Jan 21, 2018
by: Jack Lash Series: Misc | Category: Miscellaneous | Scripture: Psalm 90:3–6, Psalm 90:12–14
- Introduction
A. This morning I’m going to preach about aging and death.
1. Over the last decade, I’ve spent a lot of time with old people. And I’ve now spent enough time around death that it is no longer weird and strange to me, as it was when I was young.
2. Many of our parents have died. Four of us have had our fathers die in the last month.
B. I can’t think about anything else.
1. It’s not just like you have a lot to do. It’s not just that there are lots of emotions. It’s that something so big is happening in your life that your mind is busy trying to process it.
2. Now because as a Christian I want to process everything according to the word of God, it is no burden at all to share Biblical thoughts about dying and aging.
C. Psalm 90:3, 5-6, 12, 14 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: 6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
II. Aging
A. The passage in the Bible which talks most extensively about aging is a passage directed to young people. God wants young people to think about aging.
B. Eccl.12 gives instructions of how to live as a young person in light of the changes that are going to occur in old age.
1. 12:1-2 "Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, 'I have no delight in them'; before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain"
a. "Evil days"
(1) “and the years draw near when you will say, ‘I have no delight in them’”
(2) Go to a nursing home and look at those old frail people. Most of us are going to look like that some day. And do you know what? It's going to be the same you in that body as is in your present body.
b. "the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened"
c. "and clouds return after the rain" – vision cloudy
2. 12: 3 in the day that the watchmen [lit. keepers] of the house tremble,
a. our arms [and perhaps legs], once strong and impressive, tremble and shake
3. and mighty men stoop,
a. [probably] men who once stood strong and mighty stoop over in weakness
4. the grinding ones stand idle because they are few,
a. Most of the teeth have fallen out
5. and those who look through windows grow dim;
a. the eyesight has grown dim
6. 4 and the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low,
a. [probably] sense of hearing has faded
7. and one will arise at the sound of the bird,
a. the slightest sound inspires fear or the slightest sound in the morning wakes one up
8. and all the daughters of song will sing softly.
a. voice is failing
9. 5 Furthermore, men are afraid of a high place and of terrors on the road;
a. Fear of heights and danger in the streets
10. the almond tree blossoms,
a. white hair
11. the grasshopper drags himself along,
a. frailty, limping along
12. and the caperberry is ineffective.
a. the sexual and reproductive processes have ceased to function
13. For man goes to his eternal home while mourners go about in the street.
14. 6 Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed,
a. These are two parts of a hanging lamp: the cord which holds it up and the bowl of oil that fuels it. The lamp symbolizes our life.
15. the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed;
a. This speaks of two parts of obtaining water: the pitcher by the side of the well and the wheel that scoops water up from the bottom of the cistern. Their breaking here again symbolizes the breaking down of the bodily functions that keep us alive.
16. 7 then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
17. Ecclesiastes presents to us the grim side of aging and death. And there is a grim side. And we must pay attention to that grim side, lest we fail to grasp the lessons that God has for us in it.
18. The temptation to universalize when it comes time to die.
a. This feels loving, but it is not at all.
b. If we communicate universalism, then everybody feels safe. And they’re not safe.
19. Every one of us is mortal. Every one of us is growing old.
20. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
C. As we age, instead of worrying about what others think, we should be remembering our Creator while we still have strength.
1. The early signs of age are God's way of lovingly nudging us toward eternity, of gently redirecting our minds from this world to the next, of weaning us away from having our identity here and putting our identity with Christ in heaven.
2. On one level, we don't especially want our minds redirected to eternity, we would just as soon never grow old and stay here forever. But in love God knows that is not what is best for us.
3. And so He makes our bodies classrooms for eternity. Every day they remind us that this existence isn't going to last forever.
4. Each hair that turns gray or falls out, each episode of forgetfulness, each ache in our back is a whisper from God, a kind and loving whisper that our days are numbered, that these bodies are fading, and that a glorious future is being prepared for us.
5. The wearing away of our bodies is a gift, a gift more precious than the ultimate perfect body. It is a gift that fits us for eternity, which is much more valuable than a gift that merely fits us for life on this earth.
III. Death and Ps. 90 - a Psalm about death, what the puritans called the most important day of our life.
A. Perhaps the oldest Psalm, and the only one written by Moses, it looks at life from the eyes of a man who has lived a long time and tasted the fullness and the bitterness of life.
B. Psalm 90:3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”... 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: 6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
1. Each one of us has an appointment with death. Just as God determined the day of our birth, so He has set a date for each of us to die.
a. It isn’t necessarily a long way off. The day after my dad died, a 27 year old man died at the same hospital of opioid overdose.
2. It seems the Bible is constantly bringing this up.
a. James 4:14 “You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”
b. James 1:10 “like flowering grass he will pass away.”
c. Job 14:1-2 “Man, who is born of woman, is short-lived and full of turmoil. Like a flower he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.”
d. Psalm 39:5 “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; surely every man at his best is a mere breath.”
e. Ps.103:15-16 “As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer.”
3. Death beds are coming (Softly and tenderly)
4. Cemetery stone with your name on it; people walking by.
5. Because we are not willing to face the reality of growing old and dying, we don't prepare for it. We're not ready when it comes, and then it hits and we panic.
6. For most people, the process of dying is the greatest trial of their whole lives. And it makes sense that it would be.
7. Coming to the point when you realize that you will soon not be here any more, and your body will decay in the ground, is a very scary and traumatic thing for most people. And so most ignore it.
8. They know it to be true intellectually, but they refuse to think about it. It is just too painful.
9. But don't you see what happens when you refuse to face painful realities? You cannot prepare for them, you do not get yourself ready to face it.
10. It is like the person who gets his first credit card and he spends and he spends and he spends, but he never thinks about the day when the bill is going to arrive. He has no plan, he makes no preparation for how he is going to pay the bill. He just won't let himself think about it, it is too painful. And so he just ignores it.
11. Or it is like the alcoholic or drug addict who runs to his booze or his fix because he can’t face his life as it is. He's trying to escape, but there is no escape. All you can do is forget about it for a while. But sooner or later he has to face up to it. If he doesn’t, there will eventually be no more life to be faced.
C. Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
1. Numbering our days means realizing how short our life is.
2. Wisdom comes from realizing how short life is.
3. Wisdom doesn’t come from being old, wisdom comes from knowing you’re going to be old soon.
4. How does wisdom come from looking at everything in light of the shortness of life?
a. First of all, it is going to make you think about doing only things that are important, because when you only have a little time, you only do the important things.
b. And it changes your definition of what is important, because there are many things that seem important when you think you are going to be here virtually forever that suddenly seem very unimportant when you realize you only have a little time.
c. You learn to look at the eternal value of the things you do instead of merely their earthly value.
5. The fool forgets that he will fade away, he thinks as if it will last.
6. The wise man lives in the knowledge that he will fade away.
7. The wise man knows that everything he has is just there for a time.
a. He knows that his house is going to be gone, his nicest clothes will one day become rags.
b. His car, no matter how beautiful, will one day be on a junk yard.
c. Everything he owns is going to be trash one day. And most of it he will live to see become trash.
d. And he knows that one day his body, and perhaps his mind, will be old and decrepit.
8. It helps you not to take your present stage too seriously.
a. You’re not the first one to face the things you face.
b. And you can look at the people older than you and learn about your future.
c. It is the coming age which really matters. Doing things here which make an eternal difference is what is important.
d. And it helps you not be a procrastinator, who thinks there’s plenty of time when the fact is that God gives us only a certain amount of days here on this earth and our job is to use them to know our Maker & serve our Savior to the best of our ability. (Cf. parable of the talents: Mt.25:14ff.)
9. As an old man, Moses here is asking God to help him remember his life is short.
10. David does the same thing in Ps.39:4: “Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; let me know how transient I am.”
D. Psalm 90:14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
1. Ps.90:12 says that wisdom comes from knowing about death.
a. Doesn’t this take away joy?
b. Not at all, but it does change the basis of our joy. Our joy is in the love of the Lord.
2. Christians are not immune from the somewhat sad and painful process of growing old. God puts us through the same trials He puts all men through.
a. But as life’s realities push others down, God’s people are held up by their joy in the love of Christ.
3. We can face death because we know that death isn’t the end!
4. Death has been defeated and overcome. “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” – 1Cor.15:54-55
5. Old age does not need to be a time of bitterness and pain. It can be a time sweetened by the joys of Christ’s love and of the delicious anticipation of the glories He is preparing for us.
6. In God’s economy, when we get old our ability to enjoy earthly enjoyments decreases, but it doesn’t matter, because there is joy in heavenly pleasures more than sufficient to compensate.
7. That’s why Paul can say, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21
E. 1Cor 3:21-23 So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.
1. Death belongs to you! Death has been made your servant, not your enemy! To die is gain!
2. 2Cor 5:8 “We ... prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”
3. My friends, death belongs to us. All things have been made our servants and our friends — even the natural deterioration of our bodies!
4. Romans 8:31–39 If God is for us, who can be against us?...35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.