Today’s reading is Psalm 90 which is attributed to Moses with some saying it’s the oldest Psalm, yet the author of every Psalm is not known so it can’t be confirmed it is the first.
What’s your number? This is the question asked in an old commercial of an investment firm regarding each person’s amount of money they need in order to retire. Each person’s number is hovering above them as they go about their daily life. What if the imaginary number above your head and this question was not about retirement money, but the number of days in your life?
Teach us to number our days
That we may get a heart of
wisdom.
Psalm 90:12
How would you live life differently if you knew your number? I find it ironic how most of us have a hard time wrapping our arms around the fact that God has always existed because everything we know has a beginning and end. Yet even though we know our life on Earth will end and we don’t know when, we don’t live that way.
Psalm 90:10 reads..
The years of our life are seventy
Or even by reason of strength
eighty…
Life is short…even if we live that long.
Psalm 90:14 says…
Satisfy us in the morning with
your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be
glad all our days.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled getting out of bed in the morning (although I’m still up early to get things done). It drives my wife Shannon nuts that once I’m out of bed I’m awake with good energy. When we leave for vacation early in the morning before daybreak, I’m ready to chat and listen to music while she’s just ready to go back to sleep for another 3 hours while I drive. However, getting out of bed initially is always tough still..no matter what great things are going on that day. Would this be the case if I knew my number and how few might be left, or if I realized how fast the 25,000-30,000 days at full life expectancy will go?
Psalm 90:16 says…
Let your work be shown to your
servants,
and your glorious power to
their children.
My post 2 weeks ago was around our responsibility to teach our children to know and love God and His Word. Assuming our kids become adults, move out, or go to college around age 18, we have 6,570 days in which they are under our roof. I don’t know about you but that doesn’t seem like that many to me, and I’m sure it will feel even faster. Are we enjoying each one of those days with them and impacting them to help nurture and grow their relationship with God realizing they’ll only be with us for a short time to influence them for the rest of their life?
Psalm 90:17 reads…
Let the favor of the Lord our
God be upon us,
and establish the work of our
hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our
hands.
Are we praying for a “heart of wisdom” as Psalm 90:12 mentions earlier and letting God do His work through our hands? What sort of impact are we having for His kingdom?
Psalm 90 tells us there will be challenges in this world no matter what our relationship with God (Psalm 90:10, Psalm 90:15). But we know God is with us through them. We know His love which He showed us on the cross. We know life is short here so those troubles are nothing compared to the joy we will experience in our eternal resting place in Heaven which is much longer. Jesus says in John 16:33,” I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulations. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” He conquered death through His Resurrection on Easter allowing us to do the same through belief in Him. So, let’s live like our number is 1 which turns the number above our head to ∞.