The 1928 Book of Common Prayer is my prayer book. It is the Anglican prayer book (drafted originally by the great Thomas Cranmer, 1548). There is also the Book of Common Order (John Knox, 1556) for Reformed worship that many of those churches still use today. I found out through Dr. K. Talbot that Gordon Clark also used the 1928 prayer book and recently found a reference to it in his commentary on I and II Peter. I absolutely love the Christian calendar and liturgical prayers contained therein, and by the grace of God, found a conservative, 1928 Book of Common Prayer Anglican church here, which I attend every Sunday. The Christian Calendar represents the rearrangement of the Roman calendar we use (January, Febuary, etc.) and, for me, symbolizes the fact that He changed the seasons. Instead of “December” it is “Christmas” with the four weeks before. January is Epiphany, the appearance of Christ. April prepares us for Lent, leading up to Resurrection and Ascension. Trinity Sundays go through the Summer, and on and on. The whole year is structured around the Gospel story.

And what has this to do with the Millennium? Nothing. But, in the “daily readings” and “the Psaltery”, the Psalms are divided into thirty segments, for each day of the month, so that one reads the Psalms in their entirety every year (along with the whole Bible if one follows the Daily Readings). And, the other day, in my morning devotions, I read Psalm 90:

A PRAYER OF MOSES, THE MAN OF GOD. Lord, you have been our dwelling place¹ in all generations. ² Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. ³ You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”^{1 4} For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as , a watch in the night. ⁵ You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: ⁶ in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. ⁷ For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. ⁸ You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. ⁹ For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. ¹⁰ The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span¹ is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. ¹¹ Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? ¹² So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. ¹³ Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! ¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. ¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. ¹⁶ Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. ¹⁷ Let the favor¹ of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! (ESV).

I have read this in allusion to Rev 20 many times, and most commentaries will site this psalm. It’s the only place where we have “1,000 years” mentioned. One of the strangest criticisms Preterism has faced is that we shorten the 1,000 years to just 40 years by placing it between the Ministry of Christ (Epiphany) to his Parousia (70 A.D.). I have several exegetical reasons for doing this (see other articles on this site), but that’s not what caught my eye here. The psalmist here shortens a thousand years to just one day! At least we have forty years! The objection, then, is moot. As I have argued elsewhere, somewhere, the thousand years is symbolic for a period of time that could be longer or shorter. But, there can be no dismissal of the Preterist contention that it is shorter because right here, 1,000 years is reduced to a “day”.

The fact that Peter quotes this verse in II Pe 3, in the midst of tribulation (which I believe the Millennium unquestionably ends with – AFTER the thousand years) is also a key. But, I don’t want to exegete II Pe 3. My first question is: why is John inspired to write, “thousand years”? Would that not have conjured up (and it has) Ps. 90, at least in consideration? Is John (by the Holy Spirit who inspired his every word put to papyri) alluding to this verse – not just the verse, but the whole psalm?

Lord, you have been our dwelling place¹ in all generations. ² Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. ³ You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” Here we have a reference to the genesis creation ex nihilo – creation – and the making of man of “dust”. But, this is also connected to the idea of resurrection.

“For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as , a watch in the night. ⁵ You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: ⁶ in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. ⁷ For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.” The thousand years here is “past”, a “watch in the night”. It is the time when God “sweeps away…like a flood” – like “grass” that’s here one day and gone the next (I Pe 1.24 also uses this familiar imagery from Isaiah) – the “evening”, “wrath” and a time when “we are brought to an end”. The “yesterday” (1,000 years in God’s site) is past, gone, done. It is a time of wrath and anger. It is when the wrath of God is being revealed. The 1,000 years is night time.

“You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. ⁹ For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. ¹⁰ The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span¹ is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. ¹¹ Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? ¹² So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Here is, roughly, a generation. The psalmist is contrasting man’s years with the thousand years of God. The point is, the brevity of years in the sight of God is a “sigh” – so number the days. If John has this psalm in mind, the point is obvious: the thousand years leads up to “the end”. It is “night time” – a time to “watch” and a time to “number the days”. It is a generation, but to God’s sight, it is a thousand years, so the righteous can endure if they gain the perspective of God and have patience (II Pe 3′s point in context). It is my contention that John wrote the revelation just before the great tribulation, which marks the endings “time, times and half a time” or “little season” (3 and a half years) after the Millennium. The night (thousand years) is fading….the Day is almost here (Rom 13.11-ff). The thousand years (the church under tremendous persecution, spiritual warfare and childbirth – birth pangs) is to take on the perspective of Ps 90. Yes, your years are 70, and that seems like a long time – but get God’s perspective, John was saying, the night is almost over….the Day is almost here. In other words, John is alluding to this psalm for comfort for the Church.

Now, watch this as the psalm ends: “Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! ¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. ¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. ¹⁶ Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. ¹⁷ Let the favor¹ of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” Come, Lord Jesus! Bring justice to your “servants”! Bring the morning (star). Demonstrate your glory! Establish our labor! And, here, naturally, John moves right into the “new heavens and new earth” – the removal of bondage and the Day of salvation.

I have no doubts anymore that John was inspired by the Holy Spirit to use this phrase “1,000 years” which is directly mentioned in a psalm that spells out the entire scene of Rev 20. It was meant as a psalm of comfort to those John was a partner with “in the great tribulation”. In effect, it is saying, “I know it seems long. I know we have been afflicted. I know we have lost loved ones. I know we are going through incredibly hard times, and it is going to get even harder for the next few years. But the Morning is almost here. God is ready to return and establish the work of our hands and labor. Our generation is but a day in his sight – a thousand years is but yesterday to God, so press on, overcome, and he shall return in the Morning. The night is almost finished!”

Anyhow……just some thoughts.