How Christians Should Approach the New Year

This is a Psalm by Moses, written during the
wilderness period. Perhaps it’s the oldest text in the Bible, written possibly
before the Five Books of Moses. We’re not quite sure when the book of Job was
written, and Job may outdate this Psalm, but it is possible that this is the
oldest…from a human point of view, the oldest Scripture that we have. It was
written during a time of great trial, then. Forty years in the wilderness…all
those funerals. Some of us have reached the point in life where we seem to be
always attending funerals. I remember the time when I never went to funerals.
Now it seems they’re upon me all the time. Moses saw a lot of funerals, a lot of
trials, a lot of difficulty. It’s written in that context — reflecting on life,
reflecting on what it means to be wise.

It’s a characteristic of Hebrew poetry that the
climax is not at the beginning or the end, but often in the middle. And it
looks as though the fulcrum on which this entire Psalm turns is in verse 12:
“Teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
The psalmist Moses is concerned that we may get a heart of wisdom. He wants us
to be wise. He wants us to live wisely, to live in the light of eternity, to
live in the glorious light of heaven, and that we might present ourselves to God
and live for God, and be out and out for God.

In the cathedral in Milan there are three archways.
Written over the first are the words All that pleases is but for a moment.
Written over a second, All that troubles is but for a moment. And written
over the third, All that is important is eternal. All that is
important is eternal, and that seems to be the perspective of this Psalm. It
wants us to get a grasp of the eternal, of the things that are important, the
things that are lasting. Walk with me through that archway, the archway that
says All that is important is eternal.

The Psalm divides into four sections, and each
section is describing an attribute, a characteristic, a quality of God. This
Psalm is all about God. In verses 1-2, Moses is describing the eternality of
God. In verses 3-6, he’s describing the sovereignty of God. In verses 7-12, he’s
describing the severity of God, and in verses 13 to the end he’s describing the
mercy of God. The eternality of God; the sovereignty of God; the severity of
God; the mercy of God: it’s all about God. You already get the picture, don’t
you, that to get a heart of wisdom you need to think about God? It doesn’t begin
with thinking about “me.” It doesn’t begin with self-centeredness; it begins by
focusing entirely upon God. Jim Packer reminds us again and again that the first
question in Bible study is not “What is this passage saying to me?” It’s an
important question, it’s a vital question, but it’s not the first question. The
first question is always “What is this passage teaching me about my God?”

I. The eternality of God.

And Psalm 90 is teaching us at least four things
about my God, the first of which is this: God’s eternality.

“You have been our dwelling
place in all generations.

Before the mountains were
brought forth,

Or ever You had formed the earth
and the world,

From everlasting to everlasting
You are God.”

He begins by thinking about…well…home. Home is the place
where we’re most safe, our dwelling place, and the psalmist Moses is saying
God is my home, God is my refuge, God is my dwelling place. And God is a
place of refuge. God is a place of safety. God is a place that makes me feel at
home because He never changes, because He’s eternal, because He’s outside of
space and time. He is the God, you remember, in Revelation 4:8, “who was, and
who is, and who is to come.” From everlasting to everlasting, before the
mountains were brought forth, or ever the world was formed, before–well, can I
say it? And I don’t necessarily mean anything, but people talk about “the big
bang”–how God brought the world into existence in six days.

Before all that, before there was
a creation, before there was a world, before there was a moon, before there were
stars, before there were planets, before there was this cosmos, there was God.
Because God always has been and always will be. It’s a statement of what
theologians call the asceity of God. That’s a lovely word, a nice one to
throw out…a great word for Scrabble™. The asceity of God, the self-existence of
God. We exist because God made us. We are dependent creatures. God is dependent
on no one. There is no moment in time when God was not. He is the uncreated
Creator. He’s the one who spoke the mountains into being, the world into being.
He is the original cause. “In the beginning, God….” “In the beginning…the
Word….” In the beginning, Jesus. God exists in Himself. We exist because He made
us. We exist because He sustains us.

We are creatures of space and time. We are also
creatures of age and decay. Some of you might have gone to see a movie called
Benjamin Buttons. I’ve seen the trailer. If you want to see Brad Pitt
looking eighteen years of age, it’s the movie for you. It’s staggering what they
manage to do to a man who, I guess, is in his forties. He genuinely looks
eighteen. It’s about age. In this case, growing from an old man to an infant.
It’s a sort of crazy story, but it’s about age and it’s about society’s
involvement and concern and worry about age. Because we age. But God never
ages. He’s outside of time. God’s not concerned with moth and rust and
everything else that decays and falls apart. How can you be sure about anything?
How can you be sure about anything in this world? And Moses is saying I can be
absolutely sure about God and about God’s word, and about God’s promise, and
about what God has revealed Himself to be because He never changes. He’s
outside of space and time. He exists in Himself, and therefore He’s my
refuge.

Here’s a word for 2009, to look to God and to trust
Him with all of our hearts as the one solid unchangeable factor in a changing
world. It’s a very different world on December 28, 2008, than it was on December
28, 2007. Many of us would not have believed we would be in the position we’re
in now. Things have changed, and they will always change. But God remains the
same, and He is my refuge. He’s my dwelling place. He’s my home. He’s my
security.

II. God’s sovereignty.

Secondly, God’s sovereignty, in verses 3-6. He begins
to talk about death:

“You return man to dust and say,
‘Return, O children of man!’”

In 1734, Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon on this portion
of Psalm 90. Actually, it was verses 5-6…”You sweep them away as with a flood;
they are like a dream, like grass that has renewed in the morning, and in the
morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.” He
preached it at the funeral of a young man — a very young man — who died suddenly
in the space of a couple of days from some kind of lung infection. He preached
about death. He preached about the brevity of life. We have threescore years and
ten — seventy years, perhaps eighty years. If by reason of strength, maybe
eighty years…but not much more than that. God brings us all to an end, and
Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon on that text. It had a profound effect.
Within a matter of a few months, several hundred young people in the town of
Northampton had been converted as a result of that text and thinking about the
sovereignty of God in life and in death. They are very solemn words, aren’t
they, at a gravesite? “Earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes. We hereby
commit this body to the ground in sure and certain knowledge of the resurrection
of the body from the dead and the life everlasting. Earth to earth, dust to
dust, ashes to ashes.”

You notice what he says. He says in verse 4, “A
thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday.” What is time to God? A
thousand years ago King Canute was trying to stop the sea from coming in. A
thousand years ago, one of my favorite people in all of history lived: Ethelred
the Unready. A thousand years ago, it was the Battle of Hastings…William the
Conqueror…the Norman invasion of Anglo-Saxon England. The history of this
country is what, 500 years? …1493, Puerto Rico was discovered by Christopher
Columbus (I think). It’s like yesterday. Do you remember what you were doing
yesterday? Yesterday afternoon, Saturday afternoon? For God, a thousand years
ago is just like yesterday. Our lives are like the dew that appears in the
morning and are gone, like a vapor. We’ve had some London fog days in the last
couple of weeks, and then by noontime when the sun arises and burns away that
dew, it is gone.

Do you know what this is saying? It’s saying many
things, but it’s saying at least two things. It’s saying first that you and I
can’t live one day longer than God has planned. Think about it. You can’t
live one day longer or one day shorter than God has planned. It is appointed
unto man once to die. God has appointed the day. But it’s also saying life is
short.

I have a family member, a career military family
member who says [far too frequently for my liking]…he says, “Life is short, and
then you die.” There’s no gospel in those words, you understand, but he says
them! “Life is short, and then you die.” He usually says it to his children when
they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Life is short. Life is
very short.

I was contacted a couple of days ago from someone on
FaceBook. I remember her. I was fifteen, in high school. I remember her. I
remember where she lived. So I wrote to her. (She asked if she could be “my
friend” on FaceBook. Sure! [Laughter.] And I wrote to her and I said how
wonderful it is. I haven’t seen her in forty years…forty years I haven’t seen
her. She has seven sons. She wrote back within a few hours, and she says, “I
don’t remember you, but I remember your brother.” [Laughter.] I was
devastated. [Laughter.] Life is short. Forty years had gone by. That’s
half of the greater lifespan, the eighty years part as opposed to the seventy
years part, the “if by reason of strength they be four-score years,” that’s half
of it gone.

Many of you in this building tonight, like myself,
are past the half way point. I could get more personal, but I won’t. Life is
short.

Wesley was asked — John Wesley was asked a famous
question. He was…you know he did this colossal amount of riding on the back of a
horse, thousands and thousands and thousands of miles, preaching. He was asked
one day what he would do if he knew he was going to die tomorrow. And apparently
he opened up his diary and looked at it, and said, “I would do precisely as I
had planned.” What a way to live! Living each day as if it meant something,
redeeming the time, buying up each moment, each second as useful for God,
because only what’s done for Jesus will last. God is sovereign, sovereign over
time.

III. The severity of God.

Thirdly, God is severe. Yes, in verses 7-12,

“For we are brought to an end by
Your anger;

By Your wrath we are dismayed.

You have set our iniquities
before You,

Our secret sins in the light of
Your presence.”

This is not, you see, “God is sovereign; therefore, it
doesn’t matter what I do, He’ll clean up the mess.” No, there are clear and
painful consequences to sin. That’s what the psalmist is saying. This is the
wilderness period, after all. This is the time of God’s anger. God was
chastising them. Life is too short to spend half of it under the chastisement of
God. There are consequences for wrong choices. An entire generation perished
as a consequence of wrong choices.

What they lacked — you see it there at the end
of verse 11 — is the fear of God. Do you remember what the psalmist is
trying to say to us here? How do you get the heart of wisdom? What is the
beginning of wisdom? The fear of God: recognizing that God is God, recognizing
that God is great, recognizing that God is powerful, recognizing that God is
holy, recognizing that God has revealed His holy character in His word. Yes,
living like that.

Spurgeon was saved on January 6, 1850, you remember,
in a snowstorm. You remember he had gone to hear someone and wasn’t able to get
there because of the snowstorm, and turned into this little Baptist church. And
a preacher (a poor preacher, according to Spurgeon) was in the pulpit and he
kept on repeating the text. The only good thing about this preacher was he kept
repeating the text, “‘Come unto Me and be ye saved,’ saith the Lord.” And
Spurgeon was sitting up in the balcony, and apparently the preacher pointed
directly at him, and Spurgeon was saved. Well, two weeks later he wrote the
following prayer:

“O great and unsearchable God, who knowest my heart and triest all my ways, with
a humble dependence upon the support of Thy Holy Spirit, I yield myself to Thee.
As Thy own reasonable sacrifice, I return to be Thine own. I would be forever
unreservedly, perpetually Thine. Whilst I am on earth, I would serve Thee; and
may I enjoy Thee and praise Thee forever.”

That was his prayer.

Living in the fear of God. Living a life of
consecration. Living a life of holiness. That’s how God would have us live in
2009, living for Him. Not living for ourselves, not even living for our
families, but living for Him — out and out for Him, the heart given to Him.

IV. The mercy of God.

But then, fourthly and finally, the mercy of God. Do
you see it there in verse 14? I love this verse: “Satisfy us in the morning with
Your steadfast love.”

Let me say a couple of things about that.

Steadfast love: it’s the great Hebrew word for
God’s covenant mercy, God’s special mercy, God’s cross-centered mercy,
God’s Christ-centered mercy.

Satisfy us in the morning with Your steadfast
love. Here’s Moses saying…and this is Moses in the wilderness period… saying
here’s the heart, here’s the secret of a wise life. It’s gospel-focused. It’s
gospel-focused. It has an eye to the way of forgiveness, and the way of
forgiveness is through God’s covenant mercy; that there is mercy with God, that
He may be feared. God is merciful. He sent His Son to die for us. “Greater love
has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for a friend.” It’s as though
Moses is saying, ‘Here’s the heart of wisdom. It has a cross-shape to it.’

Do you notice that he says in verse 14, “Satisfy us
in the morning…”? You know, when you get up in the morning and you remember that
God is merciful the day goes so much better.

“Satisfy us in the morning,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”

Some of you are grumpy. There’s no beating around the
bush about it. Some of you are grumpy. And the reason your days are filled with
grumpiness is perhaps what Moses is getting to here in verse 14, that you’re not
satisfied with the mercy of God. It doesn’t ravish you, it doesn’t fill your
heart, it doesn’t fill your soul. It doesn’t cause you to be lost in wonder,
love and praise as you think about the love of God, the steadfast love of God.
Fill your heart with it in the morning!

You know, maybe that’s what we need to do in 2009,
get back to that…back to morning exercises with God. “Oh,” you say, “I don’t
need to do that. That’s legalism. I can do that at night. I can do that when I’m
driving up I-55.” [Well, you’re a better person than I am!] [Laughter.]
Start the day, Moses is saying…start the day remembering the mercy of God, that
you are a saved sinner, a sinner saved by grace. And Moses is saying your day
will go so much better. It will be filled with joy and gladness.

But you notice further on down in verse 17,and I’ll
end with this, “Let the favor of the Lord our God….” Do you see that little word
favor? He’s ringing the changes on the idea of mercy and steadfast love,
and now favor. And this word favor…it’s a word…and if you have a text
that has little footnotes in it, look down at the footnote, because it says “or
beauty”. I think the Hebrews had a way of understanding God that sometimes
we’ve lost. To the Hebrew mindset, to the Mosaic mindset–remember this is Moses,
this is Moses who wrote those long five books full of law, detailed law, but
Moses knew that God was beautiful. God was a thing of beauty — can I put it that
way? God was altogether beautiful! Ravished by the beauty, the sheer
beauty…captivated by the sheer beauty of God. Anything or anyone that you’ve
ever considered beautiful — a person, a wife, a husband, a child, a
grandchild…music, art, literature, a flower, a bird, a dog — anything or anyone
that you consider beautiful is but a pale reflection of the beauty of God, and
here’s the Psalmist saying ‘I’m ravished, and I want to be ravished, and I want
constantly to be ravished by the sheer beauty of God.’

Oh, that’s what I wish for all of you! That’s what I
pray for all of you, as I pray for myself, for 2009.

There’s something wonderful about the changing of the
year. You can turn the page. There have been all kinds of sins and catastrophes
in 2008, and God is a God of forgiveness. There is mercy with God, that He may
be feared. And we take it to the cross, and we have all of those sins washed in
the blood of the Lamb. And there’s 2009, and there’s this prayer: “Satisfy us in
the morning with Your love.” May God so grant it.

Let’s pray together.

Father, we thank You for Your word, this word of
Moses three and a half thousand years ago and yet ever new. And we pray that
You’d hide it now within our hearts for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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