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SCRIPTURE REFERENCES FOR THIS SERMON:
Psalm 90:1-95:11
90:1 A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
O Lord, you have been our protector through all generations.
2 Even before the mountains came into existence,
or you brought the world into being,
you were the eternal God.
3 You make mankind return to the dust,
and say, “Return, O people.”
4 Yes, in your eyes a thousand years
are like yesterday that quickly passes,
or like one of the divisions of the nighttime.
5 You bring their lives to an end and they “fall asleep.”
In the morning they are like the grass that sprouts up:
6 In the morning it glistens and sprouts up;
at evening time it withers and dries up.
7 Yes, we are consumed by your anger;
we are terrified by your wrath.
8 You are aware of our sins;
you even know about our hidden sins.
9 Yes, throughout all our days we experience your raging fury;
the years of our lives pass quickly, like a sigh.
10 The days of our lives add up to 70 years,
or 80, if one is especially strong.
But even one’s best years are marred by trouble and oppression.
Yes, they pass quickly and we fly away.
11 Who can really fathom the intensity of your anger?
Your raging fury causes people to fear you.
12 So teach us to consider our mortality,
so that we might live wisely.
13 Turn back toward us, O Lord.
How long must this suffering last?
Have pity on your servants.
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your loyal love.
Then we will shout for joy and be happy all our days.
15 Make us happy in proportion to the days you have afflicted us,
in proportion to the years we have experienced trouble.
16 May your servants see your work.
May their sons see your majesty.
17 May our Sovereign God extend his favor to us.
Make our endeavors successful.
Yes, make them successful.
91:1 As for you, the one who lives in the shelter of the Most High,
and resides in the protective shadow of the Sovereign One—
2 I say this about the Lord, my shelter and my stronghold,
my God in whom I trust—
3 he will certainly rescue you from the snare of the hunter
and from the destructive plague.
4 He will shelter you with his wings;
you will find safety under his wings.
His faithfulness is like a shield or a protective wall.
5 You need not fear the terrors of the night,
the arrow that flies by day,
6 the plague that stalks in the darkness,
or the disease that ravages at noon.
7 Though a thousand may fall beside you,
and a multitude on your right side,
it will not reach you.
8 Certainly you will see it with your very own eyes—
you will see the wicked paid back.
9 For you have taken refuge in the Lord,
my shelter, the Most High.
10 No harm will overtake you;
no illness will come near your home.
11 For he will order his angels
to protect you in all you do.
12 They will lift you up in their hands,
so you will not slip and fall on a stone.
13 You will subdue a lion and a snake;
you will trample underfoot a young lion and a serpent.
14 The Lord says,
“Because he is devoted to me, I will deliver him;
I will protect him because he is loyal to me.
15 When he calls out to me, I will answer him.
I will be with him when he is in trouble;
I will rescue him and bring him honor.
16 I will satisfy him with long life
and will let him see my salvation.”
92:1 A psalm; a song for the Sabbath day.
It is fitting to thank the Lord,
and to sing praises to your name, O Most High.
2 It is fitting to proclaim your loyal love in the morning
and your faithfulness during the night,
3 to the accompaniment of a ten-stringed instrument and a lyre,
to the accompaniment of the meditative tone of the harp.
4 For you, O Lord, have made me happy by your work.
I will sing for joy because of what you have done.
5 How great are your works, O Lord!
Your plans are very intricate!
6 The spiritually insensitive do not recognize this;
the fool does not understand this.
7 When the wicked sprout up like grass,
and all the evildoers glisten,
it is so that they may be annihilated.
8 But you, O Lord, reign forever.
9 Indeed, look at your enemies, O Lord.
Indeed, look at how your enemies perish.
All the evildoers are scattered.
10 You exalt my horn like that of a wild ox.
I am covered with fresh oil.
11 I gloat in triumph over those who tried to ambush me;
I hear the defeated cries of the evil foes who attacked me.
12 The godly grow like a palm tree;
they grow high like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Planted in the Lord’s house,
they grow in the courts of our God.
14 They bear fruit even when they are old;
they are filled with vitality and have many leaves.
15 So they proclaim that the Lord, my Protector,
is just and never unfair.
93:1 The Lord reigns.
He is robed in majesty.
The Lord is robed;
he wears strength around his waist.
Indeed, the world is established; it cannot be moved.
2 Your throne has been secure from ancient times;
you have always been king.
3 The waves roar, O Lord,
the waves roar,
the waves roar and crash.
4 Above the sound of the surging water,
and the mighty waves of the sea,
the Lord sits enthroned in majesty.
5 The rules you set down are completely reliable.
Holiness aptly adorns your house, O Lord, forever.
94:1 O Lord, the God who avenges!
O God who avenges, reveal your splendor.
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth.
Pay back the proud.
3 O Lord, how long will the wicked,
how long will the wicked celebrate?
4 They spew out threats and speak defiantly;
all the evildoers boast.
5 O Lord, they crush your people;
they oppress the nation that belongs to you.
6 They kill the widow and the resident foreigner,
and they murder the fatherless.
7 Then they say, “The Lord does not see this;
the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.”
8 Take notice of this, you ignorant people.
You fools, when will you ever understand?
9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?
Does the one who forms the human eye not see?
10 Does the one who disciplines the nations not punish?
He is the one who imparts knowledge to human beings!
11 The Lord knows that peoples’ thoughts
are morally bankrupt.
12 How blessed is the one whom you instruct, O Lord,
the one whom you teach from your law
13 in order to protect him from times of trouble,
until the wicked are destroyed.
14 Certainly the Lord does not forsake his people;
he does not abandon the nation that belongs to him.
15 For justice will prevail,
and all the morally upright will be vindicated.
16 Who will rise up to defend me against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against the evildoers?
17 If the Lord had not helped me,
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.
18 If I say, “My foot is slipping,”
your loyal love, O Lord, supports me.
19 When worries threaten to overwhelm me,
your soothing touch makes me happy.
20 Cruel rulers are not your allies,
those who make oppressive laws.
21 They conspire against the blameless
and condemn to death the innocent.
22 But the Lord will protect me,
and my God will shelter me.
23 He will pay them back for their sin.
He will destroy them because of their evil;
the Lord our God will destroy them.
95:1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord.
Let us shout out praises to our Protector who delivers us.
2 Let us enter his presence with thanksgiving.
Let us shout out to him in celebration.
3 For the Lord is a great God,
a great king who is superior to all gods.
4 The depths of the earth are in his hand,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it.
His hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down and worship.
Let us kneel before the Lord, our Creator.
7 For he is our God;
we are the people of his pasture,
the sheep he owns.
Today, if only you would obey him.
8 He says, “Do not be stubborn like they were at Meribah,
like they were that day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors challenged my authority
and tried my patience, even though they had seen my work.
10 For 40 years I was continually disgusted with that generation,
and I said, ‘These people desire to go astray;
they do not obey my commands.’
11 So I made a vow in my anger,
‘They will never enter into the resting place I had set aside for them.’”