Title – “A Prayer of Moses the man of God.” Moses was mighty in word as well as in deed, and this psalm we believe to be one of his weighty utterances. Moses was peculiarly a man of God and God’s man: chosen of God, inspired of God, honoured of God, and faithful to God in all his house, he well deserved the name that is here given to him. The psalm is called a prayer, for the closing petitions enter into its essence, and the proceeding verses are a meditation preparatory to the supplication. This is the oldest of the psalms and stands as a composition unique in its grandeur, and alone in its sublime antiquity.
Verse 1. “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.” Moses was an old and much tried-man, but age and experience had taught him that, amidst the perpetual changes that are taking place in the universe, one thing at least remains immutable, even the faithfulness of Him who is “everlasting to everlasting, God.” How far back into the past may the patriarch have been looking when he spoke these words? The burning bush, the fiery furnace of Egypt, the Red Sea, Pharoah with his chariots of war, and the weary march of Israel were all before him. But Moses was looking beyond these scenes of his personal history when he indited the words of this song – “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.” Yea, he was reflecting in his mind how God had been the refuge of Jacob and Isaac, of Abraham, Noah, and all the patriarchs. Moses could take a retrospect of over a thousand of years, all of which confirmed the truth – but I can do more! At this point of time I can look back to the days of Moses and Joshua and David, and descending thence to the days of the Son of God upon earth, and of Paul and Peter, and all of the saints of the church down to the present hour. And what a thousand years confirmed to Moses, these thousands more confirm to me – that the Lord is the dwelling place of them that trust in Him, from generation to generation. Yes, and to Him who was the God of an Abraham and a Moses, I too, can lift my hands.
Verse 1. “… our dwelling place.” Many seem to seek God’s help in a storm and when all other forms of refuge fail them. But a Christian must maintain constant communication with Him – they must “dwell” in God, not run to him now and then.
Verse 1. “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place.” The apostle Paul speaks almost in the same strains when he says, “Your life is hid with Christ in God.” It is a much clearer and luminous expression to say that believers dwell in God than God dwells in them (though both are true.) But because the believer dwells in God, then it is certain that he cannot be moved, for God is an habitation that cannot shift or perish. Moses wished to express the certainty of our life when he said, God is our dwelling place. Not just the earth, not just heaven, not just paradise, but simply God Himself.
Verse 4. “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” The Holy Ghost expresses Himself according to the manner of men, to give us some notion of an infinite duration, by a resemblance suited to our capacity. If a thousand years be but as a day to the life of God, then as a year is to the life of man, so are three-hundred- and-sixty-five-thousand years to the life of God. And as seventy years are to the life of man, so are twenty-five-million five-hundred-and-fifty thousand years to the life of God. However, since there is no proportion between time and eternity, we must dart our thoughts beyond these!
Verse 4. “… a watch in the night.” The whole space of human life on earth, though it could reach “a thousand years”, is still esteemed with God as a very little – not only as one day already past, but scarcely equal to the three hours of a night which constituted “a watch in the night.”
Verse 9. “For all our days are passed away in they wrath; we spend our years as a tale that is told.” Moses may well be referring to the thirty-eight years of wandering in the wilderness which are no part of the sacred history, for little or nothing is recorded of what happened to Israel between the second and fortieth year after Egypt. Those years were like a “tale that is told.” Forbid that we should have such years in our life if we profess to be the redeemed of the Lord from bondage.
(To be continued)