Our obsession with time is evident with our invention of 'Fast food'.
Our obsession with time is evident with the popularity of movies like 'Back to the Future', 'In Time', 'Men in Black 3' and even permeating children's movies with 'Cinderella: A Twist in Time'.
Our obsession with time is evident with our decreasing value in patience.
Our obsession with time is evident with our consumer, 'have to have it now', culture.Our obsession with time is evident with popular songs like 'Don't Blink' by Kenny Chesney.
Our obsession with time is evident with the fact that we throw such huge parties to ring in the new year.
Millions squeeze into Times Square every year to say goodbye to one year and hello to a new year.
Some researchers believe that the most common asked question in our world is: 'What time is it?'
We care more about 'When?' than we do about 'What?', 'Where?', and 'With whom?'.
For us: Time matters.
One of the most popular magazines in the world is called: Time. Another called NewsWEEK (emphasis added).
We are obsessed with time.
I find this fascinating.
We measure time with what we call days, weeks, months, years, decades, and centuries. Most of us reading this have even welcomed a new millennium in our lifetime.
And so here we are at the beginning of a new year. It's another year God has so graciously given us.
Some people think of New Years as another chance for a party, a time to gather with friends and family... because Christmas apparently wasn't enough.
Some people celebrate the finale of a sports season by watching College football bowl games. (I'm one of them.)
Others view this time as an opportunity to make resolutions, to make self-improvement promises to themselves... most of the time only to break them a few days later.
And others give no attention to it at all, they don't stay up til midnight to welcome the new year, they go to bed at a normal time and wake up the next morning as if nothing happened, sometimes getting frustrated that they have to get used to putting a new number as the date on papers and checks. New years is no big deal.
No matter where you fall in these categories, I think Christians have a special opportunity.
Christ's Kingdom knows no boundaries, knows no time, knows no change in season. Christ's Kingdom transcends these barriers.
It's an opportunity for us to remember how quickly life ends. How quickly this life really goes by. It feels like just yesterday I was staying up to watch the ball drop on the year 2000. It's now 12 years later.
Life really does go by in a blink of an eye.
I am eternally grateful for the ministry of Pastor Joshua Harris of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD, a few years ago he preached a sermon on Psalm 90 that has impacted me profoundly and has made me consider starting my year, every year, with a devotional on Psalm 90, which I want to share with you today.
It's not a very positive Psalm. Our society likes to focus on the new promises that a new year brings. We don't want to be reminded of our own time running short, of death, of wrath, or of sin.
But death is a reality that we do our best to ignore.
Psalm 90 teaches us that if we live in ignorance that our days are numbered... we're fools.
We will waste every breath we are given, we'll live for what isn't important, missing what is important.
Psalm 90:12, the key verse of the chapter, says,
So teach us to number our daysIf we only compare ourselves to ourselves, we will never be able to see the brevity of this life. We will be missing out on the skillful living that wisdom is. We have to see God.
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
(ESV)
We have to remember that we are finite and He is infinite.
We have to remember that He is our supplier of life.
Lord, you have been our dwelling placeWe must start with the one who created time, the one who has given us this fresh new year...
in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
(Psalm 90:1-2 ESV)
God has always been.
God is strong.
Mightier than the mountains, because He existed before them and created the entire earth.
Perspective changes everything. He is our dwelling place in ALL generations. He threw the first party celebrating the new year of the first year ever with Adam and Eve.
His incarnation, the birth of Jesus, marks the switch in time measurements for us. He celebrated AD 1.
Our few decades of 'life experience' suddenly is reduced to nothing.
Insignificance. Smallness. Humility.
And we're reminded...
This new year isn't about us.
2012 belongs to God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.All things were done by Him, from the beginning. He is our dwelling place. Without him, nothing exists, nothing is sustained.
(John 1:1-4 ESV)
But as we read on in the psalm written by Moses, the tone switches.
You return man to dust...We are reminded who we are, where we come from, and what we are made of.
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
(Psalm 90:3-4 ESV)
And we realize: Time does not matter in the eyes of eternity.
Because time isn't a big deal, when we think about Heaven. A thousand years are like yesterday.. it has already passed. But yet God gives special attention to our brief lives. The life he has given us is for a purpose and it matters. We matter. You matter. Because God doesn't make people without a plan for them.
For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
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.
Who considers the power of your anger,
and your wrath according to the fear of you?
(Psalm 90:9-11 ESV)
We fight against our failing bodies. We fight for seventy years, some more, some less, but our span is toil and trouble.
We are passing away like dust.
Our life is given to us for but a moment... and then we fly away.
Time consumes our mind, our thoughts, but it's a waste of focus.
Death comes knocking, equalizing us all.
And the question is asked, and remains, Who considers the power of God's anger, and who truly fears the LORD?
We fear time. We fear it, because we can't control it.
And it's foolish.
We don't control God, but our minds refuse to fear him.
Our minds and our hearts are in rebellion constantly, fearing time over the one who controls time.
Fearing death, instead of enjoying life.
I heard it once said about Romans 12:1,("Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship,") that it's tricky to live this way, because unlike dead sacrifices, living sacrifices can crawl off the altar, and they usually do.
Or maybe we don't fear time, maybe we do enjoy life, maybe we don't fear death at all.
And we can just cruise through our days, happy and merry.
The philosophy is:
The world is our playground.
But when we read Psalm 90...
We must ponder the fleeting nature of mankind.
It is only when we see this with new eyes, that our grand achievements, our wealth, riches, and many possessions... are meaningless. It really is toil and trouble... unless they are grounded in eternity. We can't just try hard, or do a good job here on earth, or just live however we wish.
We must understand, that not everyone is 'going to a better place'.
The most important truth about this passage is that death, the brevity of life, and our sin are connected.
For we are brought to an end by your anger;
by your wrath we are dismayed.
You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
(Psalm 90:7-8 ESV)
We don't want to think about God this way, but we don't get the privilege of putting God in a box.
How do we reconcile the evil that plagues our hearts and God's goodness?
The hope of Jesus. The sacrifice of Jesus.
The holiness of God.
Evil must be punished and we need rescued.
When we understand this, we pray:
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Return, O LORD! 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.
Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
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!
(Psalm 90:12-17 ESV)
...and God answers Moses, God answered us, by coming into time.
Leaving Heaven.
Leaving Paradise.
Becoming us.
Saving us.
Redeeming us.
Loving us.
Establishing His Kingdom.
Psalm 90 is fulfilled in Christ.
Psalm 90 is fulfilling for us.
Psalm 90 is an encouragement.
What we do for us is meaningless, because when we set our hearts upon numbering our days, we realize how our life compared to God is nothing. It's a daily reminder that we aren't God. Our prayers are no longer about us, they are about being satisfied "in the morning with steadfast love."
"Let YOUR work be shown to YOUR servants,
and YOUR glorious power to their children."
It's about the gospel. It's all about Christ.
Establish the work of our hands.
As we do life, God, let us be bringing you glory to do something of eternal significance. Establish the work of our hands.
This new year, let us number our days, in it we have hope, not because of politics, not because of our resolutions, not because of the economy getting better (if it is), but because God is our dwelling place in EVERY generation. And he will establish the work of our hands when we establish our hearts.
Time is meaningless. It's not defeated, it's minimized.
Because life is not a timeline.
Life is about bringing God's Kingdom to earth as it is in Heaven.
Let us number our days, and gain a heart of wisdom.
Live your life now on purpose now so we can enjoy our life later for His presence.
Father, Let your favor be upon us, give us a clear conscience before you, teach us to number our days here on earth, may our prayers and our actions bring your Kingdom closer and closer to completion, and establish the work of our hands, yes, establish the work of our hands. Amen.
