Isaiah 40:6-8 A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. (7) The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. (8) The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

A — God is an established helper across generations - Psalms 90:1-2 A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. (2) Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

• If Moses wrote this Psalm during the wilderness period, longing for a dwelling place makes sense.
• What is a dwelling place? It’s where you are most at home, most yourself, safe, and find most enjoyment.
• V11 Psalms 71:3 Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
• Continually – Reliably permanent. A dwelling place throughout generations.
• Psalms 91:1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
• Psalms 91:9-10Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place-- the Most High, who is my refuge-- (10) no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
• v2 Deuteronomy 33:27-28The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you and said, Destroy. (28) So Israel lived in safety, Jacob lived alone, in a land of grain and wine, whose heavens drop down dew.
• Isaiah 8:13-14But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. (14) And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
• 1 John 4:15-16Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (16) So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
• 2 Corinthians 6:16What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
• (Clarke) - “This is the highest description of the eternity of God to which human language can reach.”

B — Time is not counted as lost in God's eyes Psalms 90:3-4You return man to dust and say, "Return, O children of man!" (4) For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.

• v3 Psalms 146:4When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.
• Genesis 3:19 For dust you are, and to dust you shall return. – THE inescapable sentence of man.
• v4 2 Peter 3:3-13 T (3) … scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.(4) They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation." (5)For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, (6)and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. (7) But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. (8) But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (9)The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (10) But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. (11) Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, (12) waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!(13) But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
• Matthew 24:42-44 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. (43) But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. (44) Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

C — Despair at the shortness of man's daysPsalms 90:5-6You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: (6) in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.

• v6 Psalms 103:13-17 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. (14) For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. (15) As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; (16) for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. (17) But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children,
• Isaiah 40:6-8 A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. (7)The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. (8) The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
• Thousand years – Yesterday / A generation being swept away in the wilderness was like a dream to God.

D — God's wrath is upon us Psalms 90:7-8 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. (8)You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

• v8 Psalms 139:1-4 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O LORD, you have searched me and known me! (2)You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. (3) You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. (4) Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
• Job 34:21"For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps.
• Jeremiah 16:17For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.
• Revelation 20:11-15Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. (12)And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. (13) And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.(14) Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. (15)And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
• Psalms 19:12Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
• Luke 12:1-3 In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.(2) Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. (3) Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
• Romans 2:14-16For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. (15)They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them (16) on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
• 1 Corinthians 4:4-5For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.(5) Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
• Hebrews 4:12-13For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (13)And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

E — Man's days are numbered Psalms 90:9-10 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. (10)The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.

• v9 The Vulgate has, Our years pass away like those of the spider.
• Our plans and operations are like the spider's web. Life is as frail.
• All the versions have the word spider, but it is not found in any Hebrew manuscripts.
• Hebrew / LXX might be rendered, We consume our lives with a groan
• v10 Genesis 47:9 Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The years of my earthly sojourn are one hundred thirty; few and hard have been the years of my life. They do not compare with the years of the life of my ancestors during their long sojourn."
• Deuteronomy 34:7 Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated.
• 70/80 Years was not a promise or a limit, but a poetic description that even if you have an unusually long life, it’s still toil and trouble and will still come to and end.
• James 4:13-15 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money." (14) Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (15) Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that."
• (Meyer) “It was toward the close of the desert wanderings that Moses wrote this sublime psalm, all the imagery of which is borrowed from the wilderness. The watch around the campfire at night; the rush of the mountain flood; the grass that sprouts so quickly after the rain, and is as quickly scorched; the sigh of the wearied pilgrim.”

F — But who can number the days of God's wrath? Psalms 90:11Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?

• Moses witnessed many funerals. He must have felt that no one could measure the limit to God’s wrath.

E — (Man’s days are numbered…) Man should number his days - Psalms 90:12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

• In light of our days being numbered, we should pray for wisdom from God to count them, using them wisely.
• (Tymme, cited in Spurgeon) “Of all arithmetical rules this is the hardest – to number our days. Men can number their herds and droves of oxen and of sheep, they can estimate the revenues of their manors and farms, they can with a little pains number and tell their coins, and yet they are persuaded that their days are infinite and innumerable and therefore do never begin to number them.”
• So teach us – Means that this isn’t automatic. We must pay attention to God’s way of teaching us.
• (Trapp) “To live with dying thoughts is the way to die with living comforts.”
• Ecclesiastes 7:2,4 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. … (4) The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

D — (God's wrath is upon us…) Plea for God's wrath to cease - Psalms 90:13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!

• In light of God’s wrath, the fitting response is to plea for His mercy.
• Man is called to return to the dust, We plea for God to return to us.

C — (Despair at the shortness of man's days…) Gratefulness for the days that are given - Psalms 90:14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

• In light of our short days, Lord please satisfy is with your love, and let each day be filled with gladness out of mercy.

B — (Time is not counted as lost in God's eyes…) Time is counted as lost in man's sight, unless repaid with glad times Psalms 90:15Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.

• Many were the days of the affliction, the modest prayer of asking to have as many days of gladness.
• (Kidner) “The New Testament, incidentally, will outrun verse 15’s modest prayer for joys to balance sorrows, by its promise of ‘an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison’ (2 Cor. 4:17).”

A — (God is an established helper across generations…) God, be an established helper across generations – Psalms 90:16Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. (17) 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!

• Psalms 39:4-5 "LORD, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. (5) You have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight. Surely everyone stands as a mere breath. [Selah]
• Ephesians 5:15-17 Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, (16) making the most of the time, because the days are evil. (17) So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
• Earlier in the Psalm they were consumed and terrified, Lord please exchange with allowing us to see and enjoy your glorious power, (NKJV “Let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us”)
• (Maclaren) “Fleeting as our days are, they are ennobled by our being permitted to be God’s tools.”
• (Spurgeon) “Good men are anxious not to work in vain. They know that without the Lord they can do nothing, and therefore they cry to him for help in the work, for acceptance of their efforts, and for the establishment of their designs.”

Is that your prayer today? In light of God’s displeasure, our limited and troubled life, are you in a place to ask that God would redeem your remaining days with the pleasure of His presence, the meaningfulness of His glorious work, and the hope of eternity at peace with Him? If that is your prayer, let us join you.

Jude 24–25 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.