A Prayer of Moses, The Man of God
Psalms 90
December 6, 2020
Tonight we come again to a tremendous privilege of a moment.
We have recorded for us here “A Prayer of Moses”
• We’ve heard prayers of David
• We’ve heard prayers of Asaph
• We’ve heard prayers from other Psalmists
Tonight we get one from Moses.
• We love this, not only because this was a Psalm inspired by the Holy Spirit which He preserved through Moses,
• But also because in a prayer we are granted a little more insight into the heart of a man who is revered as a man of God.
It is a privilege to be granted access into the heart of Moses
Here in this great Psalm.
It is quite likely that Moses needs no introduction for you this evening.
He’s such a huge historical figure that even the pagan world knows him
• He was the man chosen by God to lead the children out of Israel and through
the wilderness.
• It was Moses whom God spoke to face to face.
• It was Moses who received the Law of God.
He is of such importance to the nation of Israel
That often times God’s Law is even called “the Law of Moses”.
His greatness to Israel and to the church is well documented.
I want to begin by drawing your attention to
A statement made about him in the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews 3:5 “Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later;”
The writer of Hebrews gives great regard to Moses
As he identifies him as a faithful servant in the house of God.
The house of God should be recognized as
God’s people or God’s congregation and Moses served them.
And the writer of Hebrews says that he was a faithful servant
“for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later;”
That means that of all the things that Moses sought to do,
Of chief importance to him was to bear witness of what was coming later.
You might say it like this.
The main objective of Moses was to make sure that the house recognized its builder.
Here is a verse that may help you better understand:
John 5:45-46 “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.”
So Jesus actually said that Moses wrote about Him.
And if you’ll remember our study of Genesis a few years ago,
You know that to be the case.
We actually called our study of Genesis “The Gospel According To Moses”.
Moses was meticulous as he laid out sin in Adam, judgment in Noah,
Justification in Abraham, Sanctification in Jacob, and Providence in Joseph.
• Moses showed us how God promised a coming seed to crush the serpent
• Moses showed us how God clothed Adam and Eve after their sin
• Moses showed us how God carried Noah through judgment
• Moses showed us how God provided a sacrifice for Abraham
• Moses showed us how one son delivered his brothers in Joseph
The focus was clearly there.
Moses was writing about Jesus
And that is just Genesis.
Moses also wrote Exodus, and Leviticus, and Numbers, and Deuteronomy
Where he continued to point to Christ.
• The Law in Exodus was to drive men to Jesus
• The sacrifice in Leviticus was a definite picture of Christ
• Moses lifted up the serpent in Numbers pointing to Christ’s crucifixion
• Moses laid out the ultimatum of life and death in Deuteronomy all meant to drive men to Christ.
Moses was indeed a faithful servant,
Not because he kept Israel fed, but because he faithfully preached to them the gospel and sought to push them to Christ.
• We saw him preaching
• We saw him rebuking
• We saw him shepherding
• We saw him serving and working
• And we saw him interceding
Perhaps you remember the horrific golden-calf incident.
• Moses went up the mountain to receive the Law of God and down below Aaron threw gold in the fire and out popped this calf.
God was angry.
Exodus 32:7-10 “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. “They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘ This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!'” The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. “Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”
And Moses interceded:
Exodus 32:11-14 “Then Moses entreated the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? “Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people. “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'” So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.”
Moses was indeed a faithful servant to the house
God had temporarily given him charge over.
He was constantly at work to reconcile God’s people to God.
Part of that work was PREACHING
Part of that work was PRAYING
It reminds of the statement the apostles made shortly after the church was born and there was a squabble about some widows being overlooked in the food distribution.
Acts 6:3-4 “Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
That was Moses.
He preached and he prayed!
And in all things he maintained a view of the coming day of God’s favor.
Hebrews 11:24-27 “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.”
You see the references there don’t you.
• Moses embraced “the reproach of Christ” as “greater riches”
• Moses saw “Him who is unseen”
• Moses WASN’T leading people to liberation…
• Moses WASN’T just some political hero driving men to a free land…
• Moses WAS embracing Christ and seeking to lead God’s people to Christ.
He was a spiritual leader first, foremost, and without fail.
And tonight we get just a small glimpse
Of that leadership, that faith, and that hope.
• Certainly Psalms 90 gives us insight into Moses…
• Certainly Psalms 90 gives us an example of intercessory prayer…
• Certainly Psalms 90 opens theology to us regarding things like the eternal nature of God, the brevity of life, the danger of sin, and the necessity of mercy.
But more than anything, for the church today,
Psalms 90 allows us to rejoice in the fact in that
What Moses longed for, we have received.
He pleaded for rest, we have it.
So let’s work our way through it tonight.
3 points
#1 HIS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Psalms 90:1-2
You’ll remember that Jesus taught us how to pray,
And that prayer was to begin with exaltation of God.
Matthew 6:9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.”
Prayer is always at its core an act of worship.
• We are humbling ourselves to come before the God of the universe in submission, in humility, in great need, in faith, in hope, in love, etc.
• Failure to contemplate who it is you are approaching is to fail to pray as we ought.
The Psalm is clear that Moses has a heavy heart.
The Psalm is clear that Moses has a definite appeal he wishes to present to God.
But neither of these things precede the fact
That Moses acknowledges the greatness, goodness, and grandeur
Of the God he is approaching.
Beyond that, his acknowledgement of God is inspiring!
(1) “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.”
We note that “Lord” here is not the covenantal name for God YHWH
Which is you see in all caps.
This is the Hebrew word ADONAY which is a word referencing God as Master and it was a name given to God out of fear and reverence instead of saying the divine name.
There is a real spirit of reverence and submission here from Moses.
He is bowing low as he comes.
And you have to love his acknowledgement.
“You have been our dwelling place in all generations.”
Now that was easy to see
As Moses shepherded the people through the wilderness.
Exodus 40:36-38 “Throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up. For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.”
Clearly in the wilderness God was charting the course.
• When God moved they moved.
• When God stopped they stopped.
• When God stayed they stayed.
But the point Moses makes is
Not that God has just been their guide in the wilderness,
But that God has “been our dwelling place in all generations.”
You have heard the statement before, “Home is where the heart is.”
As long as you are with the people you love, location is sort of irrelevant.
Well that has certainly been true of Israel.
• Abraham was a squatter in Canaan, he never owned any of it.
• Jacob was a stranger in Egypt but he never belonged
• The Israelites were slaves in Egypt longing to leave
• And now they are sojourners in the wilderness looking for a land to call their
own.
They never had anything, except God.
He had always been their home.
That is still true by the way.
• Christ is our refuge, our dwelling place, and our home.
• Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall
• The place of our habitation on this rock may change,
• But ultimately we reside with God.
Moses recognized that.
Nothing matters so much as Him.
And then Moses acknowledges the greatness and authority of God.
(2) “Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”
There is great theology there.
There is transcendence there.
To Israel, perhaps nothing appears more secure and steadfast
And enduring than a mighty mountain.
Even when Scripture wants to depict something as immovable,
It references a mountain.
That is why Jesus used a mountain as an analogy when He said if you faith like a mustard seed you can tell this mountain to move.
It was a shocking statement because mountains can’t be moved.
They are permanent, resolute, unchanging, and enduring.
But Moses speaks of the mountains as infants.
• They are but a recent interest of God.
• Even the ocean, in all its vastness and mystery, is a recent novelty of God.
And incidentally, both will soon die as well.
The mountains will be cast into the sea and the sea will disappear forever.
Revelation 21:1 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.”
Even what appears to be the most resilient and permanent thing you can think of is but a temporary thing compared to God.
Whom Moses says is “from everlasting to everlasting”
Seek to wrap your mind around that statement.
• God is eternal going forward and backward.
• It’s not just that God will last forever, it’s that God has always been.
• There has never been a time when God wasn’t.
• You and I can’t even grasp that.
There is a greatness there that is beyond human comprehension.
And finally Moses ties it all together with 3 powerful words,
“You are God.”
The sheer contemplation of the truth is enough to bring fear and trembling.
• Moses is not appearing before a man; his equal.
• Moses is not appealing to a temporary ruler.
• Moses is not approaching some finite being.
• Moses is coming before the eternal, all-powerful, mighty God.
And that acknowledgement is important
Because it helps you and I understand that
When you hear Moses’ complaint in a moment,
IT IS NOT COMING FROM A REBELLIOUS HEART.
Moses will lay out his current struggles, but it should NOT be seen as a complaint against an incompetent or unfair ruler.
Moses is here because God is a good God,
Not because God is an incompetent one.
Such acknowledgement is an important distinction even in our prayer life.
We may indeed lay our burdens at frustrations at the feet of God,
But we do not do it out of disrespect, but rather out of admiration.
We go to Him because He is good and because He is God.
His Acknowledgement
#2 HIS ANGUISH
Psalms 90:3-12
Here we find the struggle of Moses current situation.
And his burden is not hard to grasp
Since it is well-documented in the Old Testament.
I often tell people who aspire to leadership that before they do,
They need to home and read the book of Numbers.
Here was the greatest earthly leader Israel ever had, and he knew nothing but ingratitude, grumbling, rebellion, and disdain from those he sought to lead.
He was shepherding the most stubborn people on the planet through the wilderness, but now he was purposely stuck there until they all died.
Think about it.
Numbers 14:22-23 “Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it.”
Numbers 14:28-30 “Say to them, ‘ As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. ‘Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.”
Now imagine for a moment a day in the life of Moses.
• He shepherded a people who had offended God,
• And God had promised that the entire generation would die before they left the wilderness.
Death must have become an almost routine thing for Moses to observe.
Certainly there were times that mass death occurred
• Like when the children of Israel played the harlot with the Moabites and God sent a plague to kill 23,000 of them.
• Or like when the ground opened up and swallowed Korah alive for rebellion
• Or on the next day when God sent a plague to kill nearly 15,000 of Korah’s followers.
Certainly there were times of mass death,
But what about the daily death that must have occurred?
Today the media is fascinated by the COVID count of numbers of cases and numbers of deaths.
• What about under Moses the serpent count?
• How many were bitten today?
• How many died today?
It was a real thing that Moses watched.
• Peers, relatives, ministry partners, friends…
• Death was everywhere and you can feel that anguish in Moses.
He is in anguish because of:
THE CURSE OF GOD
(3-6) “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.”
You read that and it reminds of the Lion King movie when the current king starts telling his son about how when a lion dies his body becomes grass and the antelope eat the grass.
And then everyone starts singing about “The Circle of Life”
That’s sort of what this sounds like,
Except Moses isn’t singing about the circle of life,
Moses is singing about the brevity of life.
Man starts as dust and it isn’t very long until he returns to the dust.
And of course we know where this comes from.
Genesis 3:19 “By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”
This is a consequence of the curse.
• Death is real.
• People are born and people die.
Their bodies return to dust and the dust sprouts forth grass,
But even that grass doesn’t last. Even it fades and withers away.
IT’S A DEPRESSING THOUGHT.
And sitting above it all is God.
Moses said, “For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the night.”
Imagine what all can occur from a human aspect in 1,000 years.
America isn’t even 250 years old yet but much has occurred.
But Moses says to God “a thousand years…are like yesterday”
It is nothing to Him.
God sits outside of and above humanity
And from Moses perspective we appear less than significant.
Our lives are just blips on the radar screen.
James 4:14 “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”
And all this because of the curse.
And Moses is living right in the bitter reality of it.
Moses is also in anguish because of:
THE CAUSE OF DEATH
(7-10) “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.”
• Moses knows why death is here.
• Moses knows why God cursed this world.
• Moses knows why people all around him keep dying.
(7-8) “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.”
We are dying because we angered You.
Our death is a direct punishment to our offense of Your commands.
And until the day of our death,
We live in futility and hardship simply waiting until we fly away.
(9-10) “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.”
You notice there that Moses sings “I’ll Fly Away” as a dirge, not a song of praise.
He is in anguish.
• He is watching person after person die under the anger of God.
• Maybe they make it 70 years, maybe they last 80
• Either way their life is hard and filled with sighing
• Until finally they die
Ecclesiastes 5:16-17 “This also is a grievous evil — exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind? Throughout his life he also eats in darkness with great vexation, sickness and anger.”
Ecclesiastes 9:2-3 “It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.”
That’s where Moses is too.
You have people who have offended God
And so their life is hard until they finally die.
Moses is having a hard time watching it.
But there is one more thing bringing him anguish:
THE COMPLACENCY OF ISRAEL
(11-12) “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.”
Moses laments that no one seems to understand this.
He is shepherding a people who keep dying in the wilderness
And they don’t ever seem to put it together
That offending God is a bad idea.
They never learn!
I mean, how often does the story repeat itself with them?
• Over and over and over they offend God and God kills them.
• Time after time after time.
• But they never get it.
And this lament of Moses actually comes with a request
“So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”
That is to say, teach us how short life is
And that the objective of life is that we might serve and obey You.
Israel never seemed to learn that.
Now, those who read the story of Israel have learned it.
• David watched their plight and in response he wrote the mighty 95th Psalm.
Psalms 95:6-11 “Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
David said, “Today!”
That’s exactly what Moses was talking about when he said,
“Teach us to number our days”
Our people need to know that yesterday is gone
And they are not promised tomorrow.
• They are like a vapor
• They are like grass
• They are like dust
They need to wake up today and seek God.
David understood what Moses was saying.
The writer of Hebrews did to.
• He quoted David’s 95th Psalm in Hebrews 3 and said the same thing.
Hebrews 3:12-13 “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
Moses felt that anguish.
• Here he had a God who had been offended
• And this God was punishing and killing those who sinned against Him
• And yet the people failed to grasp how important it was not to offend God
Could you imagine the frustration in leading such a congregation?
Can you see why Moses is in anguish?
• He’s stuck between a holy God and sinful people.
• He’s stuck between a righteous God and stubborn people.
He is in anguish.
His acknowledgement, His anguish
#3 HIS APPEAL
Psalms 90:13-17
Now first I would point out that
The very presence of the appeal is a remarkable statement of faith.
Moses is not mad at God.
Moses is not accusing God of wrong-doing.
If that were the case, Moses would not be here.
It is simply this.
Moses understands that in his efforts to reconcile Israel to God
He will be more successful in prayer than he will be in preaching
For God will listen and the children of Israel will not.
That is something that every preacher, evangelist, missionary, Sunday school teacher, etc. should learn.
In your efforts to see sinful men reconciled to God, who do you suppose is more apt to listen to you; God or sinful men?
It does not make sense to only preach and never pray.
Moses knows that.
So even though he has spent many years preaching to Israel,
He is also spending time in prayer before God.
AND NOTICE HIS APPEAL.
He prays for a complete reversal of what they have received.
In verse 7 all they have received is wrath.
In verse 13, he wants mercy and sympathy.
(13) “Do return, O LORD; how long will it be? And be sorry for Your servants.”
In verse 9 all they have is despair and a sigh.
In verse 14, he wants hope.
(14) “O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”
That is a request to have such confidence in God’s favor (as opposed to God’s disdain) that you can live the day in joy and not in dread.
That is what Moses wants.
In verse 10 Moses said they have labor and sorrow
In verse 15 he wants gladness.
(15) “Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us, And the years we have seen evil.”
In verse 10 Moses lamented how laborious life is. We have to work for it.
In verse 16, he wants help.
(16) “Let Your work appear to Your servants And Your majesty to their children.”
In verse 7 we have Your anger and Your wrath, in verse 9 we have Your fury.
In verse 17 he wants God’s favor.
(17) “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; And confirm for us the work of our hands; Yes, confirm the work of our hands.”
That is to say, don’t block us, help us.
You want to sum it all up?
Moses is in anguish.
He sees death and despair and futility and labor and sorrow.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT HE WANTS?
REST
It is the common lament of those under the curse.
Remember Noah’s dad? (Lamech)
Genesis 5:29 “Now he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed.”
THEY NEVER GOT IT DID THEY?
God swore in His wrath that they would not enter His rest.
It is a sad Psalm from that reality.
But as I said to you from the beginning.
It is not sad to us because what Moses prayed for,
We have received.
We are not under that Old Covenant
That put the burden of achieving God’s favor on the backs of the people.
We are under the New Covenant
That put the burden of achieving God’s favor on the back of Christ.
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Moses never brought rest…
Joshua never brought rest…
But Jesus did.
Hebrews 4:8-10 “For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.”
We enjoy what Moses prayed for.
And do you see Moses looking at it through eyes of faith?
He DIDN’T say, “Where is it?”
(13) “Do return, O LORD; how long will it be?”
• He knew it was coming…
• He knew God would provide it…
• And on this day he prayed for it…
If you learn nothing else from this Psalm
Then learn again the blessing of Christ in your life.
He provided for you and you enjoy in Him
What Moses pleaded with God for.
• We don’t have a curse in death – we have hope in death
• We don’t have opposition from God – Romans 8 says God is for us.
• We don’t have wrath abiding on us – We have no condemnation in Christ
• We don’t have sorrow – We have deep abiding joy that no one can take
We have landed in the Promised Land that Moses yearned for.
We, in Christ, have the rest Moses always wanted.
Psalms 90 was a lament for him, but it is not for us.
We sing it rejoicing in what Christ provided.
