The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/psalms/90.htm

You may ask, why am I posting a chapter from the Book of Psalms when we’re in the middle of Deuteronomy (or getting close to the end, anyway). It’s because I forgot to do it earlier; my bad.

The actual answer is because the Bible is not written in chronological order, and to better understand the events in the Bible, it is best to read it chronologically. The Old Testament, for example, starts with the Torah, then the story of Joshua, then the stories about the judges, then the books of the Kings, then the books of the chronicles, (which in the Hebrew Bible come at the end of the Old Testament), then the books of the major Prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, then the minor Prophets like Habakkuk and Malichi, with books like Ruth, and Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Psalms and Proverbs, and other books dispersed in between. The New Testament starts with the Gospels, follow by the Acts of the Apostles, and the rest of the books, believe it or not, are in order according to length, except for the Revelation of Jesus Christ which is the last book.

That said, there were psalms written by Moses, and David, and the son’s of Korah, and others, and instead of placing the psalms in the place where they were actually written, they are all grouped together. It would seem unlikely that Moses would write a psalm in the Book of Psalms when he has been dead for centuries. So, the psalms are easier to understand if you read them where they are applicable.

Now, that said, Psalm 90, a psalm of Moses, should have been studied as we were studying the Book of Numbers, but I failed to do so, so we are doing it now. You can either buy a chronological Bible, or you can simply refer to the list in this link, and simply read your standard Bible following the list.

Now, I’m not going to cover the entire chapter, you can read, but there are some things I want to address.

Verse 7 reads, “7For we have been consumed by Your anger,
And by Your wrath we are terrified.”

Once I pined the possibility that Moses had developed a mental illness because of the stress he was under. He was given a big job, to be the mediator and the teacher between God and over a million children of Israel, and they complained and rebelled for 40 years, dissatisfied with the blessing God was obviously bestowing on them, and wishing they were back in Egypt as slaves. As for former head of a public safety agency, I can attest that when the people you are trying to lead do nothing but complain, it is tough to take. And while I’m not convinced that Moses was crazy, I have no doubt that he was under enormous stress, and being a mere human, his psychological well being was surely altered.

Another possibility, when looking at this verse, is that times were relatively new back then. Yes, the children of Israel had be told and taught about the God of Abraham, but we know it was a shocker when Moses saw the burning bush and did not understand. All of the “miracles” they saw seemed supernatural to them (and they were), but it was new to them. Today, if I saw a burning bush that was not being consumed, the first thing I would think of is that God is trying to speak to me. I’m sure they were fearful of God, not know what supernatural power they would see next.

But God is not angry and wrathful as this scripture insinuates. “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father”. I know I keep harping on this, but these were the words of Jesus Christ, and as Christians, we follow Jesus Christ. If Jesus said it, you can bank on it. Despite any other description of God in the Bible, I have no doubt it was the impression of the writer, in those times. Satan wants us to believe that God is angry and wrathful, that is how he was able to lead a third of the angels astray, but that is not God, He is as merciful and loving as Jesus was. Except for the time Jesus overturned the tables in the Temple because they were profaning it by having a trading post and market in it, cite one other time that Jesus was “angry” or “wrathful”. Even when confronted with death, He did not get angry, or even defend Himself.

Instead of God being angry with the people, was His anger actual that of sin? Instead of being “wrathful” with the people, could it be He was actually wrathful with Satan? (And yes, I believe God loves Satan, just as much as He loves us; He created Satan, and Satan is one of his angels, but an angel gone astray.)

When you read scripture that portrays God as angry, wrathful, or vengeful, think of Jesus, and ask yourself, “Is this the way Jesus was?” And I know this goes against the norm, I know people who have been excommunicated from churches for believing in a merciful and loving God. Yes, He is just, because it’s because of our own faults, not because He is angry with us. We have been given the freedom to choose, and if we perish because we choose the wrong path, it is our own fault, and of no fault of God.

And starting with Verse 13, those words have the same meaning, while different, as many of the prayers I have spoken. I have asked God to forgive me of my sins, and to send His Spirit into me, and that is basically what Moses is saying.

And Verse 17 even says, “17And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,”…doesn’t that description of God conflict with the description that Moses gave earlier? How can Moses call God angry and wrathful at the first of his psalm, then talk about the beauty of God?

That is why when we read scripture, it is so important that we look upon the real God. My sister and I were having a conversation just yesterday about Dr. Richard Leis who taught classes on eschatology, and he once said, “If you read the Bible and God doesn’t come out smelling like a rose, you need to read it again.”

Prayers for you.

Amen.