“Lord, you
have been our dwelling place
throughout
all generations. Before the mountains were born
or you
brought forth the whole world,
from
everlasting to everlasting you are God. You turn people back to dust,
saying,
‘Return to dust, you mortals.' A thousand years in your sight
are like a
day that has just gone by,
or like a
watch in the night. Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—
they are
like the new grass of the morning: In the morning it springs up new,
but by
evening it is dry and withered. We are consumed by your anger
and
terrified by your indignation. You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret
sins in the light of your presence. All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish
our years with a moan. Our days may come to seventy years,
or eighty,
if our strength endures;
yet the
best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
for they
quickly pass, and we fly away. If only we knew the power of your anger!
Your wrath
is as great as the fear that is your due. Teach us to number our days,
that we
may gain a heart of wisdom. Relent, LORD! How long will it be?
Have
compassion on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning
with your unfailing love,
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our
days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble. May
your deeds be shown to your servants,
your splendor to their children. May the favor
of the Lord our God rest on us;
establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish
the work of our hands.” (Psalm 90:1-17)
The Psalmist sighs that our days may come to seventy years, or
eighty, if our strength endures, yet the best of them are but trouble and
sorrow and all our days pass away under the Lord’s wrath and we finish our
years with a moan. How true it is! Time is fleeting and passing so cruelly
non-stop, seemingly not concerning any moment of our lives either good or bad
at all. It just keeps going and flowing. Months and years are like just a
moment. We cannot stop or pause the beautiful memories of ours, not a second. Why
so? The relentless wrath of God is upon every human beings since the fall of
man. He is the mighty God who brought forth the whole world and commanded man
back to dust for they are mortals. We are like the grass which springs up new
in the morning and is dry and withered by evening.
Why does God reveal wrath upon humanity relentlessly? Is he angry
at us? No, he is not angry against us. Rather, he is love always as the
Scripture tells. If he is always love, why do we experience his wrath so
severely? It is because he is love. His divine jealousy breaks loose
immediately when we violate the Law of God because otherwise we will be ever
closer to the eternal judgment. God acts immediately and relentlessly because
otherwise it is too dangerous to be saved. “The wrath of God is being revealed
from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress
the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to
them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the
world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been
clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are
without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20) One thing God is hesitant to do is to judge
his people. Here the judgement means the second death which is the eternal condemnation
and separation from God. “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the
murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters
and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This
is the second death.” (Revelation 21:8) Prophet Isaiah calls God’s act of
judgment as a strange work and alien task. “The Lord will rise up as he did at
Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon—to do his work,
his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task.” (Isaiah 28:21)
So, before too late, God issues a warning call to stop and think
it over and eventually repent and change our mind to accept his loving and gracious
invitation. It is still time remaining to come unto grace that we may fall into
the broken hands of the Lord Jesus Christ who bore our transgressions and
without finding faults who forgives those who come by faith in him. Our Lord
Jesus Christ wept over Jerusalem for they stubbornly refused to accept the
long-suffering loving hand of God. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the
prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your
children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were
not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will
not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord.’” (Matthew 23:37-39) There will be a dreadful day of the Lord for those
who continue to refuse the stretched and bruised hands of Christ. “For we know
him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will
judge his people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God.” (Hebrews 10:30-31) Our life on earth is a school time! Our God knows what
we are in need and want much better than we do. He is teaching and instructing
us to lead to the green pastures where we can find true bread of life. We have
a whole set of truth to learn but one at a time. Hebrews warns of being
remaining in the infant stage too long though it is way over time to move on to
maturity.
“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear
to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time
you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths
of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives
on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about
righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have
trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us move beyond
the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not
laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of
faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the
resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” (Hebrews 5:11-6:2)
There is a way to eternal life available to all believers in
Christ. But it is up to our choice to take it or not. Until we choose to take
it by faith, it is there but not ours. Yes, troubles and aches are there. At least
our experience honestly agrees with the Psalmist. But in the midst of all pains
and struggles, there is the invisible hand of God. He knows what he is doing
for he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is in control
of all things and watches over us. “He will not let your foot slip—he who
watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will
neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psalm 123:3-4) Behind all our experience of
outcry, misery, disappointment, sigh, sorrow, brokenness, emptiness,
meaninglessness, and many others, the love of God shed abroad into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit. Right in the midst of our sufferings and troubles, the
Spirit in us assures that the unfailing love of God is holding us firm and
secure. “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that
suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into
our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5)
God is our shield and shelter and anchor even in the midst of sufferings and
troubles.
Why do we have to learn the truth through pains and heartaches? Because
we do not have what it takes. We are not made to handle our lives without God. Rather,
we have been made to live in him. The sin in us is pride and self-confidence,
saying that we have what it takes, so we can handle our lives like running the
world by tail. That is the lie. There is nothing in man to offer to God. We are
dead broke before him. That is way Paul says this: “But whatever were gains to
me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider
everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my
Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I
may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that
comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness
that comes from God on the basis of faith.” (Philippians 3:7-9)
Man is not an independent being apart from God. Mankind is made as
holy vessel of God, the temple of the Lord Almighty. We desire to run our lives
whatever we wanted to. But it is not possible to do unless we completely depend
on him. The failures and troubles and sufferings will bring us to the point
where we surrender to the One who is ready to give us power, the Spirit. So,
Apostle Paul says, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
(Philippians 4:13) Our confidence is not from us, but from God in entirety. We live
by the Spirit, even the power of resurrection. Sufferings and pains are working
together to mold and shape us up to be like him who made us so before the
creation of the world. Human sufferings are complicated and complex to describe
and it is impossible to find a single solution no matter what. However, we know
that all things are working together for the good, even the failures. “For our
light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far
outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is
unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2
Corinthians 4:17-18)
Our God is generous and just and righteous. He is faithful today,
yesterday, and forever. He will keep his promise even the world disappears like
wind. He will reward his servants who kept the faith in Christ to the end. He
will reward and fill with the joy and righteousness of him as much as we were
put in sufferings and troubles. Is it not our hope? God is our eternal hope in
Christ.
“Satisfy
us in the morning with your unfailing love,
that we
may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you
have afflicted us,
for as
many years as we have seen trouble. May your deeds be shown to your servants,
your
splendor to their children. May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;
establish
the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands.” (Psalm 90:14-17)
2017.
10. 26.
©
2011-2017 David Lee Ministries – All Rights Reserved.
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