Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Psalm 92 is constructed like a Big Mac. The bun on the outside and in the middle is praise to God. The top and bottom halves are identical twins: each contains a meaty offering of the poet’s experience of God’s faithfulness, garnished with an assortment of predictions about the overthrow of God’s enemies. 

Or, to describe it more technically, the first half of Psalm 92 begins with praise to God,then  predicts the downfall of his enemies, and climaxes by stating the central theme, “You, Lord, are forever exalted” (v. 8). The second half of the psalm repeats these themes in reverse order, predicting the destruction of God’s enemies and concluding with a confident statement that yes, the righteous will flourish and praise God. 

Let’s pray some phrases from the psalm. 

   It is good to praise you, Lord,
    and make music to your name,
  proclaiming your love in the morning
      and your faithfulness at night (vv. 1-2).

Lord, in the evening I  see a full moon over a glittering field of snow. In the morning I see sunlight sparkling in the winter white. You paint a beautiful world, Lord, with palettes for each season. In our dark northern winter, we sing your love and faithfulness in morning sun and evening moonlight,

    You make me glad by your deeds, Lord,
        I sing for joy at what your hands have done.
    How great are your works, Lord,
        How profound your thoughts (vv. 4-5). 

We praise you for your works: creating and sustaining the universe, giving your son to save us. We thank you for healing our minds from fear and superstition and ignorance, for freeing out hearts from narrowness and isolation, for caring for our bodies with medicine and exercise and food, for our souls with salvation and communion. 

How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts. Johannes Kepler, an early pioneer of the hypothesis that the earth circles the sun, said his research was “Thinking God’s thoughts after him.” In the 15th century, he studied the motions of the planets and cast horoscopes for his classmates and tried to explain scriptures where the sun was circling the earth. Lord, take our modern minds with their modern superstitions and assumptions, and change them until we think your thoughts after you. Give us the mind of Christ.

As the psalm says,
      Senseless people do not know,
          fools do not understand,
      that though the wicked spring up like grass
          and evildoers flourish,
          they will be destroyed forever.
      But you, Lord, are exalted forever (vv. 6-8). 

Yes, Lord, your presence and your thoughts are light to our darkness, overshadowing senseless and foolish worldviews. With the poet, we believe that those who reject the light of your truth and reality and morality will be consigned by their choices to darkness. But you, Lord, will reign forever in light, you are forever praised. 

   Your enemies, Lord, will be scattered,
      but the righteous will flourish like a palm tree.
    They will still bear fruit in old age,
      proclaiming, “The Lord is upright” (vv. 9c, 12a, 14a, 15a).

Yes, Lord, you alone are upright, you alone are our rock in the shifting sands of modernity, you alone are our compass in a morally bankrupt society, you alone our health in a diseased and decaying world. Care for us, that we may flourish like trees, bearing fruit even in our old age. 

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Ep199_Psalm090.  Dwelling Place.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

The title of Psalm 90 reads, “A prayer of Moses, the man of God.” It begins,
    Lord, you have been our dwelling place
        in all generations.
    Before the mountains were born
        or you brought forth the earth and the world,
        even from everlasting to everlasting you are God (vv. 1-2). 

I have always loved Psalm 90. Its most compelling feature is the mood it creates, a mood of melancholy at the brevity and bleakness of life, a mood of yearning for God’s favor and blessing, a mood of quiet acceptance that our short life can be a good life in God’s care. 

The psalm contrasts God’s eternity with the brevity of our life on earth. It does so gently, not with stark factual language or high-tech theological language, but with expressions of relationship and hope. “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations” (v. 1). The earth is our brief home, but God is our dwelling place forever.

Continuing, the poet says to God,
    You turn us back to dust,
          saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”
    For a thousand years in your sight
          are like a day that has just gone by,
          or like a watch in the night (vv. 3-4).

This is a gentle picture, but powerful and realistic. God made us from dust, and one day he will return us to dust. For us, a watch in the night is a long time, especially when we lie sleepless in bed; but a thousand years is a mere moment to God. When our lives end, when our short watch in the darkness is over, God will sweep us gently into the long sleep of death. Like the grass we grow for a day, then the evening of our life is dry and withered, and we pass away with the sunset. 

Compare these beautiful and gentle images with philosopher Thomas Hobbes’ description of life outside a structured society. He says such a life is “nasty, brutish, and short” (Leviathan, i. xiii. 9). I prefer Moses’ hopeful and humane view. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, thousands or perhaps billions of years ago you caused the mountains to be born.  In the long reaches of time, wind and rain and ice and sand erode them back to dust. We too are dust, breathing for a moment the breath you give, then releasing it forever. 

As the poet says,
  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 (v. 10).
    So teach us to number our days,
        that we may gain a heart of wisdom (v. 12). 

Yes, Lord. In our brief years we may gain power or influence or pleasure, but they quickly pass. Help us to learn wisdom, to see our lives from your point of view. We journey briefly through trouble and sorrow, until our breath is lost in the air and our body returns to the ground. Help us with Moses to find our dwelling place in you, our shelter in your care, and our home in your eternity. 

With the poet we pray,
    Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted is,
      for as many years as we have seen trouble (v. 15).
    May the favor of the Lord our god rest on us;
      and establish the work of our hands for us–
      yes, establish the work of our hands (v. 17).

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.