Read: Psalm 90
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” 4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: 6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. 8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 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!
Over the past few weeks, we as a congregation have sat under the teachings of the Psalms. We have studied Psalms 6, 8, 13, 51, 136, and 145, and up to this point the focus has been on the individual. The words “I,” “me,” and “my” are used repeatedly, and we have considered how we as individuals can use these prayers as guides for our personal prayer life.
But when we come to Psalm 90 the focus shifts from the individual to the community. The first line of this Psalm says “Lord, you have been our dwelling place.” From the very first line there is no denying that a group is participating in this prayer. Another thing to note is that this prayer is listed as a lament Psalm, which means this communal prayer was a prayer of despair, need, and seeking.
Why do I think this important? Because what could we as a church, as the body of North Wake, learn from this communal Psalm?
Here are three things I see that we should look at from this Psalm:
- Shared Place
- Shared Pain
- Shared Plea
In verse 1 the phrase “dwelling place” is most often used across translations. When I think about the fact that Moses uses this phrase instead of home, I can’t help but imagine the people of Israel as they left Egypt and wandered around the desert. These were people who did not have homes; they didn’t have a place they knew they would go back to every night. Home and places of comfort couldn’t be found in the way we think about them today. Since a physical place could not be their place of comfort, safety, and identity, they learned that God was where all those things could be found, and they sought Him together as a group. They felt the pain of misplacement and instability, but they felt it together, and together they learned to look to God as their place. Do we encourage each other in the same way? When we see a brother or sister struggling and feeling lost, do we remind them that their place of refuge, comfort, and identity isn’t found in this world but in our abiding with Christ? Do we see that we abide together? We have been given the blessing of being in Christ, not only as individual believers but also as a church.
We also see with these verses of Psalm 90 that there is a shared pain. Verses 3-11 are full of the pain being felt: the pain of their short lives, the pain of their sin, the pain of their toils and troubles. They do not shy away from it, and they do not look to assign the pain to something they experience alone. No. There is a communal expression of pain. What would it look like for North Wake to do the same? We are all dealing with problems and troubles, so we as a group need to come before the Lord and express them. We say we are all sinning; we are all realizing how fleeting our days are; we are all acknowledging that God is in the midst of the pain. Do we pray this way? Do we use “we” language when we are confessing sins or expressing heartache? Do we let others come into our pain while simultaneously telling them they are safe to express their pain too? Then, with the pains laid bare, we can pray to the Lord together, trusting He will hear us because He is our shared place.
Lastly, I see that there is a shared plea. I love that verse 12 starts with “teach us.” You know another place where you see the phrase “teach us”? In Luke 11:1 the disciples say, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Don’t you love that?! Lord teach us, not just me, not just my family, not just my friends. Teach our church. Teach us to turn to you, to bring our pleas before you, to ask you for the hard things, to ask you to restore us, to ask you to heal our wounds. Lord satisfy us with your love! What a strong prayer! Do we ask that the Lord would satisfy our fellow members of North Wake with His love? Do we ask the Lord to open the eyes of the body of North Wake to see His mighty and great works? Do we ask that the Lord’s favor would be upon our church? Do we ask that God would establish the work of our church for His glory and His kingdom? And if we don’t, why not?
Throughout the Psalms we are challenged to bring our individual prayers before the Lord, but we are also challenged to come before Him as a group, to pray as one and offer up in unison our praise, our pain, and our pleas. May we learn from Moses and the people of Israel to love and pray for our community at North Wake Church.
