Series Break
During Undas, many of us gather before family tombs that hold several generations: Lolo and Lola, Tatay and Nanay, an uncle, a cousin. Each name has two dates: a year of birth and a year of death. The cemetery tells us plainly that human life has a beginning and an end. Where can we find a home that does not pass away, and how should we live the few years we are given?
Psalm 90 is the only psalm attributed to Moses, “the man of God,” and it may be the oldest psalm in the Psalter. Moses knew death well. He led a generation out of Egypt, and because of their unbelief at Kadesh, God declared that their bodies would fall in the wilderness (Num 14:29). For forty years Moses watched that generation die, one grave after another (Num 14:33-35). Out of that experience, Moses wrote a prayer that sets our short lives against the eternal God and asks Him for wisdom.
The Eternal God is in Control
Moses begins not with the grave but with God. The Lord has been the dwelling place of His people in every generation. Before the mountains and the earth existed, He was already God. And this eternal God rules over our lives: He returns man to dust, and He sweeps the generations away.
Psalm 90:1-6: A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. ²Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. ³You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” ⁴For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. ⁵You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: ⁶in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
Israel lived in tents in the wilderness, yet Moses could say they were never homeless, because the Lord Himself was their dwelling place (cf. Deut 33:27). The mountains are the oldest things we can see; Mayon and Isarog stood long before our grandparents were born. Yet even the mountains had a beginning. The words “brought forth” and “formed” picture creation as a birth.¹ God has no birthday. Every lapida has two dates, but God has neither.
Notice who acts in verses 3-6. “You return man to dust.” “You sweep them away.” Death is not an accident or blind fate. The God who gives life also determines its length (Job 14:5). A thousand years are like yesterday to Him, or like a night watch that passes while we sleep. Our lives flourish in the morning and wither by evening like grass. Our lives are brief, but they are never out of His control. The loved ones we lost did not slip out of God’s hands.
Our Mortal Life Under Sin
Moses explains why life is short and full of trouble. As children of Adam, we are brought to an end by God’s anger against sin. Even our secret sins are in the light of His presence. Our days pass away like a sigh, seventy or eighty years at most, and they are soon gone.
Psalm 90:7-11: For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. ⁸You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. ⁹For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. 10The 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. ¹¹Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?
Death is not merely natural; it is the consequence of sin. And the sin behind our mortality goes back to Adam. God warned Adam that in the day he ate of the forbidden tree, he would surely die (Gen 2:17). When Adam disobeyed, God pronounced the sentence: “you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19). Moses echoes that sentence in verse 3: “You return man to dust.” Every grave we visit this Undas is a reminder of what happened in Eden.
Paul explains this in Romans. Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned (Rom 5:12). Adam stood as the head of the human race, and what he did affected all who came from him. Because of one man’s trespass, death reigned (Rom 5:17). One trespass condemned all men, and one man’s disobedience made many sinners (Rom 5:18-19). We do not only die because Adam sinned; we also sin because we are Adam’s children. We inherit his fallen nature, and we confirm it with our own sins. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23a).
This is why Moses speaks of God’s anger and wrath. We live our mortal lives under the curse that came through Adam. Moses saw this vividly in the wilderness, where God judged a whole generation (Num 14:29). Nothing is hidden from God; even our secret sins lie in the light of His face. A long life of seventy or eighty years is still filled with toil and trouble, an echo of the curse on Adam’s labor (Gen 3:17-19), and it ends like a sigh. Moses asks who truly considers the power of God’s anger. Few stop to think about it, even at the cemetery. Yet the fear of the Lord is the right response to the reality of death. And the hope that answers Adam’s curse is found only in another Man, the one of whom Adam was a type, Jesus Christ, the last Adam (Rom 5:14-15; 1 Cor 15:45).
Teach Us to Number Our Days
Moses ends with a prayer. Since God is eternal and our days are few, he asks God to teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom. For those in Christ, numbering our days leads us to the hope of eternity.
Psalm 90:12: So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
“So” ties the prayer to everything before it. Because God is eternal and in control, and because our lives are short under sin, we need God to teach us. To number our days is not to calculate how many years remain; no one knows that. It is to live aware that our days are limited and each one is a gift. A heart of wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord (Prov 9:10) and sees life in the light of eternity.
But Moses saw only part of the picture. Paul answers the lament of Psalm 90. The wages of sin is death, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23). Our days pass away under God’s wrath (Ps 90:9), but since we have been justified by Christ’s blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God (Rom 5:9). And God’s work does not stop at forgiveness. “Those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom 8:30). Paul speaks of glorification in the past tense because it is as certain as if it had already happened.² The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to our mortal bodies (Rom 8:11). Now we groan as we wait for the redemption of our bodies (Rom 8:23), but the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Rom 8:18).
Psalm 90 says we return to dust and wither like grass. In Christ, that is not the last word. The body that returns to dust will be raised in glory, never to wither again. So to number our days wisely is to live our short life on earth in the light of our eternal life in Christ.
Application
1. Trust the eternal God who is in control. Our times are in His hands. Even in grief, rest in the God who has been the dwelling place of His people in all generations.
2. Take sin seriously and turn to Christ. Death is the wages of sin, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23). Confess your sins and trust Him while there is time.
3. Number your days in light of eternity. Life is short, but for those in Christ it is not the end. Live for what lasts, and as you visit the graves this Undas, grieve with hope for the glory to come (Rom 8:18).
COUNT OUR DAYS by Ed Pilapil Jr Before the mountains came to be Before the earth and sky and sea O Lord, You were, and You still are Creator and Eternal God You turn us back to dust once more But in Christ, we shall be restored Like grass at dawn, we rise and grow By evening’s light, we wither low The wrath we earned on Christ was laid He redeemed us; our sins He paid And those He justified by grace Shall one day see Him face to face So teach us, Lord, to count our days To walk in wisdom all our ways Though now we wither like the grass In Christ, to glory we shall pass
Study Guide
1. What does it mean that God is “from everlasting to everlasting”? How do verses 3-6 show that He is in control of our lives and deaths? (Ps 90:1-6).
2. According to Moses, why is human life short and full of trouble? How does Paul explain the link between sin and death? (Ps 90:7-11; Rom 5:12).
3. What does it mean to “number our days”? How does the promise of glorification in Christ change the way we number our days and remember our dead this Undas? (Ps 90:12; Rom 8:18-30).
