Our psalm for today was written by Moses, the great man of God who led the people of Israel out from Egypt. This psalm is also likely the oldest in the Book of Psalms, as Moses lived several hundred years before King David or any of the other authors of the psalms. It was most probably written sometime during the forty years that the people wandered in the wilderness, sometime between Moses’s 80th year and 120th year, when he died.
This is one of the most beautiful psalms in the Bible, and tells of both God’s eternity and man’s frailty. As we start reading our Scripture passage, in verse 1, we see that God is our refuge for protection and for all that we need. Then Moses goes on to the major theme of the psalm, which is that God is eternal, not bound by time. Man, though, is bound by time.
God is without beginning or end (vs. 2). It was He who created time. God is infinite, and lives forever. For some, that is difficult to wrap their mind around, especially that God had no beginning, that He always was. We all will exist forever, either in heaven with God, or in hell, but we all had a beginning. However, God has always existed, and He is not bound by the constraints of time that we are. We are only here on earth for a brief while. As we get older the years seem to fly by more quickly. Doesn’t it seem like such a short time ago that we were young and in school? Now look at how old we are! Look at how quickly our children grow up! You turn around and they’re in school, and you turn around again and they are adults! As mentioned, Moses was an old man when he wrote this, over the age of 80, so he had the experience to speak truthfully. The years pass like the rush of flooding waters, or like how quickly time passes when we’re asleep. They pass as fast as grass which is here in the morning, and gone by nightfall (vs. 4-6).
God sees all of this. He knows how frail our life is. He also knows all of our sins (vs 8). They are spread out before Him, every one, including the ones we think are hidden. God is angry with sin (vs. 11), and the toll it has taken on mankind. Even so, God loves us, despite everything we’ve done, no matter how terrible. He loves us and wants to forgive us, if we’d but ask. But those who repeatedly spurn His love and warnings, who refuse to repent and turn to Him, will know His wrath. Moses saw this when he had to witness the people of Israel wander in the desert for forty years, rather than enter the Promised Land, because of their sins.
Moses prays that God will have mercy on His people who live in this sin-cursed world. Life is brief and filled with sorrow. Only God can give significance to life (vs. 13-17). He, alone, can take some tragedy or difficult time in our life, and bring something good out of it (vs. 15).
The most important message that Moses gives in this psalm he wrote is that because our life passes so quickly, we need to number our days and use them wisely (vs. 12). We are only here for a brief time. We need to pray that we make wise use of each day. As I get older, I know that I wish I could have put my years to better use for the Lord. Unfortunately we can’t go back and change them. The Scriptures here are alerting us to this. We need to use our time wisely, for eternal good, praying that we make wise use of each day. Don’t live just for this life. Instead, live with eternity in mind.
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