12Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)
If you’re like me, you have mixed feelings about this past year. It was filled with things both terrible and wonderful, both sad and joyful, both discouraging and hopeful. Yet, no matter how I feel about the past year, I’ve found it helpful to reflect upon what’s happened in the new year, to see what God might want to show me through a time of annual examination. I want to invite you to use Psalm 90 to guide our reflections. The context of Psalm 90 is not a happy one. It was written in a time when the people of God were “consumed by [God’s] anger” and “terrified” by God’s anger (v. 7) because of their “iniquities” (v. 8). Nevertheless, beneath the bad news of God’s judgment lies a bedrock of confidence in God’s everlasting goodness. Rejoicing and prosperity will come again because of God’s “unfailing love” and “favor” (vv. 14, 17). Psalm 90 reframes the way we think about time and its passing. The psalm begins with good news: “Lord, You have been our dwelling place throughout all generations” (v. 1). Moreover, God exists outside of time, even “before the mountains were born” (v. 2). Indeed, the psalmist exults, “from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (v. 2). Because God is timeless, God views the expanse of time differently than we see it: “A thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has just gone by” (v. 4). In contrast to God’s eternal existence, our time on earth is short: “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away” (v. 10). The shortness of our life, especially if we live in difficult times, could be discouraging. But, in Psalm 90 it can lead to wisdom: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (v. 12). The phrase, “number our days” means “know that our days are numbered.” Knowledge of the shortness of our life can help us become wise. How? How can the number of our days help us to be wise? To begin, the brevity of our life contrasts with the eternity of God’s life. When we count our days, we are reminded of our smallness compared with God’s greatness. This recognition leads us, on the one hand, to want to use well the time given to us. On the other hand, it also reminds us of our utter dependence on God. Thus, the final verse of Psalm 90 reads, “May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands.” (v. 17). When God’s favor rests on us, when God prospers us, then our work will be fruitful. What a fascinating and relevant conclusion to this psalm! The psalmist’s reflections on God’s timelessness, the relative shortness of our lives, and our dependence on God’s grace lead to a prayer that God “prosper” our work. In this request, we hear an echo of the creation story in Genesis 1, in which God created us in His image so that we might work in this world as God’s agents and co-laborers. Though our time on earth is limited, our work still matters. It matters to the world and it matters to God. Psalm 90 reminds us that what we do as workers will prosper as God’s grace is active in our lives. (The biblical understanding of work includes all human work, not just that for which we are paid.) At the start of 2022, and as we remember the shortness of our lives, we do not despair. Rather, when we count our days, we renew our trust in our timeless God and we ask for His favor so that we might make a difference through our work in the brief time allotted to us. From that perspective, it can be helpful to examine our lives, to count our days in the past year so that we might live more fully and fruitfully in the future. Lord God, teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. Comments are closed.
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