Psalms

When we think of the Psalms we mostly think of David as the author.  It might surprise many to see this Psalm was a prayer of Moses.  Obviously Moses didn't write it as a Psalm but it was a prayer passed down through generations.  It was included in the collection of Psalms.  This is the oldest of the Psalms. 

The is a prayer from Moses to God seeking God's mercy on man.  It was probably written as the generations of Israelites were dying off in the wilderness. 

A Prayer of Moses the man of God.

Moses was a man of God.  The bible tells us in Deuteronomy 34:10 that God knew him face to face.  The term 'man of God' is used 70 times in the Old Testament speaking of a man who spoke for God.  It was also used to describe Timothy.

¹ Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
² Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
As our dwelling place, He is our source of protection, our sustenance, and all our provisions for life.  He has been that to all generations, never changing in any way.  We are thankful our eternal God is also immutable.  We don't have to guess anything about Him.  He established his ways, righteousness and holiness and those standards never change, from eternity past to eternity future.

³ You turn man to destruction,
And say, "Return, O children of men."
The word for 'destruction' means broken and crushed to the smallest of particles.  It is poetic term for dust.  Genesis 3:15 says we came from dust and to dust we shall return.

⁴ For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it is past,
And like a watch in the night.
It's hard for us to even fathom that our God is beyond time.  We can't even imagine a thousand years but for God it was nothing, just like yesterday.  In a thousand years many millions of men come and go in the world.  God knew them all.  He knew their heart, their thoughts and deeds.  If they were saved in Christ, he heard every prayer, equipped them for ministry and gave them a small part to play in this world and prepared them for His kingdom.  God is so far beyond our imagination and understanding, we tend to bring Him down to an understandable level, something that fits into our small minds and pacifies us in our short time as we go from dust to dust.

Verse 4 is frequently used in the argument that creation actually took 6000 years.  They say a day of creation was really a thousand years.  The problem with that is that the bible says for each day of creation that there was morning and evening on that day.     

⁵ You carry them away like a flood;
They are like a sleep.
In the morning they are like grass which grows up:
⁶ In the morning it flourishes and grows up;
In the evening it is cut down and withers.
Life is short.  Many fail to grasp this at any time in their life.  Those that do grasp it struggle to hold onto that thought.  Our priorities in this world reflect our viewpoint on life.  Moses said that is like we are asleep.  Its as if we go through life with our heads down with our nose to the grindstone.  Then we wake up and life is nearly over.  In the morning the grass grows, it flourishes.  It the evening its cut down and withers. 

⁷ For we have been consumed by Your anger,
And by Your wrath we are terrified.
⁸ You have set our iniquities before You,
Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.
⁹ For all our days have passed away in Your wrath;
We finish our years like a sigh.
All our works, all our possessions, all that we worked for, all our savings, all our toys, every trophy, medal and award will be meaningless when you take your last breath.  At that point, every man will stand before God.  No matter how good we think we've done it falls woefully short of God's perfect standard.  At that point we become sinners in the hands of an angry God.  All our secret sins are brought before the perfect light of God.  Yes, God is angry with sin.  He can't abide in sin.  Our sin debt must be paid for.  That is why we need a savior.  Our only hope, the only Way, is found in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  When we come to Christ we can then live this life in His grace and mercy.  The wrath we deserved was put on Christ when He paid our debt.  We are free in Christ from experiencing that wrath.

¹⁰ The days of our lives are seventy years;
And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;
For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
¹¹ Who knows the power of Your anger?
For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.
¹² So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
None of know the number of our days.  Today might be it for any one of us.  We count on seventy years, maybe we hope for eighty if we eat right and exercise.  Yet, seventy, eighty or even ninety years are nothing compared to eternity.  This life seems senseless and meaningless at times.  Moses saw a people work hard and sorrow and then die.  Instead of a person living in fear of God's wrath, the person who gains wisdom will see that God's wrath is directed toward sin.  The heart of wisdom will repent and live in a healthy fear of the Lord.

¹³ Return, O LORD!
How long?
And have compassion on Your servants.
¹⁴ Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy,
That we may rejoice and be glad all our days!
Moses asked the Lord to return to them, to be with them.  As they wandered the wilderness they felt the sting of their sin of unbelief.  They were sentenced to wandering the desert until they all passed away.  Even in those circumstances, they could seek the Lord.  In fact, it was likely their only hope for joy and contentment in life.  They ask God for his compassion and mercy.  They just wanted to be able to rejoice in Him once again and be glad in Him all their short days.

¹⁵ Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us,
The years in which we have seen evil.

They just wanted to have as many days of gladness as they had of affliction.

¹⁶ Let Your work appear to Your servants,
And Your glory to their children.
¹⁷ And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands.

This could, and should be, the prayer of every person seeking God.  We desire the see the work of God's hands.  We want to see and understand what He is doing.  We want to bear the countenance of the Lord.  We want to reflect the God we serve as we do the work that the Lord established for us.