See Me For Who "I Am" (part 1)

Today's Reading: Psalm 90:1-2

Setting-

From the Bible Knowledge Commentary-

Contrasting God’s eternity with human transitoriness, and confessing that man’s days pass away in God’s wrath, the psalmist prayed that the compassionate God would give His people success for their labors and joy for their sorrows.
According to the superscription the psalm is “a prayer of Moses, the man of God” (cf. Deut. 33:1). There are no compelling reasons to reject this view, though many commentators do. If it was written by Moses, the occasion of his writing it is unknown. However, the period of the wilderness wanderings, when a generation of Israelites perished in the desert, readily suggests itself as the background for the psalm. If Moses was the author this is the oldest of the 150 psalms.
Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1985). Vol. 1: The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (859). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Thank you for this amazing picture of how the contrast between us and you can give such hope and such comfort to those that would fear you and that would trust in your Son. Thank you for the ways that you are not like us and how these attributes make all the difference in how I may relate to you and how I might try to understand the world I live in and how I relate to it. Please help me to unpack the wisdom that you have placed in this Psalm, likely written before all the others. Let me not make anything up Lord but illuminate your Word and allow me to draw correct and meaningful conclusions that I can apply to my life today.

Outline of Psalm 90 (to be unpacked individually):

Lord currently I see verses 1-11 as a reflection on who you are in contrast to man with verses 12-17 as the prayerful consideration of how this reality influences me when I know better who you are. Please teach me and allow me to dine on your Word here for a spell. 

What you teach me about you-

Verse 1

• You are greater than me (I surrender)
• I benefit from my relationship to you (my portion)
• You are a home and a protection to me (my salvation)
• Your grace is a gift (unearned/demerited favor)

Verse 2

• You are eternal (without a beginning or an end)
• You are infinite (without limits or measure or boundaries in any of your attributes or the essence of your being)
• You are independent (complete and whole in yourself and requiring nothing)
• You are supreme (having independent authority over all)
• You are omnipotent (completely and unashamedly unstoppable and irresistible)

Verses 3-7

• You are sovereign (exercise omnipotent supremacy over all things freely and for your own purpose)
• You are immutable (unchangeable and your essence/character is unaffected by anything you have created)
• You are goodness (all you do is good because it is you who do it, not because the action has definition outside of you)
• You are holy (perfect and unblemished, separate from and unlike all that is not you)
• You are just (judge righteously and discern right from wrong perfectly)
• You are peace (orderly and purposeful)

Verse 8

• You are omnipresent (everywhere always, including in the land if the living!)
• You are omniscient (nothing is unknown to you)

Verses 9-11

• You bear wrath on behalf of your creation (holiness and justice results in a hatred of sin that brings the execution of wrath- which is good because you do it)

What you teach me about me-

Verse 12

• Humble myself before you 
• Confess my sin and be contrite in fear of your wrath

Verse 13

• Trust in you, not myself
• Wait upon you 

Verse 14

• Find satisfaction in you
• Find renewal and new beginnings in you
• Find joy in all circumstances 

Verse 15

• Celebrate and rest in your sovereign grace
• Reflect upon your lessons and be transformed

Verse 16

• Trust in the work you are accomplishing in me to transform me into the likeness of your Son
• Find the goodness that is at work in all of my circumstances
• Leave a legacy of trust and surrender to my children

Verse 17

• Rest in your sovereign grace and trust in your purpose being fulfilled
• Join in the work and service of your kingdom with joy as an empty vessel used by you

Verse 1 Reflection-

Psalm 90:1 (ESV) 1  Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations.

Thank you for beginning this revelation by encouragement regarding how you have made me to dwell in you and how you have chosen me by your grace alone. Lord thank you that you are my refuge, my dwelling- even when there is nothing in me to earn or deserve such a gift. It was you who called Abraham by your sovereign grace…

From Easton's Bible Dictionary-

Abraham- father of a multitude, son of Terah, named (Gen. 11:27) before his older brothers Nahor and Haran, because he was the heir of the promises. Till the age of seventy, Abram sojourned among his kindred in his native country of Chaldea. He then, with his father and his family and household, quitted the city of Ur, in which he had hitherto dwelt, and went some 300 miles north to Haran, where he abode fifteen years. The cause of his migration was a call from God (Acts 7:2–4).
Easton, M. G. (1996). Easton’s Bible dictionary. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Acts 7:2–4 (ESV)2 And Stephen said:
“Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.

From Attributes of God by A.W. Pink-

If we could only remember the grace of God toward us who have nothing but demerit, we would be overwhelmed by this incomprehensibly immense attribute, so vast, so huge, that nobody can ever grasp it or hope to understand it.

Let me always remember that I am merely on a journey here on earth and in my work and and in all my earthly responsibilities. Please teach me to walk in the realization that you are my home and that you are my identity. You are my security. You are my warmth and shelter from my circumstances and from my troubles. Be daily more so the longing of my heart that I might be homesick should I step away and that each day I might begin with sitting in your presence. Teach me better how to dwell in your presence and how to see that I am in your house. Let me walk in surrender to you and with the knowledge that there is nothing I should fear when I am in your house.

Thank you that since you called Abraham you have made yourself home to your people and I have many examples before me of how you have served as refuge to your church. Let me never doubt that you are the only secure and the most joyful dwelling place.

Psalm 71:3 (ESV) 3  Be to me a rock of refuge,
to which I may continually come;
  you have given the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.

From the Matthew Henry Commentary-

To give God the praise of his care concerning his people at all times, and concerning us in our days (v. 1): Lord, thou hast been to us a habitation, or dwelling-place, a refuge or help, in all generations. Now that they had fallen under God’s displeasure, and he threatened to abandon them, they plead his former kindnesses to their ancestors. Canaan was a land of pilgrimage to their fathers the patriarchs, who dwelt there in tabernacles; but then God was their habitation, and, wherever they went, they were at home, at rest, in him. Egypt had been a land of bondage to them for many years, but even then God was their refuge; and in him that poor oppressed people lived and were kept in being. Note, True believers are at home in God, and that is their comfort in reference to all the toils and tribulations they meet with in this world. In him we may repose and shelter ourselves as in our dwelling-place.
Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: Complete and unabridged in one volume (Ps 90:1–6). Peabody: Hendrickson.

Verse 2-

Psalm 90:2 (ESV) 2  Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Help me Lord to perceive even just a little of your solitude/independence, your eternalness, your omnipotence, your infinitude that are reflected here in this verse. You were God alone in the midst of nothingness and it was your own good pleasure that brought you to create in order to demonstrate the greatness of the glory of your grace, which was from all time wrapped up in your identity. You created the largest things we can perceive in  breath and even the heavens with all its inhabitants were brought forth by you. You have no ending and you never knew a beginning.

Revelation 1:8 (ESV)8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

From the Matthew Henry Commentary-

To give God the glory of his eternity (v. 2): Before the mountains were brought forth, before he made the highest part of the dust of the world (as it is expressed, Prov. 8:26), before the earth fell in travail, or, as we may read it, before thou hadst formed the earth and the world (that is, before the beginning of time) thou hadst a being; even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God, an eternal God, whose existence has neither its commencement nor its period with time, nor is measured by the successions and revolutions of it, but who art the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, without beginning of days, or end of life, or change of time. Note, Against all the grievances that arise from our own mortality, and the mortality of our friends, we may take comfort from God’s immortality. We are dying creatures, and all our comforts in the world are dying comforts, but God is an everliving God, and those shall find him so who have him for theirs.
Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: Complete and unabridged in one volume (Ps 90:1–6). Peabody: Hendrickson.

Psalm 102:24–28 (ESV) 24  “O my God,” I say, “take me not away
in the midst of my days—
  you whose years endure
throughout all generations!”
 25  Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
 26  They will perish, but you will remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
  You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
 27  but you are the same, and your years have no end.
 28  The children of your servants shall dwell secure;
their offspring shall be established before you.

You have always been and always will be (Eternalness & Solitude)-

Job 36:26 (ESV) 26  Behold, God is great, and we know him not;
the number of his years is unsearchable.

From everlasting to everlasting- Father, help me to visualize before you made the earth when there was merely the heavens and your angels singing of your holiness. Let me imagine the heavenly realm without a sky or planets or sun or a physical universe at all. Then let me imagine before you made the angels and how you existed in perfect solitude and love as the triune God. For longer than I can ever know- for an eternity that is already passed, you were all there was. How can I understand it Lord? How could I ever question or wonder about your limits? How can I wonder about your presence? You existed for an eternity already before creating physical space or time. Who could wonder if you are present in this place or that? These places are only there because you are there and they exist for you.

You are unaffected by and exist outside of time, which began when you told it to (Eternalness)-

Time is not something that applies to you Lord. Help me to perceive that my life and all of the age from creation of the first angel to the lake of fire and beyond is to you one picture within sight all at once. You are unaffected by actions or the change of others because you are not experiencing a progression of time as we are. You are beyond time and can manifest anywhere along our experience of time in any manner you choose because all of time is within your hand. Time, in the experience of your creation, only began when you determined that you would create and thus a beginning necessitated a progression of something newly formed known as "time". Everything other than you is subjected to this limitation of time and is thus severely frustrated in any attempt to understand you Lord. Thank you for the glorious truth that you are outside of time and you are in no sense bound by it.

From Attributes of God by A.W. Pink-

There was a time, if "time" it could be called, God, in the unity of His nature (though subsisting equally in three divine persons), dwelt all alone.

You are limitless are without boundaries (Infinitude)-

Thank you Lord that you now no limits to your being. Everything you are is unlimited and unending. Your love, your justice, your holiness, your grace, your power, your supremacy, your sovereignty, all that you are O Lord. The implications of this extends into eternity with such force and potency that comprehending it escapes the realm of possibility Lord. The most warming and delightful way I can consider this truth is to consider that your power and supremacy over the grand combined sum of all authorities and powers and wills (including Satan) is equaled by your power and supremacy over any single created thing of the lowest order (such as a cucumber). Being limitless, you are equally greater than any or all things combined that have a beginning and limits which you directly ascribed to them. An affront by the devil and his armies is to you as an affront by a legion of cucumbers…praise the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!

Psalm 33:6 (ESV)6  By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host. 

Daniel 4:35 (ESV)35  all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?”

You are full and complete without any of your creation. For your good pleasure alone, you formed the earth and the heavens and all that are in them (Solitude/independence)-

You lived from all eternity in perfect community and in loving relationship within yourself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For did you learn of love by relating to man? You always have been completely self sufficient and completely satisfied and completely happy. You were love and grace and justice and mercy and holiness from all eternity. You never have and never will require anything from your creation nor are we capable of adding anything to you. Your glory has always been full and perfect and we may merely reflect more or less of it as we "give you glory" or "glorify your name" as we call it- having not the ability to increase your glory whatsoever. You are completely independent, the only being that is so. Everything else, all of your creation relies on you. Everything else relies on the word of your power just to remain in existence.

From Attributes of God by A.W. Pink-

• He is solitary in His majesty, unique in His excellency, peerless in His perfections. He sustains all, but is Himself independent of all. He gives to all, but is enriched by none.
• During a past eternity, God was alone: self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied; in need of nothing.  

You have authority over all and are all-powerful and unstoppable (Supremacy/Omnipotence)-

Thank you Lord that you are supreme and unstoppable. Thank you that you maintain all that is to remain only by the word of your power and for your purpose. Thank you that you have charge over all that could harm me and that you are able to do anything you please. Let me know your heart and teach me to pray in your Son's name that I might have abundance in powerful prayer and an alignment with your purposes for your kingdom.

From Attributes of God by A.W. Pink-

• The decrees of God relate to all future things without exception: whatever is done in time, was foreordained before time began.
• Were it in anywise possible for something to occur apart from either the direct agency or permission of God, then that something would be independent of Him, and He would at once cease to be supreme.
• There is no future event which is only a mere possibility, that is, something which may or may not come to pass. "known unto God are all His works from the beginning" (Acts 15:18).

Wrap-up-

From the Godhood of God by A.W. Pink-

“In the beginning God.”  This is not only the first word of Holy Scripture but it must be the firm axiom of all true philosophy—the philosophy of human history, for example. Instead of beginning with man and his world and attempting to reason back to God, we must begin with God and reason forward to man and his world. It is failure to do this which leaves unsolved the “riddle of the universe.”  Begin with the world as it is today and try to reason back to God, and what is the result?  If you are honest of heart and logical of mind, this—that God has little or nothing at all to do with the world.  But begin with God and reason forward to the world as it is today and much light is cast on the problem.  Because God is holy, His anger burns against sin.  Because God is righteous, His judgments fall on those who rebel against Him.  Because God is faithful, the solemn threatenings of His Word are being fulfilled.  Because God is omnipotent, no problem can master Him, no enemy defeat Him, and no purpose of His can be withstood.  It is just because God is who He is and what He is that we now behold what we do—the gathering clouds of the storm of Divine wrath which will shortly burst upon the earth. 

“For of Him, and through Him and to Him, are all things” (Rom. 11:36).  In the beginning—God.  In the center—God.  At the end—God.  But as soon as this is insisted upon men will stand up and tell you what they think about God.   They will prate about God working consistently with His own character, as though a worm of the earth was capable of determining what was consistent and what was inconsistent with the Divine perfections.  People will say with an air of profound wisdom that God must deal justly with His creatures, which is true, of course, but who is able to define Divine justice, or any other of God’s attributes?  The truth is that man is utterly incompetent for forming a proper estimate of God’s character and ways, and it is because of this that God has given us a revelation of His mind, and in that revelation He plainly declares, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher then your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Is. 55:8, 9). In view of such a scripture as this it is only to be expected that much of the contents of the Bible conflicts with the sentiments of the carnal mind which is “enmity against God.”  And further: in view of such a Scripture as the above we need not be surprised that much of human history is so perplexing to our understandings.
Pink, A. W. (1999). The Godhood of God. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

General theology presented in this post is consistent with 1. Wayne Grudem, 2. Charles Hodge, and 3. Lois Berkhof Systematic Theology texts, save some terminology differences.

Application and prayer:

Main application for this Psalm will come in the review of verses 12-17 (see outline above). 

Lord thank you for revealing yourself in your Word. Than you for allowing me to know of your attributes and how you are in ways entirely different than me and in other ways you made me similar to you. Please lead me into the application of these differences in order that I might relate correctly to you and experience you in the fullness of what you would offer to me in this land of the living. I ask this in Jesus name, amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!

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