When Confusion Obstructs

You know, when everything gets turned upside down and when you’re confused, it’s really difficult because here’s what happens: confusion immobilizes, it paralyzes, it demotivates, it neutralizes. And what it does to each one of us, it gets us where we don’t move forward.

When you’re confused, when you lose perspective, when you’re not sure what to do, when, Is this God’s will or is this God’s will? Should I say this or not do this?

And we are living in a world right now where people are confused like never before.

And when you’re confused, one of the most important things you can do is reduce complexity. When our lives are very, very complex, when there’s all kind of things going on – I mean, whether this is in business or in sports – good business consultants, good coaches when the team is confused, when plays aren’t running well, they go back to a very simple playbook.

And there’s not many passages in Scripture where I have memorized an outline, but the passage that I am going to share with you, I have memorized this outline. And the reason being is I have been confused more than a few times and this is a unique psalm. Psalm 90 is the only psalm in all of the psalter that was written by Moses.

This is near the end of his life. The first forty years, the greatest things that Egypt could provide, he enjoyed. The best wisdom of the world. The next forty years, silence and solitude as God prepared him. And then the next forty years, leadership with God’s people that were not very cooperative. And near the very end of his life, he writes Psalm 90. And it’s a psalm of perspective.

When I think in my mind and my heart, whether I’m confused in my marriage, or confused about a decision, or confused about God’s will, or confused about ministry I come to Psalm 90 because this is the blocking and tackling. This is the basics. This is the fundamental of all life.

Many of us that are in ministry and, of course, many of you who aren’t all have this one experience. And it has happened a lot in the recent times. When you go to a funeral, especially when you go to a funeral of someone that you love and that you’re close to, it’s gripping.

You know, we all had a schedule before that funeral. We all had lots of things we were going to do, but when a close friend, a family member, a child, a fellow person in ministry – they die – and we find ourselves facing our mortality. And with this person who has just died, the writer of Ecclesiastes says there is much more wisdom in the house of mourning than in the house of celebration.

And it just seems like there’s not much that really matters. I mean, there’s life and there’s death.

And so, Moses has watched rebellious people, he saw God’s plan, he saw what people do and in Psalm 90, he walks us through six basics that, for me, once I get clear on these things, it’s like a lens that I can put over any situation of confusion and I can know I apply these six things and all of a sudden, I have got perspective.

Follow along with me. He says, “Lord, You have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.”

That first word “Lord” is “Adonai”, “Creator”, “all-powerful One”. You have been our dwelling place. He picks that up from Deuteronomy 33. It’s a place of safety, a place of refuge, a place of personal relationship.

Then he goes on to say, “Throughout all generations.” I mean, before there was even time, before the mountains were even born.” Basically he says God is Creator, He’s personal, He’s eternal, He’s superior to all. He says, “You are El,” or, “You are God.” And many of you know that Baal or Ba’al was the son of El. And Moses is saying God is superior to all other gods.

Here’s what I want you to get. God is great.

It simplifies confusion. First and foremost, in all the things in life, all the ups, all the downs, all the pressure, God is personal, He is the infinite reference point, He’s all-powerful, He’s all knowing, He’s eternal.

And that gives us something to hold onto when everything else in the world is changing. And with each of these basics, I have a diagnostic question.

And my diagnostic question is this: am I rightly related to God? You see, when there’s sin in my life or when I drift away from God, when things are happening in my life, what happens, I lose perspective. When I’m not rightly related to God, my thinking gets cloudy, my perception gets off. And so, first and foremost, I want to have a very clear picture and be reminded. Sometimes we get thinking that God isn’t powerful, that God can’t come through and we start to doubt Him because we fail to see and remember who He really is.

And I just want to tell you, if you’re confused, first and foremost, God is great. Recalibrate. Worship. Remember. He’s all-knowing, He is all-powerful, He is sovereign, He is good, He is just. Regardless of what circumstances and emotions tell us.

Then there’s a big contrast. Notice verse 3. “You turn men back to dust, saying, ‘Return to dust, O sons of Adam.’ For a thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. You sweep men away in the sleep of death – they are like the new grass of the morning: though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and it is withered.”

Basic number two: life is short. Notice this: a thousand years are like a day. A watch in the night was four hours. That word for “sweep”, it’s a picture of a flood that just comes in and, right? Flash flood. Everything is gone.

He goes, “In evening,” there’s a place in Israel, I have been there where there are these valleys and it can be green in the morning, the hot winds come in, it’s brown in the afternoon. Life is short.

Here’s the question that you need to ask: am I prepared to die? I mean, it brings unbelievable clarity. Life is brief. We get unconsciously thinking we are going to live for a very, very long time. And there’s something about remembering it’s a vapor. It just comes and then you’re gone.

Am I rightly related to God? Second, am I ready to die? Do I have a relationship with Christ? Have I dealt with the things and relationships in my life that if I were to die tomorrow, I would be at peace?

Here’s a question for you: if you knew that you only had thirty days to live, I mean, pull out your calendar, go thirty days, and then at eleven a.m., exactly thirty days from now, boom! Your heart would stop beating. Would you live any differently? Would there be anybody that you need to get with and apologize to? Is there some time with some individuals that are really precious that you would say, “This is what I need to do”? Any priorities that need to be adjusted? See, if you would live radically different, then we need to start living that way now. God is great; life is short.

And then notice, this is why life is short. Moses, looking back on all those people that have died, and they all died because of disobedience. God had a great plan. He says, “We are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your indignation. You have set our iniquities before us, our secret sins in the light of Your presence. All our days pass away under Your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. The length of our days is seventy years or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away,” speaking of the final judgment.

You know, if we were doing Bible study, I would ask you to get out a pen with me and I would say, “Why don’t you circle the human side of this part where he talks about literally that sin is serious. “Consumed”, “terrified”, “moan”, “trouble”, “sorrow”, “quickly pass”, “fly away”.

He goes on just to say to us that sin is serious.

So, the question I have for you in basic number three is: am I taking sin seriously? Sin clouds my mind and hardens my heart. Part of why we get confused and when there’s pressure, when we are afraid, when things kind of get numb inside – we tend to drift and we compromise just a little. Then we compromise a little bit more.

And Moses is saying that when you want to get clarity, remember God is great. Are you rightly related to Him? Second, life is short. Do what is important and do it now. And the reason it is short is sin is serious. What the holiness of God demanded, He is going to show us the love of God provided in Christ. But we need to take sin very, very seriously.

Notice the next section. He says, “Wisdom is essential.” “Who knows the power of Your anger? For Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due You. Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

The first eleven verses are really Moses looking back and as he looked back over the children of Israel and their journey and their faith, then their unbelief, their testing of God, the wandering in the wilderness, he basically pauses and says, “You forgot that God is great. You forgot that He opened the Red Sea. You forgot that He provided the manna. You forgot the water from the rock. You forgot that the mountains shook and the smoke came out of it.” You need to remember that God is great.

And then you need to remember that life is so short, because sin is very, very serious. And so, what you need in light of that is wisdom. You need to understand how God has designed life to work. That’s what wisdom is, right?

Proverbs chapter 1 verse 7, “The beginning of wisdom,” right? It’s knowledge, understanding, prudence. Wisdom, the Hebrew word is God has set life to operate in a certain way and wisdom is doing our lives according to God’s design. And so, all through Scripture, God will say, “This is how relationships work.” He will say, “This is how money works.” “This is how you forgive people.”

And the wisdom of God is understanding what His Word says and aligning your life, your attitudes, and your behaviors so you follow Him. And so, Moses prays this prayer, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

And the question I would ask here: are you spending or investing your life? I have really been thinking about this lately. I mean, when we have long periods alone, when you struggle with some discouragement and even depression, I have really pondered, Okay, Lord, what is life all about? Is my life really being invested? Am I doing what You really want me to do?

And I taught this message many, many years ago for the first time, or at least this psalm. And this passage, like many of you know, is a pretty famous, you know, “Teach us to number our days,” right?

So, I thought to myself, Well, I’ll do some math. If you’re twenty-five years old, you have roughly sixteen thousand days left, if you live to be seventy. If you’re thirty-five years old, you have twelve thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five days left. If you’re forty-five years old, you have a little over nine thousand days left. If you’re fifty-five years old, you have about fifty-five hundred or so days left. If you’re sixty-five years old, you have less than two thousand days left.

Two days ago, I got my phone out and I got on the little calculator and I took my age and I took my age up to seventy years old and I subtracted my age from how many days I have left. And I will tell you what, it was sobering.

How many days do you have left? You know, it’s amazing how the trivia and little things and this person, they said that about me. And I might have to relocate. And this isn’t working the way I wanted. And my expectations aren’t getting fulfilled, right? We have all these kinds of petty things.

And Moses said, “Tell you what, you remember God is great, life is short, sin is serious – wisdom is essential.” You need to know from God: this is what to do. And we get that from His Word, we get that from His Spirit, and we get that from the wise counsel of one another. That’s why we have to hang together, especially now.

He goes on and gives us basic number five. And I love this, “Mercy is available.”

You know, in some of our times together, we have done some Q&A times and one of the things that keeps coming out in the Q&A times are people that have failed. You know, they have realized they have really done some things they know were wrong, they don’t feel close to God, and they wonder, How will I be met by God? How can I return? How can I be where God wants me to be?

And Moses says, “Relent, O Lord!” And he uses this, His name: Yahweh. “O Covenant God, relent! How long will it be? Have compassion on Your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with” – what? “Your unfailing love” – why? “that we may sing for joy and be glad all of our days. Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble.”

Moses, for as – you know – indignation, harsh, sin, all those words that are really true and life is short and we do need wisdom, but he is near the end and he looks all around in all these years with God. Mercy is available.

Look at the request: relent. Ask, just tell God, please, really, Have compassion. And then notice the positive. “Fill me with joy, gladness, make us glad.”

God is great, life is short, sin is serious, wisdom is essential, mercy is available.

And the question to ask is: am I experiencing the joy of the Lord? Let me ask you that.

Psalm 16:11 says that, “In Your presence, Lord, is fullness of joy.” And I think one of the things when you’re confused, whether you feel like it or not, it’s coming before God. Joy is an indicator of the presence of God. Joy isn’t happiness. Joy is the byproduct of your connectedness in your heart with the living Savior. Joy is a byproduct of the Spirit of God manifesting the presence of Jesus and the power of Jesus and the actual personality of Jesus in your life. It’s a fruit of the Spirit. And Nehemiah taught us that it is joy that is our strength; it will sustain us.

And so, could I encourage you: ask God for compassion. Many of us are teachers and preachers of the Word of God and how many times have we told people about Luke 15 and the Father is looking and His arms are open. We preach that far better than we believe it. I mean, so many pastors, so many church leaders, so many committed businesspeople who, down deep in their heart, they feel like God’s arms are crossed and that He is down on you and you can’t measure up.

And Moses, after all these years - mercy is available. Let God love you. Enter His presence. You don’t have to live with shame, you don’t have to live with guilt, but you have to be honest, ruthlessly honest.

Remember in Psalm 51 when David sinned? He just went way over the top. And he knew better. He was a man after God’s own heart. And he commits adultery and he covers it up and then he commits murder. And then he is confronted by Nathan. But when he prayed, “Against You and You only, Lord, have I sinned. Restore to me the joy of my salvation.” That’s what God – God wants to do that for us in the midst of these challenging times.

The last basic, and I love this, it’s positive. Success is possible. Moses says, “May Your deeds be shown to Your servants, Your splendor to their children. May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands – oh yes, establish the work of our hands.”

Notice what he wants. He says, God, I want Your deeds, the things that You have done, the answers to prayer, Your work – show them to us. Let us see where You’re working. “Your,” I love it, “Your splendor,” notice he wants a legacy, “I want Your splendor to be passed on to my children.”

The favor, the Hebrew word here, literally, it’s “beauty”. “Your beauty, Lord, that the beauty of God, the splendor of God could rest upon us? That it could refresh our souls from the inside out? That He would give us a calm and a peace and a confidence in the midst of all these challenges? I think that’s how Jesus was. I think men and women were so attracted to Him because when there’s all this confusion in the world, there was something about Jesus because He was rightly related to the Father. He was always abiding in the Father and in His Word.

When you’re confused, there are six questions to ask and there’s a little outline that I have actually memorized right out of Psalm 90. God is great, life is short, sin is serious, wisdom is essential, mercy is available, and success is possible.

The questions I ask myself when I’m confused: Chip, are you rightly related to God? Chip, are you prepared to die now? Chip, are you taking sin seriously? Chip, are you spending or investing your life? Chip, are you experiencing the joy of the Lord? And finally, Chip, are you impacting your world for good?

Let me encourage you to take Psalm 90 and use it as the lens through which you see the confusion in your life. And then ask God to speak and even more, ask Him for the grace that you can respond.