Monday: Teach Us to Number Our Days
Daily Lesson for Monday 19th of February 2024
Read Psalms 90:1-17, Psalms 102:11, and Psalms 103:14-16. What is the human predicament?
Fallen human existence is but a vapor in the light of eternity. A thousand years in God’s sight is “like a watch in the night,” which lasted three or four hours (Psalms 90:4, NKJV). Compared to divine time, a human lifetime flies away (Psalms 90:10).
Image © Susan Unoura at Goodsalt.com
The strongest among humans are analogous to the weakest among plants (Psalms 90:5-6; Psalms 103:15-16). Yet, even that short life is filled with labor and sorrow (Psalms 90:10). Even secular people, who have no belief in God, mourn and lament the shortness of life, especially in contrast to the eternity that’s out there and that, they know, threatens to go on without them.
Psalms 90:1-17 places the human predicament in the context of God’s care for people as their Creator. The Lord has been the dwelling place of His people in all generations (Psalms 90:1-2). The Hebrew word ma‘on, “dwelling place,” portrays the Lord as the shelter or refuge of His people (Psalms 91:9).
God restrains His righteous wrath and extends His grace anew. The psalmist exclaims, “Who knows the power of Your anger?” (Psalms 90:11, NKJV), implying that no one has ever experienced the full effect of God’s anger against sin, and so, there is hope for people to repent and gain wisdom for righteous living.
Wisdom in the Bible depicts not merely intelligence but reverence for God. The wisdom that we need is knowing how “to number our days” (Psalms 90:12). If we can number our days, it means that our days are limited and that we know that they are limited. Wise living means living with an awareness of life’s transience that leads to faith and obedience. This wisdom is gained only through repentance (Psalms 90:8,12) and God’s gifts of forgiveness, compassion, and mercy (Psalms 90:13-14).
Our fundamental problem stems not from the fact that we are created as human beings but from sin and from what sin has wrought in our world. Its devastating effects are seen everywhere and in every person.
Thanks to Jesus, however, a way has been made for us out of our human predicament (John 1:29, John 3:14-21). Otherwise, we would have no hope at all.
No matter how quickly our life passes, what promise do we have in Jesus? (See John 3:16.) What hope would we have without Him?
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Not only is our time limited but our space is infinitesimally small too. I found out that my great-grandmother never went more than 10 miles from the village where she was born. Essentially she had the same horizon for the whole of her life. If she was still alive, I am sure that she would be astonished that nowadays it is not uncommon for people to travel around the world in less than a week. Yet even with all our modern technology we still all live in a very thin skin on the surface of a rather small planet. Compared to what we can now see of the rest of the universe, that is not much space at all. In fact, if we were to go to one of the other planets like Uranus and look up into the sky, it would be very difficult to pick out which dull spot of light is Earth. In terms of time and space, we are minute.
Those of us who hold the notion that God created all this are challenged by the idea that God is even interested in a tiny speck of his creation. The Psalmists allude to this repetitively in their poetry. But, there is also that sense that even though we have such a small horizon of time and space, we should look after it as well.
We sometimes like to think of salvation as though it removes the limits of time and space from our existence and while that is true there is also the sense that salvation is about the present. We use the expression, "Living in Christ" to express the idea that salvation is something about the present as well as the hope for the future.
I like the way that Paul writes this:
Jesus said, "Occupy till I come!"
Everything converts to this name: Jesus! Wisdom, pardon, eternal life, perfection. What hope would we have without Him? None. Without Him, we'd still be doing animal sacrifices. Would that be enough? I have no idea. So, thank God for His Son.
Lord, we need your guidance to number our days.
We become so pre-occupied with the cares of life and the busyness of our days so help us Lord.
When we think of numbered days we can become dismal, discouraged or disheartened, however if we number our days according to God’s will for our lives we will be exhilarated, empowered and earnest to fulfill His will in numbered days.
Psalm 90:11-12 – ”Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath; so teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
God’s creature man lives in an environment here on earth which proves hostile and destructive without proper calibration by God’s Wisdom. I appreciate the writer providing the Hebrew translation of the word ‘dwelling place’, portraying “the Lord as the shelter or refuge of His people” – Psalm 91:9; this intrigues me.
‘Shelter and refuge’ reminds me of John 14:19-21 and 1 John 4:12-13. It appears to be essential for man to receive God’s wisdom through the Holy Spirit for establishing the right understanding about himself and how to live in this fallen world. We are informed that man is doomed to suffer life's storms alone if refusing to take shelter and refuge in Him. Every minute of every day becomes important; no time can be lost through careless disregard of His precious gift of wisdom.
For thousands of years mankind heard that it is sin which besets this world; that mankind's true God will give His Son so all can have the wisdom to know ”that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life - John 3:16; the time is now to accept His Gift!
I do not want to be anywhere else but under His wings and in His protective care every minute of every day.
I am a point in my life when I feel I really want nothing to do with God’s word. Today, however, I missed this how and found my way here. Thank you HSS for your unswerving zeal to teach God’s word. From Zambia
I hope you will find Christ, the only One who can fill that long in your soul.
The Holy Spirit Leads you here for a purpose. Jesus Loves you.
To deal with the issue how and why to number our days, I throw in the question: what do those do, who have not learned to number their days?
Certainly, they spend their days in pursuit of self glorification, entertainment, success, fame and riches.
In Isaiah 22:13 and Eccl. 8:15 it says:
„Let‘s eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we are dead.“
Yes, we are all going to die, but are we aware of the necessity of sharing the good news to those who do not know the Lord while we’re still alive, or seeking God‘s kingdom in the first place, yearning for His wisdom and His peace- all that has eternal value.
In Luke 12:19-21 there‘s the parable in which Jesus depicts
that rich man who believed he had years yet to enjoy his pleasures, but God required his soul that very night.“
Too bad, for he did not live in harmony with God, for if he had done so, as one pastor once mentioned in his sermon:
„ If we live in harmony with God, death is simply a change of address.“
Though a much honorable address!
We ". . . finish our years like a sigh . . . " (Ps. 90:1) My son was bright, bold, and energetic. He attacked life from the very portal of the womb. He died from ALS a couple of years ago, in the presence of we who loved and adored him. Someone said, "Youth is wasted on the young." Argue with me if you must; but I add my hearty "Amen" to that. At my age, life is a sometimes volatile cocktail of Faith, Hope, Love, Loss, Pain, and unbelievable Joy. Number my days? THEY number ME!
Does Satan know how to number his days? Revelation 12:12 says "But woe to the earth and the sea; with great fury the devil has come down to you, knowing he has only a short time"