How can we outlive this life? We can’t outlast this life, but we can outlive this life. That’s the thesis of Psalm 90. If you have a Bible available on a device or a hard copy along with a notebook, I encourage you to open up there, because we will be going through this amazing prayer of Moses, it says. At the very top, the title as you can notice.
Now, Moses lived to 120, so this might have been written in his early 100s as he was getting immersed and involved in building the Tabernacle, seeking God’s favor and blessing for the sake of the work that he was embarking upon and calling God’s people to help him to build the Tabernacle.
Notice that he’s also called Man of God. That is assumed, that we have a relationship with God as we pray this prayer. This prayer has four parts to it. The first part has to do with God as He is. The second part with humans as we are, both general humanity and the people of God as we are. The third part has five specific engagements with the eternal, prayers to the eternal. And then a general summary.
I’d like to lead you through those verses and segments during these short format presentations for your spiritual well-being and overflowing. The Welling weekly is meant for your spiritual health.
So Psalm 90 verses 1 and 2 talk about God as He is, the essential reality of divinity. He is eternal. That’s the essential attribute. Well, we talk about basic attributes, like holy and love and righteous and just. But unless He existed, none of those would make sense. He has to exist, and He has to exist eternally. If He did not exist eternally, He would not be God.
Here is how His eternity is captured in Psalm 90 verses 1 and 2. Listen to it. 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. LORD, if you notice this, capital letters, L-O-R-D, has a specific name for God there, special covenant relationship that they must affirm as they go into this life engaging with the eternal and how to outlive this life.
He says, You have been our dwelling place. That is a beautiful phrase, the dwelling place. He’s speaking about God the Creator, who created the earth and the world as a building for us, but He Himself is our dwelling.
Martin Heidegger, who is a German philosopher, used to distinguish between building and dwelling.
A dwelling assumes that there is a building, but a building doesn’t necessarily become a dwelling. The dwelling place is where the LORD is our home. We feel ourselves to be home with God. And how can we feel at home with God unless He accepts us and affirms us and assists us–that is going to be still continued and developed in this Psalm–in the middle of all that we have done against Him? He says, You are our dwelling place in all generations. Here is the truth. We will never have to think about God saying, What a life it’s been. He is eternal. Before the mountains were born. When He spoke and all of reality came to be. He built the building of the earth and the world.
Not long ago, I had the privilege of being on the rooftop of the world. This is a flight from Bhutan, Paro airport, all the way to Kathmandu, Nepal. The gate agent gave me a wonderful privilege of looking out the window with a window seat. This fabulous look at the Himalayan range, where only over 20,000 feet they call it mountains. Before the mountains were formed … the LORD, from everlasting to everlasting. You are God. He never has to say what a life that’s been. He lasts forever and ever and ever. That’s your God. He is in charge of our life.