Monday 10th April
Read Psalm 90:1-2
Lord, you have been our dwelling-place
throughout all generations.
2 Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (NIVUK)
It should come as no surprise that a psalm attributed to Moses should be meditation on Genesis 1-3. Echoes of creation ring throughout this majestic yet solemn psalm. Though its content is sobering and forces us to reflect on our mortality, it begins (and ends) with the Lord, the king and master of creation, the One who establishes us now and forever.
When disaster inevitably strikes, and death or illness call, this psalm both warns and encourages us that such is the lot of frail humanity. Like the early chapters of Genesis, it warns us that our frailty was self-inflicted. But it also encourages us that frail though we are, we are made by a master craftsman. A craftsman perfect in skill and eternal in time and, as Derek Kidner writes, the answer to our homelessness and brevity of life.
One can’t help but be reminded again of Jesus’ words to his disciples on his last night with them, as their anxiety grows at his constant references to his looming betrayal and death.
“‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.4 You know the way to the place where I am going.’ (John 14:1-4) (NIVUK)
The Lord, our true home from eternity, the creator of all things, gently eases their hearts by reminding them of their unique, prepared dwelling with him. A theme grasped fully in Isaac Watts classic hymn “O God, our help in ages past”.
