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Psalm 90 Is there meaning and significance in life?

Is there meaning and significance in life? If there is where can I find it? If there isn't, why am I even asking the question? When someone we know and love dies it raises such questions in our minds. We are made aware that life is short. Time seems to speed up the older we get. There is an answer that can give great comfort and strength.

It is contained here in the Bible. God's full and final self-revelation. Without the reference point of an infinite personal creator God we are adrift on a sea of relativity, surrounded by fog, floating toward the rocks of time. This beautiful psalm is a good place to look for an answer.

It affirms the message of the whole Bible - that we exist because God created us - created us to know Him, to serve Him and live for eternity. I would like to draw out three points from this beautiful psalm.

1. God is Eternal 90:1-2

"Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.

Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

This is the God the world knows nothing about. God existed before Creation, He will exist after this world is long gone. He is the source of ultimate reality. He is involved with every generation. God created you and I with meaning, dignity, uniqueness and purpose. God is eternal.

2. We are Transient 90:3-12

You turn men back to dust, saying, "Return to dust, O sons of men."

For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.

You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning--

though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered.

Notice there is no bitterness in the Psalmist. He is able to face the reality, the inevitability of verse 3. Because of 90:1-2 he can write 90:3-12. It would be impossible to face the world of 3-12 without knowing our real home is in verses 1-2. The situation described in 90:3-12 is

2.1 Undeniably Humiliating 90:3

The word "dust" pricks the bubble of our self importance. The distinguished world leader, the brave soldier, the famous pop star. What are they? Dust. Undeniably humiliating to human pride.

2.2 Undeniably Terrifying 90:7

We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation.

You have set our iniquities before you,

our secret sins in the light of your presence.

All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan.

Notice the honesty with which our human predicament is described.

90:3 "turn back to dust";
90:5 "sweep men away";
90:7 "consumed";
90:11 "power of your indignation"

In Isaac Watts great hymn "O God our help in ages past" inspired by this Psalm there is sadly no mention of God's wrath. However unpalatable the idea may be today, if we take the Divine anger out of Psalm 90 there is nothing left. There is no explanation for the evil in our world and no hope of deliverance from it. Undeniably humiliating & terrifying.

2.3 Undeniably True 90:10

The length of our days is seventy years-- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

The span of our life is 70 years or 80. Life is a mixture of joys and sorrows. If we are honest much of it is trouble and sorrow and we cannot avoid it. Psalm 90 is not about giving comfort. Its actually about confrontation. It contains the diagnosis of the world as it really is, and how we must live in it under the shadow of God's sovereignty. Without it we can make no sense of the world described daily in our newspapers. God is eternal 90:1-2, We are Transient 90:3-12,

3. There is Ultimate Hope 90:13-17

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,

that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,

for as many years as we have seen trouble.

May your deeds be shown to your servants,

your splendor to their children.

May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us--

yes, establish the work of our hands.

Verses 3-12 describe this world that cannot be my lasting home. I must look else where. Psalm 90 ends with the prospect of another home. It ends with hope and optimism based on realism. It points to the home Jesus came to reveal. In John 14, as Jesus was about to leave his friends and go to the cross, he wanted them to have peace of mind about the future. To be sure about their eternal destiny.

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am... I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:1-6)

The New Testament reveals fully and finally how God sent his Son Jesus Christ to die for us so that we could be forgiven and experience God's life and forgiveness. How we can life for ever in his presence. So Psalm 90 teaches us that we serve an eternal God. It teaches us that this life is transient. But looks forward to an ultimate and unshakeable hope, revealed fully and finally in Jesus Christ. A hope the apostle Paul described in our New Testament reading.

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor 13:12-13)