Psalm 90 is the only psalm in the collection of psalms written by Moses. There is some advice he passes down to us worth our attention in these days of social distancing.
1. The Brevity of Life
“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.” v. 10, 122.
2. The Incommunicable Attributes of God.
He is “from everlasting to everlasting” existing “before the mountains were brought forth”-and mankind returns “to dust” after this brief life. v. 2-33.
3. The Wrath of God
“we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed” because “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.” v. 7-84.
4. Our Need for God
“Return, O Yahweh! How long? Have pity on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” v. 13-14
The counsel here then is to evaluate the use of time in light of the brevity of life and our standing before God. How are you using your free time, planned time, daily schedules, in the midst of this chaotic hour in human history?
We are prevented from filling our schedule with church meetings, church gatherings, children’s ministry, group gatherings, group retreats, summer camps, prayer meetings, bible study gatherings, etc. It may feel like we are left alone to tend to ourselves. Aside from Zoom and Livestream video, this can be a time to take advantage of our personal devotions (and family devotions), locked down alone, and/or with family.
You and I have a great opportunity to sharpen up, refine, get in order, and recommit ourselves to the area of person bible reading and study. How can we have God “satisfy us in the morning with (his) steadfast love” in this social distancing time? Let me give you some helps and ideas to explore and put into use for your soul:
Bible Reading plans (it takes ~71 hours to read the whole bible):
- Grant Horners 10 chapters a day (https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-reading-plan/prof-horners-reading-system.html)
- I have been using an app on my phone called Olive Tree Bible App that can access multiple reading plans from topics, like 5, 7, 30 day plans covering certain books or subjects. I read M’Cheynes reading plan on this app which covered the whole bible, 4 chapters a day.
Listening to the Bible or sermons is another useful tool. Preachers I typically listen to are: John MacArthur (gty.org), Steve Lawson (onepassionministries.org), Lloyd-Jones (mljtrust.org), S. Lewis Johnson (sljinstitute.net); R.C.Sproul and others (Ligonier.org); you can search out other preachers you are familiar with at Sermonaudio.com
The point being, we can waste a lot of time watching Netflix, or TV, or some other type of entertainment because we have an excuse that we can’t go anywhere, or don’t have any meetings on the schedule and just have to abide by the requests to stay home. But that is an opportunity of “time” given to us by the Lord to sharpen an area of need, and satisfy ourselves with God and His word.
by Pastor Dan Walsh