength for the journey and end will.” (Dr. Warren Wiersbe “Be Exultant”)
We Are Travelers
and God Is Our Home (vv. 1-2): “1 A Prayer of Moses, the man of God: Lord, You have been our dwelling place
in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth
to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”
I believe it is a wonderful experience to go through
the entire Bible in order to study each verse that it contains. I knew from reading the Psalms on many
different occasions that Moses had written one of the psalms, but I did not
realize the background in which he had written this psalm. It truly must have been difficult for Moses
to travel those forty years in the wilderness knowing that every person who was
above twenty years old would die along the way.
If there were two million Israelites who left Egypt and this would
include all the women and the children, there would be around 140 deaths a day
over the period of forty years. “The
wages of sin is death.”
Dr. Wiersbe writes that in “Numbers
33 names of forty-two different places Israel camped during their journey, but no matter where Moses lived, God was
always his home. He ‘lived in the
Lord.’ He knew how to ‘abide in the
Lord,’ and find strength, comfort, encouragement and help for each day’s
demands. Moses pitched a special tent
outside the camp where he went to meet the Lord (Ex. 33:7-11). This is the Old Testament equivalent of the
New Testament admonition, ‘Abide in me’ (see John 15:1-11). We must all make the Lord ‘our dwelling ‘(Psalm
91:9).” The Greek word used as “abide”
can also mean to “remain.”
The children of Israel lived in
tents as they made their way across the wilderness and when Paul writes to the
Corinthians he says, “1 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house
is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. 2 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with
our dwelling from heaven, 3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found
naked. 4 For indeed while we are in this
tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to
be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.”
Moses uses the word “Elohim” for God
in these two verses, and that name means “strength and power.” Moses speaks of God making the mountains,
something that the heathens of Moses’ time was a symbol of that which was
lasting and dependant, but to the children of Israel the mountains spoke of the
everlasting God.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Moses was
a great man of God, a man that the Jews still look to with high regard. Moses will bring out in this 90th psalm
things that I as a believer need to be reminded of, and that is the shortness
of life. Tomorrow my mom will turn 90
years old, and that is quite a milestone, but as I look back it doesn’t seem
like a very long time compared to eternity.
My Steps of Faith
for Today: That I would be taught by the Lord through
our Pastor as He breaks the bread of life today at our church.
5/20/2012
8:13:32 AM
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