Psalm 90 Reminds Us That Our Suffering Is Temporary

He Will Heal All Things

In times of distress or trouble, I often find myself turning to Psalm 90. It begins by talking about how God has been our dwelling place throughout all generations, and from everlasting to everlasting, he is God. I love that reminder of God’s eternal nature because when I contrast that with my troubles and my sufferings, I realize how temporary they really are. Whatever is wrong in my life in a particular moment—or maybe it’s been wrong for a lot longer than that, maybe for a season or even for years—it had a start date, and it will have an end date. Either in this life or in eternity, the Lord will heal all things. He will make all things right. So, my troubles are temporary, but only the Lord is eternal.

And so I love how the psalm helps just reframe whatever I’m struggling with and facing, reminding me that the Lord is much greater than that. He was before it, and he will be after it, and he is at work in it—even in the midst of it in the present.

But later in the psalm, I also love a verse that says, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days.”

It reminds me that I do have cause for rejoicing all of my days, even the ones when I’m in distress, even the ones when I’m suffering or in trouble. I have cause for joy all of my days if I’m looking to the Lord to be satisfied. If I’m remembering my salvation in Jesus Christ, there’s always something that I can find joy in.

My troubles are temporary, but only the Lord is eternal.

And it also reorients my longings instead of focusing so much on the change that I want in the present circumstances or what I want the Lord to fix, heal, or make different. It’s not wrong to ask for those things. He welcomes us to ask that he intervene. He wants us to bring our requests and petitions before him.

But even as I do that, Psalm 90 is that reminder of being satisfied in him and realizing that ultimately that’s what I need. I need to be satisfied is his love. I could have all kinds of changes and circumstances that wouldn’t really satisfy me the way that I think they would unless underneath all of that I’m satisfied in the love of the Lord.

I love how Psalm 90 points me beyond myself, beyond my circumstances and my struggles, to see that God is eternal and that I can be deeply satisfied in him—even if everything else around me seems to be going wrong.

Winfree Brisley is coauthor with Sharonda Cooper of Turn Your Eyes: A Bible Study on the Psalms.

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