Please stand with me for the reading of God's word. We're turning to a little bit of a different text in the New Testament, Ephesians 5, two verses from Ephesians 5, verses 15 and 16, and then to Psalm 90. So first, Ephesians 5, two verses, verses 15 and 16. Let's hear Paul, as he writes under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, directing us as to the use of our time. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. And now to Psalm 90. A prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You turn man to destruction and say, return, O children of men, for a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night. You carry them away like a flood. They are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up. In the morning it flourishes and grows up. In the evening it is cut down and withers. For we have been consumed by your anger, and by your wrath we are terrified. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins, in the light of your countenance. For all our days have passed away in your wrath, we finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are 70 years, and if by reason of strength they are 80 years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away. Who knows the power of your anger? For as the fear of you, so is your wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? And have compassion on your servants. O, satisfy us early with your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days in which you have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil. Let your work appear to your servants and your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. This is the Word of the Living God. Pray and ask for the help of God's Spirit in the preaching and in the hearing of His Word. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we indeed confess that the grass withers and the flower fades, but Your Word endures forever. That Your Word is alive and that it abides forever. that it is unshakable, that it is indeed that hammer that breaks the rock in pieces, that it is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, that it is able to pierce asunder the joints and marrow of the soul and spirit. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. And Lord, we pray that Your Word indeed would have free course and be glorified tonight, that you would bring great glory to our Lord Jesus Christ, that you would teach us indeed to number our days. O God, grant us grace. Deliver us from distraction. Fix our eyes on Jesus Christ. Deliver us from frittering away our lives. Deliver us from distraction and from sin. And in all things, O God, we ask that you would glorify your name and indeed establish the work of our hands. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're turning tonight in the preaching of God's holy word to Psalm 90. This psalm that is the oldest psalm in your Psalter. This prayer of Moses, the man of God. And a psalm, though, it is the oldest in your Psalter, yet it is full of abiding relevance. Abiding relevance to your life and mine. A psalm that sets before us the clear realities of life and of death. Of a life lived for the glory of God. The reality of God's eternal nature. The reality of our fleeting, passing lives. The reality, indeed, of our sinfulness before God. and yet hope and confidence in God, in Him as our refuge, in Him as our eternal dwelling place, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, as the better than Moses, the one who intercedes for us, and through whom we have the mercy of God. By way of introduction, I just want to ask you a question. Is your conscience tonight plagued by regret? by regret over things that you have done, sins that you have committed, and the consequences of those sins. Perhaps you tonight, even as you sit under the preaching of God's Word, your conscience is plagued by the memory of past sin, by sin that you've committed against God and against others. The memory of opportunities that you've missed, of opportunities to serve the Lord, to worship Him, to offer yourself cheerfully and willingly to Him, of times that you've sinned against Christ and sinned against your neighbor. And this reality, that in the midst of these regrets and the memory of past sin, that the passing of time does not make it any better. that as your life moves on a year or several years since the particular events, the particular sins that cause the regrets and the pangs of conscience, that you realize that time isn't fixing it, and that as your life flies by, as it were, before your very eyes, that the regret becomes that much more poignant and painful. This experience, sad experience, approximates what the children of Israel would have experienced when this psalm was written. You see, this psalm is a prayer of Moses, the man of God, most likely penned toward the end of his earthly ministry, toward the end of those 40 years of wilderness wandering. of the Israelites wandering in the desert. That journey that should have taken just a handful of days turns into 40 years of trudging seemingly endlessly through the wilderness. And no doubt, for that generation, that older generation who had sinned against Jehovah, who had despised His goodness and grace in bringing them out of Egypt, no doubt those 40 years were full of painful regret, remembering their sin and rebellion, continuing through the end of their lives as that generation, one by one, the members of that generation pass away, die, before the next generation can enter the promised land. A sad, one of the saddest scenes in all of Israel's history, these 40 years of wandering. We have this sentence that God has pronounced over the people of Israel. We have it very clearly set before us in Numbers chapter 14. Remember that narrative, that story, what's happened to the people of God. They receive a report from the spies who have gone before them. They're on the cusp, as it were, of entering the promised land, of entering into all of their inheritance, what God in His grace has promised to them. They send ahead the 12 spies, Joshua, Caleb, as the faithful spies, and 10 other men, 10 unfaithful spies. And sadly, the people of Israel hear the report, the majority report of the 10 evil spies, and refuse to enter into the Promised Land in wicked unbelief. The Lord Initially in this revelation of judgment, he declares to Moses that he would strike this generation with pestilence and disinherit them. He says to Moses, I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they. Moses in verse 13 of Numbers 14 Intercedes for the people and this is going to be a key theme as we go through Psalm 90 tonight I want you to keep this in your mind that Moses the man of God intercedes he Advocates he prays for the people of Israel in the midst of their rebellion and their sin Moses said to the Lord They in verse 13 the Egyptians will hear it for by your might you have brought these people up from among them Verse 17 now I pray let the power of my Lord be great just as you have spoken the Lord is long-suffering and abundant in mercy forgiving iniquity and transgression and verse 19 pardon the iniquity of this people I pray the Lord in his covenant faithfulness indeed pardons their iniquity and but yet still pronounces a death sentence, a temporal death sentence upon these rebels, this older generation who refused to enter the promised land. We read of this sentence, a very sobering sentence pronounced on the older generation. Verse 29 of Numbers 14, the carcasses of you who have complained against me shall fall in this wilderness. All of you who were numbered according to your entire number from 20 years old and above. Verse 31, your little ones whom you said would be victims, I will bring in and they shall know the land which you have despised. Verse 32, but as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and your son shall be shepherds in the wilderness 40 years and bear the brunt of your infidelity until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness according to the number of the days in which you spied out the land 40 days for each day you shall bear your guilt one year. namely 40 years, and you shall know my rejection." This pronouncement of a death sentence on the older generation who refused to enter the promised land, who complained against the goodness and faithfulness, covenant faithfulness of God, The Lord pronounces this death sentence, that one by one, this entire generation will die out. The language of the text is stark in Numbers 14. The carcasses of this generation will fall. All those 20 years old, older than 20 years, until their entire generation, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, pass away. So this 40-year wonder, I want you to understand the poignancy of Israel's experience in these 40 years. As they move from place to place, every time they break camp, there are graves left in their wake. It's estimated, some scholars have looked at the numbers of the children of Israel at this time and estimated that 15,000 per year, 15,000 Israelites per year in this generation die. Moses, as the leader of God's people, the Old Testament mediator, the man of God, he looks on, hearing the cries, the wails, the grief of the children of Israel, as one by one, their lives are snuffed out. They pass away. They're buried in the wilderness. They continue under The wrath, the anger, the judgment of God for their sin. And it's in this context that Moses pens this 90th Psalm. This context of death. reality of the fleeting nature of our lives. As this generation dies out, Moses sets before us the most important realities of life and of death. He sets before us the eternal nature of God in the opening verses of the psalm. He sets before us the fleeting, secondly, the fleeting nature of our lives, that our lives indeed in to use the words of the Apostle James that our lives are a vapor which appear for a little time and then vanish away and then the underlying reason for The fleeting nature of our lives that we die because of God's just judgment upon our sin But the psalm does not end there in the Lord's kindness the psalm ends with a cry for mercy a cry for the grace and the power of God to properly order our lives, to gain a heart of wisdom, to have the Lord's return and covenant faithfulness upon His people. So we're going to study this psalm. Perhaps a theme that I would suggest here as we study the psalm together is simply this, how to pray in light of God. life's brevity. In light of how short your life is, how should you pray? The psalm helps us pray in the light of the brevity, the shortness of our lives. Really, there are three meditations in the psalm, and then a prayer. Three simple meditations, I've already mentioned them. God's eternal nature in the first couple of verses, first two verses, verses three through six, set before us the fleeting nature of our lives, that our lives are transient, brief, temporary, our physical lives. The reason for this judgment, the reason for death and the fact that We soon fly away, verses 7 through 11, the anger of God, the just wrath of God against our sin, and then a plea for mercy at the end of the psalm, verses 12 through 17. So we study the psalm together, giving heed to how we are to pray in light of our short lives. Moses contemplates first the eternal nature of God, Oh, Lord, you have been our dwelling place and all generations. And there's great hope, even in in the midst of the themes that I've already mentioned, that we read the psalm together, we understand something of of the context of where Moses is writing this psalm, the midst of regret, the midst of sorrow over sin, the reality of death confronting the people of Israel day by day. But here is the covenant hope of God's people, Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. That as we wander through this wilderness, these 40 years of judgment under the mighty hand of God, being humbled under God's mighty hand, the Lord is yet our dwelling place. the one who has been pleased in his infinite kindness and faithfulness to yet dwell with his people in the midst of their constant complaining and wandering. This language recalls not only God's faithfulness now to the people of Israel through the exodus, but back of that recalls the promises of God to the patriarchs, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I'll be God to you, to your children after you, bringing Abraham out of out of paganism, calling Abraham to himself and giving Abraham that promise of a home, of roots, the promised land that God would give him. And indeed, God had been the dwelling place of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, these nomadic wanderers, farmers in tents. The Lord indeed had been their dwelling place. As later generations, even moving beyond the Exodus and to the Promised Land, and then the later exile again of God's people, and again in their idolatry and judgment, this psalm is still the bedrock of the people of Israel, their faith in Jehovah, their faith in God as their dwelling place. Even think of the Babylonian exiles reading this psalm, Psalm 90. O Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. The drumbeat of Psalm 90 is that God is faithful to his promises. The home, the refuge of his people, despite their sinfulness, their constant wandering, their constant complaining and rebellion. The Lord is the eternal refuge of his people, and underneath are the everlasting arms. As Moses will confess in Deuteronomy 33, God the refuge of his people. And back of this is the eternal nature. The eternal nature of God as creator and the one who is from everlasting. Verse 2, but the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. That is one generation passes away and another generation takes their place. And we consider that the fleeting, passing nature of our lives. We lift our eyes to God, who is the one from everlasting, from everlasting. And more than that, the hope of Moses in the shadows of the Old Testament and our hope tonight is in God our dwelling place in Jesus Christ the God-man the one who is the same yesterday today and forever who is the eternal God and clothed in our flesh the one who comes into this world of time and of the the fleeting passing lives that the Judgment of God against our sin in in the midst of these things It takes on our flesh the eternal God think of it becomes bound by time in the incarnation God dwelling with us in Jesus Christ. The mystery and the glory of the incarnation grounds the hope of God's people of old, grounds our hope tonight. How is it that we can approach the throne of grace, that we can even pray in the midst of our sin? It's because God sent forth his son in the fullness of time. that God entered this time-bound reality. Our Lord Jesus, think of it in His incarnation, becomes subject to those succession of passing moments day by day in the days of His life, takes on our sin, goes to the cross, and brings us redemption. Yes, it's the glory of Jesus Christ, the God-man, the one who is from everlasting to everlasting. clothed in our flesh, that we can confess with Moses, Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. So first, as we think of how to pray in light of our passing short lives, we think of God's eternal nature and of his glory that he's revealed in his Son, Jesus Christ. Then Moses goes deeper. He thinks of our Passing fleeting lives verse 3 you turn man to destruction and say return. Oh children of men The thousand years in your side are like yesterday when it is passed and like a watch in the night You carry them away like a flood. They're like asleep in the morning They're like grass which grows up in the morning. It flourishes and grows up in the evening. It is cut down and withers Our lives are over against the eternal nature of God, the immutable One, the One as we heard preached this morning, who is the eternal God, who changes not, and therefore we're not consumed, over against His glory, His infinity, the fact that He's from everlasting to everlasting, the One who is the King of ages, and in Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Our lives are brief, transient, and temporary. The water in a river carried away in a flood, it swept away, using the imagery of the psalmist here. We're like a dream, a dream that as soon as you wake up in the morning, you can barely remember it. We're like grass that it's green and flourishing in the morning, but then by evening it dries out, it's brown and it's cut away. Our lives are brief, transient. Temporary. To use the words of Isaac Watts that we sang just a moment ago. Words that I remember singing even as a little boy. There's something profound in these words. That time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away. They fly forgotten as a dream, dies at the opening day. Our lives are brief and temporary, transient. Here today and gone tomorrow. where it stalks us all. It's appointed unto man once to die. The reality of life and death, even in the midst of health and strength, even if we live to be 70, or perhaps by reason of strength, verse 10, 80 years, yet in the midst of that longer life, our boast is only labor and sorrow, and we're soon cut off and fly away. all of this due to our sin. You turn, verse 3, you turn man to destruction and say return, O children of men. Our first parents sinned and they died. Consider this reality. But yet, brothers and sisters, the psalm sets it front and center before us. And we do well, even as we were admonished this morning in preaching, to think about the day of our death. To consider, and is it not even the role of public worship to raise our eyes again to the eternal God? and to our temporary lives, that even as we gather here, the drumbeat of the week, Lord's Day by Lord's Day, we remember that our lives are but a vapor. They appear for this little time and then vanish away, and we're reminded of this every Lord's Day as we gather for worship, that we're a week closer to even the day of our own death, and we're confronted with how quickly our lives pass away. This is not a reality, this is not a reality to ignore. It's not one to numb with drugs and alcohol and entertainment. It's not one to accept as a mere biological necessity, as just a fact of the way things are. Death is the judgment, as we'll see in a moment, it's the judgment of God upon our sin. And we do well to consider it, to give heed, to think about the fleeting nature of our lives. I've never met an older person, never met an older person who did not remark about the passing and the fleeting nature of life. How fast the years, the 60 or 70 or 80 or 90 years have flown by. But even you children, even you children who are just a few years old, you know this. You know this reality, that your years pass away, perhaps not as poignantly, not as profoundly as older saints do. But even you children know. how fast life goes. You've all anticipated, no doubt, a birthday party or an upcoming family vacation, something that you've looked forward to and you've looked forward to it for months and then weeks as you count down on the calendar to that event that you can't wait for it to come. But then as soon as the event happens, isn't it true that it goes by in an instant and it's just a memory, an ever distant memory in your mind, those joyous occasions that you so look forward to. And even this sermon, the sermon that may seem so long to many of you, soon will be just a few moments, a few moments in our receding memory. Our lives indeed pass away. They vanish, they're like a watch in the night, carried away like a flood, like the grass that grows up in the morning but flourishes for a little time and then disappears. An image that the psalmists love to set before us. Psalm 103, verse 15, "'As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.'" Or the words of Isaiah 40, verse 6, "'All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.'" The Word of God also says that my days are like a shadow that lengthens, and I wither away like grass. We have set before us the fleeting, the temporary, the transient nature of our lives. This life is full of, indeed, sorrow and suffering. No matter how wealthy we are, how healthy we aspire to be, yet our lives are full of pain, of sorrow. John Calvin said that before men decline and come to old age, even in the very bloom of youth, they are involved in many troubles and they cannot escape from the cares, the weariness, the sorrows, the fears, the griefs, the inconveniences and anxieties to which this mortal life is subject. Thomas Watson said that we come into the world with a cry and we go out of it with a groan. Contemplating the words of verse nine, that all our days have passed away in your wrath, we finish Our years, like a sigh. But Moses here is not just contemplating the fleeting nature, the transient nature of life. He gives us the reason for this. Fleeting, transitory life. Why is it that our lives appear for just a moment and then vanish away? That our memory flees and our life passes, as it were, before our very eyes. Why is it? Very soberly, it's God's judgment on our sin. It's God's judgment on our sin. Verse 7, for we have been consumed by your anger and by your wrath. We are terrified. You have said our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. All our days, again, have passed away in your wrath. Numerous references in these verses to God's wrath, His anger. Verse 11, who knows the power of your anger, for as the fear of you, so is your wrath. Again, we do not die as a mere biological necessity. It's not just a fact that belongs to nature. It's God's judgment on our sin. This is the very clear teaching of the Word of God. I reviewed this recently in preaching from John 11 on that, I am statement of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am the resurrection and the life. But we do well to remember what Romans 5 tells us, that through one man, Sin came into the world, and death threw sin, and so death passed upon all men. Death spread to all men, because all sinned. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. Hebrews 9.27, it's appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment. Death comes upon us because of sin. Because you were born and conceived in sin. a child of Adam, and because you've added your own sin to the load. Death is God's judgment upon sin. And this becomes abundantly clear, doesn't it, in God's dealings with his people, that generation of wilderness wanderers, as they die, their carcasses fall, their bodies die, and they're buried in the wilderness, one by one. This is the power of God's anger. as just wrath against their sin. A poignant reminder, constant reminder of the wages of sin. The wages of sin is death. The New Testament is abundantly clear on the spiritual state of so many of these who died in this time of wilderness wandering, those who were buried in these 40 years. The reality that this is indeed the judgment of God, the sobering judgment of God in history against his sinful and rebellious people. What does 1 Corinthians 10 and 5 tell us about those who enjoyed many spiritual privileges, a privileged people, a people brought out of Egypt by God's mighty hand and its outstretched arm, but yet who sin and rebel against Him. 1 Corinthians 10.5, but with most of them, Paul is speaking of these wanderers in the wilderness, but with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Hebrews chapter three as well deals with the reality of God's judgment upon these Israelites. Hebrews 3 17 now with whom was he angry 40 years was it not with those who sinned whose corpses fell in the wilderness yes indeed who knows the power of God's anger for as the fear of you so is your wrath This was the painful and sobering confession of a people who neglected their privileges, great privileges, brought out of Egypt, given the holy law of God at Sinai, whose lives were crowned with God's loving kindness and tender mercy, given His law, provided for with manna, every need provided for, given a promise of an inheritance in the land. but yet fail to enter because of their unbelief. And so death comes upon them because of their sin. God's just wrath against their sin. And there's a sober warning here for us, a sober warning for you. Do not play with sin. Do not neglect your privileges. Do not play with disobedience and unbelief and giving way to your carnal, sinful desires. Do not play with sin. Recognize that God is a God of infinite holiness and justice, and He executes that judgment in history, even as He did against the children of Israel and their sin. And we're left with a sobering picture. God on His throne, the eternal and everlasting God, the fleeting nature of our lives, and the reason for this, our sin against a high and holy and gracious God. But that's not where the psalm leaves us, is it? The psalm does not leave us bemoaning our sin and under the power of God's anger, though we ought to contemplate that power. the psalm lifts us to the mercy of God. That God is gracious and merciful, abundant, and forgiving mercy. And the psalm then, there's a hinge in Moses' prayer as he cries to the Lord for mercy. This is how to pray. This is how to pray when you consider how short your life is. Verse 12, as it were, a capstone over the entire psalm. So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. In light of these realities, the eternal God who sits on his throne, our passing lives, our sinfulness, and the judgment that our sin deserves, oh, how we ought to pray. Lord, teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. that our priorities in life would be ordered according to the brevity of our lives. That we would recognize in numbering our days, what does it mean to number our days? That we would understand really how short they are. Not that we know exactly how long we have. We do not. Perhaps a few years, perhaps a few months, perhaps a couple hours. by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, we pray, teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. That we would confess with the Apostle Paul, for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. That life is far too short to spend it on the fleeting pleasures of sin. That you are to live life for the glory of God in Jesus Christ, taking hold of His promises, delighting in public worship, reading His Word, seeking to put sin to death by the grace of God's Spirit, loving communion with Him, loving the Lord's Day, loving the people of God, living for eternal things, laying up for yourself treasures in heaven, Refusing to live for those things that do not please the Lord or that merely distract you. Ordering your life that you may, by the grace of God, gain a heart of wisdom. This is true wisdom, to know how short your life really is, to how brief and fleeting it is, and how you ought, by the grace of Christ, to order that life for God's glory and your eternal good. Moses continues. He prays in this first request for a godly and wise use of time. But more, he prays for the return of God's favor. That God again would smile upon His people in gracious favor, turning back the tide of judgment against them. Return, O Lord, how long, and have compassion on Your servants. Lord, have mercy. Have compassion on us. A prayer that we do well to pray. Lord, in wrath remember mercy. Turn away your hand of just judgment. Forgive us. Forgive us for Jesus' sake. The better the Moses, the greater the Moses who died for our sins. And that in the midst of God's favor, a third request, we pray for comfort and joy in the midst of God's favor. That He would favor us, forgiving our sin, turning back His judgment as that judgment was laid on Christ. but that in the midst of God's compassion and the knowledge of that compassion, that we would experience joy. Oh, satisfy us early with your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. And verse 15, make us glad according to the days in which you have afflicted us. The years in which we have seen evil reminds us of the prayer of the prophet, that the Lord would restore the years that the locusts have eaten, that in the midst of Our fleeting, short, transient lives. Remembering the painful regrets that I mentioned earlier in this sermon. that the Lord would satisfy us early with His mercy. In forgiving grace, renewing by His Spirit, the sense of joy in Him, that what we confess together in the larger catechism, that we would enjoy that sense of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, and hope of glory, all of which comes through our mediator, Jesus Christ, through communion with Him. Yeah, Moses prays here for godly and wise use of time, for the favor, the return of God's favor, for comfort and joy in the midst of that favor. And lastly, for the progress of God's work and his kingdom. Verse 16, let your work appear to your servants and your glory to their children. He prays for the next generation. And really a profound prayer when you think of it. Here is Moses, because of his own sin, he won't be able to enter the promised land and see the children of Israel come into their inheritance, the blessing of this inheritance. That will be for Joshua and Caleb along with the younger generation. but his prayer is not merely for himself. His prayer is for the work of God, God's kingdom and his glory. His church, the old covenant church progressing across the Jordan into the promised land. Let your work appear to your servants and your glory to their children. Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. He prays for the progress of God's work and his gracious kingdom in the world. Moses here is not merely giving us an example of how to pray. Moses is the man of God who we already know intercedes for the people of Israel, the one who has begged the Lord for mercy, who has stood between this needy, sinful people under the judgment of God. Moses has gone to the throne of grace and begged for God's mercy, that his wrath would be assuaged, his wrath would be turned aside, and that the people would be forgiven. And here, in the shadows of the Old Testament, Moses is a picture, a type of our intercessor. The man from heaven who has prayed for us. The one who has prayed to the Father. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. The one who intercedes for us, for mercy, for forgiveness, for the return of God's gracious favor. The putting away of just wrath against our sin. the receiving of forgiveness and mercy, the one who prays that his people would be one, that the kingdom of God on earth and the church would advance, that Satan's kingdom would be driven back, and that God would bring great glory to himself. Moses here is a picture of our Savior Jesus Christ, the one who intercedes for us, the one who ever lives to make intercession for his people, the great high priest, our great high priest who has passed into the heavens, who calls us to hold fast to our confession of faith, knowing that he is faithful who promised. The one who, believer, in the midst of your regret, recognizing the shortness of your life and even the memory of your past sin, the one who yet prays for you, who intercedes for you before the Father, and the Father will not turn His intercession away. The one who died for our sins on the cross of Calvary, bringing us that mercy of God, His favor, his pardon and his grace. And he prays that we would experience the peace of conscience, the sense of God's love, the forgiving pardon of his salvation. Moses points us to the better mediator, our glorious King and our great high priest, our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is in Christ that we, in the midst of our fleeting temporal lives, our transient lives, full of sin as they are, that we go to the Father, that we go to God, and we pray, Lord, forgive my sins. Satisfy me early by your steadfast love. Teach me to pray. Teach me to order my life, my priorities, my gifts, my graces, my talents, all that you've given me for your glory. Give me that heart of wisdom. And it's in Christ's name that we pray to the Father. Lord, establish the work of our hands. It's in the name of our Savior that we pray for our children, for the advance of God's kingdom in the world, for his beauty to rest upon us, and his glory to extend to the nations. It is in the name of Christ that we draw near. This is how to pray, brothers and sisters, as you consider the shortness of your life. May God so teach us to pray. in the name of Jesus Christ, with expecting mercy, expecting faith for his pardon and his grace. And pray for the extension of his kingdom, that the beauty of the Lord would rest upon us, that his work would appear to his servants and his glory to their children. We think of our children tonight as we'll hear from them in a few moments. how we ought to pray, even as Moses prayed of old, for the next generation, that they would know this mercy, that they would not repeat the same sins and have the same painful regrets as their fathers. Think of that generation dying in the wilderness, but that they would taste and see that the Lord is good, that their lives would be ordered by wisdom, by a true heart of wisdom. And you young people here under the sound of my voice tonight, Pray this prayer. Pray Psalm 90. Think of verse 12. As you think about your life, you may think that you have a long life set before you full of promise, full of opportunity, but think of verse 12. And pray often, so teach me to number my days that I may gain a heart of wisdom. We pray in the name of your Savior, your great High Priest, Jesus Christ, that the Lord would grant you a heart of wisdom for His glory, honor, and praise. May the Lord establish the work of our hands. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we are conscious of the brevity of our lives, that indeed we spend our years as the tale that is told, We're swept away like a flood. We grow up like grass in the morning, and then by evening, wither and dry up. Lord, we confess that this is due to our sin, our rebellion against You. So, Lord, we ask that You would forgive our sins for Jesus' sake, for the sake of the better than Moses, the God-man, our great High Priest, who died for our sins and rose again and intercedes for us even now as we come to You. So Lord, we pray in Christ's name that you would teach us to number our days, that we may indeed gain a heart of wisdom. Indeed, teach us that to live is Christ and to die is gain. That we would use these brief lives that you've given us for the honor and the glory of your son. In whose name we pray, amen. and go with the blessing of our triune God. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.