Dr. John Tweeddale: Numbering Our Days at RBC

Well, good morning, RBC. What a joy it is to be together for our first chapel. I would invite you to take your Bible in hand and turn with me to Psalm chapter 90, Psalm chapter 90. And as you are turning, let me also just bring greetings to new students. We welcome you. To returning students, we have missed you. And to staff and faculty and guests and friends and maybe even a few alum, we are so grateful to be together. Chapel is the high point of our time together as a college community. It is the only time in the week when we gather together as a community, as a college. And this is important. We place ourselves under the ministry of the Word of God. We sing to Him His praise. We bring to Him our prayers, and we hear His Word read and proclaimed, and then we go out together with His blessing. How good it is to be Reformation Bible College. Well, I thought for an opening text of the year, I would consider with you what it means to number our days here at RBC. So, we'll be reading this morning from Psalm chapter 90, beginning in verse 1, "Hear now the Word of the Lord," a prayer of Moses, the man of God, "Lord, You have been our dwelling place. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, You are God." You would turn man to dust and say, "Return, O children of man, for a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past." Or as a watch in the night, You sweep them away as with a flood. They are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning. In the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. For we are brought to an end by Your anger, by Your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence. For all our days pass away under Your wrath. We bring our years to an end like a sigh; the years of our life are seventy, or even by reason. Yet their span is but toil and trouble, and they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of Your anger and Your wrath according to the fear of You? So teach us to number our days, that we might get a heart of wisdom. O Lord, how long? Have pity on Your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with Your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let Your work be shown to Your servants and Your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord, our God, be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. Amen. And this ends the reading of God's holy, inspired, and inerrant Word. May He add His blessing to us here today. Well, as we begin a new academic year, I wonder if you have thought about how you will spend your time at RBC. I wonder how many of you here are planning to be here for one year for the certificate program? Raise your hand high. Be proud. Well, you may not know, but we have a plan to keep you here much longer. But if you're planning to be here for one year, you have $265,000. That's 64 days at RBC. How many of you are planning on being here for two years, whether as an associate or as a degree completion student? All right. Well, we don't really do math here, so let's kind of use round numbers. You have a little more than 500 days before you. Now, any brave student here on the accelerated track? A few of you here. Ah, yes, the few and the proud. There you are. Well, we're praying for you because you have nearly 800 days to finish an RBC education. And then, the flagship here. How many of you are in the Bachelor of Arts in Theology? Okay, you need to understand that if you're here for four years, you have a little more than 1,000 days ahead of you here at RBC. RBC. Have you thought about that? It's not a lot of time, is it? Whether you're here for one year, two years, three years, four years, at most, at most, you're here for about 1,000 days. Now, some of you pesky students will stretch that even longer, but let's just talk in averages. Those numbers may sound large to you today. But, that is until you start spending them. You see, as finite creatures, we are limited by time and space. Days do not come to us all at once. They unfold, and sometimes they unravel. You see, days arrive one at a time. And once a day is spent, that's it. We can't recover a day that's gone by. There's no rollover. Some of us on the staff like to rollover PTO. We really should be using our PTO. But if you have paid time off, it's a curious thing. You can take a part of that and roll it over. But with real time, with days, you can't roll them over into the next year. There's no savings account where you can store unused money. Unused seconds, minutes, hours, days, and months. And so those 264 days are not sitting safely somewhere, waiting for you. They are steadily passing you by. So how are you spending your time at RBC? In fact, do you know that we're already on day four? We're already on day four. How are you savoring this time? How are you enjoying this time? How are you using this time? How are you making much of this time? Given the limited time you have here at RBC, how are you spending these days? And that may seem an obvious question to most of us, but I suspect if you're a young person or maybe even an old person, you haven't stopped to reflect on that question. You see, Psalm 90 presses us toward a greater question. Not just how are we using time, but what kind of person will you be during the time that God has given you at RBC? What kind of person are you going to be here? What will you love that you do not love now when you graduate RBC? What's going to command your attention? What's going to capture your imagination? What habits will you quietly form, and what bad habits will quietly form you? What sins will you learn to resist? What sins might you tolerate to the point where they become comfortable and familiar over the next few years? You see, you can spend your days at RBC doing everything you're supposed to do. to do. You can earn credit, you can fill notebooks, you can learn biblical languages. You can read great works, and you can sharpen your theological vocabulary, and in all of those things, you can still not gain a heart of wisdom. Did you know that? Right? You can have your head swell up with information, and yet in your heart, you can be rather anemic spiritually and lack the one thing you need for the fear of God, and that is wisdom. So, you can know more about God without knowing God. You can learn about prayer while praying less. You can prepare to serve Christ all of your days while slowly drifting from God. Christ. Remember, it's better to walk with Christ than to work with Him, and our study of Christ arises out of our life with Christ. That's what we saw last week in orientation. So, if you're here to grow in your love for Jesus Christ, RBC can help. But RBC by itself cannot make you wise, and you need to hear that. I cannot make you wise. Dr. Matheson can't make you wise. RBC by itself cannot make you wise. For that, for wisdom, we need God to teach us, to teach us in light of His eternity, that we might gain a heart of wisdom. That's why Moses says here in Psalm 90, teach us to number our days. And yet, we all know that for Moses here in Psalm 90, numbering our days is not ultimately about arithmetic. Moses here isn't asking God to reveal the date of His death. Wouldn't you like to know that? Oh God, just tell me when my last day is going to be, and then I'll know how to order my steps. No, that's not what Moses is saying. Moses, like you and me, is finite, and Moses, like you and me, is fallen. And he doesn't know the exact days remaining for him here, and we don't know the exact days remaining for him here. We certainly don't know that as well. Instead, Moses asked God for wisdom to live every unknown day for His glory, to live every moment before the face of God. That's why we love to talk about Coram Deo, every moment before the face of God, all days in light of eternity. Indeed, the great preacher, the London Baptist, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, go Spurgeon House! Y'all are going to get this in time. But Spurgeon will say this, counting is a child's exercise in arithmetic, right? A child, one, two, three. Counting is child's arithmetic. But in order to number our days aright, we need the Lord's teaching. He adds that we are to be more eager to number our days than to count the stars in the sky. And Spurgeon is certainly right. We tend to get everything out of whack when we think about what matters most in our lives. We love to talk about priorities. We love to talk about time management. And we can count every single moment and still miss the big picture of life. And we can count every single moment and still miss the big picture of life and meaning. So we count the stars. We monitor our savings account. We track the stats of our favorite players. We count the seconds on the clock. And even as students, you count credits, pages, assignments, and you even are probably counting the days until your first break when you get to go home. We count almost everything. Except the thing that matters most. See, numbering our days means more than knowing how many days are before us. It means learning to see each moment as God sees each moment. As brief, accountable, purposeful, and full of opportunities to know and serve and love and worship this God. This life is just filled with innumerable opportunities to know and serve Him. And so, learning to number our days at RBC means more than cramming our days with more stuff and measuring what matters. No, learning to number our days here at RBC means living our time together in light. In light of eternity. In light of the God we say we love and serve. And so, at RBC, the academic calendar may stipulate our days, but only God can teach us to number them. And only God can teach us to number our days. And so, here in Psalm 90, we have Moses in all likelihood at the end of his life to live out one's life in light of eternity. And he begins in verses 1 and 2 by focusing on the transcendence of God. Psalm 90 begins not with the brevity of our lives. It begins with the eternity of God. It is simply impossible to have too great a thought of the glory and majesty and splendor and of God. And so, Moses says, Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth and ever You formed the earth and the world. From everlasting to everlasting, You are God. That's where an education begins. That's where you learn where meaning in life are found. When you stop and realize before all things there has been and there is and always will be only God. Now, we're told that Psalm 90 is a prayer of Moses. It's an extraordinary prayer. Prayer is ultimately an index of the heart. It reveals what matters most. And here, in all likelihood, at the end of his life, we see what matters most to Moses. We're told here that he is known as a man of God. It's a title given to Moses. The only time that phrase is used of Moses outside of the Psalter is in Deuteronomy 31. Right as Moses is preparing for his death, we are told that he is given the title man of God. We live in a culture that obsesses about titles. I'm a bachelor of theology. I'm a master of divinity. I'm a doctor of philosophy. And we love to pile on. I'm a fellow. I'm a reverend. I'm a this. I'm a that. Who cares? Who cares? What ultimately matters is whether you bear the title man of God or woman of God. Are you consecrated to know the living and true God of heaven and earth? And so, perhaps Moses prayed these words as he contemplated the wilderness wandering of Israel, as he watched a rebellious generation squander what God had given. So much of what we do as faculty and staff is simply pray over you that you might not squander what God has given like Israel in the wilderness. Some of you Old Testament scholars will know that Psalm 90 begins book 4 of the Psalter. This is a section, as Palmer Robertson will emphasize, that discusses the maturity of Israel, the growth of God's people. You'll also know that book 3 in Psalm 89 begins or ends with the collapse of David. David's kingdom. And so, the placement of this psalm is important. As David's mighty kingdom is unraveling, here we have a reminder of one who wrote before David and of one who existed before David. Because after all, kingdoms fall, generations come and go, classes at RBC come and go, and yet God, from everlasting time, to everlasting is always a dwelling place for His people. And so, Moses wants us to look all the way back to the very beginning to behold the majesty of God. And so, notice where this psalm begins. Moses is not talking about the brevity of our lives. He's reveling in the eternity of God, soaking in the glory and wonder and beauty of God. And so, your limitedness, your frailty, your fallenness is not the first lesson you are to focus on here at RBC. Yes, those things are important to note, but the most important thing is that you behold your God. Derek Kidner, an older Old Testament scholar of a former generation, has a wonderful commentary on the Psalter, and I commend it to you. And he actually makes the point, though, when we come to Psalm 90, we're not just drawing this strong antithesis between the eternity of God and the brevity of man. We're doing something, more than that. What the psalmist wants us to know is not despair. He's not saying, God is eternal, we are not, so what's the point? You should despair. No, he's actually giving us hope and reason for existing and living and studying and working. Moses is wanting us to know that the God who lasts forever, is your dwelling place. The God who created galaxies, the God who existed before mountains, the God who made all things, the God who is never shaken, the God who's never surprised, the God who's never taken off guard, is your God. The God who never fails a theology exam, the God who never misses a Greek vocabulary word. It's a God who belongs to you and he is your home. He is your dwelling place. You see, God is not simply a shelter that we run to in times of crisis or emergency. No, he's our dwelling place. He's our refuge. He's our home. He's where we find meaning and joy and life and purpose. He is the security of his people. I can't guarantee anything in this life for you. I cannot accept that God is your dwelling place. You see, students arrive and students graduate. Faculty and staff come and go. Presidents come and go. Founders come and go. Family and friends live and die. But in every generation, God remains the dwelling place of his people. He is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. And so, as wonderful as RBC is, it cannot be your ultimate dwelling place. Your identity cannot ultimately be found in RBC as much as we love this college, as much as we love to wear the colors. And sport the brand. RBC cannot be your true dwelling place, your source of ultimate security and comfort and meaning in life. And so, as you enjoy the residence hall, as you walk the grounds of this beautiful campus, we as faculty and staff want you to live in the presence of the God you study. Make him your purpose. Make him your dwelling place. You see, I might say it this way. A theological education is less about information and more about habitation. It's about habitation. Dwelling in the presence of God. Where are you dwelling? On your success? On your career? On your resources? On your network? On your ingenuity? On your ability? What are you dwelling on? Where is your identity? Is it in God? And so, no matter how much you learn, no matter what experiences you have, no matter what opportunities are set before you, what matters most is that you know that God is your dwelling place, the one who created all things, the one who is before the mountains. In this context, the one who was before the swamps, right? He is your God, and He is your dwelling place, and as you find your way to RBC, I hope you'll find your way to Him. I hope that the aha moment for you at RBC is that you have discovered your God, that the God of your confession, the God of your theology books is the God of galaxies, and He is your dwelling place. And so, as we number our days, the first thing we begin to take in is the transcendence of God. But next, in verses 3 to 12, we see the transience of life, the transience of life. Another Old Testament scholar, Willem van Gameren, calls Psalm 90 a reflection on the transience of life. In many ways, Psalm 90 is similar to the book of Ecclesiastes, where you see the futility of life apart from God. In other words, here in the heart of this psalm, Moses turns from God's eternity to our brevity. Right? You don't have much time in front of you. And so, in verses 3 to 12, Moses reflects on the creation narrative. He reminds us from whence we came. He wants us to see that as humans, we are not only fallen, but we are finite. Like, you simply can't do everything. I know you're 18, and you think you can. But you can't. You can't do everything. And the problem is not simply that you're a sinful creature. The reality is, is that you are limited as a creature and as a finite person. And so, you need rest. You actually need good nutrition. You need exercise. You need fellowship beyond books. You need sunshine and vitamin D, and you need a life. Because you're finite. And you need grace because you're fallen. And so, he says in verse 3, you return God, you return man to dust. Moses here is drawing on the language of Genesis 3. We are children of Adam, formed from the ground, and we are destined to return to the dust. That is your future. You might have visions of glory. But don't forget, when all is said and done, you will be a child of God. But don't forget, when all is said and done, from one perspective, you're going back into the ground. You are but dust. And so, from our perspective, a thousand years may seem immense, too much for us to comprehend. And yet, from God's perspective, time is much different. What seems like a millennium to us is like the passing of the night for the one who ordered us to die. Who shall I marry? What shall I study? Well, you'll find the answers to those questions as you, by faith, trust in the one who will direct your steps. And so, throughout this psalm, Moses piles on images to remind us of how frail we really are. Our lives are swept away like a flood. Our lives are insubstantial and fleeting like a dream. Our days are fragile, kind of like grass in the summertime here at Florida. They're fresh in the morning, and then by evening, under that noonday heat, the grass has withered. The point in all of these images is that Moses is trying to get us to see that while our lives are frail, our life has value, our life is limited. Our life is limited. And your time at RBC is just like that little day. In the morning, there's the dew of heaven, but at some point, there will come the evening, and day will be no more. And so, your first week at RBC probably feels like a dream. New books, new friends, new classes, new opportunities. But even the best dreams don't last forever. And so, your ultimate purpose cannot be in this place. There is more to life than RBC. Can I get a witness? As much as we love this place. And so, four years may seem long to you, but before you know it, your time at RBC will come to an end. And so, how are you spending it? And so. So, Moses wants us to see that our time is brief because we are finite, but also, at the end of our time, we will be held accountable because we are fallen. Look again at verse 7. Moses says, for we are brought to an end by your anger and by your wrath. We are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins, in the light of your presence. Friends, I hope you understand, as you are now away from home, and you are outside the gaze of your parents and loved ones and pastor, people who know you, you are not outside and beyond the gaze of God. What we conceal from others is never concealed from God. He knows. He sees. And the glorious thing about the gospel… The glorious thing about the gospel is that even when we are still sinners, God demonstrates His love for us by sending His Son to die. So, one of the things that we hope to do while you're here is begin to help you deal with your sin that you might see more fully and clearly the wonder and beauty of Christ who paid the penalty of your sin. Friends, public orthodoxy can and sometimes can't be a sin. This does exist alongside of private compromise. And just because you're checking the box of orthodoxy and getting A's on every theology and Bible exam doesn't mean you're immune from falling into sin and temptation. And so, we want to come alongside, and we want to put a light on your life and help you realize you do not have to live in a sin-filled life. We want to put a light on your life and help you realize you do not have to live in a sin-filled life. And so it's in this context He says in verse 12, O Lord, teach us to number our days. This is not a metric for counting. It's a mechanism for understanding our dependence on God. A numbered day is one that's received by God. A numbered day is one that's lived before Him. A numbered day is one that's returned to God with thanks. That's how you number your days. You live every day in recognition that what you have is given to you by God. And so, students, receive today. Receive your education as a gift from God. Let me encourage you to choose ordinary faithfulness, living each moment in dependence on God as you pursue. Your studies. And yet, whether you might think or be tempted to believe that Moses' words here, teach us to number our days, is some kind of grim tagline, where we're simply to live on some kind of wheel of efficiency. Notice how Moses ends this psalm in prayer. So, it begins with the transcendence of God. And then it moves into a reflection of the transience of life. But then it ends with the blessing of God's favor in prayer. And I would actually just simply end by encouraging you to pray what Moses asks us to pray. Moses ends this psalm with three prayers as we learn to number our days. First, in verse 13, we are to pray that God would be merciful to us. Verse 13, we are to pray that God would be merciful to us. That He is to have pity, or another way to translate it is compassion on us as His servants. As we prepare to return to the dust from which we were made, we would plea for God to have mercy. Because all of life is lived under the umbrella of God's mercy as we depend on Him. And that's an important category of compassion. That even Christ Himself looked at us. And that as you come into the New Testament, time is reoriented in the Lord Jesus Christ. That He Himself came, born of a woman, born under the law at just the right time. To live a perfect life and to die in our stead. To conquer death itself and provide a way for us to know eternity. To live eternal life so that in Christ, time and life find their meaning in Christ. And so as you go out here and you pray, you pray that God would have mercy and pity and compassion on you, a frail and fallen sinner who needs Jesus Christ. Second, in verses 14 and 15, you pray that God would satisfy you with steadfast love. And education can get you there. Education can give you credentials, friendship, skills, opportunities. All of these things are good. But none of these things will satisfy you. The only thing that's going to satisfy you is God's covenant love. That He will be your satisfaction. He will be your preeminence as you continue your time here. Third and finally, you would pray that God would establish the work of your hands with His favor. Notice in verses 16 and 17, Moses prays that God's work would be shown and then God would establish our work as we serve Him. You see, God's work gives reason and perspective to our work. We work because He works. And we work in light of the grace that He gives. Indeed, as we work, we understand what we do here at RBC is not meaningless. No, Moses prays, Let the favor, or hear this, Let the beauty of God rest upon us. That's the word. And so as we begin a new academic year, we pray, Oh God, would your beauty fall upon this place. So that when the world sees RBC, they would not simply see us. They would not see simply R.C. Sproul. When the world looks at this place, they would see the beauty of God. They would see the beauty of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's what we pray. Oh God, be merciful to us. Oh God, satisfy us with your love. Oh God, bless us with your beauty and your favor as we study together. And so this psalm ends with a corporate prayer. It ends with a reminder that God is our dwelling place. Some of you may know that a hymn writer, Isaac Watts, in just the days after the Puritans, and in a time right in the beginning of the 18th century when England was still in crisis, Isaac Watts published a hymn based on Psalm 90, titled, Man is Frail and God is Eternal. This hymn has long comforted God's people in times of comfort, in times of crisis. And we know it today as our God, our help in ages past. And so as we begin another year, I trust we'll sing those words from Isaac Watts. Our God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. Be thou our guard while troubles last and our eternal home. Let's pray together. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, you have been our dwelling place for every generation. Before the mountains were born, you alone were God. And while our days are brief, help us to see that you are good. And so forgive our sins, even those sins that we hide. And so today, as we begin another year, teach us to number our days here at RBC. Satisfy us each morning with your love. And by your Holy Spirit, show us your work. And let your beauty rest upon us. And establish the work of our hands for the glory of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we do pray. Amen.