Outlive: A Walk With Moses (Psalm 90)Sample

Indeed, all humanity is under a death sentence. We need the favor of the Lord our God for our foolish, fickle fallenness before being wiped off the face of the earth.

For all our days have declined in Your fury;

We have finished our years like a sigh.

As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,

Or if due to strength, eighty years,

Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;

For soon it is gone and we fly away. (Psalm 90:9–10)

Our subjection to time and divine fury is again expressed with words like “days” and “years.” Our years will finish. Our days decline. Even if our days are extended by 3,650 more, those days will still feature labor and sorrow. Moses knew about an extended life; he wrote this prayer when he was well into his hundreds. The longer the life, the longer the labor, and the deeper the sorrow. We need God’s favor into our final days, indeed our last day.

Who understands the power of Your anger

And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You? (Psalm 90:11)

Remember yesterday’s question about whether COVID has been God’s judgment on us? I think we need to reframe the discussion altogether. We are under God’s justice. Both atheists and theists believe God should be just (and want God to be just). The bigger question is why we all haven’t been destroyed yet.

The apostle Peter alludes to Psalm 90, giving hope to fallen mortals and answering why we have not yet come under judgment:

But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with

the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one

day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness,

but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Pet. 3:8–9)

We need the favor of the Lord our God to face our future and our certain death.