“A God that we can always turn to”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Saturday, March 26, 2022

Psalm 90 (Forward, p. 56) CEV p. 611

I have to say that I continue to have mixed feelings about this psalm, not for the psalm itself, however, but for the hymn that is based on it, “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.’ Hard as I try, I cannot easily escape my memories of that hymn being sung or played, always mournfully like a funeral dirge, at Remembrance Day services. That this is my lasting impression is rather sad because the hymn ‘could’ be played more up tempo and come across as a glorious peon to the victory we have in God.

Anyway, to ‘escape’ from the less than helpful residue of this memory, I decided to try something different. Bible scholars, Fee and Stuart, suggest reading psalms as poetry, particularly as a kind of poetry that features a lot of synonymous parallelism where the second line reinforces or repeats the sense of the first line. I decided to read today’s psalm in this matter and try to establish the basic meaning of each couplet without getting bogged down by the actual words:

Verses 1-2: God is eternal, long before anything else;

Verses 3-4: Time is immaterial as far as God is concerned;

Verses 5-6: Our lives are fleeting and short;

Verses 7-9: God knows our sins and is angry about them;

Verse 10: No matter how long we live we are destined to trouble;

Verses 11-12: A right response therefore is to fear & respect God and to use wisely the time that we do have;

Verses 13-17: A plea for help: show us mercy and help us in the time we have left that all may go well for us.

So, what is this psalm’s overall message? It is that God has always been here and is not in anyway bound by time. Our lives, however, are fleeting and bound by sin, which, unfortunately for us, causes problems and incurs God’s anger. These facts should motivate both to fear God and respect and try to make the best of our days. However, in all this we need His mercy and His help, which certainly is a good message for all of us. So, knowing that God is indeed merciful and is always ‘there for us’, let us do just that. Amen.

Forward notes: “Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to another” (verse 1).

“My faith journey started when I was a child. I attended the church where my father’s family had worshiped for generations. My parents valued Sunday School and worship services and encouraged my participation in the youth group. I appreciate the structure they provided; it laid the foundation for my spiritual growth.

“As I have gone through life, I have shifted away from some of the things I was taught. I have had varied experiences and met new people who were also on a faith journey. These encounters have helped me develop my own thoughts and ask new questions. I have grown and am still growing. However, the central teaching of my parents and the church in which I was raised remains with me today: ours is a God of love and faithfulness.

“As the psalmist says, God’s love endures from generation to generation. Our personal theology may change as we grow and learn. But we will never outgrow the love of God.”

Moving Forward: “What can you do to pass the faith from generation to generation?”