Wednesday, December 31, 2025
New Years Eve
Text: Psalm 90
Sermon Audio
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Happy New Year! It’s a great time to reflect on the previous year and look forward to the year to come. Oftentimes, our thoughts shift to years past. We can think about time, and how it may seem like our best years are behind us.
This lament over the passing of time is not only for Christians. The band Pink Floyd sang in the song “Time”, “Tired and lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain, you were young and life was long, and there is time to kill today, and then one day you find, ten years have got behind you, no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.” The English rock band Supertramp sings in the song Take the Long Way Home, “When you look through the years and see what you could have been, oh what you might have been, if you would have more time.”
On this New Year’s Eve, it’s easy to lament the past. Another year down the drain. Which brings us to our text, Psalm 90. Moses laments the passing of time and the fleeting nature of our existence. We learn tonight: BECAUSE THE LORD’S WRATH RETURNS US TO THE DUST IN OUR NUMBERED DAYS, WE IMPLORE HIM TO RETURN US TO HIM.
First, I. The Lord’s wrath returns His children to the dust. We read in Psalm 90 verse 3–6, “You return 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.”
Better than the lyrics of Roger Waters of Pink Floyd or Roger Hodgson of Supertramp, the inspired words of the prophet Moses resonate with us at a primal level. Time passes. We find that each New Year’s Eve we look in the mirror and there’s more grey hair or one more medical issue. The old ticker ain’t beating like it used to, and the warranty on the knees and hips has expired.
We reflect on years past and we lament those who are no longer with us. Three saints at Faith have gone to be with the Lord this year. I’m sure there’s many others in your life who have passed in the past year. We look in the mirror and wonder when we’ll join them. When will our last day come?
This all ties back to the beginning of time. In the Garden of Eden God created Adam and Eve to live in paradise. Everything was perfect. Yet they disobeyed God by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The result was that God punished them and sin entered the world. God’s wrath was poured out upon Adam and Eve. The Lord said to Adam, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”” Dust you are and to dust you shall return. That’s how it was from the beginning of time.
The wrath of God returns mankind to dust. From Christians with a pious life to rock stars with a reckless life, we all feel the press of time passing. You won’t learn it from Pink Floyd or Supertramp, but the root of the matter is that when we feel the pain of aging and the pain of death, this is a taste of the wrath of God.
Moses mentions the word wrath three times in this Psalm, verse 7: “For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.” verse 9: “For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.”, verse 11: “Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?” Call a thing what it is, when we look in the mirror and see ourselves aging and fading away, when we sit at the deathbed of a loved one, when we ourselves are in that deathbed, it is a hint, a peek at the wrath of God as we suffer for the sins we throughout our lives have committed. Happy New Year?
I’m not going to leave you in the lurch. There is good news. II. This wrath teaches us to number our days. Moses laments the passing of time, and then he concludes, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” When we face these signs of the wrath of God in our aging, in the death of loved ones, and even as we approach our own deaths, these are warning shots across the bow to wake us up to the reality of eternity. God sends gray hairs, weak hearts, and painful knees to warn us that if we continue in our sin, we will spend an eternity suffering in hell facing the full brunt of the His wrath.
Our God entered time to redeem us from the curse of Adam and Eve and to take the Father’s wrath upon Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. In this Christmas season we remember, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” In the middle of time, the Lord sent His Son Jesus to redeem the world by facing God’s wrath for us.
The Father numbered Jesus’ days here on Earth. There is a precise number of days between Jesus’ birth on Christmas and His death on Good Friday. Only the Lord knows that exact number, but just as each of us has a precise number of days to live, so too did our Lord during His first Advent.
As we consider Christ’s suffering on the cross, He took in Himself our suffering, our pain, our sorrow, and even our deaths. Thus, when we mourn the loss of time or the loss of loved ones, we know we never suffer alone, and Jesus works to redirect our sights on the bright future ahead of us. We have hope in the year ahead that we can make the most of the time whether we are eight or eighty-eight.
Jesus’ resurrection on a Sunday points to the world to come. It’s not just a resurrection on the first day of the week, but on a mythical eighth day of the week which symbolizes new creation and eternal life. A time outside of time which we hope and long for as the relentless passing of time beats us down year after year.
Finally, III. As we count our days, we count on God returning us to Him. Moses continues verse 13–16, “Return, 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.”
Even as the Lord returns mankind to dust, Moses begs the Lord to return to him. On this New Year’s Eve, we seek refuge in Christ who bore the Father’s wrath for us. Sheltered in Christ, we see that the eternity of God is a good thing and not a bad thing.
The Lord returns to you as He comes to you again and again in the Words of the Bible. The Lord returns to you as He answers prayer. The Lord returns to you even as He is present now in the words of forgiveness at the beginning of the service. He returns to you as you receive Him in the Lord’s Supper in a spirit of repentance and belief that He is truly present in the meal for your forgiveness, life, and salvation.
When we look in the mirror with our aches and pains, sorrows and regrets, we realize the best is yet to come. At the end of time, the Lord will indeed return to us and restore us with bodies that won’t need heart medicines that cost multiple thousands of dollars or need hip or knee replacements. He will make you glad for many more days than He has afflicted us.
When we look around and miss the loved ones who have seemingly returned to dust just like the Lord did to Adam and Eve, we know there is an eternal city waiting for us wherein we will have the greatest New Year’s party as the Lord ushers in a new era of a new heavens and a new earth untainted by the marks of sin, and His wrath punishing sinners. Wipe those tears from your eyes, dear Christian friend, you have the promise and reality of the resurrection that you will see those loved ones again.
When we like Roger Waters from Pink Floyd or Roger Hodgson from Supertramp lament the passing of time and how we wasted it, we have this promise from the Lord, “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!” It is the Lord who establishes the work of our hands, not us, and if we feel like we’ve let ten years behind us or we think we might have amounted to more, we know that each new day is an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those we love. And even if nobody may recognize us, the Lord loves us and is looking forward to spending an eternity with us.
Indeed, we can say with gusto, Happy New Year! Even as we face a world with sin and sorrow, the Lord returns us to Him through His Word, and we have the pleasure of the promise of eternal life.
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard and keep you in the true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.