|
The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of Your anger, and Your wrath according to the fear of You? So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:10-12)
The limit of human aging is thought to be between 120 to 150 years. Today the average human lifespan is about 79 years, but in biblical times the lifespan may have been between 40 and 50 years. The psalmist sets a higher limit of 70 or 80 years! Yet those decades of life are not necessarily happy. The years are filled with toil and trouble, and soon our time runs out. The psalmist wonders if we are so wrapped up in the troubles of life that we forget to live in fear and reverent awe toward God, who created us and gave us those years. We may ignore His wrath against sin. Living in such forgetfulness is not a wise way to spend the years we are given.
Seeking to fill our years with something better than toil and trouble, we join the psalmist in praying, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” When we say of someone, “His days are numbered,” it is usually a reference to the individual’s impending death. The psalmist may have the same idea. Knowing the short time we have in life, we need to become wise about some very important things. We want to remember and to stand in awe of our God, for whom “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8b). We want our Lord, who delights in truth, to teach us wisdom “in the secret heart” (Psalm 51:6b).
The wisdom we need is granted to us by God’s grace through faith in Jesus. We know and believe that the God, who created time, took on human flesh in the Person of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. God the Son stepped into this world’s history. He lived on earth, subject to time and aging, and gave Himself into death to save us. By His sacrifice Jesus turned God’s wrath from us. Now we number our days, aware that our time is short and praying that God would give us the wisdom to remember that “now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2b). As we experience the passing of time and we number our days, we look forward to that one great day of our Savior’s return and to life in His presence for eternity. Until then, we are counting the days!
WE PRAY: Lord Jesus, grant to me the wisdom that I need to live all my days in love and service to You. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Carol Geisler.
Reflection Questions:
- What nuggets of wisdom have you taken from someone who is older than you, say, in their 70s or 80s?
- How does numbering our days get us a “heart of wisdom”? How might this be so?
- Why would God want us to be realistic in considering the length of our lives? How would this be profitable in our relationships? Our vocations? Our witness?
|
