WEDNESDAY 10th
Psalm 90
NIV (v3) – ‘You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”’
ESV (v3) – ‘You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”’
Our psalm today is a prayer that Moses, the man of God wrote, in this psalm he teaches us some important lessons that remind us of how fragile life is, that our time here on earth is short and therefore we need to make it count. For example, in verse 3 he says ‘you return man to dust’ something that we read again in Ecclesiastes 3:20 ‘All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.’ In verse 10 he says that ‘the years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty’, because of his contemplation concerning life, he then says in verse 12, ‘teach us to number our days’ and in verse 15 ‘make us glad’ in other words he realised the importance of making what time we have count, not only to make it worthwhile but also to make it purposeful.
At first, taking the phrase ‘you return man to dust’ and ‘all go to one place’ it would seem that it is all about being here today and gone tomorrow, returning to dust ends it all, there is nothing afterwards, but in verse 12, he not only says ‘teach us to number our days’ but also ‘that we may get a heart of wisdom’, is this a prayer that he may look beyond what seems to be at face value to eternal values, to look beyond what seems to be temporal and discover there is that which is also eternal? When we all stop and contemplate life, its fragility, and its fleetingness, we must ask the question is this all there is? There must be more than just being born, living a few years, and then dying, the end. Thankfully as we look at what others have learned in their walk with God, we discover there is more, much, much, more as we consider the provision of God toward mankind in salvation. The returning to dust is but temporal, it has come about because of sin, but Jesus in coming into this world has undone, or destroyed the curse of death so that for all who trust in him there will be a glorious resurrection, from the dust of the earth to the glory of God’s presence. Job records for us that he knew that he was going to go to the dust, but he had such a strong faith in the LORD God that he also knew it would not be the end, he says, ‘FOR I KNOW that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself . . .’ (Job 19:25-36) Imagine this, even before the Redeemer came, even before the prophet Zechariah had prophesied that the Redeemer would stand again at mount Olivet, Job knew!
It is simply my responsibility today to remind every reader of this devotion, that yes we will all die, we will all return to the dust, but there is going to be a resurrection, for those who have come to believe and accept this wonderful Redeemer it will be to life everlasting, but sadly for those who have rejected the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ it will be a resurrection to eternity in the lake of fire, eternally cut off from the presence of God.
Choose Jesus today, accept him as your Lord and Saviour, allow him to become the Lord in your life and then like Job you to will be able to say ‘FOR I KNOW that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself . . .’