See Me For Who "I Am" (part 2)

Today's Reading: Psalm 90:3-7 (this link takes you to ESV bible online and it can read the text to you if you like)

Comments: See Part 1 for the complete outline on the Psalm.

Psalm 90:3–7 (ESV) 3  You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
 4  For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
 5  You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
 6  in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
 7  For we are brought to an end by your anger;
by your wrath we are dismayed.

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)

Reflections on verses 3-7-

I see your sovereignty, immutability, goodness, justice, holiness, and peace in these verses Lord.

Thank you Lord that we have such a mighty Father who wills and acts with freedom of purpose and without counsel. Thank you that you experience reality ever so differently than I do. You can experience all of time, as I know it, at once but yet any given moment you experience as it were to last forever and so the clarity to which you see and experience all that ever has or ever will occur anywhere in your creation is amazing. This illustration of how you are outside of time defines your immutability and your stability. Time comes and goes according to your pleasure and you bring renewal as well as death as you please according to your goodness. Please remind me regularly of this immensity and this wisdom and this authority that my Father has and let me hold tight to your hand when my circumstances are difficult. You exercise authority over man and nature to work your purpose and this assures me of your promise in Romans 8:28 where I find that you work all things together for good…and Eph 1:11 tells me that you work all things after the counsel of your own will…and I remember that Joseph's brothers meant it for evil but you meant it for good…

Genesis 50:20 (ESV)20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

So I have all confidence that you lovingly an wisely oversee every element of my life as you do every living being in order to deliver what you determine to be the highest good and I praise you and thank you for this truth and ask that you remind me of it regularly.

From the Treasury of David-

v3. “Thou turnest man to destruction,” or “to dust.” Man’s body is resolved into its elements, and is as though it had been crushed and ground to powder. “And sayest, Return, ye children of men,” i.e., return even to the dust out of which ye were taken. The frailty of man is thus forcibly set forth; God creates him out of the dust, and back to dust he goes at the word of his Creator. God resolves and man dissolves. A word created and a word destroys. Observe how the action of God is recognised; man is not said to die because of the decree of fate, or the action of inevitable law, but the Lord is made the agent of all, his hand turns and his voice speaks; without these we should not die, no power on earth or hell could kill us.
“An angel’s arm can’t save me from the grave,
Myriads of angels can’t confine me there.” 

Spurgeon, C. H. (2009). The treasury of David, Volume 4: Psalms 88-110 (61). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

From Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology-

Sovereignty is not a property of the divine nature, but a prerogative arising out of the perfections of the Supreme Being. If God be a Spirit, and therefore a person, infinite, eternal, and immutable in his being and perfections, the Creator and Preserver of the universe, He is of right its absolute sovereign. Infinite wisdom, goodness, and power, with the right of possession, which belongs to God in all his creatures, are the immutable foundation of his dominion. “Our God is in the heavens; He hath done whatsoever He pleased.” (Ps. 115:3.)  

This sovereignty of God is the ground of peace and confidence to all his people. They rejoice that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth; that neither necessity, nor chance, nor the folly of man, nor the malice of Satan controls the sequence of events and all their issues. Infinite wisdom, love, and power, belong to Him, our great God and Saviour, into whose hands all power in heaven and earth has been committed. 

Hodge, C. (1997). Vol. 1: Systematic theology (441). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

From the Matthew Henry Commentary-

To own God’s absolute sovereign dominion over man, and his irresistible incontestable power to dispose of him as he pleases (v. 3): Thou turnest man to destruction, with a word’s speaking, when thou pleasest, to the destruction of the body, of the earthly house; and thou sayest, Return, you children of men. 1. When God is, by sickness or other afflictions, turning men to destruction, he does thereby call men to return unto him, that is, to repent of their sins and live a new life. This God speaketh once, yea, twice. “Return unto me, from whom you have revolted,’ ’ Jer. 4:1 

Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: Complete and unabridged in one volume (Ps 90:1–6). Peabody: Hendrickson.

Preservation of self value and responsibility is mysterious in the light of your sovereignty Lord and I cannot understand just as I cannot understand exactly what you did on that cross but I am grateful and I surrender my heart…

From Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology-

It seems better to affirm that God causes all things that happen, but that he does so in such a way that he somehow upholds our ability to make willing, responsible choices choices that have real and eternal results and for which we are held accountable. Exactly how God combines his providential control with our willing and significant choices, Scripture does not explain to us. But rather than deny one aspect or the other (simply because we cannot explain how both can be true), we should accept both in an attempt to be faithful to the teaching of all of Scripture. 

Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: An introduction to biblical doctrine (321). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.

God, your peace and order, your goodness are evident as you bring renewal and new beginnings to me and you sweep away my past. You take me along a path of renewal and sanctification where you conform me to the likeness of your Son and I am grateful that you devise only good for me. Let me never judge you or define goodness separate from you and your sovereign will. Let me always have eyes for the good in the circumstances that would scream of evil or of chaos. Let me remember Job and Joseph and Jonah and even your Son.

You are holy and just (righteous) Lord. You refer to the flood of Noah (time is swept away in a flood) and the fall of man that required death (grass fades away and withers) as the just result of this choice of self-determined independence rather than subjection to your Lordship. You are good and righteous in your separation from sin and this leaves me completely dependent on your Son to restore and maintain my standing in your grace to thus escape what would be the terrible fate shared by your enemies. You demonstrate how we were brought (by Adam in the garden) to have an end (death was ushered in) and became now panicked (Adam hid) under your just and righteous eyes as to fear your wrath due to a lack of cover.

From Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology-

When God does not punish sin, it seems to indicate that he is unrighteous, unless some other means of punishing sin can be seen. This is why Paul says that when God sent Christ as a sacrifice to bear the punishment for sin, it “was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:25–26). When Christ died to pay the penalty for our sins it showed that God was truly righteous, because he did give appropriate punishment to sin, even though he did forgive his people their sins. 

Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: An introduction to biblical doctrine (204). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.

From the Treasury of David-

When, however, a soul is under conviction of sin, the language of this Psalm is highly appropriate to his case, and will naturally suggest itself to the distracted mind. No fire consumes like God’s anger, and no anguish so troubles the heart as his wrath. Blessed be that dear substitute, 

“Who bore that we might never bear
His Father’s righteous ire.” 

Spurgeon, C. H. (2009). The treasury of David, Volume 4: Psalms 88-110 (62). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

Application and prayer:

Lord thank you for who you are and how you choose to reveal yourself in your Word as I hide it in my heart. Please let me know you and not just about you as I consider these lofty truths Lord. Let me take heart and consider you personally and not as a subject of study. Blow me away with your attributes and move me to grateful and joyous surrender in all I think and do. I ask this in Jesus name, amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!
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