Explaining Psalm 90:10

Q

Just read your wonderful article on healing.That is the best explanation of Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ I have ever read.  I have a question  –  I would like to read an expansion of Psalm 90:10 where we are given three score years and ten but perhaps to eighty with tribulations.

I have seen many great people of faith in our Lord suffer terribly at about the age of 80. My own much loved brother has terminal cancer at age 81.    He has been a man of God all his life and I hate to see this happen to him, but he has instructed all his family to pray, not for healing, but that Father’s Will be done. How do you see this?

A

Moses wrote this psalm.  To me it’s a reminder that in this world, no one is immortal. Psalm 90:10 says we’re given a lifespan of about 70 years.  If we have a strong constitution, we could live to see 80 but that last 10 years could involve fighting against various illnesses, as if we’re just delaying the inevitable, because when all is said and done we’re going to “fly away” just the same.

The obvious exception is the one generation that will not die, but will be instantaneously changed from mortal to immortal in the rapture of the Church.  We’ll still fly away, we just won’t die first.