Memento Mori | Psalm 90 | June 14, 2026 | Pastor Mike Gibbons

In Psalm 90, Moses teaches us to face our mortality honestly: remember that we are human, remember death, remember God, and remember to live. This message calls us to number our days with wisdom, trust the eternal God, and live purposefully in light of Jesus Christ, the resurrection and the life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning, church. Hey, if you have your Bibles open to uh Psalm 90. I was considering starting another short book today, but I wanted to look at this psalm that's been on my mind a lot lately. So, Psalm 90. Before we get started, we usually pray for a pastor. I want to pray for our pastor this morning. Pastor Aaron is preaching at the Vine Community Church in Butah, of which we support. You guys support. It's the church plant. So Pastor Josh is the pastor there, and he is focusing this summer on being on mission. He wants his church to not sit back during the summer and think that this is a time to relax. We are on mission every day. So Pastor Aaron's preaching from Psalm 67, which reminds us that God's saving power is to go to all nations. So let's pray for Pastor Aaron and for our time today. Father, I pray for Pastor Aaron. I pray that as he preaches today, that the truth, the wisdom, the authority of your word will pierce the hearts of those that hear. May that be the same for us today. In piercing our hearts, would you not let us be just hearers, but doers and reflecting Christ in all that we do? For the first, for the Vine Community Church in Butah, I pray that the Holy Spirit would just convict them today and help them to live the truths of Psalm 67 out in their lives so that others will come to know Christ. For us today, Father, would you remove, just remove all distractions from this room, Lord? Prepare our hearts to receive your word and again give us grace to be both hearers and doers of the truth. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So the the cultural dress code has shifted a lot over the past 100 years. We've gone from, in some ways, very formal to very informal. And that's okay. I I kind of like that myself, but there's been one event, maybe there's probably more weddings as well, but one event has kind of held its own against that change in dress code. And that is a funeral. Most people, not maybe not as much as 100 years ago, but most people still dress up for funerals and dress nicely. This is my funeral suit. That's the reason I wore it today. I typically don't wear a tie, and most of us don't, and that's perfectly fine. But I I wore this today just to remind myself, remind myself of the focus, the main point of Psalm 90 that we want to get to today. Now, why do funerals make us feel like that we need to dress nicer than normal? Well, I I think that it's the gravity of the event that we're going to. It's a sign of respect for the deceased and for the family. It's a solemn, significant occasion. So death changes us briefly. The next day we go back to our yoga pants and our hoodies and our shorts, and that's fine. But what also changes is the conversation. Normal conversation topics come back to our mind. And so we kind of push the death conversation away. It's the last thing we want to talk about. It's morbid, it's unmentionable. Discussion of death in the 21st century is similar to the discussion of sex in the 18th and 19th centuries. You just didn't talk about that. And it's this it's kind of the same for us today in talking about death, even in the church. When was the last time you heard a sermon on the inevitability of death? It's not a real popular topic. So it is rare that even in church that we talk about death, even though it's not rare at all in scripture. In the ESV version, at least, the word death is mentioned over 300 times. And that's not including variants like die or dead or dying. It's just all over the place in Scripture. And culturally, the avoiding the discussion of death was not always the case. It was front and center for hundreds of years. The title of the sermon is Memento Mori. And roughly translated, it means remember death. Remember death. And we know this. This term, the first time we saw it was from an ancient Christian apologist named Tertullian. And he wrote a book called Apologeticus. And in it, he describes a Roman victory parade. A famous general that just won a victory in a war traveled down the center of the city and to an adoring crowd. The applause was all over the place. But he always had someone whispering into his ear, according to Tertullian, he always had someone whispering in his ear, memento mori. Remember, you are mortal. You're not too important to die. Memento mori. And this whole concept kind of developed with the rise of Christianity in the 16th and 17th century art. Famous painters often included skulls and rotting fruit and withered flowers and hourglasses and smoking candles to show mortality and our inability to avoid death. In my truck, I carry around a medallion. I think we got some pictures of it. You can't see it from here, but on one side it says Memento Mori. And it has a skull, it has an hourglass, and it has a wilting flower on one side. On the other side, it says, You could leave life right now. I carry this in my truck as a reminder. My desktop background, just to play this out even more, my desktop background right now is a painting by William Michael Harnett from 1870. It's kind of hard to see maybe on the screen, but it's on your bulletin. It's got an extinguished candle, a spent hourglass, and a skull that reminds us of death. My youngest gave me, believe it or not, my youngest gave me a Memento Mori countdown to put on the wall of my office. I don't know if she's trying to tell me something with that or not, but all of these themes, things are reminders I have to keep death in view. But all of them, honestly, just personally pale in comparison to April 7th, 2025, when I was out running and had a heart attack. It was a concrete reminder of the importance of living with the end in mind. So if you're visiting, you're probably asking, what in the world have I walked into today? I came here to hear something about the gospel, about Jesus, or some inspiring message. And this old guy is talking about death. Well, as I said, scripture speaks of death. The gospel is centered around death, both the death of our Savior and the death of us, and the reason that he died. So here's the main idea that I want to make sure we focus on today. When the reality of death is far from our minds, the promises of Jesus seem detached. When the reality of death is far from our mind, the promises of Jesus often seem detached from our real life. Psalm 9090 reminds us of death and it points us to the promises and work of Jesus. Matt McCullough, a pastor, says it like this If death tells us we are not too important to die, the gospel tells us we are so important that Christ died for us. That's the gospel. And death reminds us of that. So let's look at Psalm 90. So if you have your Bibles there, turn. Psalm 90 was written by Moses. It's the only Psalm that we know of that was written by Moses. And let me read the first six verses. A prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. 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. So in keeping with the Latin theme, the first thing we notice here is memento hominous. Remember you are human. Memento hominous. That's the first eleven verses. The first verse, Moses is praising God for who he is. He is our dwelling place. We live in him. But Moses doesn't want our focus to be necessarily on that. He emphasizes all generations. And he marvels at God's eternal unchangeableness. God's eternal unchangeableness. It's clear in verse two, he says, Everlasting to everlasting, you are God. And then verse 4, for a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is passed, or as a watch in the night. Even if we live a thousand years, it is but a moment compared to God. A watch in the night is a four-hour span, a short four-hour span. We are mortal, and our lives are brief. Verses five and six, you sweep them away as they as with the flood. They are a dream, like grass. Life is short, like a dream, like grass that flourishes in the morning and withers in the evening. And Psalm 90 is not the only one that emphasizes that. James 4 14 says, Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath. Job chapter 9. My days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good. They go by like shifts, skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey. I think that I hope the point is clear. Memento hominous, our lives are short. This psalm should remind you that it's never too soon to come to terms with your mortality and the brevity of your life. Billy Graham was 64 years old when he was preaching in 1982 at the Southern Seminary Chapel. And in that sermon, he said, if someone had told me when I was 20 years old that life was very short and would pass just like that, I wouldn't have believed it. And if I tell you that, you don't believe it either. I cannot get young people to understand how brief life is, how quickly it passes. All of us need to feel the weight of Psalm 90, but I've been praying specifically this week for students, young people, those in their 20s, those in their 30s. Life is a vapor. You may not have tomorrow. You are not immortal. Death is a better preacher on the brevity of life than I can ever imagine to be. Look at Ecclesiastes. You don't have to turn there, but Ecclesiastes 7.2 says, It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Coffins lay things better to the heart than cribs. They're better preachers. I implore you today to listen to it, take it to heart today. So, but that should lead to a question: why? Why do I have to die and why so soon? Let me read verses 7 through 11 in Psalm 90. 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 of strength, eighty, yet their span is but toil and trouble. They are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you? Did you really hear that? Were you listening? What is the uncomfortable answer to the question of why life is short? God decided that it was to be so. In his righteousness and in his holiness, he made a judgment. And the result of that judgment, due to the sin that we have and that Adam and Eve began, the result of that judgment is death. It's our mortality. Death and mortality are God's wrath revealed. Deservedly so. And there's a clue. Even in verse 3, it says, You return man to dust. That's an allusion to Genesis 3, which Moses also wrote. And so Moses has the curse of Genesis 3 in mind when he's writing here. Because of the righteous judgment God gave Adam for rebellion, the result is death. The result is death. And Paul reminds us of this in Romans as well. Romans 118, he says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. We are unrighteous. We suppress the truth. And because of that, we deserve death. And ultimately, we deserve hell. My oldest daughter has a friend who rehearses this truth regularly with her family. When they need a little reminder, the parent will ask the kids, what do we deserve? And the kid's answer is death. I mean, she uses that. And it sounds kind of kind of rough, but it's true. We need to be reminded that that is what we deserve. Which leads us to verse 12, where Moses offers us a little glimmer of hope. Verse 12 reads as follows So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Teach us to number our days. It's another way to say, teach us to recognize our death. He is asking God to help us get to the truth that death is coming and our days are numbered. And the glimmer of hope is that wisdom that we get when we remember death. So there's no need to hide the truth about death in all its ugliness. If death is not a problem, then we don't need Jesus as a solution. But death is a problem. The more deeply we contemplate the hurt and the loss that we experience with death, the more we feel the relief of the gospel and its healing power. One pastor put it like this the more carefully we number our days, the more joyfully we will hear that death's days are numbered too. And the more we allow ourselves to grieve the separation that death brings to our lives, the more fully we will long for the world in which He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain. But modern culture, just like I said before, does not want to talk about death. Modern medicine has pushed death further and further back and hidden it away in hospitals. For most of history, death was in your face. People died in their homes and on the fields or in the fields. In the 18th century, four of five people died before they were 70. The average life expectancy was in the late 30s. Now it's nearly 80. Many of us live our lives as if death isn't a problem. Faith Heap was 21 years old and an intelligence officer in London during the blitz of World War II. Bombs were dropping all around. Death was constant. After the war, she was interviewed and she said, I during that time, I don't think you ever think it's going to happen to you. Here she was surrounded by the possibility of death, and she didn't think it was going to happen to her. Well, it obviously didn't, but because she was able to say this after the war, but we do the same thing. We need to recognize that death and remember death in order to live. Dying people who truly know they are dying are among all people, oftentimes the most alive. One commentator says, the best way to enjoy your life is to get honest about your death. And the star of the movie found out, or the protagonist found out, that he had six to twelve months to live. And when he finds out he is dying, he begins living. That's the title of the movie suggests by helping others and doing other things. But you know, we all have a terminal diagnosis. Death is inevitable, inevitable, and it ought to change how we live this life. This is a hard topic, but as a pastor, if I feel like I have a duty to hold death before you. At the end of the day, we can all run marathons and eat kale and salad until the cows come home. But let's not kid ourselves. None of us is getting out of here alive. Denny Burke says the most foolish people in the world are the ones who never stop to think about the fact that they are going to die. They don't draw lessons from funerals. They avoid them. They never learn from the suffering and grief of others. And they never really come to grips with the fact that no one is really ready to live unless they are ready to die. Now let me be clear. Remembering death is not this bucket list mentality for a YOLO culture. You only live once. This is not a catalyst for skydiving, rocky mountain climbing, or going 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu. To borrow Tim McGraw's famous words. This is more radical than a hedonistic philosophy of living for yourself and taking all the pleasures that we can from this earth. It's a deliberate act of keeping death in view to redeem the time for the glory of Christ. Not for us to finish our bucket list. It's about abiding in and living for the one who has placed eternity in our souls. When we number our days, God does enable us to live with genuine gladness. Let's look at verses 13 through 17. It says, 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. 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. Which brings us to point three. Remember God. Momento day. Verses 13 through 17. In verses 1 through 11, we're under God's judgment, and death is coming. But verse 13, Moses calls on God to do something. He says, please don't leave us in this situation. Have mercy on your servants. He is pleading. Make us glad, Lord. And verse 14 is the key. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love. God has an eternal, an unbreakable commitment to love his people. It flows out of his unchangeableness that we saw in the first few verses. After the reality of judgment in verses 1 through 11, we should feel the weight lifted in verses 13 through 17. How do we escape the hopelessness of a short life? Through his steadfast love. Moses is asking God to teach us to live with the reality of our deaths so that I can live in the gladness of his love. Moses is praying in advance for the cross of Jesus. The death and resurrection of Jesus was the answer to the prayer of Moses here in Psalm 90. That word pity means propitious toward your servants, which leads to the word propitiation, which is probably the most important word in the New Testament. It means the act of satisfying God's wrath and anger toward sin. And how did he do that? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. And that leads us to our last point. Remember to live. Memento vivere. We need to recognize that our problem is far worse than we've ever admitted, so that we can recognize that Jesus is a far greater Savior than we have ever known.

unknown 27:18

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

And it's in him that we live. Even if we were to get everything that we wanted out of this life, everything, from the Ferrari to whatever it is, we end up losing everything and everyone that we love. Jesus came to give eternal life, and that promise enables us to have true joy in this life now. And honesty about death is the only sure path to living hope. Hope that can weather the problems of this life under the sun. Paul says is very honest about this too. In 2 Corinthians, he says, so we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. The path to realistic expectations about life moves through honesty about death. And it all depends on the resurrection. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? It's what Jesus asked. When we recognize our solidarity with Adam in death, we are ready to recognize our solidarity with Jesus in life. So how do we do that in a practical way? I had a professor that called Christians Jesus' resurrection army. We practice resurrection. We remind everyone that the resurrection is God's no to death and God's yes to life. Every time a sinner turns from his sin and puts his faith in Christ's resurrection, death and Satan are defeated. The power of death is broken. Christians practice resurrection by practicing death. Jesus even says this. He says, For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. You lose your life to Christ. You die. And when you do, Jesus resurrects you to true life. What are some practical ways to practice death? Look at Romans, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. We practice death by killing the sin within us by the power of the Spirit. Putting sin to death is living. Memento vivari. The way to live is to die. Practice resurrection by practicing death. There are some ways, just some symbols that we do this. Practicing death by denying ourselves food, fasting. We practice death by foregoing comfort and serving others. We practice death by forgetting about embarrassment and sharing the gospel with our neighbor. We practice death by giving. In generosity, we take a part of what we can easily, what can easily control us, money, and we put it to death. We make it die by giving it away, releasing its death grip on us. I started with a question. I said, when was the last time you heard a sermon on the inevitability of death? One of my favorite commentators, Alex Duke, takes this a step further. He says, You need to be in a church that knows you are going to die. You need to be in a church that knows you're going to die. Your time will come. You will kick the bucket. You will give up the ghost. Whatever you want to call it. You and I, and everyone ever known and we have ever known and will know will die. Unless we embrace that fact, we're not prepared to live. And your church needs to remind you of that. Hebrews reminds us of that. It says, it is appointed for man to die once. You can go to a doctor to delay that future a little while, maybe a financial advisor to prepare for a future, or a Maserati dealer to numb yourself to the inevitability of your deaths. But these places cannot give us anything that we can take beyond the grave. We need something moth-proof and rust-proof. And where do we get that? We get that from Jesus through our local church. The rest of Hebrews, that verse, it says, It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. The question is, how will you handle that judgment? You either face judgment and death yourself, or you let Jesus face it for you. If this topic seems a little overly severe still to you, then you've probably never truly considered the concrete realities you will face at death. A personalized judgment. And the only place you're going to hear that is the local church. Where do you go for help when you face the biggest, most insurmountable problem that you will ever see? You go to Jesus and you go to a church that preaches and teaches and lives Jesus and reminds you of death. Jesus is the only remedy for our unsolvable problem. He delivers us from the death we deserve due to our sin, and he saves us from the judgment we earned because of that sin. If the church stops holding up Christ, crucified and risen for sinners, then who else is going to say that? You deserve a church that knows you're going to die. At death, you can take one of two things into eternity your sin or the salvation won for you by Jesus. Receive salvation. Repent from your sin. Put your faith in Christ and follow Him. You don't need a church that gives a steady diet of how Jesus can make sense of your messed up life. That's important. Jesus can indeed make sense of your messed up life, but advice on how to live your best life now will not help you when you face death. If you're avoiding the reality of death, you're avoiding the truth about Jesus. Jesus made no promise about our best life now in terms of wealth and fame and power. What he promised was victory over death. Psalm 90 tells us we are rebels deserving death. It tells us to keep death in mind in order to gain wisdom. It tells us who God is, steadfast love. It points us to Christ who reconciles. Without reconciliation, death here is eternal death. But in Christ we have eternal life. Remember death. Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You've been our dwelling place in all generations. Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Give us the heart to be satisfied with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Help us overcome our detachment from death so that we can enjoy a deeper attachment to Jesus. Strengthen us to live resurrected lives. In Jesus' name. Amen.