A Prayer for "The Times"

What’s going on? It’s been a crazy month in the news. Bruce Jenner becomes Caitlyn. Rachel Dolezol says she’s black, then steps down from the NAACP when it is discovered that she is really white. Nine Christians are gunned down in a SC church, and Donald Trump is running for president. I can president delivering some bad news to the Secretary of State as he squints his eyes, points his finger, and exclaims, “Your Fired!”

We live in a changing world. One where people are making up their own rules, like God does not even exist. We need prayer. It is easy to get mad, but it won’t help. It would probably make things worse. We need prayer. We need a psalm.

There is a Psalm in the Bible that was written by Moses. It is the only one he wrote, and it is written as a prayer from a father figure. You see, as Moses surveyed his own world, he recognized without divine guidance in troubled times, his people were in trouble. Moses is near the end of his life and a lot has happened. 

Leading his people out of Egypt was the highlight. But things went downhill from there.

•  The people resented his leadership

•  Many were killed as they rebelled

•  40 years passed with no promise land conquered

•  Millions perished, even Moses siblings    

• Then the Unthinkable happened: Moses's temper would prevent him from going into the  promise land.

An entire generation seemingly wasted, millions of people had perished. Life did not turn out as he expected. Honestly, I don’t know if it ever does. 

So as he writes this Psalm he reflects on the most important things we should know when it comes to God. He puts things in perspective. He is an old man, a father figure, and he is imparting wisdom that only comes from a long life of lessons learned. His agenda is simple, he wants to contrast God with man so we can live life from an eternal perspective. 

His prayer has several layers, and it is important that we comment on each one.

1. The Eternality of God. Moses begins….

              

1 Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

One of the most important things we can know about God is that he is eternal. This is important because as people come and go in life, including our loved ones, we don’t have to worry. GOD WILL ALWAYS BE THERE!  No one created God. No one was before God. No one can outlive God. He is beyond time.

Moses says He has been around for long time.

Before our generation

Before the mountains 

Before the earth was even formed.

When things are crazy, the eternality of God allows us to know that God will always be there. Moses says, “You have been our dwelling place.” Other translations use the word, refuge. “Lord, You have been my Refuge.” How many times in your life have you needed to find refuge?

The loss of a loved one

The loss of employment

The Loss of an important relationship

The loss of health

If you’re going to find refuge in someone, there is no one who can offer you security like God. He will always be there. For you, your children, your grandchildren, even your great grandchildren. Find refuge in that reality.

It is hard to wrap our minds around the fact that God is eternal. For us, everything has a beginning and an end.
Not God!

Illustration – Imagine a rope that goes on forever, but with a small 1/2 inch red section in the middle of it that represents all the aspects of your life.

      

                                                      Our birthday 

                                   Our childhood

                                       Our teenage years

                                            Our Adult years

                                                 Our senior years 

                                                       Our lineage

Within that little minuscule red area is the narrative that represents our life accomplishments, our disappointments, you name it.

But we never see ourselves as just a microscopic fraction of the eternal rope, we think of our red area as “the whole rope.” In order to see God for who He is, we have to realize that our own lineage is but a blip on God’s eternal radar. 

As Moses, reflects back on his life, he begins with the mind boggling reality that God is eternal. He contemplates the BIGNESS of God.

Where does he go from there in his prayer? He contrasts God’s eternality with the frailness of man.

2. The Frailness of Man

3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” 4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: 6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.

Nothing shows the frailness of man like death. From the dust we return to dust. We are merely a blip on the radar of God’s eternity.

You see, when you contrast God with man, it reveals how inadequate we are. We are frail to God, sort of like a bug that we swat away and ultimately kill. In God’s scheme of things, our existence is fleeting. Yet we gallantly strive to build our own legacy, even though we cannot see the vanity of it all. Moses says, we are like grass that springs up in the morning and withers away by evening.

My Story: I had a heart attack over a year ago. I thought with exercise and nutrition things would be better. My life would be back to what it once was before. Yet the doctor says differently. Every time I receive an echo-cardiogram, my heart seems to pump even less. Now I am told to strongly consider getting a defibrillator in case my heart suddenly stops. 

Day by day, I am seeing with more clearly the frailness of my life. 

Our Psyches - The stories of Bruce Jenner and Rachel Dolezal showcase the frailness of our psyches. One, a man, wants to be a woman, the other, a white woman, wants to be African American. One an Olympic icon; the other the former president of the NAACP, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

It is easy to get mad at Jenner and Dolezal. It is easy to scorn them for believing that somehow God got it wrong.  It is easy to criticize them for trying to play God by rejecting the DIVINE CREATOR'S initial design. However, the reality is that Jenner and Dolezal reveal the frailness of the human psyche. Jenner and Dolezol don’t need our anger, they need our prayers. They need to understand they were already beautiful in God’s eyes.

They have to look beyond their red markings on God's eternal rope. Ultimately, when we realize and accept that we are fragile human beings; that is when God can work with and through us.

3. The Reality of Sin

7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. 8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. 10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. 11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?

Without the recognition of sin, you cannot see God clearly. Without understanding the significance of sin, we make a god in our image. Here, Moses says something we don’t like to hear, our iniquities bring out God’s wrath. Our secret sins bring out God’s wrath. No matter what we do, we cannot hide them from God like we hide them from others.

Moses asks a very important question at the end of this section. “Who considers the power of your anger and wrath and fears you?” The answer, not many people. Again, we are all focusing on the red mark of the eternal rope, we are not looking toward God.

Evil Manifested: This past week we saw sin manifested in a twenty one year old man named Dylan Roof. The details are hard to imagine. He visits a historic African American Church, seeks out the pastor, who invites him to a Bible study / prayer meeting. The young man is embraced and enjoys their company for an entire hour, then all of the sudden goes postal and opens fire in the church. Nine people, including the pastor, killed. All African American.

We later learn from his roommate that Roof had been planning this for six months. We are told that he had a hatred for African Americans and wanted to make his mark in history by doing such a crime. What Roof fails to understand is that killing nine African Americans won’t stop the rise of the black man; it will, however, essentially stop his life at the ripe ole age of twenty one. Dylan Roof is a classic example of how sin can over take you in life.

At one point in his life, he was colorblind. At one point in his life he probably played with African Americans on the playground or in the sandbox. Unfortunately, sin, bad company, and a twisted manifesto shaped his perceptions. From that point forward he was so focused on his red mark on the eternal rope, that he could not see God who made every human in His image, giving us all, despite the hue of our skin, red blood. 

It is easy to hate this young man, but we must remember that he most likely will have a short time to live. What he needs most is not our fists, but rather our prayers so that he can meet Jesus before his self-imposed judgment day. Likewise, we must also look beyond our small red marks of the rope and think in terms of God’s eternity. God is angry at Dylan Roof, He does not take what he did lightly. Yet he still has hope. Like it or not, Jesus also died for Dylan Roof. 

Finally, with all this craziness, Moses ends his prayer by appealing to God’s grace.

4. The Necessity of Grace

  

12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. 13 Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants! 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. 16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. 17       Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

Moses shows us that we need is unmerited favor from God. In this section he pleads….

•     Teach us to number our remaining days wisely

•  Have pity on us

•  Let your favor be upon us

•  Establish the works of our hand

In the end, Moses’ prayer highlights the gospel and answers the question why God sent Jesus into our world. 

      *   He wanted you to have a relationship with the    
           eternal God

      *   He wanted you to realize your human   
           frailness

      *   He needed to have someone perfect (Jesus) die 
           for our sins to appease His wrath

      *   He needed you to know, heaven is yours, if 
           you believe, not by your works, but thru His 
           son’s (i.e., Grace).

I hope that encourages you. I hope that prompts you to ask God to teach you to number your days and learn the importance of making them count. 

I hope that drives you to make a difference so that God can establish the work of your own hands.

Moses prays this psalm as a father would to his children. 

May we heed the important lessons and insights God imparted to this man for our own times. May we pray in unison for the sign of our times!