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He Has Promised Us Long Life
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If you read all of Psalm 91, you understand how you are going to make it to a long life. It’s
because you didn’t get destroyed. You didn’t perish from the pestilence or the disease or the
arrow that flew by day. You were spared, you were protected, you were healed, and you were
satisfied with a long, full life. How did you get satisfied with a long life? Because you kept
seeing how He could save.
Say this again:
“I will see how He can save, and He will satisfy me with a long, full life.
”
When you say that, the next question is “How long is long?” There are lots of people who say,
“Man, you’ve had a full 20 years. You’ve lived more in 20 years than some people have lived in
40 or 60, so you have had a full life.”
No, the Bible tells us how long is long, and we don’t need to let anyone else try to give us some
of their fancy footwork and their religious traditional idea of it, or try to talk us out of what is
long.
There are some verses in Psalm 90 that a lot of people refer to in talking about a long life, but
actually it is a misapplication of the Word. Psalm 90:3-4 says, “Thou turnest man to destruction;
and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday
when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” Have you heard that before? When reading in the
New Testament, have you read anything like that about a thousand years?
Well, he’s actually quoting this verse in 2 Peter 3:8, which says, “But, beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing…” When the Lord says don’t be ignorant about it, you can be sure that a lot of
people
are
ignorant of it, otherwise He wouldn’t have said that. So we want to be sure that we’re
not ignorant of it. What one thing is he talking about? “That one day is with the Lord as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” I think we’ve heard that and realized that time
with God is different than it is with us, but we just pass it off as not understandable. “It’s just a
great mystery.” No, he was very specific about not being ignorant about this one thing. Certainly
there are all kinds of things about time, space, the Spirit, and the physical that we are not going
to see in this realm, and He didn’t tell us about all that, but this thing He did tell us about—that
with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years.
Who knows more about time, Him or us? Certainly Him, and it’s important. The question we’re
trying to answer is “How long is long?” With long life He will satisfy me and show me His
salvation. So how long is long: twenty, thirty, forty, fifty? How old is old?
Look again at Psalm 90:4. He says, “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when
it is past, and as a watch in the night.” So a thousand years to Him is like a day that passed, like
yesterday, a day.
He said in verses 7-9, “For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our
days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.” Is he talking about a
people experiencing the blessing of God in obedience to God? No, he is not. In fact, in my Bible,
the subtitle under Psalm 90 says “A Psalm of Moses the man of God.” Verse 10 says, “The days