MOSES, the man of God, in the 90th Psalm draws an impressive contrast between the eternity of God and the mortality of man. God is from everlasting to everlasting the same; His years fail not: but man is but for a short season; he is like the grass which in the morning groweth and flourishest, but in the evening is cut down and withereth. The inspired singer lifts his eye upwards and beholds in the divine displeasure the immediate cause of human frailty. God, in whom we live and move and have our being, is angry with us, and therefore we fly away. This anger, however, must also have a cause, for God is a righteous King and a just governor; He does nothing inconsistent with the most unspotted rectitude. And so the Psalmist, in the language of sorrowful confession, explains the reason of the divine anger. It is sin. “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.” Sin has incurred God’s righteous indignation, and a righteous God has punished sin with death. Such is the doctrine of Moses and the prophets, and such also is the doctrine of Christ and the apostles. “The wages of sin is death”; death in all its forms—temporal, spiritual, and eternal. No one, we hope, will draw from this the absurd conclusion that those who die youngest are most under the divine pleasure. All that is taught is that human life at the longest is but short, and that this general brevity is due to sin and wrath. As for particular cases of premature death, Scripture and experience both testify that oftentimes persons highly favoured of God are cut off in early life. But no doubt the communities from which such persons are removed have occasion for reflection as to whether God’s anger may not be manifested towards them in the great losses thus sustained.
Towards the end of this Psalm Moses presents a prayer for divine teaching, a prayer that is adapted to all persons at all times, but is specially appropriate at this season of the year. He prays: “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
1. Let us inquire what is meant by the numbering of our days.
This does not merely imply the reckoning of one’s age in numerical fashion, a practice common enough and easy enough. But it indicates that we ought to be engaged in reflecting upon the solemn fact that our days at longest are comparatively few. There is undoubtedly a disposition in fallen man to shut his eyes to the brevity of life, and to cherish in a secret manner the idea that he is to live here for ever. How few there be that realise with any measure of vividness that soon their career must cease, that soon they must be launched upon the ocean of eternity; while multitudes there are who madly pursue the race of life with the determined resolution to ignore the very idea of death or of the eternity that lies beyond it. To number our days in truth, then, is to reflect upon all the solemn circumstances that surround our present pilgrimage: the presence of sin, the manifestation of God’s wrath, the shortness of time, the near approach of death, the tremendous issues of eternity. In view of these weighty realities would it not become each of us to live as if the Son of Man was at the door? Dying daily is a rare art in these unspiritual times, and yet it must be learnt in some genuine measure, otherwise we shall die eternally. We must even now in a day of mercy begin to number our days, and to live in view of a judgment seat, or it shall go ill with us at last. This leads us to notice—
2. The use we are to make of our reckoning: “That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
“Wisdom,” according to the testimony of inspiration, “is the principal thing.” It is to be desired more than rubies or fine gold; it is an incomparable treasure. He that lacks divine wisdom is poor indeed. And yet this poverty is the characteristic of all men in their natural estate. We are all by reason of the Fall foolish and disobedient; we choose the evil and refuse the good, forsake the fountain of living waters, and, like persons of no understanding, hew out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Onwards we rush in a mad pursuit of happiness along forbidden pathways, until, if mercy prevent not, we drop into an undone eternity. Should these words catch the eye of any that are still pursuing this vain career of folly, may we not faithfully and lovingly warn them to stop and consider? “Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?” Soon the day of mercy will be at an end, soon the day of judgment will be at hand, and woe betide those persons that will appear before God destitute of heavenly wisdom.
What, then, is the wisdom spoken of? To this question there is practically but one answer. Christ is the personal wisdom of God; in Him is the fullest display of the infinite wisdom of a Triune Jehovah; and so the exercise of applying our hearts unto wisdom may suitably be taken to mean the seeking to become savagely acquainted with Jesus Christ, and with the doctrines of the Word taught by Him as the great prophet of the Church. In wisdom there is knowledge, and so, if we are to learn divine wisdom, we must become acquainted in a spiritual manner with divine truth. In wisdom there is the application of knowledge to action; and so, if we become savagely wise, our knowledge will not be a dead letter in our heads, it will exert a direct, powerful, and practical influence upon our hearts and lives. The Psalmist clearly felt that the heart must be put right, and must be quickened into a nobler kind of activity than was natural to it through sin. The heart in its unregenerate state is the abode of every kind of folly. The faculties of the soul are thoroughly darkened and debased. Thus these powers, if they are to fulfil their original end—the glory of God—must be brought to engage in a new exercise, and to be taught in a new school. The school is the school of Christ, and the exercise is one of acquiring that wisdom which is unto eternal salvation.
3. The third thing to be noted is the help needed for the attainment of this end. “So teach us,” prays the Spirit-taught Psalmist.
Moses, great man of God as he was, was as a little child before the Lord. He felt his need of divine teaching. This was one of the first lessons he learned when he was sent to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt, and a lesson he acquired a deeper and deeper knowledge of all through the remainder of his remarkable life. The most advanced of the children of God are also the most sensible of their constant need of divine light and instruction. No wonder, then, that Moses here cries, “Teach us.” It is the Lord alone who can instruct us to saving profit. If we are to be spiritually taught at all, He must teach us all the lessons that are presented us in His Word, from the simplest to the hardest. Nothing less will do, if we shall be made wise for eternity. Here, then, is direction for the most ignorant in divine things. “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not.” Pour out your case before Him. Tell Him all your sins and follies, all your blindnesses and perversities, your sinful engrossment in the world, your mad neglect of the concerns of eternity, and your presumptuous despising of the gracious overtures of the gospel. Tell Him all your depravity and need, and ask for His light, grace, and wisdom unto salvation; and be assured if you ask in truth, it shall be given you. “Good and upright is the Lord; he will teach sinners in the way.” And if the reader is one who has been already taught of God, he will readily admit, as we have previously indicated, his need of more and more divine teaching that he may grow in spiritual wisdom, and in devotedness to the glory of God and the good of His Kingdom in the world.
We wish all our readers a good New Year, and, if it be the will of God, a good Eternity.
Expository Notes:
ISA. xlii. 1-4.
By the Rev. ALEXANDER STEWART, Oban.