Ps. 90:14-15 “O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us, And the years we have seen evil.”
Psalm 90 is a prayer of Moses. This infuses the poetry with added significance. Verse 2 has significance because Moses wrote Genesis 1:10. Verse 3 has significance because Moses wrote Genesis 2:7, and 3:19. The Psalm as a whole addresses the limits, frailty, and finitude of our lives, in contrast to our eternal holy Creator. “From everlasting to everlasting you are God…You turn man back into dust…As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years… soon it is gone and we fly away.” (90:2, 3, 10) Moses himself lived to be 120 years old. He had an advantage of living through an additional generation. He had seen lots of life. He had been wealthy and privileged as Pharoah’s adopted son. He had been a poor and obscure shepherd. He had lived through deep risk and struggles of birthing the new nation of slaves, had performed unthinkable miracles, had sat face to face with God unlike any before Him. He received, revealed and executed the Law of God. He persevered to lead an entire generation who rebelled, wandered and died in the wilderness. He had lived to see God keep His promise of deliverance (Ex. 3:7-9), of judgment (Num. 14:29), and then restoration (Num. 14:31). He had seen God keep his overarching covenant promise, which had seemed forgotten for nearly 500 years (Gen. 15:18-21; Ex. 13:19; Josh. 24:32). Moses lived a long, full life. So he speaks from a unique vantage point!
He notes that human life is like fading sprouts of grass (90:5-6) and ends like a sigh (90:9). Yet, for each day we live, he has one joy to commend, “O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.” Those are limited days, fleeting days, afflicted days.
In our years, we see evil. He lived through lots of them! But in those days – each day – in the morning, satisfy us, make us glad, let us sing for joy in God’s lovingkindness. (We have to wonder, what it would be like to sing with Moses, during morning devotion in the Tent of Meeting!) This week, open up the Word of God. Read and remind yourself of His great lovingkindness, which is fully yours in Christ. Sing for joy in Him and be glad. If you’re sorely afflicted with trials, sing and pray until your soul is happy in His love, which circumstances cannot alter (Rom. 8:38-39).
Thanks! See you Sunday, Pastor Dave
