Peter Barnes | Psalm 90
SERMON NOTES
NUMBER YOUR DAYS
Psalm 90
You may the haunting, lilting voice of Art Garfunkel singing ‘Bright Eyes’ from the movie Watership Down:
Bright eyes, burning like fire,
Bright eyes, how can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly suddenly burn so pale?
1. God is eternal.
– 90:1-2. He alone is eternal, without beginning and without end.
– His perspective is so different to ours – 90:3-4.
Immortal, invisible, God only wise
In light inaccessible, hid from our eyes.
2. We are ephemeral.
– 90:5-6. Isaac Watts captured it brilliantly:
Time, like an ever-rolling stream,/ Bears all its sons away;/ They pass forgotten, as a dream/ Dies with the dawning day.
– Read 90:7-11. See 2 Sam.19:35. Thomas Watson: ‘We come into the world with a cry, and we go out of it with a groan.’
– God is angry with our sins – Gen.2:17; Rom.5:12. Hence 90:12. The rich fool is all too common – Luke 12:18-20.
3. Pray for God’s favour.
– 90:13-17. Martin Luther’s prayer as he commented on this Psalm:
O Lord, eternal God, teach us so to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom, embracing Christ and His Gospel as Your wisdom and Your counsel for our salvation. Grant us grace to walk honestly as in the day that, when our last hour is come, we may be found in true faith and godliness, ready to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Amen.