“Teach us to Number our Days"
Have you recently considered how short life is?
The predominant thrust of Wisdom Literature is to propel God’s people to think (1). This section of Scripture often instructs us to marvel at God’s character, to contemplate His ways, and to remember His faithfulness. Furthermore, this section challenges us to pursue the wisdom of God’s Word (Psalm 1:1-2), to walk in the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1:7), and provides many warnings to those who would reject and neglect God’s commandments and God’s ways (Prov. 1:28-33).
Although there are many themes in Wisdom Literature that are worthy of examination, the one that we will consider here is that of life’s brevity.
In Job 7:6-7, Job will say:
“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle… my life is but a breath.”
In Ecclesiastes, the wealthiest and wisest man of all, King Solomon, will compound on the words of Job when he describes the vanity and futility of life. Furthermore, Solomon will detail that the length of our lives, although known to God, is completely unknown to us: “Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.” (2)
Life itself is like a whisper spoken into the wind or like a candle, which after being blown out, has lingering smoke for but a brief moment and then disappears forever. The brother of Jesus will later testify to these very realities in the New Testament: “You don’t even know what your life will look like tomorrow.” (3)
As Christians, we are committed to living for the glory of God, but in order to do so, we must effectively evaluate and examine the fragility and fleeting nature of life. In his resolutions, Jonathan Edwards rightly valued the scarcity of time and prayed that the Lord would impress upon his conscience the necessity of viewing our time here on earth with a profound sense of stewardship. With the brevity of man’s days and the eternal nature of man’s soul in mind, Edwards would pray, “Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs.” Edwards refused to live for the temporary, but insisted on making this personal resolution:
“Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.”
Edwards was an unusual man in this regard and that's why he was used by God in an unusual way.
Have you ever asked the question: “how can I live my short life well?”
To answer that question in brief, we will consider the 90th psalm. Although 90th in its placement, this is the first psalm to ever be written and the only one written by Moses.
What would uniquely qualify Moses to write a Psalm on life’s brevity, transiency, and fragility?
Well, to answer that question, we must consider a daily chore of Moses for ⅓ of his life: wandering around in the desert… doing funerals. If you recall, the people of Israel had disobeyed God and as a result, they were instructed to wander in the desert for 40 years until an entire generation died. Moses, the pastor of two million people, did more funerals than anybody else in human history. Each day was a dramatic reminder of life’s brevity and man’s inevitable destiny. The wilderness became a wasteland of bones. All those funerals…all those deaths functioned as a constant reminder to God’s people: “You are going to die.”
James Montgomery Boice rightly noted:
“This Psalm is probably the greatest passage in the Bible contrasting the grandeur of God with man’s frailty.”
In Psalm 90, after considering the eternality, sovereignty, and justice of God in the opening 11 verses, Moses will arrive at the high point of the Psalm in verse 12: “Teach us God to number our days, that we may present to you a heart of wisdom.”
Moses looks around him and all he sees are tombstones. This vivid drama unfolded before the eyes of God’s people for 40 years and propelled Moses to plead with God, praying that God would instruct the people “to number their days.”
What does it mean to number our days?
To number our days doesn’t mean we correctly quantify the amount of days in a year or in our projected life, but rather to measure today in light of eternity.
I remember reading the story of a boxing legend who won the Olympic gold in 1968 and then went on to dominate for years, eventually winning the heavyweight championship in 1973. Furthermore, as we see so often today, coupled with this man’s athletic achievement was immense wealth. Sadly, this legendary boxer filed for bankruptcy in 1983. He had lost everything. What could he do? He was now too old to go back into competitive boxing. Was he financially doomed? Well, fortunately, this prolific boxer turned the corner in his late 40s and made back all the money he had lost and then millions more. He did so, not by boxing, but by marketing portable electrically heated grills, appropriately titled: George Foreman Grills. The boxer, who had once lost everything, is now worth over $300,000,000 because of his famed panini makers.
Fortunes can be lost and rebuilt, but no one can have back yesterday. Once time is gone, it is gone forever.
We consider the number in our retirement accounts, but have you considered the fleeting number of your days? Moses knows that time itself is like sand sifting through our fingers. We can try to grab hold of time, but the more we try to capture it, the more time evades us. In light of this reality, Moses pleads with God to grant him a proper perspective of life’s transience.
Interestingly, stewarding our time and living for the glory of God doesn’t start with a long to-do list, it begins with a profound sense of satisfaction in the lovingkindness of God. Moses pleads with God in verse 14: “Satisfy us in the morning with your lovingkindness, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
Our lives are often conditioned to respond to the brevity of our lives with a renewed sense of moralistic discipline. Discipline itself is a good thing, but in order to steward our short lives well, Moses bids us to establish a new morning commitment by praying that God would satisfy us with His lovingkindness.
After considering the lovingkindness of God in verse 14, Moses will then ask God in verse 17: “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; And confirm for us the work of our hands; Yes, confirm the work of our hands.”
The Psalmist is not driving us towards despair, he is driving us towards a dependency on God’s grace and love.
How can we live our short lives well?
By running to the spring of satisfaction: the lovingkindness of God. Furthermore, we are to plead with God to put His hand of favor upon our lives. Moses properly understood that apart from the favor, grace, and kindness of the Lord, nothing in our lives will have any lasting significance.
C.T. Studd once said:
“Only one life, twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”
This much is true, only what’s done for Christ will last. But Moses takes us one step further: Only that which is done for Christ and confirmed by Christ will truly last.
The Scripture prompts us to think. Specifically here, God, through His living and active Word bids us to consider these questions:
Are you numbering your days in light of eternity?
Have you considered the brevity of this life and the perpetuity of the next?
If not, pray the prayer of Moses:
“Teach us to number our days, so that we may present to you a heart of wisdom.”
Resources
For more on Psalm 90, listen to Jonny Ardavanis’ full episode on the Dial In Podcast, here:
References
Wisdom Literature includes: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon
Ecclesiastes 9:12
James 4:14
Resolution #7
