Lord, Teach Us to Number Our Days

Psalm 90:1-12 When we come to the end of another year, we cannot help but think of how we have spent our time over this last year and what we will do with the time that we are given in the year to come.

Even those folks who are not people of faith recognize that time is a precious, limited commodity and they resolve to spend their time more wisely in the New Year than they did in the past-- even as they drink and dance this night away.

The prayer that we have before us tonight, “Lord, teach us to number our days” is of course about much, much more than merely knowing how many days we have lived and how many days we have left to live -out of that fixed number that the LORD has granted to us—a number that no one knows except God himself. 

That we would “number our days to get a heart of wisdom” is not really about “counting” at all--but it means that that we would see our life as the LORD sees it:  brief and broken—and that this knowledge would humble us and give us a new perspective and a new set of values that puts God first in this new year. 

The first thing that we discover from God’s Word tonight about our life is its brevity.  The psalmist writes,

“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.”  

It’s always amazed me that when I was younger time seemed to go on forever.  Watching a classroom clock, I could have sworn that time had reached a standstill.  Waiting to turn sixteen so that I could drive seemed like an eternity.  But now that I am older time seems to rush forward and I don’t even know where it’s gone. 

When I was a boy someone who was seventy or eighty years old seemed ancient.  Now that I’m fifty-four, it doesn’t seem nearly so old.  Seventy or eighty (still today the average life-span in the United States) seems very short indeed—especially when we measure our brief life against that which is truly ancient.  The psalmist writes,

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.  For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.”   

            What is our lifespan compared to the mountains and seas and ground upon which we stand?  What is our lifespan compared even to human history which is ten thousand years old?  Even the longest human life is like the blink of an eye compared to the age of the world around us and the civilizations that have come and gone. 

And yet, as old as human history is-- and as old as the created world is—what are they compared to the God who created them?  A thousand years of history is like a few hours in God’s sight for he exists from everlasting to everlasting.

So how does this recognition of the brevity of our lives help us to gain a heart of wisdom?  How does it help us live a better life in 2017 than we have in 2016? 

First of all we learn humility and perspective.  The sun does not rise and set on our lives and we are not at the center of the universe.  The toils and troubles we face—as serious as they are at times—are not the end of the world. 

This kind of humility and perspective provide us with the gift of steadfastness that is so important to living a calm, peaceful, stable life. 

            Secondly, recognizing the brevity of our lives also gives us a measure of respect for those generations who have come before us and for the collective wisdom of the ages. 

Our culture’s current questions regarding marriage and family and sexuality (that have never been up for grabs in all of human history) are today-- because we have forgotten just how short our lives are and how many countless generations have come before us with a wisdom gained through experience over thousands of years. 

When we consider the fact that God has existed before this world began and will exist after this world comes to an end-- we come to realize that maybe, just maybe, God really does know what’s best for our lives, even though we often act as if we know best and go our own way rather than his.

And that is the next thing that we see about our lives as reflect upon them at the end of this year:  that we are broken by sin. 

We have lived as if we stand at the center of the universe and we have rejected the guidance of the One who made us and who sets a limit on our days.  The psalmist writes:

“You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.  For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.”   

            When we number our days aright—when we are truly reflective about our lives—when we think about this last year--we cannot help but see that we have failed to live as we ought:  loving God above all else and loving our neighbors as ourselves. 

All of us would blush with shame if we could add up all the hours we have spent sinning in thought, word, and deed.  Thankfully we can’t!  But God can and does!

The psalmist writes.  “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.”    Our lives are measured by the perfect standard of God’s holy law and that measure reveals that we are broken by sin, deserving of death--which is why we are here tonight in the first place.  You see…

The only reason that the end of one year and the beginning of a new year has any meaning at all for us is because we know that there will come a day when we will not be able to enter into a new year because we will not have lived through the old year. 

The bible says in Romans that “the wages of sin is death”  and that judgment will be rendered upon all of us one day.  The psalmist knew the same about himself.  He wrote of God’s judgment of sinners:

You return man to dust and say, ‘Return, O children of man!’  You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:  in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.  For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.” 

            Because we are broken by Adam’s sin and because we are sinners in our own right, there will come for each of us a last year and month and week and day of life—and we will die—returning to the dust from which humanity was created. 

But rather than discouraging us, the sobering reality of our own mortality is one of the best means of enriching the life we live now—for when we number our days and recognize them as finite—it helps us to realize that each day we live is a gift from God—a sheer gift of his grace—a day not meant to be lived in sin and unbelief—but a day to live for God and for the good of his people.

The first step in living each day as a day of God’s grace is this important realization that we are sinners and that our lives will come to an end because of it. 

But knowing that we are sinners is not the end of the story for us at all.  If it were our lives would be lived in fear and despair and ultimately end in futility. 

But this brief life is not all there is!  Even when that last year and month and week and day come for us—there is still another life for us to live—a life lived in eternity with God.  The psalmist writes:  “Lord, YOU have been our dwelling place in all generations.”

We get very comfortable with our lives lived on earth and I suppose that’s the way it always is.  But God’s Word tells us that this world is not meant to be our eternal dwelling place.  The writer to the Hebrews says:  “Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come”.

While the wages of sin is death and the wrath of God against sin is real-- it is also true that the gift of God is eternal life and that God’s love and care extends even to the worst of sinners.

The proof that both of these are true—the wrath of God that leads to death and the love of God that leads to life—is found in only one place—and that is in God’s Son Jesus Christ. 

In his death on the cross we see both:  God’s righteous wrath over sin that he pours out upon his Son who stands in our place as the chief of sinners --and the love of God that reaches out to the world from those arms outstretched on the cross. 

Jesus resurrection from the dead three days later is God’s guarantee that the Lord is indeed our dwelling place—both in this life and in the life to come. 

Yes, there will come a day when we return to the dust but that very same moment the psalmist promises us that we will fly away—that our body will be laid to rest but that our soul will find its true home in its eternal dwelling place until it is reunited with the body on the last day when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead.

When we begin to number our days aright and see that time is short and eternity long--when we begin to see our lives as God sees them—as those who have been redeemed from sin and death—as those who will one day be called upon to give an account of our lives—we will, by God’s grace and the Spirit’s help-- begin to live our lives right now and in the new year as those who are wise in God’s sight.  Amen.