Thursday 13th April
Read Psalm 90:7-11
“We are consumed by your anger
and terrified by your indignation.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9 All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish our years with a moan.
10 Our days may come to seventy years,
or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
11 If only we knew the power of your anger!
Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.” (NIVUK)
The reason our days are so brief is now made clear.
We are worn down by wrath (v9).
Primeval humanity had length of life nearing a thousand years (cf Genesis 5). We have been whittled down to a mere seventy years, eighty if we are strong. The battering of God’s wrath abrades our lives like sand blasting in a storm. We cannot escape the continuing gaze of a holy God.
It is tempting to consider God unjust in such unrelenting wrath towards humanity. It is far more sobering to realise that our straitened days are self-inflicted.
John has captured the best response to this most sobering reality.
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. 21 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 1:8-2:2) (NIVUK)
Praise Him that we are now known and loved, despite our life-shortening sinfulness…
