Dust to Dust

Psalm 90
The preface attributes this Psalm to Moses, who begins by acknowledging that God has tabernacled with them, that the Lord’s presence has long been with them. He tries to fathom the beginning and end of God but can’t see past the horizon in either direction and settles with a sweeping statement, “from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.”

Then he says something that sets the tone for the rest of the Psalm, which sounds a bit Solomon-esque from his writings in Ecclesiastes: “You turn men back to dust, saying, ‘Return to dust O sons of men.'”

The dust we come from and will return to is a constant reminder of the place we hold in the universe. The land is important to God. We are important to God. The earth was created first. We rose from it. We return to it. But . . . that’s where the resurrection from the earth makes all the difference. If Christ was not raised, we are fools and worse off than those without Christ (I Corinthians 15:1f).

The resurrection is the reason we can move from dust to dust to hope. Here is a song about that hope that’s been meaningful to me, by Keith Green:

Dust to Dust
by Keith Green

Sometimes it’s hard to see, sometimes it’s hard to get through to me, but I want to do all that You ask me to. Help me to follow through, make every day a devotion to You, cause it’s dust to dust, until we learn how to trust.

Chorus
Sometimes I wander away, and I’m lost in the dark, my faith starts to sway I don’t know what to do, so I cry out to You, and I reach out in the air, and I call Your name and you’re always there, then You send down your light, then You tell me, walk by faith not by sight, and then You come shining down.

I’m putting Your armor on, finding myself so suddenly drawn, like a moth to a flame, whenever I hear Your name. Help me to follow through, make every day a devotion to You, cause it’s dust to dust, until we learn how to trust.

Chorus

Sometimes it’s hard to see, You know, sometimes it’s hard to get through to me, sometimes it’s hard to see, You know, sometimes it’s hard to get through to me, but it’s dust to dust until we learn how to trust. Until we learn how to trust.

Listen to a sample of a Keith Green song, I don’t want to fall away from you