Focusing on the Eternal

The oldest psalm in the Bible is Psalms 90, written by Moses while he was wandering in the wilderness. It is the first hymn in the fourth book of Psalms and focuses on the wanderings of Israel in the wilderness. During this time, the Israelites were waiting for people to die before they could enter the promised land. Moses did not have the spiritual resources that we have today, but God knows that the life of man is short. We should focus on the eternal rather than being consumed by the temporary. God is eternal and has been present throughout all generations. While man eventually returns to dust, God continues to exist. A thousand years to God is like a day that has passed. We need to shift our focus from the temporary to the eternal and be mindful of what will matter in eternity. Okay, before I tell you where to turn in your Bibles, we're going to play a little trivia game. Y'all like trivia? What's the oldest psalms written? You know? Oldest psalm? No. No. Psalms 90. Psalms 90 is actually the oldest psalm that was written. Possibly the earliest writings that we actually have of anything. The second question is, then, who wrote the oldest psalms? If Psalms 90 is the oldest, who would have wrote it? God inspired it. The psalmist wrote it, not the psalmist that we think of as David, because this would have been prior to David. If you look at Psalms 90, it says, A prayer of Moses, the man of God. The oldest psalm is actually written, in Psalms 90, is actually written by Moses. And it's kind of neat, because Moses actually wrote this psalm while he was wandering around in the wilderness. Now, we kind of talked about that a little bit this morning, and we saw the decision and the choice that caused him to wander in the wilderness, and so this is the only psalm that we actually know of that gives Moses the credit. There's some that was by the musicians, Korah and some others that were associated around Moses that wrote psalms, but this is the only actual one that we know that was penned and written by Moses. Another neat thing about this is there's actually five books of psalms. We've compiled them all into one. Psalms 90 is actually the first hymn, and a psalm is just literally a hymn. This was their hymnal, and Psalms 90 is actually the first hymn, the first psalm in the fourth book. And if you read these next 30 psalms, Psalms 90 to 120, you will find that all of them deal with the book of Numbers and deal with the wanderings of Israel in the wilderness. And so kind of neat starting off and kind of ironic that Moses, who wrote the oldest psalm, is given the preeminence to start that fourth book that was there. It's just a little bit of trivia and a little bit of history, but as we think about that tonight, the Bible tells us really not a whole awful lot about them 40 years of wandering. We talked about that they wound up in the desert. They had to live in the desert until everybody over the age of 20, with the exception of Caleb and his family, would all be died there in the wilderness. And then they would be allowed to go into the promised land. We don't have a whole lot that's recorded of what they did. And so, man, when you think about that, it kind of shows us the barrenness, not having any events, how boring it must have been to get up in the morning, to eat, to go about your daily chores and tasks and everything, to go to bed at night, to get up the next day, and literally what they are doing for just a little bit over 40 years, they were sitting around watching and waiting for people to die. I wish I would have wrote it down. I read a statistic that based on the numberings in Numbers chapter 1, where there was 600,000 men above the age of 20. In order for all of them to pass to die in 40 years, if you take that 40 and divide it by just them, you will find that there was almost seven deaths every hour. Can you imagine? I mean, funeral after funeral after funeral. I sometimes think, man, we have a lot of funerals, but I don't ever have seven an hour, praise God, that I don't know what we would do if we had that many of them. But that's what they were going through. And can you also imagine that as each and every one of them was dying, Joshua, Caleb and Moses at the time was thinking, you know what? We're getting closer and closer to being able to go in to the promised land. And so as we look at this, you know, it pictures a place of barrenness. It pictures a place of unfruitfulness. We mentioned this morning that finally the people were fed up and they said, you got us out here, right? And there's no figs. There's no seed. There's no palm. There's nothing out here. It is totally unfruitful and barren. And we see that the failure of Moses near the end of his ministry should sober us. But it also should not discourage us because I believe God is well aware of our shortcomings. And I believe God is well aware of Moses' shortcomings. And I believe when God said Joshua and Caleb would be allowed to go in to the promised land, it was based on their act of faith. But Moses was not allowed to go in to the promised land because of his act of disobedience. But at that particular time that Moses said, all of you are going to die, I've read it over and over and over and I cannot find anywhere, the first time we are told that Moses is not allowed to go in to the promised land was after he struck the rock. And so when we think about that, we come to this psalm and it tells us here that God knows that the life of man is short. As a matter of fact, He says in Psalms 103 and verse 14 that He knoweth our frame and He remembereth that we are from dust and He created us from dirt. I've been studying and doing a little bit of word study in the Hebrew word for Adam and literally translated, you remember God called Adam, Adam because he was taken out of dirt. And a literal translation of that is God was referring to Adam as a dirtling. You are a dirtling. You are from the dirt. Which also should have reminded Adam constantly of the greatness and the mightiness of God as He created him. But as we look at this, I want us to understand that Moses did not have all of the spiritual resources that you and I have. I look back at the Old Testament and I think, man, how hard it must have been for them to have a picture or a shadow and look with faith that the Messiah was going to come when we in reality have the fact that Jesus Christ has came. We have the fact that Jesus Christ did die on the cross and that He was rose from the dead. And yet we today still go about and do the same things that Israel did and we haven't learned anything with all of the new spiritual resources that we have. You realize the Israelites didn't have the Holy Spirit? They didn't have someone with them daily to guide them. Man, but they listened to what Moses had to tell them. And if you fast forward now 3,000 years nearly to our day and time, we live in an opportunity and we live in a day and time where we are totally consumed with the temporary. We are totally consumed with what's here and now. They weren't even thinking about Canaan. What were they thinking about? We need water. You know, I think that they've discovered that you can go... Jesus Christ, we know, went 40 days without water. You can survive a little bit without water. But what did they say? Man, we're thirsty, right? Sometimes we've been dry and thirsty that was there. But we are so consumed with all of this temporary stuff and with what matters today. We are focused on the here and now, the current events, what's going on in our world. Good, bad, indifferent. What's happening? Everything is... We want it instantaneous, right now, not yesterday, not next week, but right now. At least COVID, a little bit, has brought us back and given us a little bit of patience, right? We've learned that we can't always have everything that we want right now. But pre-COVID, we pretty well did. And we're kind of getting quickly back to that at this time. We are so intoxicated by the temporary that we become blind to what's going to matter 10 trillion years from now. What's going to happen in eternity is we cannot focus on the future because we're so focused on right now. I think that's why when you read the letters in the New Testament from the apostles and from Peter and from John, James and Jude, they all challenged us to be looking for the return of Jesus Christ. Even though they were going through suffering, even though they were experiencing problems and heartaches, it's not to look on what's happening now. We're to be focused on the future. And so with this, notice as we go to Psalms chapter 90, and I'm not going to read it and then go through it. We're just going to kind of read it together and make a few points. But I want us to notice that Moses gives us and tells us here to get our focus off of the temporary and focus on the eternal. And so I entitled the message tonight, Focusing on the Eternal. What is the first eternal thing that Moses tells us about? In Psalms chapter 90, verses 1 and 2, he tells us that God is eternal. God is eternal. Look at what he says in verse 1. The Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Now what is a generation? I saw somebody post a picture the other day, and they said we have four generations in this picture. A grandfather, a great-grandfather, a grandfather, a father and a son. There were four generations in that picture. Notice what it says about God. The generations come and go. In order for one generation to come, another generation has to leave. But yet, what has God been there through all of it? Notice what he says in verse 2. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hast formed the earth of the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Now typically when we talk about time, we say from the beginning to the end, right? We were born, I mean, even on our tombstones we have what? The day we were born and the day that we died. The beginning and the end. But notice there is no beginning or end for God. God is eternal. He says He is everlasting to everlasting. Every generation. When the generation showed up, God was already there. When the generations passed on and left, God was still there with the next generation and the generations to come. He goes on in verse 3 and he says, Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest, Return ye children of men. And so they go about it, it says that man will eventually return to dust, but not God. God continues to go on. God is here today and God is here tomorrow. He is forever and He was here yesterday. The psalmist goes in verse 4 then and he says, For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday. When we think about that, what we're thinking about is the future, that time, that time is so quick and short to God. He says there that as a watch in the night, a few hours, a watch was literally four hours, and in just a few hours He said we're already returning to dust. Our life and our time is so short here on this earth. James says that we are as grass that faded quickly away, whereas a vapor that disappeared, that's here one moment and gone the next. But you know what we've discovered here? Even though our life is short and God's life is eternal, God is still Lord and still God over everything that happens and that comes about. Look at what he says in verse 5. See, we exist in time, but God exists over time. For God, a thousand years is like one day. Do you realize the United States of America has existed for roughly 200, a little over 200 years, which is a matter of mere minutes in God's perspective. And we think, man, America's pretty old, right? It's old because we start looking in the mirror at ourselves and we're old. And guess what? America's a lot older than us, right? But to God it says a twinkle of an eye because of eternity and time. And so look at verse 5. He says, Thou carryest them away as with a flood. They are as they sleep. In the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up. In the evening it is cut down and withering. God is Lord always, no matter what's going on. And He's always there. It says that we are carried away by a flood. We sleep in the morning. We flourish. But then at night it's cut down. And it dies, and talking about how quick the grass grows, how quick that it dies and how quick that it moving, but yet God is still constant. God is still Lord of lords and King of kings. He is unchanging throughout time. You know, we are like these fleeting dreams that come and go in the night, right? You have a dream and sometimes it seems like that dream lasted forever. You look at your watch because you finally are woken up or jolted out of your dream, and you look at the clock, and I've only been asleep just a very short time, but it seems like that dream has lasted forever. That's what it's kind of like with God. And He goes on. He says we are like the new grass that springs forth in the morning, but in the evening it dries up and withers away. We change constantly and quickly. Our life here on earth is ever-changing, but God is everlasting to everlasting. God never changes. He is the same yesterday, He is the same today, and He is the same tomorrow. And the first thing that Moses thinks about, now that they're wandering into the wilderness, what is 40 years to God? Have you thought about that? I mean, here, every bit of the ratio, we're going to have to wait 40-something years for you to go into the promised land, and it's going to seem like an eternity to Joshua and Caleb. But guess what? To God, it was but a second. It was the lesson that needed to be learned, not the time that was taking place. God is constant no matter what happens or what needs to be done. And so when Moses begins to think about the eternality of God, then he thinks about the eternity of the seriousness of sin. It's an eternal problem. Sin is an eternal seriousness, and we have to understand that as always existing. Look at what he says in verse 7. For we are consumed by thy anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities, our secret sins, in the light of thy countenance. Moses now, as he thinks about God's eternality in that first six verses, now he all of a sudden goes and looks at this seriousness of sin and man's frailty and how that man cannot survive the cause of sin. But notice what he said in verse 7. He tells us in verse 7 that we are consumed by the wrath of God. We are terrified of the wrath of God. You say, I'm not terrified of the wrath of God. You can honestly say you're not afraid of dying. I'm not afraid of death. But I'm terrified of dying. And if you're honest with yourself, you are too. You are too. And if you're not, then go take a walk down the nursing home. Go take a walk with me and some of these people that we visit that are living a life that they have no control over, that they have no say in. They are waited on. They are taken care of. They are provided for. There is no nothing in life. And I pray, God, when I die, when it's my time, let me go quickly. Let me go in my... You know, I tell Lisa all the time, man, if I run off in that pond in the tractor or whatever, or fall out of a boat fishing, then praise God, I died doing what I wanted to do. Not having somebody waiting on me or whatever. Sin is serious because sin is a reality. And we're all terrified by God's wrath. But look at verse 8. Why are we terrified of God's wrath? Because none of our sins are hidden from God. Every one of those sins are eternally serious. We see two men that we're going to look at today, this morning, and then next Sunday. Moses spent his life leading, and one sin kept him from going into the promised land. And we see that one man's faithfulness allowed him to go into the promised land. Do you think sin is not serious? I know sometimes I've made the statement in my ministry, and just to kind of confess and tell you, there have been times in my ministry that sin will take and rob us of the life that God has in our life, and the life that God wants us to have. And sin produces death in our life. It brings about death that is there. And this psalm takes us all the way back to Genesis, and reminds us about the choice of one man who plunged all of humanity into sin. We also see the man of sin of one act of faithfulness with Caleb that what? Allowed his children to go into the promised land. And so sin is a very serious thing. But we change, but God is everlasting to everlasting that is there. And Israel's example should serve to us as a warning. It should serve to us showing us that sin is very, very serious. That sin is very serious that God does not take sin lightly that is there. I'm swapping over to another note. For some reason my thing is goofing up again. Let me catch up where I'm at and Garvey can keep up with me. He does a good job with that. Why do we experience pain and hurt and heartache through death in this world? Why do we experience pain and heartache? Because of sin. Sin is what brings about death. Sin is what brings about destruction. And what makes it horrible is because we are all sinners. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so sin robs us of life. And if sin robs us of life and sin results in death, then why do we treat it so casually in our life? And I quote it quite often, but John said in 1 John 1.9, if we will confess our sins, He will what? Forgive us of our sins, but He will go on and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Give us joy and life. May God help us to realize that He is eternal. He is eternal, but also sin is eternally serious. But then notice the next thing that Moses tells us in verse 9. The wrath of God is real. The wrath of God is a very real thing. This is coming from Moses. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale that is told. We die in sorrow and moaning. Life doesn't get better. We don't get more active. We don't get younger. We get old. We get aches. We get pains. We get sickness. We get blood sugar problems. We get blood pressure problems. All of these things come as God's wrath for sin. Remember, it's because of the sin in our bodies that our bodies are doing this. Then look what it says in verse 10. The days of the years are three score years and ten. Seventy years. And if by reason of strength they be four score years, eighty years, yet is there strength, labor, and sorrow. For it is soon cut off and we fly away. Our average life span is about seventy to eighty years. And what happens? If we're fortunate enough to get the extra ten. Somebody told me the other day. He said, Preacher, I do not know why they call the golden years golden. Because they're not real golden. They're not real exciting. Because of our troubles and our sorrows. And so, man, if you're a fortunate one to live. I think, man, if I can get to seventy and be healthy and die, then God is good and life is going to go on. Why? We don't know. But God, even in sickness and even in sorrow, what's God supposed to be do? Be glorified. Be glorified. He looks at verse 11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. And basically what Moses is doing in answering the question. God, if you are eternal in all of your attributes. If you never change. If you're the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Then who in the world, which one of us can imagine the eternality of wrath? That God's wrath has to last forever. Until it is completely fulfilled. When is that going to happen? He tells us in Revelation that Satan is going to be cast into the lake of fire. With all those that followed him and denied Jesus Christ. And he said that is the second death. And so the eternality of wrath. The power of God's anger to execute justice. He dooms all who refuses to fear and revere him. Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 27. It is appointed unto man once to die. But after this, the judgment. The judgment. Peter wrote in 2 Peter 2.9 that the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation. And to reserve the unjust until the day of judgment to be punished. Jude in verse 14 says. And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these things. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all. To convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds. Which they have ungodly committed. And of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers. Complainers. Walking after their own lust. And their mouth speaketh great swelling words. Having men's persons in admiration. Because of an advantage. The eternalness of God's wrath. But the last thing that he gets into in verse 12. Is the eternal satisfaction of salvation. The eternal satisfaction of salvation. Notice Moses begins to appeal to God. Because God is eternal. We are sinners. And God's wrath is eternal. God's going to justify His holiness against us. Look what he does in verse 12. Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Teach us to live wisely and make the most of every single day. Live life to the fullest. Even in the wilderness. Because Moses, Caleb and Joshua. What did they do while they were in the wilderness? Because that wasn't where they were going to die. That wasn't where they were going to stay. They were going to Canaan. So we need to teach to number our days. Look at verse 13. Return, O Lord, how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants. God return to us. Don't delay. No longer be alienated, but instead have compassion on us. Remember us. Remember us. Your mercy and your grace. Look at verse 14. Here's the satisfaction. O, satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. How does God satisfy us daily? Through His mercy. What is mercy? His unfailing love. Not giving us what we deserve. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. Notice what He says in verse 15. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein you have seen evil. He replaces our former years of affliction. Our former years of evil spirit with gladness. And gladness that lasts as long as our former misery. I read a pastor this week and I've made this comment several times. How many times have I gone to minister to someone and they end up ministering to me? You know, old, decrepit problems. Can't get out. Can't go. Can't do. But yet they're still filled with gladness. They're ready to see God. That's what he's talking about here. Instead of looking for everything for today, start putting our eyes on the future. Start looking to God. Look at verse 16. Let thy work appear unto thy servants. There's that word again. Glory unto their children. Whose glory? The glory and the work of God. What God is doing. Reveal your works to the people. Reveal your glory to our children. God, work through me. Show them through me. Jesus Christ said that we work in order that men may see our good works and not glorify us, but glorify the Father which is in heaven. Verse 17, he says, Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish thy work of our hands upon us. Yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it. Salvation brings us shelter in its favor. It makes us successful in life, our personal behavior, as well as in our work. And so when we think about this psalms, and we think about what Moses has written, understand the context. And I laid that out for us this morning. But he is writing this as they are wandering around in the wilderness till those that denied God completely died off. And there's four exhortations. There's four ways that I think we can apply this psalm tonight. When we think about the eternity of God, the eternal seriousness of sin, the eternal wrath of God, but the eternal satisfaction of salvation. I believe we can first of all understand that we are never too old or too wise to think we can't fail God. I think Moses understood this. That Moses understood that you can never be too old or too wise to fail God. When we look at Moses, in just a moment of a weakness, an event that probably took place after he wrote this, more about what he is thinking and warning the people, now comes back and he comes back to himself. 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 12, Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. And so man, we need to make sure that we understand that we too are not beyond failing God and making a mistake. I've said many a times, especially in ministry, that I don't want to miss and lose everything that God has for me over anger and frustration of leading and leadership. And only somebody that's ever pastored or been put in that position can understand the weight and the responsibility that was upon Moses' back. But guess what? We don't seek the people. We don't serve God for the people. We speak to God. And God takes care of the people. But man, in moments of frustration, and there's been some in my past, there's been times that I have resigned churches, that I have walked away, that I have responded wrongly, because guess what? None of us, at the right given moment, is too smart, too old, or too wise not to fail God. So we've got to be on guard. We've got to be always constantly looking at eternity. We're focusing on God. The second thing is we have all the resources we need to keep from failing, both now and in the home stretch of life. You know, it's interesting that the real lesson of Moses' failure at the end of his life in ministry is not that such failure is likely to happen to us. As Christians, we're not so much destined to fall. As a matter of fact, Paul wrote it again in 1 Corinthians 10. He told us, now all these things, you remember we read this morning that that rock represented all of these trials and temptations was focusing on Jesus Christ with the people. He goes on here in verse 11. He said, now all these things happen unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but as such is common to man, that God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. God provides a way of escape. Moses had a way of escape, didn't he? He could have went out there and spoke to the rock. But he took his rod and what did he do? The minute he saw them people, the anger. Why are you making me get this rod out of this rock? Right? His anger. So what do we do about this? Well, the third principle is live today for what lasts forever. Live for days. Jesus Christ said lay up treasures in heaven where neither rust breaks down or moss corrupt or thieves break through and steal. See, when you know God is eternal and you know your time here on this earth is limited, make every single day count for that which is eternal. Quit focusing on the here and now and focus on the eternity. Do you realize how much money you make doesn't really matter? What matters is what you do with the money that you make. Right? God gave it to us and He expects us to give it to others, to help out others. We realize that as a parent, the most important thing in the lives of our children is not the clothes that they wear. It's not the sports that they participate in. It's not even the grades that they get in school. The most important thing is that they know God and they love God and they fear God. In our own life, we realize that knowledge of God and obedience to God are far more important than the achievements we accomplish. All of the positions that we obtain. We realize that every person in our life, whether it be at home, work, your neighborhood, your city, or around the world, it's either headed to an everlasting heaven or to an everlasting hell. The only difference is what we do with Jesus Christ. Can you imagine? I mean, the difference between heaven and hell, polar opposites of blessings and wrath, all hinge and focus on one decision that we make for Jesus Christ. So what should we do? Speak about Jesus Christ. Speak about Jesus Christ. That's how we live today. That's what lasts forever. And the last thing we see out of this psalm is hold on to hope because we know God is our home. God is our home. You know what? Even though Moses is sitting there on that mountain, can you imagine? He's sitting there on that mountain. He's now almost 120 years old. For all of these years, he's been with God. He has led the nation of Israel. And he is standing there watching the children go over into the promised land. And guess what? He's not going to be able to go. But you know what Moses is focused on? And what Moses does know? He's not focused on, I don't get to go to the promised land, but I get something better. I get to go to heaven. I get to be with God. He knew where His eternity lay. And so sometimes, man, we get lost in this world and we get lost in this wilderness and we forget about one of these days. That's what's so cool. And I think that's why we confuse Canaan land because so many people missed Canaan and only two were able to find it that went across the Red Sea, across the Jordan River. Only two, Joshua and Caleb. And sometimes we get confused and we try to make Canaan heaven because why? In heaven, what's going to happen when we get to heaven? In Revelation it says, God is going to wipe away all of the tears. He's going to take away all of our pain. There's going to be no more sin. See, that's not during the judgment seat of Christ. That's not during the thousand year millennial reign. That's not at the great white throne judgment where He judges all of the lost and sinners. That is not until after He has cast Satan and hell into the lake of fire, the second death. Then, when He creates the new heaven and the new earth, He's going to wipe away all of the tears. There's going to be no more sin. There's going to be no more darkness that's there. We've got to keep our eyes on the prize. We've got to keep our eyes on the goal and focus. I've had several come to me in the last two or three weeks and burdened as I am burdened and praying. I've been sharing on our Facebook page. I shared yesterday, Brother Kevin Hutchinson, rocking the streets, led a 14-year-old boy to the Lord. Brother Scott Borland this morning, baptized too. Folks, we have people within our own community and our neighborhood that are dying and going to hell that need to hear about Jesus Christ. And if we really believe that eternity is real, and we really believe in Jesus Christ, and we believe that He's close to coming back, folks, we ought to get on fire and not want anybody to perish, but that all should come to repentance. That's what God feels. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He is long-suffering. And Peter actually, in that passage of Scripture, quotes from Moses in this psalm when he says, A day to God is as a thousand, and a thousand is as a day. And what he's trying to get across to us is God, it doesn't matter about the time. God is interested in the timing. At the right moment, in one split decision, one split thing can make us miss the rest of our time because of one decision. The seriousness of one decision. And we need to focus on God and be focused on God. Why didn't Jesus Christ fail in the wilderness? Because He was focused on God. Why did Jesus Christ not fail on the cross? Because He was focused on God. And if you and I are going to succeed in this world, we're only going to succeed because we're focused on Christ in eternity. As we stand and have a verse of invitation, page 279.