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We've been hitting some Psalms here and there for the last probably four or five years in

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between different things and we are working our way through the book, Psalm 90.

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There's 150 of them, so we're over the halfway point.

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In the last section of the Psalms that we looked at, which is often referred to as the

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third book of Psalms, you probably see in your Bible, or you may not, you may see a

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designation as you flip through some of the different Psalms.

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While we have them in one book, there are actually five different books that have been

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categorized in that way for whatever reason.

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It's uncertain as to why they were categorized that way through the years, but they are.

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So Psalm 90 is the start of the fourth book of Psalms.

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What we saw a lot of in the third book of Psalms were the Psalms of Asaph.

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That was a large portion of those Psalms.

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We see a variety of different writers of the Psalms throughout the book.

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David is accredited with writing many, if not most, of the Psalms, but we see some other

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characters too, Asaph being one.

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And then tonight we have this Psalm of Moses from Psalm 90.

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So let's pray and we'll get started.

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Father God, we come to you.

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I pray that your Holy Spirit would be with us tonight, that you would help us to be free

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of our worldly distractions, that you would help us to focus on you and not what we have

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to do tomorrow or the rest of the week, but that we would just give you our attention

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tonight.

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I pray that you'd hide me behind the cross to preach and teach in a way that brings glory

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and honor to you, that you take away any pride or any distractions that are in my heart tonight,

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that I do a faithful job to preach this word.

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And I ask these things in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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All right.

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Psalm 90.

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This Psalm, I think we can say, is split up into four sections, kind of contrasting each

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other.

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And so the first section starts in verse one.

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Lord you have been our refuge in every generation before the mountains were born, before you

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gave birth to the earth and the world from eternity to eternity, you are God.

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So we are establishing very early on in the Psalm who God is, that God is above all things,

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that God has created all things, that there is nothing above God and everything that there

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is has been created by God.

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He is eternal.

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He has been, He will always be.

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And so here Moses is setting us up.

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He's setting up where God is and who God is in comparison to who we are.

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God is eternal, but as human beings, we are mortal.

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God is the one who created us.

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So we are created by God.

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We don't create gods.

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Well, we do.

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Sadly, humanity does try to create many gods and there have been many gods that have been

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created in the minds of many human beings.

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But there is only one God and that is the God that we are talking about tonight.

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And he created us.

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We did not create him.

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And so we see that it is God who is in control.

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God is all powerful and we are pretty pitiful, powerless human beings.

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And we see that contrast here in this next section starting in verse three.

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You return mankind to the dust saying, return descendants of Adam.

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You are in your sight a thousand years or like yesterday that passes by, like a few

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hours of the night.

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You end their lives, they sleep.

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They are like grass that grows in the morning.

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In the morning it sprouts and grows.

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By evening it withers and dries up.

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And this is the description of mankind.

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We are formed from the dust.

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God used the dust and he made Adam.

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We come from the dust and one day we will return to the dust.

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It does not take our bodies long to turn into dust.

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Not dependent on the conditions, but it does not take many years in the right conditions

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for a bone to turn, or excuse me, for a body to turn back into nothing but a pile of dust.

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And so God has created us.

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He is eternal.

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But we are mortal.

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God made us out of the dust and these old bodies will one day die and be placed in the

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ground and they will return to dust.

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Now our lifetime may seem like a long time.

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Our 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years if we are fortunate enough.

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That seems like an eternity to us.

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That seems like a long time.

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But in the grand scheme of things it is nothing.

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And that is what he points out here in verse 4.

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For in your sight a thousand years are like yesterday that passes by, like a few hours

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of the night.

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So God is eternal.

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Time is nothing to him.

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Our lifetime to God is not even a speck in the timeline of eternity.

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God is forever and we do not live forever.

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We are temporary.

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In the same way that we go to sleep at night, we go to sleep at 9 o'clock, we wake up at

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6 o'clock and all of a sudden 9 hours has passed, but it passes by out of bling.

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We go to sleep, we wake up and the time is gone.

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And Moses says here, this is what time is like for God.

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What seems like a long time for us is but a short time for God.

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And so he is reminding us of who God is and who we are.

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So we are those created by God and one day we will return to the earth.

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Alright in the next section, verse 7.

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For we are consumed by your anger.

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We are terrified by your wrath.

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You have set our unjust ways before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

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For all the days ebb away under your wrath.

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We end our years like a sigh.

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Our lives last 70 years or if we are strong 80 years.

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Even the best of them are struggle and sorrow.

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Indeed, they pass quickly and we fly away.

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Who understands the power of your finger?

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Your wrath matches the fear that is due you.

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Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.

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Now here we see a beautiful section.

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For we are consumed by your anger.

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What is he talking about?

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Well it is believed and suggested that Moses probably wrote this psalm when they were wandering

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in the wilderness.

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They had sinned against God.

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They had been disobedient to God.

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And now he is talking about the wrath of God.

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They certainly had experienced that in its full force.

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And that is what he acknowledges here.

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That they are consumed by God's anger.

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He says that in verse 10, our lives last 70 years or if we are strong 80 years.

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Even the best of them are struggle and sorrow.

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Indeed, they pass quickly and we fly away.

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Here is this reminder again that our lives are short.

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Even way back in Moses' day, he acknowledged, look, people don't last very long.

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Moses said 70 years.

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Maybe if you are lucky, you get 80 years.

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And even in those 80 years, they are filled with sorrow.

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They are filled with pain.

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They are filled with hardship.

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We could probably all attest to that.

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Even in the best times of life, life is still hard.

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There are still difficulties.

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There are still hardships.

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And so we are not guaranteed many years in this world.

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Yeah, we could probably all think of some people that made it to 100 or some people

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that made it to 90.

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But you can also think of some people that didn't make it to 40 or 50.

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And so generally speaking, we are going to have 80 years at the most, 70 years.

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And they are going to pass by quickly.

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And so what are we doing with those years?

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Are we making the most of those years?

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Especially as we begin to get closer to that 70 mark, as we begin to get closer to that

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80 mark, the clock is ticking.

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There aren't many years that are left.

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The average age of death in the United States is 78 years.

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78 years.

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Maybe you get a few more.

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Maybe you get a few less.

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And that clock never stops ticking.

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Those years are passing by.

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So what are we going to do with those years?

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Our time is short.

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That's what Moses reminds us of in this Psalm, that our years are numbered.

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We get 70.

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Maybe if we're lucky, we get 80.

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Maybe if we're really lucky, we get 90.

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But not often is that the case.

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Our years pass by quickly.

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So we have to make the most of the years.

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We have to make the most of those that we know that are getting up in years.

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Those who are getting up the years have to make the most to impart some kind of wisdom

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in those who are coming up behind them because time is ticking.

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It's kind of a scary thing to think about when you start thinking about how many years

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we have left.

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Nobody knows how many years we have left, but 78 is the mark.

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If we live to the average and we're 70 years old, that's eight years.

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Let's say you know somebody that's 70.

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They're going to live for eight more years.

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And you only see that person four times a year.

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That's 32 more times you're going to see that person.

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Whoa, that kind of puts it in perspective.

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Every time you see that person, maybe you see them every three months, you mark that

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off the list.

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You're going to see them 31 more times, 30 more times.

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And as life begins to draw to a close and you kind of begin to do the math of how often

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you see people and how many years you have left, what was thousands upon thousands of

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times have dropped to hundreds of times, have dropped to dozens of times, have dropped to

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a handful of times that you may have left to spend with those that you love.

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And that's a scary thing to think about.

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You may want to do the math and then again, you may not because it's kind of scary to

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think I'm only going to see this person how many more times.

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So is there something you need to tell somebody, some wisdom you need to impart on them?

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Well, you better tell them because time is running out.

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And that's what Moses says.

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Look, we're in the midst of this hard time.

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Life is hard.

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We're not guaranteed many years.

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And one day this old life's going to come to an end.

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And what does he say?

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And we will fly away.

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That's a familiar idea to us.

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We sing the song, I'll fly away.

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I don't know if it comes from this verse, but I would guess that it probably does come

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from this very verse that we live our life out as long or as short as it may be.

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And at the end of it all, we fly away if we put our trust in Jesus Christ.

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He says in verse 12, teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom

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in our hearts.

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That is to say, okay, our days are numbered.

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So we need to be aware of that.

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We need to be aware that that number is not getting bigger.

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It's getting smaller.

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The moment we're born, we begin to die.

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The moment we're born, that's the most amount of days that we will ever have.

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Now, when that timer runs out, we don't know, but our timer is ticking.

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And so we need to know that our life is short.

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We need to do things that are going to make a difference, that are going to help us to

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draw closer to God, that are going to help us to make good decisions for ourselves and

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for our family.

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This is important.

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We need to recognize that our days are limited.

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And so we see that they are consumed by God's anger here in this section.

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And then in the last section, we see this plea for God to help them, that God would

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turn to them, that God would deliver them, that their days are short.

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They've been wandering.

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They've been experiencing the wrath of God.

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But will they ever get to see any peace in the rest of their days?

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Will there be any deliverance that comes in their days?

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And that's what we see at the end of this section.

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Verse 13, Lord, how long?

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Turn and have compassion on your servants.

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Satisfy us in the morning with your faithful love, so that we may shout with joy and be

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glad all our days.

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Make us rejoice for as many days as you have humbled us.

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For as many years we have seen adversity.

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Let your work be seen by your servants and your splendor by their children.

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Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us.

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Establish for us the work of our hands.

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Establish the work of our hands.

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So here's a prayer, God, we need you.

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It's been a long time we've been wandering.

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There's seasons in our life that we feel like this.

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Now hopefully we hadn't been wandering for 40 years, but maybe there are seasons in our

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lives and people's lives that we know where it is a long season of wandering from the

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Lord, of living for the world, of living in sin.

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And that's a bad place to be.

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We talked about that some Sunday when we talked about Jonah.

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But what does Moses do here?

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He calls out, look, how long, Lord?

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Is it time?

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Will you have mercy on us?

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Will you help us?

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Will you restore our joy to us?

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What does he say?

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He says in verse 14, satisfy us in the morning with your faithful love.

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And then in verse 15, make us rejoice.

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Just as many days as you caused us to be in misery, God have mercy on us so that we would

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rejoice in you in just that many days.

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That as many bad days as we have, God, that you would bring that many good days into our

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life.

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Sometimes this needs to be our prayer.

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Sometimes we need to be reminded of these truths that Moses reminds us of.

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It's God who's in control.

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That God is infinite.

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We are finite.

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We are only here for a little while.

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And we don't want to use that little while to do stupid stuff and live in disobedience

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to God.

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And that's what Moses and the Israelites had done here.

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They had done some pretty stupid things and they lived in disobedience to God.

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And if they're 80 years, they had just spent half of that time wandering in the wilderness.

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That's not a good use of time.

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And so we want to be those who make better use of our time.

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So Moses says here, look, we're in a hard time, dear Lord.

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We feel your wrath, but would you just have some mercy on us?

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Would you have some grace?

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Would you restore us, dear Lord, so that we can rejoice in you, so that you can establish

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the works of our hands?

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That is so that you'll bless what we do, that our hands will do better works, that our hands

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would not do the work of sin and the work of the world, but that our hands would do

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the work of God.

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And listen to what he says here in verse 16.

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Let your work be seen by your servants and your splendor by their children.

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There seems to be the idea of a generational thing here, that God's people would come to

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a knowledge of God, that they would repent of their sins, that that generation would

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work, that they would become servants of God, and that their children would see that and

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that their children would become servants of God and that God would bless that nation,

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that God would bless those people if they would only seek him, if they would only call

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out to him.

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And what a beautiful thought that is for us in our country, because we're not doing so

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good.

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If you hadn't been keeping up with the world, we're not doing too good.

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The United States is not doing too good.

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The world's not doing too good.

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It's a lot of evil out there.

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It's a lot of things going on that are just bad things.

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There's a lot of people who have turned from God.

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God has been taken out of everything in our country.

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People have stopped living for God.

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They've stopped listening to the word of God.

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They've stopped living by the word of God.

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And our society is just crumbling.

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But what we need to do, perhaps, is look at the words of Moses here and quit trying to

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think that we're our own gods, that we're in control of anything.

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That's the problem with people today.

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They don't believe that they're a god.

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They think they're their own god.

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They think they can control the world.

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They think they can control the weather.

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They think they can be the one who's in power.

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They think they can be judge and jury and executioner.

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They think they can be everything without failing to realize that there is a God who

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has created us and He is the one who is in control.

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And it is God who will bring judgment when the time is right.

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And it is God who will bless and give, or it is God who will curse and take away.

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We need to humble ourselves before God and quit trying to do things on our own and realize

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we are mere mortals and we can't do nothing on our own.

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We come from a pile of dust and we will return to a pile of dust.

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But there is one who is in control and that is the one that we need to seek.

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We need to be seeking to be servants of God.

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We need to teach that to the next generation so that they would become servants of God,

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so that they would teach that to the next generation and they would become servants

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of God.

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And the result of that is that we would see a land that would be healed.

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We would see a land that would be strong because we would see a land of believers in Jesus

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Christ who were seeking the will of God.

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And when that occurs, there will be healing.

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But until that occurs, there will be more destruction.

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That's a sad thing to say, but we are not on a good track.

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So maybe tonight we need to listen to the words of Moses, make the most of our time

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and let us never forget who we are and who God is.

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Let's pray.

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God, we thank you for these words.

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I pray, dear Lord, that you would help us never to become proud, but that we always

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remember, dear Lord, that you are our creator.

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We are a created being and we thank you for creating us.

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We thank you for being good to us and taking care of us.

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But dear Lord, we need not ever forget that you are the one who is in control.

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So I pray that we would trust you, dear Lord, that we would seek you, that we would call

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out to you, that in the midst of our trials, dear Lord, maybe some of which we bring on

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ourselves like the Israelites did, that God, that we would seek you so we wouldn't experience

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your wrath, but that we would experience your grace.

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Dear Lord, I pray that you help us to know just how precious life is, that we don't take

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it for granted, that we don't waste our time, that we make the most of it.

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And our short time, 70, 80 years, if we're blessed enough to get that, whatever amount

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of time we get, help us to do the most we can with it for your kingdom.

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So God, I pray that we would seek you as Moses calls us to in this Psalm tonight, that we

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would seek you and humble ourselves before you, dear Lord, that we would be a nation

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that would serve you, that we would be a people, Christians, dear Lord, who would serve you.

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Dear Lord, that the world would see our example, that they would see the love of Jesus Christ,

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that we would pass this example down to generations to come.

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God, that the works of our hands would be worthy works, that they would be acceptable

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works, that they would not be selfish works, but that they would be works for your kingdom

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and not ours.

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And I ask these things in Jesus' name.

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Amen.