Outlive: A Walk With Moses (Psalm 90)Sample

The psalmist, Moses, moves on to a discussion of people as they are, humans as we are, man as he is.

Remember that logic syllogism based on the major premise, “All men are mortal?" (The minor premise, “Socrates is a man,” leads us to “Socrates is mortal.”) The psalm’s next several verses emphasize not only the validity of that syllogism but also its reality.

All people are under a death sentence.

You turn man back into dust,

And say, “Return, O children of men.” (Psalm 90:3)

“Dust to dust,” a common phrase in burial services, draws partly from this psalm and stresses life’s finiteness and frailty.

Death defeats us all, including the powerful and wealthy.

For a thousand years in Your sight

Are like yesterday when it passes by,

Or as a watch in the night. (Psalm 90:4)

If we were not mortal, time would not be a challenge. It’s only because we are finite and frail that we must deal with this thing called time. Thinkers have discussed the nature of time, primarily because everyone runs out of it. Philosophers debate whether time exists and its linear or circular nature and so on.

Deeper is the question of our existence in time and how we use it. Our eventual death, thoughtfully considered, concentrates the mind.

You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep;

In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.

In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew;

Toward evening it fades and withers away. (Psalm 90:5–6)

This human simile is repeated elsewhere in Scripture as “All flesh is like grass” (Isa. 40:6, 1 Pet. 1:24).

Only God, to whom time is relative, is the master of time. A thousand years is like a day, or part of a day. He always has time on His side.