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Grace in a World of Woe

June 2, 2019 Speaker: Brian Wilbur Series: Stand-Alone Sermons

Topic: Rooted in Christ Passage: Psalm 90:1–17

GRACE IN A WORLD OF WOE

An Exposition of Psalm 90

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date:   June 2, 2019

Series: Stand-Alone Sermons

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Holy Scripture says,

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.

1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place
    in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
    or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

You return man to dust
    and say, “Return, O children of man!”
For a thousand years in your sight
    are but as yesterday when it is past,
    or as a watch in the night.

You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
    like grass that is renewed in the morning:
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
    in the evening it fades and withers.

For we are brought to an end by your anger;
    by your wrath we are dismayed.
You have set our iniquities before you,
    our secret sins in the light of your presence.

For all our days pass away under your wrath;
    we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are seventy,
    or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
    they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of your anger,
    and your wrath according to the fear of you?

12 So teach us to number our days
    that we may get a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O Lord! How long?
    Have pity on your servants!
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
    that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
    and for as many years as we have seen evil.
16 Let your work be shown to your servants,
    and your glorious power to their children.
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
    and establish the work of our hands upon us;
    yes, establish the work of our hands! (Psalm 90)

PART 1: THE ETERNAL GOD IS OUR DWELLING PLACE

The eternal God is the dwelling place of His people:

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth,

or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (v. 1-2)

As we glance ahead to other verses in Psalm 90, we see that human life on earth is a trepid and transient experience: the morning of our life may show great promise, but evening soon comes and we fade away. Here today, but gone tomorrow.

The Lord, however, is very much unlike us. The Lord is God “from everlasting to everlasting.” He lives eternally, and He exists in complete and total independence from everyone and everything else. He doesn’t need anything outside of Himself in order to exist and flourish and be satisfied. The Lord alone is an infinite being, whereas everything else is finite. And here’s the thing: as an infinite being, the triune God has no need of finite resources. He is self-sufficient and, as such, He does not rely on any other foundation for nourishment and support. How could He? The Lord God is the Creator of everything else; He is the Creator of every finite reality in the universe; He is the One who “formed the earth and the world,” and He is the One who “brought forth” the mountains. Before He brought this world into existence, before He populated the heavenly realm with angelic beings, before He populated the earthly realm with His human image-bearers, before there was any sense or passage of time, before He spoke the first sub-atomic particle into existence, behold the everlasting God experiencing infinite joy in the glorious and loving communion of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Lord God didn’t create the world to meet a need. The everlasting God-ness of God means that He is always the self-sufficient wellspring and never the insufficient beneficiary.

But when the Lord, in everlasting freedom, decided to create this world and install human image-bearers as its overseers, the Lord gave Himself to human beings as their “dwelling place,” their haven of rest, their true home. Even though the everlasting God has absolutely no need for us, He is the personal God who enters into relationship with us and who draws us into relationship with Him. We are finite, weak, and dependent creatures who are designed to find our security, significance, and strength in the eternal God.

As Moses declares that the Lord “[has] been our dwelling place in all generations,” Moses is speaking on behalf of God’s people over the course of many generations. Throughout Psalm 90, Moses is praying as the leader of God’s people. And as Moses scans the generations that came before, he understands that the Lord has always been the secure refuge of His people: of Abel and Seth, of Noah and Shem, of Abraham and Isaac, of Jacob and his twelve sons, and of the children of Israel who had multiplied into a large nation over the previous four centuries. Then and now, the Lord is the source of provision, protection, and direction for His people. Inasmuch as our life is rooted in the world, we are unstable, defenseless, and withering away. But if our life gets anchored in the eternal God, then and only then we have stability, security, and significance that endures.

The eternal God is the dwelling place of His people. And yet, our sin has put us in a real fix – because the very nature of sin is to turn away from God and leave the safety of His presence. To sin is to depart from the eternal dwelling place and in its place choose the chaos of the stormy sea. Sin catapults us into a wild ride of fear and trepidation, and once we have left the comfort and security of our true home, we sinners are unable to find our way back. This brings us to the next section of Psalm 90.

PART 2: THE MISERABLE PLIGHT OF MANKIND

Verses 1-2 proclaimed the greatness of God. Now verses 3-11 tell us about the miserable plight of mankind. It is very important to point out that Moses’ reflection on the misery of men is not owing to men’s finiteness. It is true, of course, that we are finite and dependent creatures. As such, we ought to always stand in awe of God and gladly depend on Him and His bountiful supply. But the problem that Moses considers in verses 3-11 is not our finiteness, but our fallenness; not our smallness, but our sinfulness; not our physical limitations, but our spiritual liabilities.[1]

The Plight of Mankind in General

Moses continues his prayer in verse 3: “You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”” Moses is reflecting on Genesis 2-3. In the beginning, “the LORD God formed the [first] man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Genesis 2:7) We were created to live – to fellowship with the living God, partake of the tree of life, and live forever. But when sin entered into the equation, death entered with it. God told Adam that because of his disobedience, his lifetime of work would be difficult and painful, and then it would end: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19) And so it is that human beings now live under the sentence of death. And when your God-appointed time is up, God withdraws the breath of life and your body returns to the earth.

Beware of thinking that men and women die on account of natural causes. For the foundational reality is that men and women die because death entered into the world when our first parents transgressed the law of God. Death is the result of God’s judgment upon human beings for their sin. And right here in verse 3 Moses refers to God’s sovereign activity over the death of Adam’s descendants. God says, “Return [to dust], O children of man!”

In verse 4 Moses compares the eternality of God with the relatively short lifespans of human beings: “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” Having reflected on Genesis 2-3 in verse 3, perhaps in verse 4 Moses is reflecting on litany of death in Genesis 5. A thousand years may seem like a long time, and prior to the flood some men lived almost that long, but death always chased them down: “all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died” (Genesis 5:5); “all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died” (Genesis 5:8); “all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died” (Genesis 5:11); “all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died” (Genesis 5:14); “all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died” (Genesis 5:17); “all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died” (Genesis 5:20); “all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died” (Genesis 5:27). From our perspective, it seems like these men lived for a long time. And yet, God regards a thousand years as a blip on the radar screen. From God’s perspective, Methuselah’s 969 years is like a brief moment in time that is quickly past: “as yesterday…, or as a watch in the night.” We are sinful creatures bound by time and bound to die, and it all happens very quickly. But “from everlasting to everlasting” the Lord is God. Some humility on our part would serve us well.

As Moses goes on to verses 5-6, perhaps he turns his attention to Genesis 7 and the great flood. He says, “You sweep them away as with a flood.” The Lord was grieved over all the corruption, violence, and wickedness on the earth, so with the exception of Noah and Noah’s family, He wiped out mankind from the earth. One moment you had all these people, their cities and towns, their farms and marketplaces, their music and culture; and the next moment, all this was gone, and the people perished. The literal flood swept away an entire world in Genesis 7, and a metaphorical flood sweeps away every son or daughter of Adam who is born into this sinful world. “They are like a dream,” quickly forgotten. “They are like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.” Up in the morning, down in the evening. This is life in a fallen world.

But our sin warps our perspective on everything. We think that our existence here is solid and stable, but it isn’t. Young people, you think that you have a long time – a long time to figure things out, a long time to grow up and make a difference, a long time to amend your ways, a long time to make your life count for something, a long time to get right with God. But that is warped vision. A biblical vision of our lifetime is to see our lifetime like a day – and for all of us, evening draws near. Even if we should make it to eighty, all the years “are soon gone, and we fly away.” (v. 10) Life is short, and your life could be swept away at any moment.

The Plight of Israel in Particular

The death theme continues in verse 7, but I want you to notice a shift that takes place in Moses’ mind. In verses 3-6 Moses has been speaking about mankind in general: he speaks of “man” in verses 3 and he refers to mankind as “them” and “they” in verse 5. But starting in verses 7 he speaks about “we” and “our”.

After Genesis 7 eventually comes Genesis 12 and the call of Abraham and the creation of a new nation, in due course named Israel. And Moses is Israel’s God-appointed leader and he is praying on behalf of the nation. And they had a rough go of it, didn’t they? And it was their fault, fooling around with sin when they should have been trusting the Lord. And the entire adult generation of Israelites that was rescued out of the land of Egypt was sentenced to die because of their refusal to trust God. And so for almost four decades Moses had to observe death after death after death of his fellow Israelites who had been delivered out of Egypt. So, in verses 7-10 Moses is no longer thinking about mankind in general and no longer speaking about “them” and “they”; now he is thinking about Israel in particular and he speaks about “we” and “our”. He prays,

“For we are brought to an end by your anger;

by your wrath we are dismayed.

You have set our iniquities before you,

our secret sins in the light of your presence.

For all our days pass away under your wrath;

we bring our years to an end like a sigh.

The years of our life are seventy,

or even by reason of strength eighty;

yet their span is but toil and trouble;

they are soon gone, and we fly away.” (v. 7-10)

Notice four things.

First, God’s anger and wrath actively oppose us and bring about our demise (v. 7). Do not take this supernatural reality out of your understanding of death. Death exists because God decreed it. And the God who decreed it retains the power to decree death’s undoing. All this raises a question: what must happen in order for God’s anger and wrath to be removed?

Second, God knows all about our iniquities and secret sins (v. 8). Our sin, of course, is the reason why God is angry with us in the first place. Romans 1 shows the connection: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Romans 1:18) God didn’t decree death because He likes it; God decreed death because He is just. This raises another question: what must happen in order for our sins to be taken away?

Third, our days are filled with grief (v. 9-10). All of this is interconnected: because of our sin, we are disconnected from God; and because of our sin, God’s wrath rests on us. All this makes for difficult days. Getting on in our sin, getting on under God’s displeasure, is rough business. What we ought to do is live a holy life under the smile of God – and if we did, then God’s blessing would accompany us and fill our days with grace. But if we are alienated from God, then life is a burdensome march to the grave: “our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble.” Toil and trouble; thorns and thistles; pain and perspiration; vanity and vexation; sorrow and suffering; grieving and groaning to the grave. This raises a third question: what must happen in order for our grief to be done away with?

Fourth, our sin-filled, sorrow-filled days under God’s wrathful gaze are racing toward a dead end (v. 10). Indeed it is God who brings us “to an end” (v. 7). On account of God’s displeasure, our sin-filled, sorrow-filled days “are soon gone, and we fly away.” (v. 10) Isaac Watts’ well-known hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” is based on Psalm 90, and one verse goes like this:

“Time, like an ever-rolling stream,

Bears all its sons away;

They fly, forgotten, as a dream

Dies at the op’ning day.”[2]

The brevity of life and sentence of death for all raises a fourth question: what must happen in order for death to be undone?

The Most Important Questions

Do you see how verses 7-10 raise the really important questions about life? Where you live, and what you do, and how you make ends meet, and who you marry, and how many children you have, are not the really important questions. Here are the really important questions: 1) How do I escape God’s wrath? 2) What is the remedy for sin? 3) How do I live meaningfully in such a transient and troubled world? 4) What can be done so that death doesn’t have the last word? We must not settle for rote, heady answers to these questions. Instead we want to be utterly transformed people who dwell in the Lord.

The problem with the vast majority of folks is that they don’t want to face these harsh realities. In verse 11 Moses asks, “Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?” Who does? People want band-aids, inspiring pick-me-ups, feel-good therapies, social support systems, and the assuring words of false prophets who proclaim peace when there is no peace. But who wants to reckon with the righteous wrath of God? Who wants to be a sinner who bows down and pleads for mercy before a justifiably angry God? Who wants to quit fooling around with man-made solutions and draw near to the blood-stained cross? Blessed is the man who fears the Lord and faces the truth, for that man will find true joy.

The Tension Between Part 1 and Part 2

Before we proceed to verses 12-17, I want us to appreciate the tension between Part 1 and Part 2. The blessed reality of Part 1 (v. 1-2) is that God is the dwelling place of His people. The cursed reality of Part 2 (v. 3-11) is that we are estranged from that dwelling place because we left home and went into a far country, and now we are stuck in our sin and God’s righteous judgment abides heavy upon us. The burden of Part 2 is that we’ve got to find our way back home. This tension prepares us for the earnest prayer for grace in Part 3 (v. 12-17).

PART 3: PRAYING FOR GRACE IN A WORLD OF WOE

Moses prays for grace in a world of woe. These five petitions are among the most important petitions that can be uttered in the sin-laden world that Moses just described in verses 3-11.

1) Lord, Teach Us Humility (v. 12)

First, we need the Lord to teach us how to count time: “So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (v. 12) This is a prayer for humility, not mathematical ability. So long as we live in the illusion that our life on earth is the big thing, and that our years are many, and that we always have tomorrow, and that minimizing “toil and trouble” and maximizing comfort in the here and now is what really matters, then we will live foolishly, we will lay up treasure on earth, and we won’t deal with our deepest problems. But if we come to understand that our life on earth is a tiny thing and that the everlasting God is the big thing, and that our years are few, and that you can forget about tomorrow because in the evening we’re going to fade and wither, and that dwelling in fellowship with God is incomparably more important than managing the symptoms of this fallen world, then we will be humbled, sobered up, and ready to live wisely. It isn’t enough to regurgitate these facts; instead, this truth must get lodged deeply in our hearts. And for that to happen, the sovereign God must stoop low and teach us. And He is glad to do so, for He has promised: “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” (Psalm 81:10) As we are humbled by the truth that this life shall soon be past, then the path of true wisdom opens up before us.

2) Lord, Visit Us With Compassion (v. 13)

Second, we need the Lord to visit us with compassion: “Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!” (v. 13) When we walk away from the Lord, He walks away from us. We ought to return to Him, but how can we do so when are so stuck in the quagmire of our sin? Just a moment ago I said that the burden of verses 3-11 is that we’ve got to find our way back home, but how can spiritually blind, lost sinners find their way back? What actually needs to happen is for the everlasting God to come and find us. We are stuck, but God is not stuck: He is sovereign, independent, and free. Though His wrath lay heavy on sinners, He is full of pity, compassion, and mercy. “For thus ways the Lord GOD: Behold, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out…. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land.” (Ezekiel 34:11, 13) The Lord is the One who brings us home! Over and over again Scripture recounts how foolish sinners forsake God, and how the gracious God visits them in order to reclaim them. And He delights to show mercy: “He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.” (Micah 7:18)

This gracious visitation of God reached climactic expression in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the apostle Peter proclaimed the gospel, He said: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38) And when He looked upon the crowds of people living in the harsh realities of this sinful world, “he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36) The divine shepherd drew near to the helpless sheep, and He sacrificed His life for their salvation (John 10:11).

3) Lord, Gladden Our Hearts (v. 14-15)

Third, we need the Lord to gladden our hearts: “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.” (v. 14-15) The answer to the sin-laden grief of this woeful world is neither stoic determination nor walking-on-eggshells-religiosity, but the joy of the Lord. In great mercy God visits us with His steadfast love, and His steadfast love produces satisfaction, joy, and gladness in those who receive it. There is the joy of having a wonderful Savior, the joy of obtaining a blood-bought salvation, the joy of being forgiven of all our sins, the joy of calling God our heavenly Father, the joy of receiving the Holy Spirit, the joy of hearing and internalizing the life-giving words of God in Holy Scripture, the joy of knowing that the triune God is directing all things for our everlasting good, the joy of understanding that every good thing we have is a kindhearted gift from above, the joy of standing in the midst of God’s family with so many dear brothers and sisters round about us, the joy of serving others in the strength that God supplies, and the joyful anticipation of entering into the new heaven and the new earth at the end of the age and enjoying unhindered fellowship with the Lord and with one another forever. All this is objectively good news, and it becomes in us satisfaction, joy, and gladness as the Holy Spirit enables us to taste the Savior’s grace. He came, after all, “to comfort all who mourn; … to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit” (Isaiah 61:2-3).

So then, let us receive the gladness for which we pray, and that early: “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love” (italics added). While this could be taken to mean that we ought to seek the Lord’s joy at the beginning of each day (and we certainly should!), it more likely means that we ought to seek the Lord’s joy at the beginning of our life. For our entire lifetime was likened to morning and evening in verse 6. So if the Lord permits, we ought to be stamped with divine grace in childhood and youth, so that the afternoon and evening hours of our lifetime are full of the Lord’s joy: “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days” (italics added).

But we can’t hit rewind, and for better or worse our present spiritual condition is what it is. So on this day let us ask the Lord to satisfy us early, and let us do so with the confident expectation that the Lord’s grace more-than-compensates for the afflictions of the past: “Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.” Our God graciously restores what was lost on account of our sin. And if you say, ‘I’ve sinned away 75 years, there aren’t enough years ahead to equal the wasted days of the past’, I would respond with three thoughts: 1) a few years alive in the grace of God is more potent than 75 years dead in sin; 2) a few years alive in the grace of God can yield an influence and legacy and testimony that continues for generations; and most importantly 3) after this brief life, God has planned to bless His people with immeasurable kindness for eternal days, and that will compensate far beyond what you are able to imagine. So even though you can’t hit rewind, the promise stands – in the words of Chris Tomlin: “He will wipe away your years, and return your wasted years: this is our God.”[3] Trust Him!

4) Lord, Show Your Glorious Power to Us and Our Children (v. 16)

Fourth, we need the Lord to show us His work and His glorious power: “Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.” (v. 16) In this verse, God’s “work” and God’s “glorious power” are synonymous concepts, with two generations in view. We want God to display His glorious power and saving work to us; and we want God to display His glorious power and saving work to our children. We could talk at length about the various ways in which God has in the past and continues in the present to show forth His mighty and merciful deeds. But the work of God is seen most clearly in the death and resurrection of His Son, and this work is the answer to the questions raised back in verses 7-10.

Two of those questions were ‘How do I escape God’s wrath?’ and ‘What is the remedy for sin?’ The answer is found in God’s loving gift of His Son: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) Jesus is “the propitiation” – that is, the propitiating sacrifice who satisfies God’s righteous wrath against us because of our sins. Divine judgment was poured out on the sinless Savior, so that divine grace could be poured out on every sinner who takes refuge in the Savior. At the cross, God’s love is displayed, His justice is satisfied, and His merciful forgiveness is freely given.

Then, in the resurrection of the crucified Christ on the third day, we behold Christ’s triumph over death. This addresses a third question: ‘What can be done so that death doesn’t have the last word?’ As I said earlier, death entered into the world through sin. Since sin and death are bound together, death can only be vanquished if sin is defeated. That, of course, is precisely the victory that the risen Christ won for His people: the power of sin and death is broken, and so the power of righteousness and eternal life breaks into our lives.

5) Lord, Lead Us In Truly Significant Work (v. 17)

The other question that verses 7-10 raised was ‘How do I live meaningfully in such a transient and troubled world?’ This brings us to Moses’ fifth petition, namely, that we need the Lord to lead us in truly significant work: “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” (v. 17)

In verse 16, Moses prayed that God’s glorious work would be shown to us for our good. Now in verse 17, Moses prays that God would establish our work. The order of petitions is significant, and it is very fitting that this petition is the final one. So long as we are in bondage to the sin, dismay, wrath, and grief of verses 3-11, our work is an exercise in futility. Our work cannot undo sin; our work cannot win God’s favor; our work cannot bring us back to God. The answer to the maladies of verses 3-11 is God’s work: He must soften our hearts, take pity upon us, visit us with His steadfast love, and gift us with the joy of His salvation. In short, God must work and make us sensibly aware of the glory and grace of His work. But once all that is done, there is another work that God wants to do: He wants to “establish the work of our hands.” This also is His work: He sets His favor, grace, and beauty upon us; He forms our hearts and furnishes our hands; and then He leads us into truly significant work.

We are not saved by our works, as Paul makes clear in Ephesians 2:8-9, but then he immediately says that we are saved for good works: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) Thus we see that God has eternally purposed to establish our hands in the good works that He himself has planned for us from eternity, which means that there is eternal significance to these good works. If God isn’t our dwelling place, our work is ultimately meaningless. But if God is our dwelling place, then our faithful labors have enduring value.

The good work of raising a family that honors the Lord; the good work of growing a healthy congregation; the good work of honest employment performed with integrity and grace; the good work of loving your neighbor with wholesome words and helpful deeds; the good work of sharing the gospel, making a disciple, mentoring a young person, and training a future leader; the good work of devoting your limited time and limited resources to the advancement of God’s kingdom – such works are the works that God delights to establish upon us. Isn’t that an interesting phrase? The prayer isn’t for “the work of our hands” to be established among us, but “upon us”. Just as Moses prays that the Lord’s favor would be “upon us,” so he prays that “the work of our hands” would be established “upon us” – that the privilege of God-established work would descend “upon us” as a great blessing of grace. Don’t think of faithful, fruitful work as something that we give to God; instead think of faithful, fruitful work as a gracious gift that God gives to us.

PSALM 90 PREPARES US TO PARTAKE OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

Brothers and sisters, what a wide chasm is crossed from the dismay of verses 3-11 to the delight of verses 12-17. That wide chasm is crossed through Christ and Christ alone, and we celebrate its crossing in the supper of our Lord. Here we humbly receive His compassion and steadfast love. Here we behold His saving work manifest in a broken body, in shed blood, in a life poured out as a sacrifice for sin, in a life raised up in victory over the grave. Here we rest in the everlasting God, our dwelling place, who has promised us grace and gladness for all eternity. Here we are built up into a community of grace that increasingly lives by grace and labors by grace. Here we find the God of peace in our midst, leading us into joyful and productive work that will be remembered and rewarded in eternity. 

Let us pray.

 

ENDNOTES

[1] See Douglas Wilson, Mere Fundamentalism: The Apostles’ Creed and the Romance of Orthodoxy. Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2018. On pages 12-13, Wilson helpfully communicates that humanity’s problem is not its finiteness and smallness, but its rebellion and pride.

[2] Isaac Watts, “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.”

[3] Chris Tomlin, “This Is Our God.” Six Steps Records, 2001.

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