诗篇90:1-17

愿恩惠、平安从父神和救主耶稣基督归于你们时常仰望主的慈爱并因此欢呼喜乐的人。阿们。

诗篇90篇是摩西写的，标题是“神人摩西的祈祷”。我们读了这首诗篇之后，感觉好像有些绝望：面对创造天地、从亘古到永远长存的神，世人是多么渺小；不仅渺小，而且世人的罪被神鉴察，被神对付。不是这样吗？人说没就没了，“你叫他们如水冲去；他们如睡一觉。早晨，他们如生长的草，早晨发芽生长，晚上割下枯干。”（诗篇90:5-6）人的生命是短暂的，“我们一生的年日是七十岁，若是强壮可到八十岁。”（诗篇90:10）,是不是这样？全球平均寿命是73岁，美国高一点，平均预期寿命78岁。基本上就是这个数。即使活到100岁，大家知道，后面20年基本上没有多大的气力。

不仅短暂，而且还怎么样？人这一生充满了苦难。摩西在神面前发出这样的慨叹：“其中所矜夸的不过是劳苦愁烦，转眼成空，我们便如飞而去。”（诗篇90:10）人有没有顺境、快乐的时候？有，但大部分时光可以说并不顺利，并不如意。这是历史历代人类命运的真实写照。毕竟，亚当夏娃犯罪之后，神已经宣判说：“你必终身劳苦才能从地里得吃的……你必汗流满面才得糊口，直到你归了土，因为你是从土而出的。你本是尘土，仍要归于尘土。”（创3:17, 19）

这还不是最苦的，更严重的是，这一切都发生在神面前。“我们因你的怒气而消灭，因你的忿怒而惊惶。你将我们的罪孽摆在你面前，将我们的隐恶摆在你面光之中。我们经过的日子都在你的震怒之下；我们度尽的年岁好像一声叹息。”摩西写这首诗歌的时候应该是晚年，大概就是出埃及旅程的终点。我们仔细想一下，出埃及记和民数记是如何记载这旷野四十年的：几乎处处都是以色列人的悖逆，神向他们发怒，呼召他们悔改，譬如西乃山下的拜金牛犊等等。摩西是神忠心的仆人，但他也是人，这四十年作为以色列人的领袖，他的日子也是非常不容易的，多次被群众攻击，甚至还被自己的哥哥、姐姐攻击；摩西多次下跪为百姓代祷，求神怜悯，赐下饶恕和平安。

其实我们大部分人都是这样，最让我们记忆深刻的常常不是快乐的时光，而是忧愁、困苦。你如果问家里的老人他们最想跟儿女分享什么？通常是过去的劳苦。当然，儿女有时候嫌老人唠叨过去的那些事。但事实上，我们人都是这样，等你老了的时候，肯定也会跟儿女分享过去那些困苦的日子，把他们拉扯大是多么辛苦、多么不容易。

我们在地上遭受的苦难跟在神面前所承受的愤怒比较起来，还是非常轻的。或许这也是为什么许多人不愿意信神的原因，因为如果承认有一位神，相信祂的存在并且祂一直在掌管万有，我们就不得不因着自己的罪和悖逆而面对神的怒气和审判。而这是最让人承受不起的。不是这样吗？如果摩西在出埃及的遭遇只是领袖和群众的关系，或者亲人不和睦不团结这么简单，那么事情就没那么严重了，他们至于遭受地裂开活活把人吞下，营地里满了毒蛇咬死许许多多的人这样的事情吗？换句话说，如果我们所经历的只是人的诡诈和不忠，只是亲人的不和睦、争吵，那事情熬一熬就过去了：人生苦短，及时行乐。

但事实上，并不是这样。我们所经历的一切都被神看在眼里，都发生在神面前。不仅是我们明显的罪，而且还有我们的“隐恶”都摆在神的面光之中。以至于我们无力担当神的面。这种情况下，谁愿意朝见神的面？谁会欢喜快乐奔向神的殿呢？摩西的观察是中肯的，我们的经历是真实的。我们世人不愿意承认这一点：“谁晓得你怒气的权势？谁按着你该受的敬畏晓得你的忿怒呢？”（诗90:11）答案是：不多。鲜少有人有这样敬畏的心，其实也不愿意认识神的怒气。许多人是愚蒙的，而这样的敬畏才是智慧。

摩西没有停留在摆事实上，陈述世人的愚昧无知和因着罪所承受的审判，而是在神面前继续祈祷，继续凭着信心向神吐露心声，继续求神作工。“求你指教我们怎样数算自己的日子，好叫我们得着智慧的心。”（诗90:12）这是诗篇90的转折点。

摩西没有停留在摆事实上，陈述世人的愚昧无知和因着罪所承受的审判，而是在神面前继续祈祷，继续凭着信心向神吐露心声，继续求神作工。“求你指教我们怎样数算自己的日子，好叫我们得着智慧的心。”（诗90:12）这是诗篇90的转折点。弟兄姐妹们，我们读这节经文，一下子想到的是在感恩节如何数算主恩典的日子，就是见证那些神施行奇妙作为的恩典时刻，美好日子。但是摩西在这里告诉我们，要数算所有的日子，无论我们经历了什么，包括一生充满劳苦愁烦的日子，甚至那些让我们想起自己所犯的罪和神所发的愤怒的日子。你愿意这样吗？这是一种完全向神的敞开和对神的信任。诗篇32:5“我向你陈明我的罪，不隐瞒我的恶。”

是什么让我们敢于这样向神敞开？因为神不仅向我们发怒，而是向我们发慈爱。祂的怒气都是暂时的，也是不轻易发怒的，而祂的爱是一生之久，直到万代永恒。摩西在金牛犊事件之后重新领受十诫法版的时候，耶和华在祂面前宣告说：“耶和华，耶和华，是有怜悯有恩典的神，不轻易发怒，并有丰盛的慈爱和诚实，为千万人存留慈爱，赦免罪孽、过犯，和罪恶。”（出34:6-7）

摩西知道，我们也应该知道，神所发的怒气是暂时的，或者说这些都是为了带领我们悔改，领受祂的恩典。摩西祷告说：“愿你的作为向你仆人显现；愿你的荣耀向他们子孙显明。”（诗篇90:16）这里所说“神的作为”是怜悯和拯救的作为，也恰恰是神要做的事情。前面暴露我们的罪在祂面光之中以及所发的怒气，都是祂非正常的工作（异常的工作）。这就是以赛亚书28:21所说“祂必发怒，像在基遍谷，好做成祂的工，就是非常的工；成就祂的事，就是奇异的事。”弟兄姐妹们，我们明白这一点吗？神最终最终向我们所存的意念都是好的，都是要我们得祂的祝福而不是咒诅和所施的祸患。为什么？因为祂本为善，祂的慈爱永远长存。

因此摩西可以祷告，我们也可以这样祷告：“主啊，求你转回，为你的仆人后悔。求你使我们早早饱得你的慈爱。”（诗篇90:12-14）我们是按照这样的经文来认识我们的主上帝吗？我们在遭受患难、苦难的时候，是否仍然信靠主的良善，寻求祂的慈爱呢？还是我们气馁、绝望，以至于再也不想寻求神的面了呢？我们是被自己的经历和感受捆绑了吗？还是让主的话语和应许释放我们，安抚我们的良心，使我们在祂面前重新抬起头来？

摩西继续祈祷：“让我们饱得你的慈爱，好叫我们一生一世欢呼喜乐。求你照着你使我们受苦的日子，和我们遭难的年岁，叫我们喜乐。”（诗篇90:15）这是不可思议的地方，虽然我们在世上的经历是叹息和劳苦愁烦，但同时，同时，仍然可以“一生一世欢呼喜乐。”这里看起来有一个不可思议的“交易、交换”，我们把受苦的日子和遭难的年岁摆在神面前，神就按着这些日子恩赐我们所需的喜乐。你愿意这样向神祈祷，向神敞开，向神诉求吗？而这样的交换不是凭空而来的，都是藉着基督的十字架赐给我们的，因为基督自己亲身品尝十字架的刑罚和死亡，好把生命、喜乐和平安都白白地恩赐给我们信靠祂的人。十字架更新了我们的生命，让我们在苦难中重新看见生命的亮光和喜乐的源泉。奉耶稣基督的名。阿们。

Psalm 90:1–17

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to all who continually look to the Lord’s steadfast love and therefore rejoice and are glad. Amen.

Psalm 90 was written by Moses. Its title is “A Prayer of Moses, the Man of God.” After reading this psalm, we might feel somewhat hopeless. In the presence of God, who created heaven and earth and who has existed from everlasting to everlasting, how small and insignificant we human beings are! Not only are we small, but our sins are also examined and dealt with by God. Is this not so? Human beings can be gone in an instant. As the psalm says, “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” (Psalm 90:5–6).

Human life is short. “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty” (Psalm 90:10). Is this not true? The global average life expectancy is about 73 years, while in the United States it is somewhat higher, at about 78 years. That is roughly the number. Even if we live to be a hundred, as everyone knows, the last twenty years are generally years in which we do not have much strength left.

Not only is life short, but what else? Our lives are also filled with suffering. Moses expresses this lament before God: “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” (Psalm 90:10). Do people have times of prosperity and happiness? Yes, they do. But for the most part, life does not go smoothly, nor does it turn out as we wish. This is the true picture of the human condition throughout history and across generations. After all, following the sin of Adam and Eve, God had already pronounced this judgment: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life ... 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 3:17, 19).

But this is not even the worst of it. What is more serious is that all these things take place before God. Moses says:

“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.”

When Moses wrote this psalm, he was probably in his later years, near the end of Israel's wilderness journey after the Exodus. Let us think carefully about how Exodus and Numbers describe those forty years in the wilderness. Almost everywhere we look, we see the rebellion of the Israelites, God's anger toward them, and His calls for them to repent. Consider, for example, the worship of the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. Moses was God's faithful servant, but he was also a human being. As the leader of Israel throughout those forty years, his life was far from easy. He was repeatedly attacked by the people, and even his own brother and sister turned against him. Time and again, Moses fell on his face before God and interceded for the people, pleading for God's mercy and asking Him to grant forgiveness and peace.

In fact, most of us are much the same. What we remember most vividly is often not the happy times but the times of sorrow and hardship. If you ask the elderly in your family what they most want to share with their children, they will often tell stories about the hardships of the past. Of course, sometimes their children grow tired of hearing them recount those old stories. But the truth is that we are all like this. When you grow old, you will probably find yourself telling your children about the difficult days of the past, about how hard it was to raise them and how much you had to endure along the way.

Compared with the wrath we bear before God, however, the suffering we experience here on earth is still relatively light. Perhaps this is also why many people are unwilling to believe in God. If we acknowledge that there is a God, believe that He exists and that He continually governs all things, then we must also face His anger and judgment because of our own sins and rebellion. And this is what we find most unbearable.

Is this not so? If Moses' experiences during the Exodus were merely a matter of difficulties between leaders and the people, or simply disagreements and divisions among family members, then things would not have been so serious. Would they really have suffered such things as the earth opening up and swallowing people alive, or the camp being filled with poisonous snakes that killed so many? In other words, if all we experienced were human deceit and unfaithfulness, or quarrels and conflicts among family members, then we could simply endure them until they passed. Life is short, so we might as well enjoy ourselves while we can.

But the truth is that things are not so simple. Everything we experience is seen by God; everything takes place in His presence. Not only our obvious sins but also our “secret sins” are laid bare in the light of His presence. We are therefore unable to bear the sight of God's face. Under these circumstances, who would want to come before God? Who would gladly run to His temple with joy?

Moses' observation is accurate, and our experience confirms it. Yet we human beings are unwilling to acknowledge this truth. As the psalm asks: “Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?” (Psalm 90:11). The answer is: not many. Very few people possess this kind of reverent fear. In fact, people are often unwilling even to know the wrath of God. Many are foolish and ignorant, whereas this very fear of God is true wisdom.

Moses, however, does not stop with the facts. He does not merely describe the ignorance and foolishness of humanity and the judgment we bear because of sin. Instead, he continues to pray before God. By faith, he continues to pour out his heart to God and ask Him to work:

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

This is the turning point of Psalm 90.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, when we read this verse, our first thought may be of how we count our blessings during Thanksgiving: remembering those gracious moments when God has worked wondrous things in our lives, those beautiful days when we have witnessed His goodness. But Moses is telling us here to number all our days, regardless of what we have experienced. This includes the days filled with toil and trouble throughout our lives, even those days that remind us of the sins we have committed and the anger God has displayed toward us.

Are you willing to do this? It requires that we open ourselves completely before God and place our trust in Him. As Psalm 32:5 says, “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity.”

What gives us the courage to open ourselves before God in this way? It is because God does not merely show us His anger; He also shows us His steadfast love. His anger is temporary, and He is slow to anger. But His love endures throughout our lives and from generation to generation, forever.

After the incident of the golden calf, when Moses received the tablets of the Ten Commandments once again, the LORD proclaimed before him:

“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6–7).

Moses knew this, and we too should know it: God's anger is temporary. Or, to put it another way, He uses these things to lead us to repentance so that we may receive His grace.

Moses prays:

“Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children” (Psalm 90:16).

The “work of God” spoken of here is His work of mercy and salvation. This is precisely what God intends to do. The earlier exposure of our sins in the light of His presence and the anger He displays against us are His alien work, His strange work. This is what Isaiah 28:21 describes:

“For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim; as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused; to do his deed—strange is his deed! and to work his work—alien is his work!”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, do we understand this? God's ultimate intentions toward us are good. He desires that we receive His blessing, not His curse or calamity. Why? Because He is good, and His steadfast love endures forever.

Therefore, Moses can pray, and we too can pray:

“Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love” (Psalm 90:13–14).

Is this how we understand our Lord God through the words of Scripture? When we suffer affliction and hardship, do we continue to trust in the goodness of the Lord and seek His steadfast love? Or do we become discouraged and despair, to the point that we no longer wish to seek His face? Are we held captive by our own experiences and feelings? Or do we allow the Word and promises of our Lord to set us free, to quiet our consciences, and to enable us to lift our heads once again before Him?

Moses continues to pray:

“Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil” (Psalm 90:15).

Here we encounter something truly remarkable. Although our experiences in this world are filled with sighing, toil, and trouble, at the same time—yes, even in the midst of all this—we can still “rejoice and be glad all our days.”

There seems to be an extraordinary kind of “exchange” taking place here. We lay before God the days of our suffering and the years of our affliction, and God, in return, grants us the joy we need in proportion to those very days. Are you willing to pray to God in this way, to open your heart before Him and make this request?

And this exchange does not come about out of nowhere. It is given to us through the cross of Christ. For Christ Himself personally tasted the punishment and death of the cross so that He might freely bestow life, joy, and peace upon all who trust in Him.

The cross renews our lives, enabling us to see once again the light of life and the source of joy even in the midst of suffering.

In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.