The Testimony of Thousands of Witnesses
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1. Lord, you have been our dwelling place from generation to generation.
2. Before the mountains were created, before you formed the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, you are God.
3. The Lord has turned people to dust, and He said, “Return, you men.”
4. A thousand years have passed in your sight, as yesterday, and as a moment in the night.
5. You sweep them away like a flood; they are like a short slumber, like grass in the morning.
6. The grass blooms and grows in the morning, but withers and withers in the evening.
7. We are consumed by your wrath; we marvel at your wrath.
8. You have placed our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.
9. All our days pass by in your wrath, and our whole life is over in an instant.
10. Our years are seventy, and if we are strong, we are eighty years old, but their pride is only toil and sorrow, and they go quickly, and we fly away.
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1. For this reason we have a multitude of witnesses surrounding us like a cloud, putting off every burden and the sins that so easily entangle us, and with perseverance run the race set before us,
2. Let us look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
3. Think of him who endured this rebellion against him by sinners, lest you grow weary and lose heart
Content
Title: Testimonies of Many Witnesses
Text: Psalm 90:1-10. Hebrews 12:1-3
Faith not only pleases God (Hebrews 11:6), but it also enables us to live a life of joy (Romans 8:28; 1 Thessalonians 5:16; Phil 4:4). Perhaps thanks in everything is for those who know these graces of life (1 Thessalonians 5:18). This is because the recognition of our spiritual reality as being “in Christ” will be the basis for it (John 15:9; Romans 8:1-2; 1 Corinthians 12:1-3). It is the spiritual reality of those who knew God's unconditional love revealed on the cross (John 3:16) and started their lives as beings dependent on that love (2 Corinthians 5:17). The relationship between us and the Lord that began in this way is inseparable. This is what the ‘parable of the true vine’ (John 15) and ‘the parable of the shepherd and the sheep’ (John 10:27-29) mean. This relationship is also ordained by the Eternal God. It is eternal because it is provided by God.
Today's Old Testament text (Psalm 90:1-10) is a poem by Moses, a man of God. It is the only poem of Moses, so it is also the oldest. The finiteness and impermanence of human beings are compared to ‘dust, grass, and flowers’. Their life span of seventy and eighty years is also like a swift arrow, and it is said that “it was exhausted in one eclipse” (verse 9). The content of his life is also said to be only toil and sorrow (verse 10). There are also articles that express such human affairs. ‘When I was born, I cried, and the people around me laughed. When I left, I laughed, and the people around me cried.’ How am I supposed to live in this world? Today's New Testament text (Hebrews 12:1-3) records the 'life by faith'. The author, who recorded the history of the forefathers who lived by faith (chapter 11), is putting the answer to the question of how to live today in the New Testament text.
I liken life to a race. It is a race watched by ‘a cloud of witnesses’. 1) “Put off all burdens and the sins that easily entangle us.” 2) ‘Run with patience the race set before you’. 3) ‘Let’s look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith!’ 4) ‘Think of those who endured to the end to complete the race!’ Life is a race that is never easy. Jesus Christ is the only example of our earthly life. Just as the Apostle Paul lived by that example, he commanded the younger generation of faith to imitate you (Philippians 3:17). The result of such a life of imitation becomes an example for all the saints. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith…the crown of righteousness is in store for me” (2 Timothy 4:6-8). It is a depiction of heaven.
There are testimonies of numerous witnesses surrounding it like a cloud. The end of life is not death. Neither is human impermanence or human emptiness. The testimony of numerous witnesses is ‘God’. He is the eternal God. In the words of Gerald Seecher. It reminds us that “the words of many witnesses are not human beings who end in death, but eternal God.” And we testify that the sufferings we experience in this life are training given in God's providence (Hebrews 12:4-13). It is a testimony that God is with us in all our suffering. Because God is love. This is “the reality of God who is our dwelling place from generation to generation” (Psalm 90:1). So every situation of life mentioned in God is a grace. It is the Christian paradox of the cross and resurrection.