In our study of this text last week (See: Psalm 90: Our Dwelling Place), which really covered only the first two verses, we saw something of God's greatness, and of our relation to Him. Great as men may be accounted in this world, they are always to the Lord only "little children." In comparison with Him they are indeed "less than nothing;" what a marvelous manifestation, therefore, of His love and grace, that He calls them His children. "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God: and such we are." (1 John 3:1,RV)
Yea, for whatever God calls anything, that it is. What a comfort to know that God carries us in His bosom, and that we are sharers of His life. "In Him we live, and move, and have our being," (Acts 17:28) so that He cares for us even as for His own soul. God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, and for us, "[Christ] poured out His soul unto death." (Isaiah 53:12)
God is love; His being is love; He is nothing but love; therefore His life is love. So as we live in Him, and His life flows through us unhindered, His love is thus shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is life, and whose first and chiefest attribute is love. So, "We love, because He first loved us," (1 John 4:19) for, "Love is of God." (1 John 4:7)
The recognition of this relationship, this intimate, vital connection between God and us, cannot but fill our hearts with love, not only for Him, but for all creatures and for all creation, with which, through Him, we stand so closely related.
How can we ever doubt His care? He cannot forget us, for every moment we are drawing upon His heart's blood. We are not far from Him, but in Him. Very tenderly He guards us, for whatever danger threatens us, threatens His own life. Surely there is every reason for us to love and trust God. "You turn man to destruction, and say, Return, you children of men. For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." (Psalm 90:3-4)
Immediately the thought will arise in some minds as this is read, "That doesn't seem much like love and tenderness. It looks rather as though He petulantly casts men from Him, deliberately consigning them to destruction."
If it looks that way to us, it is only because we do not believe the first verse, which declares that He is our dwelling place in all generations. "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." (Psalm 90:1-2)
He is from everlasting to everlasting, and therefore to eternity He will still encircle us with His life of love. If we hold fast our confidence in God, all the difficulties in the way of understanding His Word will vanish.
Is it not strange that even professed Christians are ready to believe that God has put into His own Word statements that are derogatory to His character? He says that He is everlasting love, and: "He cannot deny himself." (2 Timothy 2:13)
If we truly believe Him, with no half-hearted trust, we shall find His tenderness revealed in what to the unbelieving mind seems indifference or even injustice.
Suppose we stop a little while with this statement, "You turn man to destruction," (Psalm 90:3) and see if it is really as severe a thing as it seems to us. We really ought to wait long before concluding that God casts men away from Him to destruction, with the current command, "Get you gone!"
Turning to the Hebrew we find that the word rendered "destruction" in our version is not a word that is ordinarily used in that sense, and is nowhere so defined. The idea is: "to break in pieces, to be small, to crush, to grind."
Before saying, "What is the difference?" let us turn to some other places in the Bible, where the same Hebrew word occurs. The italicized words in the following text are from the same Hebrew word as "destruction" in our text. "For thus says the high and lofty One, that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite." (Isaiah 57:15)
Read this verse in connection with Psalm 90:1-3, and note the similarity in thought. "They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I8 set before you and before your fathers." (Jeremiah 44:10)
From the word "humbled" we are referred to the margin, where we read, "Heb.: contrite." Again: "The Lord is near unto them that are of a broken heart, and saves such as be of a contrite spirit." (Psalm 34:18) "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." (Psalm 51:17)
And in the eighth verse of this Psalm we have: "Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which You have broken may rejoice." (Psalm 51:8)
These texts were translated by the same men who translated Psalm 90:3, so we have their testimony to the fact that "contrition," brokenness, is a proper rendering of the word which in this instance they have translated "destruction." We will therefore see what some other translators have done with the word.
The first translation we pick up is that of the Jewish Rabbi, Isaac Leser. It reads thus: "You turn man to contrition, and say, Return, you children of men."
The Septuagint has the same word that is found in Matthew 11, where Christ says, "I am meek and lowly in heart." (Matthew 11:29)
It occurs also in: "God, that comforts those that are cast down, comforted us." (2 Corinthians 7:6)
And in: "Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted." (James 1:9)
And also in: "[God] gives grace unto the humble;" (James 4:6) and in other similar instances. The Vulgate has humiliation, and humility, abasement. The German has a word indicating grinding. The Danish has it: "You deal with a man so that he becomes crushed."
The Norwegian, Swedish, and French translations each have it, "You cause [or command] man to return to dust."
From all these we are fully warranted in rendering verse 3: "You turn man to contrition and say, Return, you children of men."
Before we pass on from this study of the word, however, it will be profitable to stop a minute longer on the derivation of it. The word "contrition" is from two Latin words meaning "to grind together." The latter part of the word is the word "triturate," which is what the chemist does to the medicines which he puts into his mortar. He triturates them with a pestle.
"Con" (co) means "together." The word "contrition" is thus an exact equivalent of the Hebrew word, which, as before noted, means: "to break in pieces, to be small, to crush, to grind."
When the drugs are triturated or ground in the mortar they become fine dust, and so we have the other renderings already noted.
Our translators evidently concluded that this turning to dust was the end of the man, and so they rendered it "destruction." But it is a blessed truth that God, who in the beginning made man of the dust of the ground, and can turn him back to dust again, not for the purpose of destroying him, but of making a new man of him.
The word return, means, "turn again." We have another very familiar word which has the same meaning, and that is "convert." So the Vulgate carries out the thought completely, in rendering, "Ne avertas hominem un humilitatem, et divisti: convertimini filii hominum." (Psalm 90:3)
That is, "Verily You turn man to abasement, and say, Be converted, sons of men."
Man was made of dust, but we are all apt to forget our origin, and so, in our self-exaltation take ourselves out of and away from God, who is lowly; therefore God, knowing that there is no hope for us away from Him, kindly takes measures to humble as, to abase us into the dust again, saying, "Come back, be converted, made new."
Can you not now begin to see the joy and comfort that there is in the text? It may seem that this turning back to dust is really death and destruction, but that is only because: "You have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons." (Hebrews 12:5-8)
God wounds only to heal. "Though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." (Lamentations 3:32-33)
The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, begins His work of consolation by using His sword upon us.
Every trial draws Him nearer;
Peace, peace is mine!
All His strokes but make Him dearer,
Peace, peace is mine!
Bless I then the hand that smites
Gently, and to heal delights.
'Tis against my sins He fights,
Peace, peace is mine!
-- J. Denham Smith, Hymn: Peace, Peace is Mine.
What a blessed thing to know that our God can make a good, new man out of dust. Indeed, dust is the only material out of which a man can be made. As soon as man forgets that he is dust, he becomes bad, and God is obliged to take measures to turn him to dust again, so that he can be reformed, made over. The grinding process is not pleasant at the time, for: "No chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." (Hebrews 12:11)
With what equanimity and even joy we can meet all the seeming ills of life when we know this, and remember also that nothing comes to us except from the hand of God. If we are even insulted and humiliated by one who wishes us evil, we can count it all joy, knowing that: "All things work together for good to them that love God." (Romans 8:28)
Everything that wounds or presses us, every deprivation or pain, is only to keep us mindful of the fact that we are nothing but dust, that we may be great only in God's meekness. "With your meekness You have made me great." (Psalm 18:35,margin)
But we have not yet finished. We come to the fourth verse of our psalm and notice that it begins with "for." God brings us to contrition, and calls us to be made new, because a thousand years in His sight are but as yesterday. What is the force of this? Ah, we remember that there is another place where we are told that a thousand years with God is as one day, and we look it up. It is: "Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:8)
The Lord is patient with His wayward children, who, so blind to their own safety, obstinately insist on taking themselves out of His loving embrace. He does not cast them off; He does not say, "Let them go, if they will."
But He is longsuffering with them, and that longsuffering means their salvation. He is not willing that any should perish, and so He bears long with their blind stubbornness. His goodness is the only thing that leads any to repentance.
God inhabits eternity, therefore He can afford to wait. He is even patient when the very men whom He is waiting to save taunt Him with His longsuffering, saying that His delay is an evidence that He has forgotten His promise. But He never forgets. How can He, when everything and all time is always present with Him? All things are in Him. He bears them in His heart, and can no more forget any creature than He can forget His own life.
The thousands of years that have passed since God promised the restoration of all things are but as yesterday, even like one of the short watches of the night, during which men sleep. "This God is our God for ever." (Psalm 48:14) "Blessed is that people whose God is the Lord." (Psalm 33:12)
Therefore will we say, even in the midst of chastisement and affliction, "Return unto your rest, O my soul; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." (Psalm 116:7)--Present Truth, October 19, 1899--Psalm 90:1-4.