Psalm 90 - Aging

The superscription to Psalm 90 attributes the psalm to Moses.

A prayer of Moses, the man of God.

Could Moses have written this? Or was the psalm written later and attributed to Moses? There is no way to know; however, for thousands of years, the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, were ascribed to him. If those works passed through the generations intact, there is no reason that this work also could have been similarly protected. Perhaps it was part of a book that did not survive but was copied into the canon of the psalms. 

The final verse of Psalm 90 summarizes the desire of Moses to have the Lord bless the work which he and the community of faith have done. 

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. (Psalm 90:17 NASB)

According to the accounts in the book of Exodus, Moses was 40 years old when he murdered the abusive Egyptian slave master and then fled into the wilderness. Another generation later, 40 more years, God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush and then called him to lead His people out of Egypt. At 80, Moses led the massive horde of the people of God into the desert and on to the land promised by God to Abraham. The rebellion in the desert led God to determine that the generation would not inherit the promised land. Their children would, but not for another 40 years. Even Moses was only allowed to see it from across the Jordan river at the age of 120. So when did Moses write this psalm? Probably toward the end of his life, between 80 and 120. God had done amazing things during his lifetime. The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are his life.

Moses recognized that the Lord was not limited by time and age as we are.

Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were born

Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,

Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. (Psalm 90: 1-2, NASB)

Cosmologists tell us that this universe is about 13.8 billion years old. God existed before that time, and it was He who created the heavens and the earth. 

In physical cosmology, the age of the universe is the time elapsed since the Big Bang. The current measurement of the age of the universe is around 13.8 billion years (as of 2015[1]) – 13.799±0.021 billion years within the Lambda-CDM concordance model.[2] The uncertainty has been narrowed down to 20 million years, based on a number of studies which all gave extremely similar figures for the age. These include studies of the microwave background radiation by the Planck spacecraft, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and other space probes. Measurements of the cosmic background radiation give the cooling time of the universe since the Big Bang,[3] and measurements of the expansion rate of the universe can be used to calculate its approximate age by extrapolating backwards in time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_universe

Our lives are so short by comparison, like one pebble relative to the entire earth.

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. (Psalm 90: 3-6, NASB)

Those born in the decade following World War 2 are experiencing the questioning which comes with age. We are at a place where we can look back at our lives and see where they diverged from what we thought they would be when we were young.

Looking back, this author sees three stages of life:

In large church Music Ministry for 25 years there were: Choirs, orchestra, cantatas, oratorios, musicals; Children's choirs, youth choirs; Young adult ensembles; Worship Teams; Conservatory; Drama; Composition of more than 100 songs, 2 musicals, and a play; Producing more than 100 church musicals; and Designing and leading over 2000 worship services over 40 years.

In Pastoring Ministry for 17 years, there were: Translation, exegesis, and preaching through most of the New Testament; Translation, exegesis, and preaching through much of the Old Testament; Leading a ministry to the non-religious community of Developmentally Disabled Adults for ten years; Conducting a weekly Bible study for 20 years; Marriage and pre-marital counseling; Weddings; Funerals; and Hospital visitations.

As a Missionary with Global Training Network, there have been opportunities for: Training Pastors and Church Leaders in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, Brazil, Philippines, Thailand, and Laos; Writing two curricula: Music and Worship Arts Training, and Understanding the Bible; Developing Ministry Partners who help support the ministry with prayer and financial giving; and leading Teleconferences worldwide.

Additionally, there is a fantastic marriage to an incredible woman and four beautiful adult children with a couple of grands. Loving parents, in-laws, a brother, and extended family add more blessings to this life. There is so much to be thankful for: reasonably good health and vitality, a charming neighborhood, and a great country.

That is a pretty full life, deserving of great thanksgiving for the opportunities which have come along as the Lord has led. But there have also been mistakes along the way - a couple of them huge mistakes. There is no way that those ever go away. They are forgiven, praise God, but they are still a part of the memories of life.

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. (Psalm 90: 7-9, NASB)

A heart attack at 59, even with proper exercise, brought the reality of mortality to the front.

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

(Psalm 90:10 NASB)

That is a lot closer than it used to be. Even with long lifelines in the family, our maximum age is probably 100, assuming good health. 

What have we done that lasts? Could we have done more? Where did we shoot ourselves in the foot and short-circuit the plan of God for our lives?

The psalm writer speaks about experiencing the anger and fury of God.

Who understands the power of Your anger

And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You? (Psalm 90:11 NASB)

Moses also had to deal with many anger issues in his life. His anger killed the Egyptian slave master so that it required him to flee Egypt. Pharaoh's anger at Moses brought him a death sentence.

The anger of a later Pharaoh would not allow the Israelites to leave Egypt after Moses and Aaron presented the command of Yahweh to let His people go. The anger of God brought judgment when the people listened to the ten spies rather than the two. God was angry with Moses and did not allow him to enter the promised land because of His disobedience in striking the rock rather than speaking to it.

There is a sense in which the anger of God is constant in the world. It has no end. There are 7.8 billion people on earth. Assume that people sleep for 8 hours a day. That is 1/3 of a 24 hour day; therefore, 2/3 of the planet's people are awake at any one time - about 5.2 billion people. In reality, because China and India are geographically close, it does not work out evenly. But for the sake of argument, let's work in averages. God is continually aware of the sin of the 5.2 billion people. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, non-stop, God is always angry because there is always sin.

Yet it is also true that the love of God is constant in the world. For as God is aware of the sin of each person, He also loves each one. So God loves 5.85 billion people who are awake at any one time on the planet and is concerned with every one of those lives.

God does not have schizophrenia. He can both be angry and be loving at the same time. We can't do that, but it is within God's nature to have both in balance. God is not petty. God does not have tantrums. God does not seek revenge. God does not hold a grudge. But God is both angry with sin and loving with grace and mercy continually.

We cannot comprehend how God can do this with 5.2 billion people, such that He knows and is intimate with each one at every moment. God never rests. He is always on. He has never had a break since the creation of the world. Well, maybe just after the flood when He only had a boatful of people to worry about. Today - it is 5.2 billion at all times, 24 hours a day, every day.

We have such a limited influence on 5.2 billion people. Ours extends to thousands if that. Facebook stipulates that we can only have 5000 friends. Most of us have considerably fewer Facebook friends than that. Add to that number the people we know who are not on Facebook. Be generous - double it and add a bunch more and we may get to seven or eight thousand. Add all those in all the churches in which we have served. School classmates. Probably the number of people we have known personally in our lifetimes is less than 10,000.

The influence of those of us at Global Training Network (GTN) grows each year, and we continue to meet new people. How many can we personally reach? If we only have a limited amount of time remaining before we transition through death, how many people can we influence for the Kingdom of God? It is a very, very small percentage of 7.8 billion - about 0.000136%

So at this point in our lives, with a limited number of years remaining, we pray the prayer of Moses.

So teach us to number our days,

That we may present to You a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12 NASB)

Help us, Lord, to make our days count. Help us to construct wise strategies and do careful planning that we can maximize our effectiveness. Please keep us healthy and robust.

Do return, O Lord; how long will it be?

And be sorry for Your servants.

O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness,

That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. (Psalm 90: 13-14 NASB)

Who wouldn't want to start each day with satisfaction from confidence in the lovingkindness of the Lord? That confidence does not come from our temporary work. It comes from His everlasting nature and character. When we think about Him in this way, it results in joy and gladness. We want to have these today. We want to have them every day. So we need to recognize His lovingkindness and respond with personal worship as we start the day.

Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us,

And the years we have seen evil. (Psalm 90: 15, NASB)

Many people lead tough lives, suffering more often than not. Tragedy and loss are compounded in their lives by the evil of men. Moses wandered in the desert for 40 years. He lived with suffering.

And so we cry out to the Lord: We want our work to be Your work. We don't want to waste our time. We want to accomplish what You want to achieve through us. We don't want You to be angry with us. We don't want to live in futility.

We want our work to make a difference, be important in the Kingdom of God, and be valuable in the lives of those living in the Kingdom of God on earth.

We want Your majesty and glory revealed through us. We desire our work to extend to our children and our children's children and our children's children's children.

Let Your work appear to Your servants

And Your majesty to their children. (Psalm 90:16, NASB)

And so we pray the prayer of Moses - that we would avoid the temptation of age - seeing futility instead of seeing what God has done in our lives, which will have lasting value.

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. (Psalm 90:17, NASB)

Does what we do matter? In the short term, yes, very much, but in the long run, not very much. Those who build cutting edge technology find it obsolete in a decade. Those who work with people find that relationships can drift away over time. People who were very important to us become mere memories. So this is a sincere prayer - that our work would matter and that the favor of the Lord might be upon us. 

The psalm is about aging, and Moses certainly was an example of one who aged well. As we age, we move from significance to insignificance in terms of our work. We learn the latest advances in our field when we are young, and we are cutting edge. Then as we approach retirement, those advances have become "the old way of doing things". Perhaps we have kept up, at least to some degree, but few can return to college years and full time studying to stay "cutting edge". 

So the prayer, "confirm the work of our hands", is a sincere prayer that what we do stays relevant and essential. It may change over time. We may not be doing what we trained to do in our youth, but we trust that the Lord will allow us to move into areas where our expertise and experience can still be useful. But our satisfaction won't come from our work. It will come from the recognition of His lovingkindness and His eternal nature. 

Do we want to sing for joy and be glad? Sure we do. Focusing our attention on the worldview of His Kingdom and who He is instead of our own wistfully short existence will help us not to dwell on futility, but on the purpose of God for our lives.

PRAY