Lord, You Have Been Our Refuge: An Exposition of Psalm 90
Psalm 90 is titled “A Psalm of Moses, the Man of God,” which probably makes this the oldest Psalm in the Bible. It has inspired great music. Isaac Watts paraphrased the words of the hymn “O God, our help in ages past.” This in turn was incorporated by Raiph Vaughn-Williams in his choral work “Lord, you have been our refuge”, which is perhaps the greatest choral work of the 20th century. It is a masterpiece of tonal painting. It’s haunting, understated, and gloomy. The text of the psalm is mixed with the hymn of Watts. When one reaches the final organ interlude followed by the final words of the choir with the trumpet sounding “O God, our help in ages past”, tears come to my eyes. It also haunts me that Vaughn-Williams was, at best, an agnostic. How could an unbeliever grasp the words of Moses so magnificently?
Psalm 90 forces us to acknowledge who we are in the eyes of the eternal God. He is not here just for our generation, but he has been here for all generations. How many generations have come and gone? In fact, even before the earth was created and the hills formed, God was there. He is from eternity to eternity. As great as God is, He wants Him to be our dwelling place. He wants us to live in Him. He created Adam and Eve for eternal fellowship with Him. This should set a happy tone.
But then we are faced with the sobering reality that we are mortal. God has returned us to destruction. This should force us to ask why is this? When we take time to reflect, it is because we are sinners. We wanted our own abode apart from Him. When we turn away from Him, we turn away from life itself. Surely our unregenerate works will follow us to destruction. But then we are told to return to Him. There is a way to life, and that life is in Him. When I look at another great work of the 20th century, Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, which has the same sad tone as Vaughn- Williams, I am forced to see the sad reality of our mortality. I remember they put it on TV when the Twin Towers in New York were destroyed by planes. I remember when I was young going to the towers when it was only complete up to the 59th floor. I looked down and saw little Trinity Church, which for generations was the tallest building in New York. So much work done with pride. However, in just over an hour, it was in ruins. Why?
Later Barber put the words of the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) into the Adagio. These are the words of John the Baptist. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” These are words that deserve our deepest contemplation. Although our days are sixty-ten, or if by reason of force eighty, there is light at the end of the tunnel. But the answer to a life of our work and problems is not in ourselves. Instead, we need to think about the answer that God has provided. In fact, it is mysterious that God the Son came down to bear our sins on the cross. He was the one who bore our destruction. He is the one who gives us the hope of eternal life. We cannot be sure how much of this Moses understood in his day. But he now he knows. He is now with God in his eternal home. Although our lives are like the grass in the field that dies in the midday heat, there is hope. Although a thousand years of our time are but a vigil in the night for God, he remembers our mortality.
The psalm reinforces our mortality with many powerful metaphors. We know that God is angry with our sins. Even secret sins cannot be hidden from God. We are troubled and consumed by the feeling that our works deserve the wrath of God. In light of this, Moses calls us to number our days and apply our hearts to wisdom. Having made a sober assessment of ourselves, it is time for us to make a sober assessment of who God is. The wrath of God can be converted. The eternal, perfect, omniscient and almighty God considers us dust and ashes. Now we contemplate that God is a God of mercy. For those who believe, mercy, not anger, is the last word. Eternal life, not death, has the last word. Our saddened heart rejoices at the works of God that are eternal and not ours. We should glory in God’s work and not in our own. Instead of the ruin and ugliness of our sin, we seek the beauty of the Lord. It is He who can establish our works and not ourselves. So the psalm ends with the repeated “Confirm the work of our hands.” It is these words in Vaughn Williams’ work that are sung while the trumpet is played. Watts ends the hymn with the words “and our eternal home.”
What does this psalm teach us today? We live in a very troubled world. People live in great fear of the Coronavirus. It is said to be deadly. And for many, it certainly has been. And for some of us, it can be deadly. Only God knows the truth of the matter. There is so much misinformation and misinformation about the virus that it causes even greater fear. We in the United States are very concerned about the future of our country. We wonder if the election is legitimate or not. There is a great fear of civil war here. Lockdowns are endangering the lives of millions of people around the world as supply chains break down. Will there be another world war? Is this the end of the world? In other words, we are forced to face mortality. As I am now getting older, I feel my illnesses. They are harbingers of the end of my life. As I approach sixty-ten, how much more time do I have left? I have one less day to count every morning. Has my life meant anything at all? In this we consider ourselves to be but dust. And we need to take the time to consider this. We need to repent and follow him.
There was a Day of Atonement in the Jewish Calendar. It was a day of fasting and mourning. It was a time to confess sins. These sins would be transferred to the scapegoat on that day. But this points to the day that the Lamb of God would be born in Bethlehem to bear our sins outside the camp. Thank God that he loved us sinners so much that he sent his only begotten Son to bear our mortality so that we could eternally share his life. It is in the midst of these pains that we realize that there was only one Day of Atonement but three weeks of feasts in this calendar. More time should be set aside to celebrate the goodness of the eternal God who has caused us to be born again to eternal life.
We think in contrasts. If everything is uniform, we are blind. We are blind if it is totally dark. We can be blinded by light. We are also blind in the uniform gray of the fog. There is temporary, and there is eternal. We can’t fully understand what eternity is like, but we believe that God is in charge of our eternity. Our impotence must not lead us to despair. Although we may despair in ourselves, we are not alone. The God of all generations has offered us his abode. We need to think about these things.
When we gather to worship, we need hymns and psalms to teach us the proper perspective. In fact, it saddens me that so much of our music is escapist. It does not adequately deal with present reality. We can feel elated for heaven, but how much brighter is the hope of heaven when we realize what we have been spared. How comforting is it that the God of eternity guides us through the turmoil to his eternal home? The gloomy mood of the present contrasts with the joy to come. We might go through labor pains for a season, but joy comes in the morning. Sadness and joy are not enemies. Christian sadness is what leads to true joy. We can’t just sing happy songs. We need music that also stimulates our thinking.
I remember being at a church service where a speaker was trying to encourage older people to get into contemporary music. The worship leader addressed us on “Mercy is falling, it’s falling, it’s falling. Mercy is falling like sweet spring rain.” This was followed by a lot of “ooing”. He said this was the modern A mighty fortress is our God.” How could he even compare the two? Luther’s hymn was written to support evangelicals in a time of great hardship and persecution. It’s a paraphrase of Psalm 46. I kept thinking to myself. How would this praise chorus have developed at that time? Maybe it was a good time in America, but in Syria, Christians had missiles raining down on them and not sweet spring rain. They didn’t need happy music. They needed to be encouraged in their pain. I could only wish our musicians were sensitive to what Psalm 90 and other Scriptures tell us. If even an agnostic like Vaughn-Williams could understand how the text of Psalm 90 should be read, how much more so could the Christian?
One can think of a monument to human arrogance the Titanic. The unsinkable ship sank within a few hours. Some say the band’s last song was the somber “Nearer My God to Thee.” This would have been a very fitting anthem to sing as Britain’s pride descended into the cold water of reality. However, others said the band played upbeat music instead. The hymn makes the reality of death a springboard to a greater reality. Joyful music would have shown a contempt for death as well as a contempt for God who gives life. Who knows what they played for sure. We can only hope for the former.
Another place where we need Psalm 90 sobriety is at funerals. Funerals are becoming less Christian every day. We seem unable to confront the reality and pain of death and try to lighten things up with humor and stories from the life of the deceased instead of the eternity of God. We have simplistic stories of pop going up there to make a mansion for mom. It does not matter that it is Jesus himself who is preparing our eternal abode. Funerals should be moments of sober reflection and evangelization. We must admit the pain of death. People need to be reminded that this is also their lot. They need to know the truth of their situation. Those who are already Christians need to be reminded of their eternal hope in Jesus Christ. If we are going to celebrate life, let us celebrate the life of Jesus.
As we cry out to God to establish our works, let us pray that these works are worthy of Him. This means that we must offer the best. There are many translations of the Bible that do not appreciate that the words that God has spoken are…