(2) Don’t Waste Your Life

Psalm 90:1-12

Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were born

Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,

Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

You turn man back into dust

And say, "Return, O children of men."

For a thousand years in Your sight

Are like yesterday when it passes by,

Or as a watch in the night.

You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep;

In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.

In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew;

Toward evening it fades and withers away.

For we have been consumed by Your anger

And by Your wrath we have been dismayed.

You have placed our iniquities before You,

Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.

For all our days have declined in Your fury;

We have finished our years like a sigh.

As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,

Or if due to strength, eighty years,

Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;

For soon it is gone and we fly away.

Who understands the power of Your anger

And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?

So teach us to number our days,

That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

In this Psalm, Moses has a sharp focus on the eternality of God. He points out that God has always been the dwelling place and the place of safety for the people of God. God was around before the mountains or the earth were created. He is Eternal God.

He is above and beyond the span of man’s raising up and laying to rest, generation upon generation, while being unaffected by time himself. Man is like grass, he comes and goes. Life is short, God is eternal. And this is what is troubling Moses.

In the view of Moses, in Psalm 90, the sins of the people were before God and they were ending their brief years in sorrow, suffering the consequences of their sin and estrangement from God due to a lack of repentance and reestablishment of fellowship with God.

Moses recognizes the brevity of human life saying that it is soon over and we "fly away." Moses recognizes the tragedy to living out your days separated from the beauty of intimate fellowship with God due to unconfessed sin and rebellion. Moses recognizes the great tragedy of a wasted life. So, Moses pleads with God for help to realize the brevity of life, to realize how little time there is, and to act in humility, reverence for God, and wisdom to maintain an intimate relationship with God which will matter for eternity.

So, are you investing your life or wasting it? Consider this, every second spent doing your thing, every minute spent heading in your direction, every hour spent pursuing your plans, every day spent fulfilling your purpose is one more step in the direction of a wasted life. So give it up . . . all of it . . . every second to pursue God’s thing, God’s direction, God’s plans, God’s purpose. And you will find life . . . an invested life. Don’t waste your life!
Soli Deo Gloria


Next:  (3)Living in the Light of Eternity