Number Our Days

Today's Reading:
AM - Psalm Psalm 87 and 90
PM - Psalm 136
Gospel - John 8:47-59

For reflection: What in your spiritual journey might help someone who is honestly seeking God?

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Quick quiz: Who wrote the Psalms?

Most folks would say King David.  You get 1 point for that. And maybe a few could name Asaph as well.  Give yourself 5 more points for that.  But you get 100 points if you knew that the oldest Psalm in the Psalter was written by a famous shepherd who became the Israel’s greatest leader: Moses.

Now what kind of Psalm would you expect Moses to write?  Think about the things this man had been through with God:

• He had heard the Lords voice from a burning bush
• He had seen him take down the world’s greatest power with 10 plagues
• He had watched the Red Sea part
• He had watched the Red Sea swallow the Egyptian army

So what does a man like that say about God?  Moses’ beautiful words in Psalm 90 give us a sweeping picture of how big God is and how small we are.  He describes man as grass that grows up and is gone.  He describes God as “sweeping us away” like blowing leaves off a porch. It’s kind of scary how fleeting he makes our whole existence feel.  70 years or so and we are done! You finish the first section of the psalm and want to pull the covers over your head.

But then he gives us some of the best advice in the Bible. Really! Right there in verse 12, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”   Psalm 90:12

The reason he wants us to be aware of the comparative brevity of our lives. Only when we see how short life is and how precious each day is can we find true wisdom.  Do you hear that in his language?  “Number our days.”  He reminds me that my days on earth have a number.  There are a finite number of them remaining.  I don’t know what it is…but it isn’t infinity! That may seem morbid, but the truth is if we think that our time on earth is this long leisurely stroll, we will miss the value of each sunrise and each sunset.  And if we don’t see how big God is and how long eternity is we will un-wisely place our focus on the stuff that doesn’t matter, the temporal stuff.  When we do that, we become like children spending hours and hours on a sand castle, only to be shocked and dismayed when the ocean claims it again.

So let Moses guide you as we walk towards Easter Sunday. This life is brief: cherish each day, each loved one and each hug.  And eternity is long: put your focus where it matters!

It’s an ironic thing:  If we will think as much about eternity as we do about today, we will live wiser moment to moment!

Teach us, Lord to number our days and be wise!

Happy Easter season!

- Jeff Wallilng