On Friday evening I was able to return home after just over a week of being evacuated due to the CZU Lightening Complex Fire that ravaged the San Lorenzo Valley and areas nearby (Big Basin, Bonny Doon, etc). While I am full of thanks to God for preserving my family’s house (through the work of many brave people), I cannot forget that multiple hundreds of families in my broader community have no home to which they can return. It was in this context that I read Psalm 90 this morning and found it sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the point of dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow (Heb. 4:12). Read the entire poem (because the whole thing is so apropos) but note with special poignancy verses 1-2. As you do, listen to those same verses sung by Seeds Family Worship. From everlasting to everlasting oh Lord, you are God!
Psalm 90 (New American Standard Bible):
(1) Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
(2) Before the mountains were born
Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting
You are God.
(3) You turn man back into dust
And say, “Return, O children of men.”
(4) For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it passes by,
Or as a watch in the night.
(5) You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep;
In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.
(6) In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew;
Toward evening it fades and withers away.
(7) For we have been consumed by Your anger
And by Your wrath we have been dismayed.
(8) You have placed our iniquities before You,
Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
(9) For all our days have declined in Your fury;
We have finished our years like a sigh.
(10) As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,
Or if due to strength, eighty years,
Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;
For soon it is gone and we fly away.
(11) Who understands the power of Your anger
And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?
(12) So teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.
(13) Do return, O LORD; how long will it be?
And be sorry for Your servants.
(14) O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness,
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
(15) Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us,
And the years we have seen evil.
(16) Let Your work appear to Your servants
And Your majesty to their children.
(17) Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;
And confirm the work of our hands;
Yes, confirm the work of our hands.
Fix Your Mind 