July 24,2016,5:00 pm
Worship Leader： Rev.Shinichi Hirohashi 司会者： 廣橋信一牧師
Accompanist： Ms. Kazusa Oba 奏楽者： 大場かづさ姉妹
Preacher： Mr.Ｓean Radke 説教者： ショーン・ラドキ宣教師
Interpreter： Rev.Shinichi Hirohashi 通訳者： 廣橋信一牧師
Song Leader： Elder.Ｍuneyasu Nasu さんびリーダー： 那須宗泰長老
Worship song : ．Come Now is the time to worship
Prayer
Worship song : We fall down
Worship song : Every time that we are gathered 御名により集まるとき
Bible Reading Psalm 90 詩篇９０篇
Message： ”Heart of Wisdom” [知恵の心]
Rev.Sean Radke 説教者 ショーン・ラドキ師
Worship song: For You Are Glorious 主は栄光
Offering
Prayer
Worship song: Awesome God 大いなる神
Benediction Rev.Sean Radke
Psalm 90 message Sean Radke 7/ 2016
There is an old African proverb that I often think about that goes this way.
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”
There is an old Japanese proverb: Kouinyanogotoshi. In English we say it this way : “time flies like an arrow, time and tide wait for no man. Life is short.” I think all people would agree that remembering this is a good idea. However, the message of Psalm 90 is not “Don’t waste time if you want to survive!” Many of us feel like gazelles trying to outrun lions, just trying to survive. We might live as if what matters in life is our performance in life. We may wake up anxious when we consider our lives. Psalm 90 was written by Moses “the man of God” (title) who is able to lead us to another Man of God.
What I am struck by in this Psalm is that the way we respond to life being brief is not by doing more and becoming more busy for God. It is really restful dependence on God, turning away from our brokenness and to his wisdom.
It has been said that basically all the true wisdom you need to know comes down to two things: Knowing God. Knowing Yourself. That’s our outline.
What is God like? Often times people ask, “Who made God?” The answer is that God did not need to be made because he was always there! Can you imagine that? In verse 2 we learn that before Mount Fuji, the entire world or universe was made, “from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (v 2).
But God is different from the rest of creation, like us! In Verses 3- 6 our lives are compared to a watch in the night, like a flood, like a dream and like new grass! Japanese people have the longest life expectancy in the world, at about 83.10 years old. That seems like a long time when you are a child doesn’t it! A really long period of time from our perspective is just a moment to the one who always exists. One of my bible teachers at Covenant Seminary used to point out to us as students, that the fact that people cry at funerals is that deep down inside every one of us there is a realization that death is not the way it is supposed to be.
Let’s reflect on the context here. God returns people to the dust in death (verse 3). That “dust” reference is supposed to take us back to the beginning of the story of redemption in Genesis! People were made from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). This Psalm was even written in a time when people were stuck in dust – a dusty wilderness! This is a prayer for God to bless the generation who are wandering in the desert and for their children. Around the time of Deuteronomy they were about to cross the Jordan river and enter the promised land, their parents had followed Moses out of Egypt through the parted Red Sea. But they rebelled so that God swore that they would not enter the land (Num 14:20-36). So the dust that is meant to remind them of the curse on Adam because they did not live in faith toward God!
Why is life so short? Why do we die? It is a consequence of human rebellion. Verse 1 speaks of God as our “dwelling place”, our home. In Genesis 2. God’s dwelling place on earth where God and man were together was a garden-temple. Adam was our first biological and spiritual father. God put Adam who and Eve in the garden to work it and take care of it. God announced to them what would happen if they failed to obey the law to refrain from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam rebelled and ate of the tree and the earth was cursed with sin and death. Death was the legal sentence of breaking God’s law. However, if that law is satisfied then the death sentence no longer holds.
That’s where Jesus comes in, Why did he come to earth? His redemptive mission was to overcome the curse of Adam. Sin and death were his enemies he was to overcome. Christ on the cross relieved the death sentence so it no longer holds for all who trust in him. By rising again from the dead, he conquered death. Even though we will physically die, Christ endured it as well, he is always with us, and when we die we will “fly away” to him (10).
In Psalm 90, we are invited to bring our brokenness to God. We are meant to learn from that past generation of God’s people. We do sins that we may they think we hide in their hearts (“secret sins” , verse 8). Do you ever struggle with envy? Hatred? Lust? This is evidence of our brokenness. We stand before God transparent and exposed. Knowing ourselves ultimately means we know our need for Christ.
In verse 11, there’s an important question, “Who considers the power of your anger?” There is only one who does. Jesus drank the full power of God’s wrath for sinners, and so understands its full power! He turns God’s wrath away from all who trust in Him. Considering all of this is meant to lead us to prayer so that we will depend on the Lord!
Knowing God and knowing ourselves leads us to prayer. When we pray we show we are really dependent on him! Life is short, so pray hard! He says in verse 12, “So teach us to number our days that we may have a heart of wisdom.” We need to be taught to have the right priorities! God is the best teacher we can have for life. He alone gives us wisdom from his word, and wisdom is the art of living skillfully. Jesus is the Wisdom of God we need to live well!
In verse 13, we see this longing for the Lord to come. He shows compassion on our brokenness. “Return o Lord! How long? Have pity on your servant!” Jesus does that as he is always with us in our suffering. We are waiting for Jesus to return when he will finally put an end to all the brokenness in the world and make the world right. Verse 1 says that God is our dwelling place. According to Rev 21:3-4, In Christ we look forward to a bright future where he is our dwelling place. “ Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “behold, I am making all things new.” (Rev. 21:3-4)
Psalm 90:14 teaches that being satisfied with God’s steadfast love is truly living from God’s perspective. Instead of viewing ourselves like cheetahs or gazelles in the morning, the gospel satisfies us in the morning with God’s steadfast love in Jesus! When we wake up in the morning, joy awaits us, rejoicing awaits us for the rest of our lives when we are satisfied with his steadfast love! We live in a crazy world today where we see evidence of its brokenness everywhere. But there is “joy beyond the walls of the world.” Only knowing the eternal God will give us the joy that we all seek in life, not any created things. Verse 16 Moses prays, “Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to your children.” (16) May we all be filled with hope as we understand more how God’s greatest work and power is seen in the loving work and power of Jesus in his life and work.
It is tempting to measure our time in terms of how much we do. We can feel good about ourselves by how much we accomplish. We can feel bad about ourselves if we don’t accomplish what we want to do. The bible’s view of time measures time qualitatively not quantitatively. The quality of our lives is measured ultimately by our looking to the good works of Another to make us satisfied. In Verse 17, the prayer is to “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes establish the work of our hands!” Looking to what Jesus has done for us for our identity, the favor of the Lord is upon us. The word favor here literally is “beauty.” May we know the beauty of the Lord. We are made beautiful by Christ, not our body image. We can work well knowing that our work does not ultimately define us. It is his work that is the motivation for our work every morning. May our work be blessed by the Lord as we work for his glory. “Only one life will soon be passed, only what’s done for Christ will last.”