Considered to be one of the oldest psalms, Psa-90 is one of the songs of the wilderness by Moses. It was not the first wilderness experience for Moses after leaving Egypt hastily for killing an Egyptian (Ex 2:11-12, 15); Moses was forty at the time. The second 40-year experience in the wilderness after leaving Egypt was on His own terms under Yahweh’s guidance at the age of 80 (Ex 3:10) and leading 2-3 million people across the desert to the Promised land. This was an enormous undertaking, as you can imagine!
Moses
probably wrote this ancient psalm during those forty punitive years in the
desert of Sinai after the Kadesh Barnea debacle where the 12 spies were
dispatched to infiltrate the long-awaited promised land of milk and honey in a
covert operation. 10 of the spies were prejudiced by their own fears, only
Joshua and Caleb reported the good news, “We can do this thing with God’s help!”
Sadly,
the people listened to the wrong people (Num 14:1-4)! During the 37.5 years of
wandering in the wilderness for rejecting God’s will in the matter, every day was
a funeral day, reminding the people of their irrational rebellion and
disobedience to God in giving an ear to those 10 spies who died of the plague
before Yahweh (Num 14:36-37)!
Ideas
or choices have consequences; unbelief and disobedience run hand in hand and
have enduring consequences that can create a ripple effect for the rest of one’s
life. The principle is no different now than it was back then. In this case at
Kadesh Barnea, the consequences were irrevocable! The best antidote is prevention:
the love for God and the fear of God that keeps these poisons of unbelief and
disobedience from entering our system in the first place. Once swallowed, as
with Adam and Eve, the ripple effect is released even though we may be forgiven.
It is still rippling in the case of the first couple.
Joshua
and Caleb were spared of the plague because their reports favored the will of
God (Num 14:38). After a failed attempt by some to enter the Promised Land in
hopes of appeasing Yahweh (Num 14:40-45), Yahweh turned the people around to
face the blistering desert of Sinai with the promised land of milk and honey to
their backs... They tested Him once too often and trusted Him little (cf. Num 14:22-23;
cf. Ex 17:2; Deut 6:16)! All of those older than 19 were going to die out there
in the wilderness for nearly 40 excruciating years in slow motion! Why forty
years?
The
time of wandering was determined by Yahweh to be one year for every day the
spies were in the land scouting about (cf. Num 14:34) until the older
generation died off. That older generation consisted of everyone over the age
of 19 (Num 32:10-11), save for Caleb and Joshua (cf. Num 14:29-30). By the way,
Joshua was forty
years old when
he served as a spy (Josh 14:7); Caleb’s age at the time of the intel work is
unknown.
The
time span of leaving Egypt and traveling to Kadesh Barnea (~2.5 years) was grandfathered
in as “time already served” before the unmitigated disaster taking place at
Kadesh Barnea. So, technically, the wandering in the wilderness was approximate
37.5 years. This was time enough for the older generation to die off (lots of
them), and the rounding to forty years was appropriate by Moses. What about
Moses?
Moses
would only be allowed to see the Promised Land from Mount Nebo (Deut
34:1-4), and he died at the ripe old age of 120 (Deut 34:7), but for another
reason (Deut 32:51-52). Was Moses a great man in spite of his error at Meribah
Kadesh? Yes, he was a great man of God (Psa 90:1; cf. Deut 34:10-12) which leads us to Psalm 90
and the amazing things he said under inspiration!
It is not my intent here to cover the whole psalm, just the first two verses and touching upon a couple of others. Before looking at these verses, I wanted to give some kind of background so we can both appreciate what Yahweh was saying to us in Psalm 90 through His servant Moses. While I was working in my backyard a couple of weeks ago, Psa 90:2 came to my mind; it was a reflection of Yahweh’s eternality that I wanted to share with you.
Let’s return to Psa 90:1-2, and
kick that around a bit before going to my backyard and talking about E2E, everlasting to
everlasting!
(Psa
90:1) A
Prayer of Moses the Man of God. Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all
generations.
(Psa
90:2) Before
the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the
world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
Keep in mind that Moses is probably writing this during the
miserable 37.5 years of wilderness wandering, observing the never-ending dying
out of the older generation.
“The thrust of this magnificent prayer is to ask God to have
mercy on frail human beings living in a sin-cursed universe. Moses begins the
psalm with a reflection on God's eternality, then expresses his somber thoughts
about the sorrows and brevity of life in their relationship to God's anger, and
concludes with a plea that God would enable His people to live a significant
life” (John MacArthur).
Since we all live under an inescapable sovereign decree of
death, Moses is witnessing it firsthand as the death toll mounts up, year after
year for at least the next 37.5 years due to the disobedience of the older
generation at Kadesh Barnea. They were so close to the land of milk and honey,
and now, it might as well be as far away as the moon.
It is unknown how many years Moses had been experiencing the
unending death march when he penned this prayer. It was a daily and nightly
vivid illustration of a stark contrast between man and his Creator: the brevity
and mortality of sinful man living in a sinful world and the infinite, eternal,
unchangeable, and holy God. Nearing the end of their 37.5 years of wandering,
the Israelites had turned against Moses and Aaron once again over the lack of
water at Kadesh Barnea.
It was something similar to what happened nearly 40 years ago when they had camped near Rephidim where there was no water for the people to
drink (Ex 17:1-7). This happened before Israel fought with and defeated the
godless Amalek and his people (Ex 17:13). But this time, nearly 4 decades
later, something went terribly wrong for Moses. <><
PS: I plan to return to Psa 90:1-2, after expanding upon the background, and then end up in my backyard on the topic of E2E, everlasting to everlasting. That’s the game plan anyway.
