Sermon Bible Commentary
Psalms 90:12
The great mistake, perhaps, that people make when they reflect on the probable time they shall live in the body, is to think of their life on earth as the only life they have. We should not number our days in any such fashion as this. Time is to be regarded and prized not for the harvests that we reap, but for the seed-sowing that it enables us to do. Earthly life is not a unit; it is only a minute fraction of a unit. For the unit of being is so large that it has in it all opportunity, all occasion, all achievements, and all duration. The way to look at this life is to look at it as an opportunity to get started along the line of desirable progress, as a time to get rooted for a measureless growth, as a time to get initiated into the holy mysteries of existence and become familiar with some of its primary and essential commandments and virtues.
I. The way, therefore, to number our days is not to so number them that they seem to include the result of our lives, but to so number them that they seem to include simply the beginning of our lives. They and all they bring are only stepping-stones which lead us up to the threshold of a nobler life, nobler in its opportunities, occasions, and the character of its joy. We shall then see what life is worth and what it is not worth. We shall see what it should lead to and what we cannot afford to have it lead to. And seeing this, we shall apply our hearts unto wisdom.
II. Wisdom is a great word, because the idea it symbolises is great. Wisdom represents that finer power, that higher characteristic of mind, which suggests the proper application of facts, the right use of knowledge, the correct direction of our faculties. He whose heart is applied to wisdom has put himself in such a position that he can think divinely think as God would think in his place.
III. Your greatest responsibility is yourself. The gravest charge you have to keep is the charge of your own soul. Life weaves us into the fabric of society. We are knitted and knotted with other lives. But death unthreads us from our connections. In the last day you will be responsible for yourself. Search, then, and see how you stand. The blunders of life do not kill. Let us remember that. Past follies do not forfeit future opportunity. God is always eager to give a man or woman one more chance. Heaven is never hopeless, never despairs touching man's ability to recover himself if he is down.
W. H. Murray, The Fruits of the Spirit,p. 157.
(with 2 Kings 20:11)
The Bible is God's dial, by which we have to measure life.
I. The dial must be so placed as to receive the rays of the sun. Every line will then come into use.
II. The dial of Ahaz was a public instrument intended for all the people of Jerusalem. The Bible is for all.
III. Clouds would sometimes obscure the sun, and then the dial of Ahaz was in shadow. Clouds sometimes come between the mind and God's book, but the Sun of righteousness never sets, and there is a silver lining in the darkest cloud of the Christian's experience.
IV. The sun went backwards, and not forwards, on the dial of Ahaz, as a sign to King Hezekiah that he would get well again. With God all things are possible.
J. H. Wilson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. v., p. 24.
References: Psalms 90:12. J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes,4th series, p. 2; E. J. Hardy, Faint, yet Pursuing,p. 159; R. Lee, Sermons,p. 268; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xv., p. 24; D. Burns, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xx., p. 68; Short Sermons for Family Reading,p. 329. Psalms 90:14. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. ix., No. 513; C. J. Vaughan, Harrow Sermons,2nd series, p. 66; J. H. Wilson, The Gospel and its Fruits(C.S.), p. 75; J. Sherman, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. xi., p. 125.Psalms 90:15. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxix., No. 1701.