For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. Psalm 90:4
This is a verse worth pondering. Think how long a thousand years is – from before William I, say, through Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II. As far as God is concerned, says Moses, it is like a day that has just gone by.
Different perspectives
It is worth observing a thing from another angle. Fresh perspectives are good. From one angle, something looks hard, from another, easy. One vantage point makes a place seem near; another, far. Think of optical illusions like the young woman, old woman. Pride refuses to accept another perspective. Humility recognises other ways of seeing. Not all views are equally valid and we dare not deny objective truth but there are several ways to skin a cat.
Certainly, time has different perspectives. Shakespeare observed that ‘Time travels in divers paces with divers persons’, ambling with a woman waiting to be married and galloping with a thief to the gallows. Also, the older we get the faster time goes.
There are different perspectives to be had on time and life. Some say there is no God and refuse any other perspective. It is like someone getting excited about a pot of weeds and not seeing the beautiful flower garden outside.
God’s perspective
More specifically, we must recognise how different is God’s perspective on time. Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For man, a thousand years is long. Think of what has happened over a millennium – 1066, the Armada, two world wars; scholasticism, the Reformation, global mission. It is interesting that although Adam’s ante-diluvian descendants lived extraordinarily long, none attained a thousand years. Today, the length of our days is 70 years - or 80, if we have the strength. Even Moses only reached 120. Perhaps someone reading this will see the next century but none of us will see the next millennium. For man, a thousand years is more than a lifetime – for God it is like a day. Some days seem longer than others, but even the longest is nothing looking back. A watch in the night is three or four hours. Night and day were once divided into three or four watches each. Watching from midnight until four may be tedious, but looking back, it is nothing.
How different God to man. How far back can you remember? Ten years; fifty? None of us remember a hundred years ago. We cannot imagine living for centuries. But for God, a thousand years is like a day. Think of the view from a skyscraper or an aeroplane. Things are different when we see them from God’s perspective too. We need to get that perspective. It is good to hear the opinions of others – but best to know how God sees it. We must consider past and future millennia in this perspective.
God’s character
How is it that a thousand years is so brief to God? The answer lies in his character.
- All time is equally present with him. We can think of the near future and the recent past easily but to think of something that might happen a thousand years hence or even a thousand years past is not easy. It seems so far off. God is not like that. He is not a creature of time but the I AM who lives in an eternal today. He is everywhere and always, filling every place and every time.
- He sees the end from the beginning. Part of what makes time long to us is ignorance. We cannot know what will happen next. Think how journeys to new places always seem longer going than coming. Time seems to pass slowly in childhood as there is little thought of the future and little idea of what may happen next. God always knows the end from the beginning.
- He sees everything in terms of eternity. As creatures of time, we tend to forget that God has no beginning or end and is unbound by time. When we compare a day with a thousand years, the latter seems an eternity. God, however, compares a thousand years with eternity, so it seems like a day. For God the last 200 years are like two days or two watches for the angels of heaven! Moses uses these terms to help us. We talk of dog or cat years. A cat aged 13 is notionally 7 X 13 years – 91! Similarly we can say, one of our years equals 365,000 of God’s. Seventy years is 25,550,000. Or think of a man for whom £1 is a lot and another for whom £1000 is nothing. Of course, these are pictures; the reality is that God is the eternal God. We need to get this divine perspective, then we will see time as we ought. We will see how brief a millennium is. Though hundreds of years passed from Abraham to Moses to David to Jesus, yet in God’s eyes it was no time at all. We will see it is so too, if we seek the divine perspective.
Lessons
- The long time with no resurrection is no reason for doubts. Psalm 90:3 speaks of men returning to dust. The Bible teaches this and the resurrection of that dust. The world may have turned six or seven thousand years or more and may turn for as many again, nevertheless the resurrection day will come. It is but a week or two, as it were, that those in their graves longest have been dead. Expect the resurrection.
- The long time without Christ returning is no reason for doubts. Peter (1 Peter 3:7) quotes scoffers saying Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. He warns, however, that as God sent the flood, so he will judge this world again by fire. He quotes Psalm 90:4 adding The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. God’s patience delays Christ’s return. As sure as this new millennium has arrived so in due time the Lord will return as and when God purposes. There is no delay. A 2000 year wait may seem long to us but not to the Lord. Meanwhile, be patient. The day of the Lord will come like a thief.
- Remember the brevity of life. Time hurtles by. As a child I remember how far off the next century seemed. Yet how quickly it has come. Soon the 22nd Century will dawn and we will all be in our graves.
- Take the long-term view. Many have written off Christianity. There is decline in Britain but that must not cloud the fact that worldwide the gospel advances and will continue to. Communism may engulf it for a season; Islam may stay longer; but truth marches on.
- Look to the eternal God. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:27). He has upheld his people for 2000 years. He will in any coming millennia. Look to him.
This article first appeared in Grace Magazine
