Wisdom in Numbering Our Days

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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 span 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.
(Psalms 90:9-15)
 
Another year has come and gone, and we are all one year older; just thought I'd remind you. And now that the nostalgia from all the celebration, champagne, kisses, and well wishes to mark the end of another 12 months has dissipated; if you’re like me, once alone, you're left with a mortal reminder that time unapologetically, and quickly marches on, "it waits for no man." If you’re not like me, then I hope this act's as a sober reminder of that humbling reality. We are all allotted a number of days on this earth, a number unknown to us. And it is in this uncertainty that the Psalmist rightly marries the certainty of our falleness, God's wrath and the subsequent "toil and trouble" which fill our days as a result. There is another certainty-we can be certain that while knowing our allotted number of days is out of our reach; it is known to God (the apostle states):
 
"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,...." Acts 17:24-27
 
Evidently we are not good stewards of time, newsflash! The Psalmist supplicates of God, to "teach us to number our days." It is an act of one who rightly considers God's wrath, birthed out of "fear" or reverence for God, which results in developing wisdom. It is not a careful second by second catalog of carrying-on’s, but a renewed mind and heart given to daily contemplation that is saturated with wisdom-wisdom that reminds us of his second coming; wisdom that teaches us of his faithfulness and to sate in his steadfast love; wisdom that teaches us to depend upon him, and to rejoice, when all around us, there is but toil and trouble. There is wisdom and lessons to be learned when we number our days, and ultimately for the Christian it is not a count-down to the end but to a begining.  

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