This evening we'll be looking at a few verses from the 90th Psalm. Psalm 90. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carryest them away as with a flood. They are as asleep in the morning. They are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up, in the evening it is cut down and withereth. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten. If by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is there strength, labor, and sorrow. For it is soon cut off and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O, satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish thou the work of our hands. Yea, the work of our hands, establish. Establish thou it. Now I had just finished college and I had been married to Leslie for about two years. Daniel, our oldest son, was just six, seven, eight months old or so. The three of us were making plans for a move to Florida to help a man who was starting out a new church He'd been there for a couple or a few years or so, and things weren't moving along very well, or as well as you might hope they would, and we thought we would lend him a hand. And not long before our move, I came across these verses, and to me they were quite new, though I'm sure I'd read them somewhere along the way, up to that point in my life as a believer, but there was a particular encouragement in these verses as we were packing all of our belongings in a Volkswagen and a trailer that was six feet by ten feet and that was it and the rest of it was left behind and there wasn't much left behind. But this text, and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and establish thou the work of our hands upon us. Yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it. This text especially was an encouragement to us and one that we particularly desired to see come to pass. We were a young couple getting started out in life and wanted to do something for the Lord and the kingdom of heaven and we had set out on just such a venture. It is a normal desire for a Christian. to know the blessing of the Lord on the work of our hands. Even the mundane matters of life from day to day, it's a desire of a Christian to say, I would like the Lord to bless that which I am doing. Mundane things, the health concerns that we have, job provision, financial matters, a home or a place to stay, neighborhood or the kinds of people that we would be near to or close to by way of where we live. We want a decent place to live. Christians, those who are the followers of Christ, say, I would like the Lord's blessing just in these very mundane matters. How much more intense is the desire of God's people that God would bless the laborers of their hands when those laborers are particularly about the business of furthering his kingdom. To put a restraint upon sin in this world, to confront sinners with their sin and to say, no, this is a way that leads to destruction. And I want to point you to the person of Jesus Christ who not only delivers you from the wrath to come. But he also gives you the power to overcome sin. And when Christians take up this work, or this type of work, and it may be by way of a vacation Bible school, or an after-school Bible time, a home Bible study, or door-to-door work, going from home to home, seeking to win the lost to Christ. or something very large like a citywide evangelistic campaign, the work of a gospel preaching church seeking to have a witness and a testimony in a community and say it is a desire that is intensified, that the Lord would bless, that the work of our hands would be blessed by the power of the living God as we would seek to be about His Now, there are those religious people of the world who will list their accomplishments of good deeds and set them before the Lord and desire Him to bless that which they have done. This is what the natural man desires, that God would be pleased with man in his best doings. the believers crying out to God, Lord, if you would take that which is flawed and weak and of little account and make it that which is valuable, that which is of eternal worth, as the psalmist here says, establish thou the work of our hands upon us. Yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it. Nehemiah did this when he was rebuilding the city of Jerusalem after it had been destroyed by the Babylonians. And some 70 years later, he comes back and finds the city in rubbish. And he sets about putting the people to work and rebuilding the walls and the gates are put back up in their place. And the worship is restored in Jerusalem. And he says, Lord, remember me for this that I have done. Forget me not for that which I have done was a spiritual desire by a spiritual man. Not just that God would be pleased with what was good in him, but that God would prosper that which he had done as unto the Lord. Well, we set out on our trip and spent a rather short period of time there in Florida. But this verse is never very far from me. There are some texts of scripture that never seem to be very far from my mind. I think of Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33 that says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And those things that are added are food and shelter that are needed for life in this life. It's a text that is never very far from me from my days as a young fellow, as a believer, as a teenager. And here from Psalm 90 is another verse that oftentimes comes to my mind. Lord, the labor of my hands, the work of our hands upon us, yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it that that which is done would be for all eternity's sake, for the glory of God and the person of Jesus Christ. However, this psalm has in it other verses that particularly laid hold of my attention, especially in this past week. It's not uncommon for me to read through it as I find my way going through the psalms or from time to time Opening up and finding it seems my Bible seems to fall fairly close to Psalm 90 fairly regularly I'm in this psalm with some frequency But in the past couple of weeks verses here have been brought to my mind David my sixth child here this evening has a birthday at the end of March My brother has a birthday early in April. My wife's birthday was yesterday and these three birthdays, well this has been happening for 20 years now, maybe just turned 21, for 20 years, so this isn't news. But somehow all of these birthdays coming together this particular year, my mother's passing in January, bring out these texts here in Psalm verse 10, beginning in verse 90, Psalm 90 in verse 9. We spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten. If by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. We spend our years as a tale that is told. Well, I've been married 30 years, it'll be 32 years, 31, now 32 years come May. I have seven children, seven grandchildren, My youngest of seven children is 18 years old. He'll graduate from high school here sometime in May. I tell him he needs to graduate before Christmas because he has all kinds of other things he wants to be doing and it's distracting him from an actual finish date. So some days he does double one day so that he doesn't push it off any further. My youngest is finishing high school which means he's entering into that world where Well, he's not there yet, but towards self-sufficiency. We're a little ways from there, I suppose, but it's different when they're not all around the house anymore. And they're heading out and making their own way in life. Well, the tale's told. We spend our years as a tale that is told. Yeah, there's details that we're in those 32 years of our married life, but, you know, the tale's told. How long does it take to tell the story of someone's life? Some people have got sizable volumes of books and papers and such that have been written about their lives, either personal record or because they were prolific writers themselves or family members were. But in the end, how much is there on anyone's single life that's been left behind? Really, the experience of our life. How many details do I really remember? over the past 55 years, no, 54, almost 55 years, my birthday, is at the end of May. We spend our years as a tale that's told. It's good yarn after dinner. Let's hear that yarn. And that's the end of it. The years, the days of our years, three score and 10. Three score, 60, right? and 10, we get 70. And if by reason of strength they be four score, we make the 80. If by reason of strength we go beyond the 70 and make 80, what do those years make up? It's labor and sorrow. Their strength is labor and sorrow. My father was a man with a tremendous constitution. He was 80 years old. He rode his bicycle one day from Aurora, Illinois to Rockford, Illinois, which is about 80 miles. One day he rode 80 miles as an 80-year-old man. The next day, my brother lived in Rockford at the time, the next day he got on his bicycle, my mother was with him, and she was 14 years younger than him, so figure that one out, that's old. She was, she rode with him. They turned around and they rode back to Aurora. In two days, they rode 160 miles. The third day, he slept all day. Then he went to the doctor. The doctor said, I want to come see you 20 years from now. My father had a tremendous constitution. My father died a month before his 95th birthday. And he said, the hardest thing that I ever did in life was to grow old. If by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." I'm not an old man by any stretch of the imagination, but I can say where has 30 years gone? I don't mean that as if I haven't enjoyed the 30 years. It's just that they're gone. It's one year after another. We're in May. We're in April already. Tax season is here right now. And this year is rolling through fast. Our lives, New Testament sense, abut as of April. My son Daniel is 30 years old. I held him when he was born. I was there for all of them when they were born. Just a little kid. And a month later, I could see and I understood. I was quite young still in those days, a healthy young man. I was. Oh, I understood. My life's a vapor. Thirty years later now, I understand it even better. And I sure felt it then. Verse 12 says, so teach us to number our days. Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Verse 14, oh, satisfy us with thy mercy. Oh, Lord. that I would be satisfied with thy mercy. The Tenth Commandment says, Thou shalt not covet. And I'm satisfied when I am satisfied, when I'm content with that which this life has given me. I'm satisfied with His mercy. There was a woman who came to the Lord Jesus and she pled with him that he would heal her daughter. And he ignored her. She was a woman in Syrophoenicia. She was one of the Canaanites that had come down over the centuries. Her family lineage is all the way back to the people of Canaan whom God had told the Israelites to destroy centuries before. And she came to him and she said, would you heal my daughter? And he ignored her. And he went about his business and she kept pleading and begging and she wouldn't go away. And pretty soon his disciples come and talking to him. Could you please ask her to go away? She's bothering us. She won't go away. She won't quit begging and pleading. She's bothering us. He ignores them and he ignores her. And he said, well, the answer is fine. And he says, it's not fit that you should get that which is for the king's children. You're not worthy of that which I would have to offer you." She said, truthfully, dogs sometimes lick up crumbs that fall from the child's table. That which comes from the children that they're careless with, I would just have a little crumb She was a dog. He called her a dog. And he said, Grace, I thank you. And her child was healed. His mercy was exceedingly abundant above what any man could offer her. He was just a crumb. tossed off to one side for a dog to land on. She was content with that. She was satisfied with His mercy. She didn't deserve His mercy. She understood she didn't deserve His mercy. She understood that she had no claim to any goodness at His hand, and quite the contrary, she had claim to a curse at His hand. that you are satisfied with His mercy. And His mercy was glorious. You know, you and I have absolutely no claim to anything good at the hand of Jesus Christ. There is nothing that He owes us for our own goodness or for the greatness of our own selves or the great righteousnesses that we carry about with us There is nothing found within us, born as children, raised up in this world that just gushes out goodness and decency that would say, coming from the living God, oh, my smile is upon you if we look about the earth looking for one who is righteous and there is none, no, not one. But His mercy His mercy is exceeding great through His Son, Jesus Christ. Satisfy us. Satisfied with Thy mercy. It's enough that God does not send me to hell. But His mercy is exceeding beyond not sending me to hell. For he makes his people his sons and daughters. He makes us to rule and to reign with his Son, Jesus Christ. He cleanses and purifies and overcomes and strengthens us that we might live for him and to glorify him in this life. His mercy is sufficient. O, satisfy us early with thy mercy. that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. We don't have a lot of days. I suppose we can multiply 70 times 365. It's a fairly large number. And we count years and say somebody who lived 90, 95 years begin to go 100 years and we say, wow, this person has really lived a long time. Well the reality is that we know it's not a very long time. It's as of April. The scripture says it's as of April. But Moses says, Moses says in this psalm that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. We are satisfied when you are satisfied with the mercies of God in Christ Jesus. We are glad all those days that we have. There's not a lot of them, but how much more enjoyable they are when satisfied with the mercies of God than looking for satisfaction some other place. through the goodnesses that I would find within myself, through the vastness of my fortune, through the wonders of my influence in society. How far does that go? Satisfy us early with thy mercy that we may rejoice and be glad while our days. Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom, the cry of a frail people with a very limited amount of time upon this earth. And yet we would ask the Lord, yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it, that the Lord establishes that work. why it's truly an eternal work. It's not just that which I've done with my hands, but it's that which the Lord has taken and has made it eternal. And so we take this Psalm 90 and apply it to our hearts even right now, that the Lord would satisfy us with His mercy.