How Long?

Introduction

As was announced, I want to speak to you tonight about the question, how long? And here’s the disclaimer. If you’re under the age of 20, you might say, I just don’t get that. And when I was your age, I wouldn’t have gotten it either. When I was growing up, it was all apple pie and Chevrolet. It was baseball. It was our bicentennial as a nation. Yes, I am that old. And life was good, and life was easy, and I didn’t have a care in the world. Mom and dad said, hey, time to come eat. And I showed up at the table, and there it was. Now, sometimes it was sauerkraut and wieners. But most of the time it was really pretty good. And I didn’t wake up in the morning to wonder where the next meal was coming from.

And I would come home from school, and I would fire it up. My Honda 70 minib. And we lived out in a wooded area, and I had trails in the woods, and me and my neighbor, he’d come over and we’d take turns riding my Honda 70. And it was a beautiful thing. Until my little sister destroyed the throttle. You know, she’s been a thorn in my side through the years. Have you noticed that in the stories that I’ve told? I had a great life as a kid. I wish everyone, every young person had the life that I did. The only problem was it was in Indiana. It was a little cold from time to time. But when you’re a kid, you don’t really realize it. You just go out and play in the snow, and it doesn’t matter that your toes freeze and fall off.

It really doesn’t matter. Especially when you’re missing 30 days of school, like I did one winter and didn’t have to make it up. Those were the days. I’m telling you, they were good. And so when I talk to you tonight about how long I’m telling you, young people, you may not get it. So when I ask you, can you remember a sermon that I preached last week? And you’re going, no, it’s all a little bit foggy to me now. You need to remember this one for about 20 to 25 years. So write in your Bible, okay? Write in your Bible at Psalm 90. I’m going to need this one day. It is the Psalm of Moses. The prayer of Moses. Remember, this is the Psalm where he talks about the days of our lives being three score and ten.

And if by reason of strength four score, that’s that’s eighty. My parents are both in their 80s, so they’ve done it. They’ve accomplished it. But their pride is sorrow and difficulty. Moses remarks. And it is over, and then we fly away. We fly away. We sing that song. Moses flew away from Mount Nebo a long time ago. But a friend put me on the last few verses of Psalm 90 recently that I must say I have neglected. I had looked at verse 12 many times of Psalm 90. Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. And I’ve quoted that verse from the Psalm many times and never really stop to notice what’s around that verse. Listen to Moses and think of his circumstances, some of which we talked about this morning, some of the challenges and difficulties that faced Israel in his era.

He experienced God’s displeasure with his people. Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due. Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Relent, O Lord. How long 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, okay, their troubles are because of their behavior. God’s fury has been directed at them because they had not applied their hearts to wisdom. And so they’re asking God to relent. Please take your punishment away. How long shall we endure? May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children.

May the favor of the Lord, may the beauty of the Lord our God rest upon us. Establish the work of our hands for us. Yes. Establish the work of our hands. Discouraging times for Moses and his people. I think a lot of people in our times deal with discouragement. Like I said, when I was young, I didn’t experience it much. But through the circumstances of life, over time, you begin to understand some of the discouragements that people face. Sometimes it’s the simple challenge of walking in the way of holiness. In the midst of all the associated opposition and influences to do otherwise. It’s not easy to run against the stream of culture. To restrain from the immorality that runs rampant in our worlds when people just do what they feel like doing.

And to know that it’s the children of God, that we must strive to be holy, good song choice said. Holy. It is a powerful call to us. But in the pursuit of holiness. Sometimes find ourselves discouraged. And then there’s the difficulties that come in life. Nobody escapes pain in life. Maybe that’s why we get sick so much as kids. Maybe we catch everything that comes along because we need to learn this early on. That life isn’t all about fun and games and play. Ever had the chicken pox. And the really sad thing about that is once you get over it, that virus is still latent in your body, and it may come out in other ways. Experience that. I guess kids don’t get the mumps anymore because of all the vaccinations.

I was the chipmunk. I had the mumps when I was a kid. That’s not fun when you have these big old swollen glands. Maybe some of that pain that we experience is preparing us for some of the difficulties of life ahead. Well, you know, I could stop right here and say, that’s enough discouragement. But there’s much more. There’s dealing with people. There are some rotten stuff. And they don’t care who they hurt. They don’t care the misery that they bring. You’ll experience that to some degree. Sometimes it’s even in your own family. Jesus talked about that. People can cause you all kinds of grief and discouragement. Joy can be elusive. Too much humdrum in our lives. Sometimes it just feels like we’re work.

And then there’s our jobs that can be not fun, draining, unnecessary evil in our lives. And notice Job is also Job. Sometimes we feel like we suffer, like he does. And then there are questions about faith. Is God really there when I suffer? When I am so very low. Where is God? Is he with me? How bad have you experienced loads in this life? If you’ve experienced any at all, the question of Psalm 90, how long will apply to you? How bad can it get? Theodore Roosevelt, his journal entry on Valentine’s Day, 1884, the day he lost both his wife Alice two days after childbirth and his mother Mitty. What I notice is the big X. That was not a happy Valentine’s Day for Theodore Roosevelt.

1. A Healthy Respect for God's Fury

And he simply writes, the light has gone out of my life. You ever had a day like that? Month like that. A year like that. In his biography, he didn’t even have mentioned his first wife. He married again, but really didn’t mention her much in his autobiography. I’m sure Theodore Roosevelt asked the question. How long? So, what do we learn from this psalm and the question that’s raised? Just a few simple thoughts tonight. The lesson will be yours. From verse 11 Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. And I preached this tonight on the heels of what we talked about this morning because of the need that we have to have a healthy respect for God’s fury.

That’s what we see in the ten plagues that were brought upon Egypt. That’s what we see in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the fire and brimstone that burned. That’s what we see when Uzzah touched the ark and so many other cases in the Old Testament where fire comes down from heaven in the days of Elijah to consume the 50s that were sent. We see the fury of God.

2. Walk in Wisdom Today

But we should learn from those who did. And we should learn from the promises that we have in Scripture of a time of fury that’s coming. And you need to be on the right side of things when that happens. In the days of Assyria, a jealous and avenging God is the Lord. The Lord is avenging and wrathful. Yes, he is good, and he is a stronghold to those who take refuge in him, but with an overwhelming flood, he will make a complete end of its sight. And he will pursue his enemies in the darkness. Point number two. Walk in wisdom today. So often we get ahead of ourselves in the midst of our pain. We’re looking for solutions. We wonder what’s going to be down the road.

Teach us to number our days and apply our hearts to wisdom. That’s really all that we can do. We take and embrace the day that God has given us. And we say to ourselves, today I’m going to walk in wisdom. Today I’m going to follow God’s path for me. I’m going to do it today. I don’t know what next week is going to hold or next month. And I may be in a situation soon if I’m not in it now, where I’m going to be asking the question, how long? But if I am in that state, I know what I’m supposed to do. That is to walk in wisdom today. Well, that looks eerily close to our daily Bible reading. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates.

3. Heavenward Pleas When Trials Persist

That’s wisdom talking. Notice that. He listens to me and he watches daily at my gates. That must be an intentioned thing on your part. You must pursue wisdom intentionally. For he who finds me finds life. And obtains favor from the Lord. But he who sins against me injures himself. And all those who hate me love death. Point number three. What did Moses do in the midst of sorrow? In the midst of great trouble, with which he and the people of God had been afflicted. The pride of our days is but labor and sorrow. How do you sum it up, Moses? What has life been like? It’s been a lot of work and a lot of pain. We are fortunate to get to play as much as we do.

As a culture, we get to play a lot. Probably play too much. Perhaps one of the reasons why we don’t appreciate the fury.

Heavenward pleads when trials persist. You know, that was the question. It’s sort of hard for us to relate, I think, to Revelation chapter 6. And what’s going on really in the entire book of Revelation, where early Christians are being persecuted, they’re dying. We know one of them by name, Antipas, in Revelation chapter 2. And the souls that cry beneath the altar.

How long? How long? All of these promises. This kingdom is established. We are your people, and yet we are in pain. We are suffering. We’re being killed. All day long. Oh Lord, how long? And really, the book of Revelation is an answer to that question. God’s wrath and indignation is coming upon those who would dare harm a hair on the head of his people. I will fix this in my time. It will all be rectified ultimately, but maybe not today.

The varieties of disappointments and pain-causing circumstances, and sometimes they seem to persist for an incredibly long time. We say, How long? How long will it be? Don’t forget.

How long? Till the morning.

We will rise above them in the morning. But we need to keep the pleas heavenward. Let us sing how long has it been to my face.

4. Appeal to God's Unfailing Love for Joy and Gladness

As we come to verses fourteen and fifteen. In the midst of pain, when you’re questioning how long appeal to God’s unfailing love for joy and gladness. Ask God, please satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love.

I look at the life of Moses and many people who lived in the Old Testament. Sometimes I forget how blessed we are to live when we do. We know things, we know things Moses never saw. We see things into which angels long to look. We see the outcome of the Lord’s dealings. We see the outcome of the scheme of redemption. And we’re reveling in his grace. We have it good. I talked to you not long ago about Baruch as he was having a pity party for himself in Jeremiah chapter 45. His world was shattered all around him. He and Jeremiah survived the onslaught of the Babylonians, but Jerusalem, the Jerusalem he had known, was no more. And God asked, Are you seeking, are you seeking great things for yourself?

Tells Baruch, there’s something bigger going on than your personal pain. Sometimes all I can see is my personal pain. My personal tribe.

Baruch serves an important place in history, and he has no idea. He has no idea that 2,500 years from now, he will be remembered. We’ll be talking about him, the people of God. Well, we don’t talk about Baruch much, but we should talk about him more, I think. Just like we do, Jeremiah. Just like we do, Ezekiel. They being dead yet speak to us. Too often I’m right where he was. More concerned about my personal pain than I am concerned about being in the will of God and letting God work out all the details. We have every reason to be glad. Because God established a path for his people, a highway of holiness, a roadway, he calls it. And the unclean don’t travel on it. Only the redeemed walk there.

5. May Your Deeds Be Shown to Your Servants

And there’s no vicious beast there. There’s no lion. The ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting. You know the road that we’re on? There’s not a beast strong enough. There is not a power strong enough in this world to remove you from that path. And sorrow and sighing will flee away. Because we have a relationship with the God of unfailing love. No matter what our circumstances may be. Verses 16 and 17. May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. I emphasized this last week from Colossians chapter 1. Do we believe God can act powerfully in our lives today? Do we believe that God has to perform a sign like he did in biblical times to convince people that this is indeed the powerful creator God and that you should listen to him?

6. Establish the Work of Our Hands

Does God need to suspend natural laws in order to accomplish his will powerfully in our times? Do you think God can arrange circumstances and cause conversations and cause people to hear the truth that they so desperately need so that they can be saved? Do you believe that God can work in the midst of your pain to produce wonderful results as we continue to live faithfully unto him day by day? May your deeds be shown for servants. Finally, may the favor, the beauty of the Lord our God rest upon us. Establish the work of our hands for us. Yes. Establish work of our hands. Are we praying about that? The work that we’re doing together as God’s people in this place? Are we invoking God’s help, his fellowship, his power, so that we can accomplish all of his purposes for us in this time?

May God help us. May He beautify and establish the work of our hands as we commit ourselves to His awesome thought. Do you believe? Do you believe that God is working in your life? Because I gotta tell you. If He’s not, you have precious little in this world. And what you do have is very temporary. Beautify our work. Establish our work. I know of a young man who lost his wife in an untimely fashion. I know the family from which she hails. He’s an elder. Her dad was an elder, is an elder in the church in Athens, Alabama. A great guy that I’ve come to respect a great deal. But this young man who lost his wife prays something routinely. And he says this, probably because of her.

Conclusion

Take us when we are most ready to go. May God establish the work and beauty of our hands. May He take us. We are ready to come. Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love. That we may sing for joy and be glad all of our days. I talk about this all the time. Relationship with God is not only saving, but it is uniquely helpful. It is desirable and it is filling. A few verses and I’m done. Psalm 89, Psalm 89, 46 through 58, and then verse 52. How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? You ever felt like God was hiding from you? Not responding to your circumstances. How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? Will your wrath burn like fire?

Notice Psalm 89 and 90 go together. Remember what my span of life is. For what vanity you have created all the sons of men. And it sure feels that way at times. What man can live and not see death? Can he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? But despite it all, when we are saying, how long? Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen. Amen. Blessed be the Lord our God. What about that relationship with God? Have you embraced it? It’s not only saving, it is uniquely helpful, desirable, and filling. Let’s stand and say.