2025 Watch Night Service Sermon Manuscript

Bkumc 열린교회
2025년 12월 27일
6분 분량

Faith That Entrusts Time

Psalm 90:1–8, 12

Watch Night Service Sermon Manuscript

At the End of the Year: Placing Time Before God Once Again

Today, we stand at the final moments of 2025 and on the threshold of 2026. The Watch Night Service is not merely a worship service that marks the end of a year. It is a time when we place the time we have lived back before God, and a confession of faith in which we entrust the time to come not into our own hands, but into God’s hands.

We always live within time. Yet rarely do we stop to ask whose hands our time has truly been entrusted to. As we stand at the end of the year, we naturally look back on the past months, but those memories are often filled more with regret than with gratitude. Words left unsaid, decisions postponed, moments when we failed to love fully—these linger in our hearts.

And yet, the very fact that we are standing here today as worshipers is itself a clear sign of grace. That even time filled with regret can be brought before God is already a blessing.

“Lord, You Have Been Our Dwelling Place Throughout All Generations”

Psalm 90 begins with this confession:

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.” (v.1)

The word dwelling place here does not simply mean a physical space where one stays. It refers to a place of refuge in times of crisis, a place to catch one’s breath again, a shelter where one can entrust oneself when life collapses. The psalmist confesses God to be such a refuge. This is not a mere emotional expression, but the conclusion of faith formed through the lived experience of the community over a long period of time.

What is important is that this confession is not a song from a peaceful era. Most commentators understand Psalm 90 as a communal lament arising from the post-exilic period. In a time when the people had lost their homes, the temple, and even their king, the community still dared to confess:

“Nevertheless, Lord, you have been our dwelling place.”

This nevertheless is precisely what faith is.

God Who Remains God Even in a Collapsed History

The psalmist immediately proclaims the eternity of God:

“Before the mountains were born,before you gave birth to the earth and the world,from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (v.2)

Human history has beginnings and endings. Systems collapse, dynasties disappear, and the structures we relied upon begin to shake. But God existed before the beginning and remains after the end. The fact that Psalm 90 opens Book IV of the Psalms is deeply significant. After Psalm 89 ends with a lament over the collapse of the Davidic covenant, Psalm 90 declares:

“Even if history collapses, God does not.”

Faith is not the denial of broken reality; it is the courage to confess God again within that broken reality.

God’s Time and Human Time

The psalm clearly contrasts God’s time with human time:

“A thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it passes by,or like a watch in the night.” (v.4)

From God’s perspective, time is not something we can calculate or control. By contrast, human life is extremely fragile and brief.

“You sweep people away; they are like sleep,like grass that grows in the morning.” (v.5)“In the morning it springs up and flowers,but by evening it withers and dries up.” (v.6)

Scripture does not romanticize human life. Our lives pass quickly, and we cannot hold on to them by our own strength. Therefore, the psalmist confesses:

“We are consumed by your angerand terrified by your indignation.” (v.7)

This is not the language of despair, but the honesty of faith that refuses to turn away from reality.

Time Does Not Cover Sin—It Reveals It Before God

The psalm moves beyond human frailty and speaks honestly about the problem of sin:

“You have set our iniquities before you,our secret sins in the light of your presence.” (v.8)

As time passes, it may seem as though everything will eventually be forgotten. But before God, this is not so. Time becomes the place where our lives are revealed. Yet this is not a word spoken to condemn us. The very fact that we can stand before God without hiding is itself grace.

Regret is not a failure of faith. The problem arises when we try to carry regret without God. Psalm 90 lays the community’s lament, shame, and weakness honestly before God. This is worship.

“Teach Us to Number Our Days”

At the end of all these confessions, the psalmist prays:

“Teach us to number our days,that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (v.12)

The wisdom spoken of here is not skill or information. Biblical wisdom is the ability to acknowledge that I am not the owner of my life. It is the faith to let go of the obsession to complete my own life story and to entrust my life to the Creator.

A wise heart is not one that simply mourns the brevity of life, but one that chooses to walk with God within that brief life.

Entrusting the Time of the Nation and the People to God

Psalm 90 is not merely a personal meditation; it is a communal prayer. When we read this psalm on the night of the Watch Night Service, we inevitably reflect on the time of our nation and people as well. Looking back over the past year, the time our society and nation have passed through has not been light. Unstable global conditions, recurring conflicts, economic pressures, and anxiety about the future weigh heavily on all of us.

And yet, we confess:

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.”

We believe that today is sustained not because national systems or policies are perfect, but because God has held the time of this people. Therefore, we entrust the future of this nation not to our calculations, but into God’s hands.

A Word to the Whole Christian Community

This word is also addressed to the entire Christian community today. In an age when people speak of the weakening influence of the church and shaken trust, the church stands before a question: On what foundation shall we stand again?

Psalm 90 does not offer a flashy answer. Instead, it calls us back to the most fundamental place:

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place.”

The strength of the church does not lie in its size or influence. The church finds its way again in the place where it abides before God, in the place where it stands again through prayer.

The Time Yeolin Church Has Passed Through, and the Time Ahead

Within this larger flow, we reflect on the time of Yeolin Church. Throughout 2025, the primary work of Yeolin Church was learning to adapt to this community. Rather than rushing ahead, we chose to remain; rather than proving results, we invested time in building relationships.

This time was never wasted. It was a season in which God planted Yeolin Church in this place and prepared us to become a dwelling place of faith within this community.

As we look toward 2026, we hope not to become a busier church, but a spiritually growing church. We long to be a community where faith deepens more than programs expand, and where prayer grows more than activities increase.

Placing Each Individual Life Before God

Finally, this word speaks to each one of us personally. We stand here tonight in different places—some with gratitude, some with regret, some carrying unresolved questions.

Yet the psalm calls us all to the same prayer:

“Teach us to number our days.”

This prayer is not a request to calculate life more efficiently, but a confession that the time of my life rests in God’s hands. Each individual life is placed within God’s eternal time.

Conclusion

Beloved brothers and sisters, on this Watch Night, we confess together: the time of our nation and people, the time of the Christian community, the time of Yeolin Church, and the time of our own lives—we entrust them all into the Lord’s hands.

Just as the Lord has been our dwelling place, we trust that God will also hold our time in the coming year of 2026.