Psalm 90:7

Psalm 90:7 7 For we have been consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified.

Can you imagine a world without sickness and death? I have to admit that I cannot. I would argue that every aspect of our lives is tainted by our desire for self preservation. We work so that we can have food/clothing/shelter and we take medicines/vitamins so that our bodies can fight off the effects of disease. How much energy (both mental and physical) could we devote to other causes if we didn’t have to devote so much to these causes?

That world existed once and we can get a glimpse of what it must have been like. Go to the front of your Bible and look at this world described in Genesis 2:

8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

It must have been a wonderful place! God could have put Adam anywhere but He chose to put him in a place where every tree was “pleasant to the sight”. Drab trees would have been fine for Adam, he wouldn’t have known any better after all, but God chose to put him in a place of beauty. We can glean from Genesis 3 that God regularly walked in the garden in the cool of the day, what a wondrous thing!

Can you imagine it? Man and woman in the most beautiful place in the world having direct contact with God every day. No worry about food because every tree has some. No worry about clothing or shelter because the weather is always perfect. No worry about disease – what’s that? And the icing on the cake – God is there with you every day!

But…

We all know what happens in Genesis 3. Sin enters the world through Adam and everything is changed. Look at the curse from God to Adam in Genesis 3:

17Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

Everything changed because of sin. Death enters the world. Everything in creation begins to die. Everything. Even as I type this I am dying. Don’t feel too bad for me because as you read this you are dying as well. Our bodies are winding down and like a wind up toy with broken works these bodies will cease to function.

Why would I say that? Look at our verse from today ,”For we have been consumed by your anger”. Moses could apply that verse to himself in a very special way. Because of Israel’s disobedience the entire generation that came out of Egypt was going to die in the wilderness. The only two to be spared were Joshua and Caleb (See Numbers 14). What must that have been like for Moses? He had to watch an entire generation die because of their disobedience. He himself would also be denied entrance into the promise land because of his own sin (See Numbers 20). No wonder he uses a word like consumed!

The verse contains application for us as well. None of us escape the effects of sin because all of us are sinners. Look at a couple of verses here:

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Who has sinned? All of us.
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death…” A wage is something you earn for a job.

What is the job that we accomplished? Sin…
Who has done this work? All…
What is the payment for this work? Death…

When we come to this realization we too should echo Moses’ next words, “and by Your wrath we are terrified.” There’s an understatement if I ever heard one. Think of how God dealt with His people in the Old Testament. God’s judgment showed up in mighty ways; an entire generation dying in the wilderness, fiery serpents, the ground opening up and swallowing dissenters, etc. It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living, holy God when we come to understand the depths of our sin. We should be thankful that we live in an age where God is showering His people with abundant grace and mercy.

I don’t want to leave us at this place of judgment though. Let’s look at the back half of Romans 6:23 “…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”. It is true that we deserve death and separation from God because of our sin but it is also true that we can have eternal life through God’s great mercy.

Accept that gift of eternal life given through Christ Jesus. If we have learned anything from this Psalm so far it is that we can come face to face with the Father before we are ready. Let us not waste our energy worshipping those things that will return to dust. Let us instead worship the Father and work to bring as many into the Kingdom as we can.

Mercy and grace to you all…