5 Days of Prayer - Day 3

Psalm 90

A Prayer of Moses the man of God

I have been thinking a little about where I live.  In fact, I can hear a conversation in the next room teaching our children about what country, what city, what street and the house number in which we live.  It is the place where we live ... or is it.  Well, it is and it isn’t ... it is kind of confusing.  God called Abraham out of his dwelling place.  First out of Ur.  Then He called him out of Haran where he had gotten sidetracked.  The book of Hebrews goes on to tell us he was an alien and a stranger even in Canaan, the land to which God had called him, and that he was looking for “the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God”.  Here Moses indicates that God is our place.  He is the builder and the maker.  It is not a temporal place.  God is eternal.  It is not a dwelling that will pass away or fail.

People are temporal and our sin causes our destruction.  We last a moment in comparison to the mountains, and the mountains a moment in comparison to God.  Our lives are a small thing in the framework of eternity, cut from what they might have been by sin and righteous judgment.  The metaphors are familiar.  Sleep.  It seems you just lay down and it is morning.  Grass.  It grows quickly and dies quickly.

Because of this ... because we have 70 or perhaps 80 years of life, Moses prays that God would teach us to count our days... to consider them wisely.  Sin ravages us.  It steals away the best parts of life.

As Moses considers this ... as we consider this with him ... it causes a cry to rise in the heart.  Forgiveness and compassion.  Mercy and blessing.    “Satisfy us early with Your mercy.”  The earlier we realize our sinful state and look to this righteous and compassionate God the sooner we can find rest, rejoicing and gladness.  Moses asks that God’s work would appear to His servants and His glory to their children.  He understood something important about God.  God as righteous judge can be a fearful thing, but that God’s heart is one of mercy, compassion and blessing.  As Moses understands this he then calls people to consider and realize.  He calls them to be wise.  He calls them to blessing.

That is what the church is supposed to do, call people to consider, to understand.  Sin and wrath are a fact our existence.  However, God’s love, compassion, mercy and blessing are also available to those who will hear, consider and be wise.  Who will return to an eternal dwelling.

Pray for...

1 Our team working together as a united body

2 worship and children's ministry development

3 English kids outreach

4 God to draw people to Himself