Wednesday, January 24th | Psalm 90: A Psalm of Moses

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You will find the links in the description below. And the verse of the day today comes from Ephesians 1, verses 13 and 14. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. Wow.

Wow. You know, we have a song that is an original song here at Clearview Church called Spirit of God. And that's what it's, one of the lines in that song is, Spirit of God, guarantee the promise in Christ that's waiting for me. But that verse is, it reminds us that the Holy Spirit of God is not some, you know, ambiguous force.

It's not some, like, mysterious power. No, it's a person of the Godhead. It's a member of the Trinity.

With roles to accomplish. Right. He is our guarantee of our salvation. He's the one who seals us in our relationship with God. And, you know, how we think about the Holy Spirit, how we think about Jesus, how we think about God, it matters to how we live our lives.

That's right. You know, talking about how we live our lives, we've, you know, 2024 is, I think, starting off on a good foot. Sure. We've been talking about it a lot. January is sort of coming to a close. Yeah. We're on the tail end of January, so we're doing a thing where we're, like, taking account of our lives.

Like, what does January look like? I'm down 10 pounds. Good for you, man.

That's awesome. I started January 234 pounds. That's a shocker, I know. But most of it is rock hard muscle. A little bit of it might be some fat. Maybe. Maybe. We can't be sure. Could be.

And it's impossible to say. Especially if you're on the radio and you can't see me. I'm wearing a big... Your voice sounds more slender. Yeah. You can see, I'm going to take my coat off here for the video audience. So you can see, I don't really look like I weigh 234 pounds.

And right now I don't. Right now I weigh 224. Low calorie meals. Yeah. You really can't go wrong with just eating more food.

Eating more food the correct way. Right. I should say. Yeah.

Man, I'm really into clean protein right now. Yeah. Yeah. I've been eating a lot of deer.

Yeah. I've been eating a lot of chicken. Chicken. I've been eating a lot of turkey. Chicken?

Yeah. Which I hate. I usually don't eat fried chicken. I was going to say, that's surprising for you because you're not a big chicken fan. I don't like it.

I still don't like it. I'm just eating it. Oh. Have you tried... So we've talked about this before. Yeah. You don't like biting into chicken. Have you tried shredded chicken?

Yes. You're still not a fan. It's okay. I can still taste... Chicken doesn't have much taste. It's very bland.

That's true. There's not a whole lot going on with chicken. See, people are like, oh, I love chicken. You like seasoning on chicken.

You love the seasoning on the chicken. Yes. Yes. Which is fine. There's nothing wrong with that. Yeah.

Totally fine. I love chicken. That's the way I would eat it.

I would eat that in a burrito before I ate a chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A. You love lasagna. More than life itself. Love lasagna.

More than life itself. I'm going to give you a low calorie alternative to lasagna. Dred lightly. Okay.

You're messing with the real man now. What you do is you take some zucchini. Hollow out the zucchini so it's like a boat. Okay? You grill those. Alright.

Get a little color, get a little texture on them. If you want to, you don't have to do this. If you want to, you can take the scooped out innards of the zucchini, mix it into your sauce. You can't taste it.

You won't be able to tell. Give you a little extra vegetables. You don't have to do that. Fix your sauce like normal. Put it in the zucchini boat after it's been grilled.

Top it with a little bit of cheese. Bake those in the oven. Lasagna zucchini boats. Where's the noodles go? Where's the pasta noodles go? There's your low calorie. So there's no pasta noodles in it. I almost did the scalding hot tea right in your face. There's no pasta in it, but you get the taste of the lasagna, but it's a lower calorie option.

A church member did that for us. I would say that I'm not going to call that a lasagna. That is not lasagna. That is the filling of lasagna in a zucchini boat. I'm not saying that is an alternative to lasagna. It's just an, well, I guess an alternative, but not an, I wouldn't call it a lasagna. A church member did this for us once.

I think that might be, because we're running short on time, we got to get to the ad. That might be a story for another day. Now that was, that to be fair, was just zucchini instead of pasta. And it brought in a lot of feelings in me. None of them good.

None of them were good. But I feel like that might need to be the story for another day. Maybe we'll talk about it next week. Write in and give us your suggestions.

Good low calorie meals. Please, because I'm looking. I know Dr. Shaw has some. I'm going to ask him. He uses that app to recommend food meals. Yeah, we're going to ask him.

I can't remember the name of it. If he's got it. Some go-to, some go-to meals for him. Figwee. Figwee.

Figwee. We'll talk about that in just a second. Stay tuned. We'll be back after this. Hey, what's going on, listeners? My name is John.

And I'm Ellie. And we just want to take a second and let you know about Dr. Shaw's new book on the market right now called, Can We Recover the Original Text of the New Testament? Boy, that is a long title. True, but it's a very simple message. The original text of the New Testament is not only attainable, but there are lots of different ways that scholars go about discovering it. There's a lot of people out there saying that the original text is lost forever or that it's hopeless to actually try to find it, or that there's many texts of the New Testament. But alongside Dr. David Allen Black, Dr. Shaw has actually compiled papers from some of the world's leading experts in textual criticism, including one written by himself on various methodologies for extracting the original text. And listen, if you're interested in textual criticism, this book is a great introduction to the field. You can pick up your copy on Amazon, or you can buy it from our church website. That's ClearviewBC.org. We're going to leave a link in the description box so you can get your copy today. Love that. Ellie, let's hop back in. Let's do it. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abaddon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028.

That's right. We are here today in the Clearview Today studio with Dr. Abaddon Shaw, who is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism. Dr. Shaw, 2024 is going well. We're all counting our calories. We're feeling good about life.

Here's the thing. A lot of us who count our calories listening to the show, after a certain point, we just get miserable. Because we haven't found good low calorie meals that we actually like. You can eat a bunch of Tic Tacs. They have zero calories.

They will fill you up too. What are some of your favorite low calorie meals that you've discovered since going on this calorie counting expedition? Of course, salad. You can eat salad as much as it is coming out of your ears. You can eat as much salad as you want to.

Chicken is also sort of on the low calorie side of things. Let's see. Gosh, I have an app here. Can I share the app, please?

Maybe they'll sponsor us. It's called Figwee. This is F-I-G-W-E-E. Figwee app. Do you have the Figwee app? I don't. We've talked about it on the show before.

Yes. This is a great app. On this app, once you get it, it's free for seven days and then it goes up. You have to pay for it. You can actually find whatever you're trying to eat and then it gives you a picture.

Then you move the slider up and down and you can make it more or less. It's phenomenal. It saved my life next to Jesus.

We're talking about this kind of thing. It's one of those things where people will sort of get through January, maybe into February, and then they just feel down because they thought they were going to thrive in 2024, but they feel like they're just doing everything they can just to hold on. But it reminds us of this truth the Dr. Show, you actually preached on one time where God has gifted us life not just to thrive or survive, but to face all stages of life in a way that brings glory to Him.

I remember that line sticking with me. How can I face the hard times of life in a way that brings glory to God? If I'm sitting here eating this salad that I really don't want to be eating, how can I do it for the glory of God? Do I just grit my teeth and get through it or is there some heart or mind issue to bring up here? That's especially true when it comes to raising children because you go through stages. When you first get a newborn baby, man, it's so wonderful.

Life is fulfilling, so meaningful now, and then they get into that age where, no, no. I told you not to do that. Why did you do that? I don't know. I don't know why I did it.

I just felt like I had the right decision at the time. Holden can't talk yet. He's just babbling. He's like, bah, bah, bah, bah.

I'm like, this is great. I don't have to constantly explain myself. I'm constantly saying no.

But Gavin, on the other hand? No, he's like, why? I want to. I don't want to go to bed. I don't want to brush my teeth. I don't like him. I don't like that. Oh, hitting. And you're like, get away. Get away.

I'm like, bro, what is happening to this baby? Well, if your wife is like Nicole, she has these albums and she will sit there and flip through them and she'll talk about, look where we were. Look where we are today. And the question we have to ask ourselves is, have we really faced life the best way possible? Or are we carrying some unnecessary baggage? Will we fulfill God's purpose for our lives?

These are some of the questions that we need to consider. And that does not mean that life is perfect. Life will throw you curve balls.

Life will leave you upside down. But if you're doing things God's way, then you've left a legacy. Whether people always admit that or not, you have left a legacy. So my encouragement to people is don't worry about what everybody says about you or somebody says about you. Focus on what God has said about you, because that is victory. If you want to know what victory is in the Christian life, it's when people begin to say about you what God has said about you. So I need to focus more on what God has to say about me. And the passage that really speaks to that is Psalm 90 and verse 10. It says, The days of our lives are seventy years, and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow. For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. And then verse 12, So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

I love that desire. God, teach us to number our days, and in that there's wisdom, that heart of wisdom. We've sung that song, Psalm 90, here through the worship team, and it's just a great reminder for us that God is in control over all of our days. And we need to pursue Him. We need to pursue His plan for our lives instead of trying to come up with our own. It's such a hopeless truth that we only live this brief little whisper of time.

And the only thing that I'm going to have to show for it is sorrow. But Lord, in that, the response is, because of that, God, teach me to number my days. And man, I don't know what it is about the Psalms or just the Bible in general, but finding beauty in the chaos of life is, or even in the darkness or the bleakness of life, there's something about it that's very poetic. It's very compelling for me. And for that very reason, or reasons like that, that Psalm has been designated by the Church of England in their Book of Common Prayer to be read at funeral services.

Because it's so powerful. It's a psalm about life, it's a psalm about death, it's a psalm about the meaning and purpose and legacy and all the things we're talking about today. And fun fact, is it one of the ones not written by David?

Yeah, yeah. Wait, there are Psalms not written by David? You can always tell who's new to the Bible or who's new to the Psalms specifically, because it's like, okay, Psalms, King David, got it, every Psalm. No, this one actually is by Moses. It says in that preamble or the heading, it says, the prayer, a prayer of Moses, the man of God.

And sometimes people have said, you know, these headings are not accurate, but more and more scholars are now coming out and saying, and have been for several decades, that these headings are accurate. They were written according to the headings. The Psalms were written according to the headings. Think about if Moses did write it, like the life that would have led up to the writing of that Psalm.

It changes the way that you approach that Psalm, if you're thinking about Moses and, you know, the days of his life, all the things that he had seen, the highs and the lows, you know, fleeing from Egypt and seeing God deliver his people and the people grumbling in the wilderness and just the kind of this up and down of life. Getting near the end of his life and just like this idea of, man, I'm tired. Yeah. Lord, I'm so tired. That's so weary. God calls you at 80 years old to go back to the land from which you ran away at 40 to go and set people free who don't want to be set free. That tires me just talking about it. And then for him to say, when he's called at 80, and then for him to say the days of our lives are 70 years, and if by reason of strength, they're 80 years, he's saying that's the lifespan. And that's when I got called by God. Oh, yeah, that's true. I didn't even think about that.

At the end of my life. Yeah. And then he had to learn another 40 years with some of the most grumbling, complaining, ungrateful people.

Bunch of whiny, ungrateful, just whining about their quail and Kellogg's reign from heaven. Can you see the lines on Moses' face? Can you see just how deep the lines are just etched into his face? Most of the time I just imagine Moses in the wilderness, like looking at the people of Israel and listening to their complaints and just doing one of these things, like.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The radio audience doesn't get it, but this is, this is Moses right here. Just hinge the bridge of your nose and just kind of just real deep sighs. Moses did a lot of this here, circling the eyes, rubbing his eyes. Dude, I can't imagine, I can't imagine being called by God at 80 years old, let alone going on to do all the things.

But think about it. If those people complained in a matter of day or two, because they were pretty much complaining by the time they got to the Red Sea. They were already complaining when they saw Pharaoh's army behind them. I would say this way, some of us would not even have left our homes. You know, we often talk about the people of Israel or the children of Israel and what they did and what they didn't do. Look, if you and I were in their place, we would not even have left our home. We would not even have sacrificed that Passover land.

We would have been like, you know what? I'm not getting into all that stuff. Yeah, we've been here for a long time. I cooked some chicken yesterday, consider that sacrifice. Yeah, that's good enough.

It's fine. They'd be going in the fridge, just pulling out stuff that's expired, be like, you think you'll take it? Mommy, aren't we supposed to sacrifice?

Like, this is it, okay? Look, you've got to sacrifice money. You've got to sacrifice money because we've got food at home. We don't want to overdo it with this whole sacrificing, being obedient to God thing. But anyways, going back to Moses, he had an exceptional childhood growing up, as you can imagine. Raised by godly parents who trusted God, and then they put him in the Nile River to protect him.

I mean, this is how much trust they had. They were not putting him in there to let him be eaten by alligators. No, they were putting him there so that he will have a life.

That's right. And he did. And it says in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 25, he was being groomed to be the next Pharaoh. But then it says in verse 25, to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. He chose that.

That's a great point. Esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. So at 80 years of age, you would think he's ready to hang it up, right? Psalm 80, I'm sorry, Psalm 90, his own psalm, he's ready to hang it up. And yet at this age, he steps out to obey God.

Yeah. I love that it says that Moses chose, or he esteemed the reproach of Christ's greater riches. You know, you said this before, Dr. Shaw, but we think about the people in the Old Testament as having no clue what God's plan was.

Having no idea what's happening down the road. Like, maybe there's a redemptive plan, God's at work doing something. They knew very well what was going to happen. He might not have had the name Jesus, but he knew that there was a Messiah that was coming.

That's right. And he may not even have heard the word Messiah, because that came, I believe, more in the Exilic period, probably, right? But he knew that the promised one was coming. He knew that the child of promise is coming. The one who's going to crush or, you know, stomp over the head of the serpent is coming. So they knew someone was coming, and they also knew that this someone was not just an ordinary person.

This someone was the Son of God. Yeah. And because of that, life matters. Like, if I'm being called by God at 80 years old, and I know this is coming one day, I'm somehow part of this plan, my life matters.

Yes, yes. We try to tell people, hey, your life matters. Get them connected to who the living God is. That's right. And people realize that if they were the only one on this planet, Jesus would have still come to die for them. That's right.

Right? And so Moses begins by acknowledging that life is not an accident. Listen to what he says in verse 1. He said, Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, wherever you formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. I mean, that's a wonderful assurance on those days when life doesn't make any sense.

That's right. But then God, through Moses, of course, he immediately talks about sin. Because that is our problem. That is what separates us from God. It says right here in Psalms 90 in verse 7, it says, 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. Secret sins is the word alumina, which means hidden deeds coming from our younger days. Don't we all have those?

Yes. Lust and pride and lies and bitterness and selfishness. I mean, the list goes on and on. And then it says in verse 9, for all our days have passed away in your wrath. We finish our years like a sigh. I mean, we live, live, live, live, live, go on vacations, work hard, work overtime, make money, build businesses, have family, children, go through relationship crisis, whatever, whatever. But we finish our years with a moan. The Hebrew word is hegel, which means like a growl.

Yeah, like dad noises, you know, when dads sit down on the couch, they got to let everybody know how tired they are. That's how we finish life. That's when he brings up that verse 10, which is 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.

Wow. That's the biggest problem in our life is our sin. And what's crazy is so many of us won't acknowledge it.

We won't acknowledge it at all. So that's where we are. And what Moses' prayer does is that it's calling us so that we would take an account of our lives. You know, we often hear about the circle of life or the cycle of life. There is no cycle and there's no circle. We are headed in a linear direction with a collision course. And the collision course is the judgment of God. It's the second coming. So to think that we're just going to keep going and we're going to leave and someone else is going to come, I'm sorry to break it to you. That's not how life is. We are moving along linearly towards a point where there is a judgment seat and Christ is there and God is there. And we have to give an account.

That's right. We have a determined end. And we, for too long, even Christians, have been pretending that we don't. Like once I die, life goes on.

Yeah, we think we're exempt from that judgment and we are all going to have to give an account for our actions, saved and unsaved, every one of us. And so Moses says in verse 12, this is Psalm 90 verse 12, he says, so teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. And there's an interesting thing happening now, I think, among people my age, millennials, because when I turned 30, I started doing that. I'm 31 now, but when I turned 30, I was like, all right, what have I done with my life? Where am I?

Not for better or worse for me to feel good or bad, but just where am I in life? And there's so many shows about millennials, people this age who aren't dating, aren't with anyone, and the whole message is don't do that. Yeah, don't be like this. Don't be like that. Live your life and enjoy it. And if you're 35 and you're not married and you don't have a solid career, you're enjoying life. And that's the whole message. And we literally are being fed the very opposite of Psalm 90.

Right, right. No, take an account of your life. What is your legacy? What is your purpose? Are you truly living your life as if one day you have to give an account to the living God? And are you numbering your days? Are you going back and looking at it day one, day two, day three? Now, you may not do that day one, day two, but you may go by years or sections of your life or periods of your life. What do you see?

What are the things that you have picked up? I mentioned nature, right? I've talked about who we are genetically. We pick up some of that baggage without even our consent.

They just hand it to us, say, hey, you're going to be born in this family. Here you go. Make a life out of this. Good luck.

Here you go. These are some of the things that you will be prone to. Now make a life.

Now make a life. And then comes nurture, which is the environment in which we grew up. Our social situations, our past experiences, all these add on to the baggage.

And if that's not enough, then we have the self, which is our mind, our soul, our spirit, which makes us unique, but fallen with original sin and then further damaged by sinful choices. I mean, we make choices throughout life. And if they're wrong choices, we have to now live with them. And even if they're not dire, causing deep problems to you and others, you still have a sense of, I guess, consequences, right? There is an effect. There is an impact to your life. Now you have to live with that. Then supernatural, here we're talking about God and church and word, but also Satan and the world.

These are anti-God systems. See, all these things add on to that baggage. Can you see the book Pilgrim's Progress? Can you see that pilgrim just walking with this heavy load on his back? Where are you going?

I don't know. I'm trying to get to that heavenly city. And what's crazy is we live under all that baggage and then end up blaming God for it. We end up blaming God for all the weight and the exhaustion that we feel out of life. So let's say the person does this, that they stop and they take stock, they take inventory of what baggage that they're carrying and where they are in their relationship with God.

What is their next step if they, and most likely they will, find their relationship with God wanting? Well, thank goodness, Moses tells us. Listen to verse 13. He says, In return, O Lord, how long, and have compassion on Your servants. Means, God, I need Your mercy.

I need Your love. Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Which means the sooner you start your relationship with God, the more you will rejoice and be glad the rest of your days. And for all the control freaks out there saying, but surely just wanting to be filled with God's mercy, just wanting it and asking for it isn't enough. Right, right.

It is enough. And then he also says in verse 15, this is Psalm 90 verse 15, Psalm of Moses, the man of God, 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. And then, yes, establish the work of our hands. I mean, these are powerful words, establish. Many of us are doing things that will get washed away by the flood of life. And here Moses is saying, no, no, no, establish. Here's a statement, and I hope people get it. And Stephen Alford, I believe, is the one who said this.

Maybe somebody else did. And he said something like this, There's only one life, and it shall soon pass. Only what is done for Christ will last. Amen. There you go.

What a note to end on. Yeah, so good for us to help keep things in perspective, especially with our days and the course of our life. If today was helpful for you, if it clarified some things for you and helped you grow closer to God, write in and let us know, 252-582-5028. Or you can visit us online, cleveretodayshow.com. Don't forget, you can partner with us financially on that same website. Scroll to the bottom and click that Donate Now button. Also, I want to encourage you to visit mightymuscadine.com.

Check out their line of products available on their website, and use the promo code TODAY, that's T-O-D-A-Y, for a discount on your products, as well as a portion of that purchase to come right back here to the Cleveretodayshow. John, anything you want to give our listeners a sneak preview of for tomorrow's episode? We'll be talking about the gospel, the gospel that changes lives, the gospel that's the reason that you're listening to the Truth Network and the radio show, and even here at the Cleveretodayshow, you're listening because you want to hear more and more about the gospel. Hopefully you want to share the gospel, but what is the gospel?

How do you define what the gospel is? Well, Buddy Boy, tune in, because tomorrow we're going to let you know. There you go. Can't share what you don't know. We'll see you tomorrow on Cleveretoday. .