So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Ps 90:12)
Well, we are halfway through the first week of a New Year (2023 to be exact by Roman standards). In the past I have been prone to develop several resolutions each new year, using the annual changeover as an opportunity to review my life practices and make adjustments where needed. Some of my resolutions did result in positive changes – many simply died on the vine as the year unfolded. I once read in a Robert Fulghum book that he liked to review the previous year at New Years, note all his past accomplishments, and then write them as resolutions and back date them to the year before. His resolutions always looked good! Mine, not so much.
Recently I saw an excellent brief post on Facebook from a friend of mine who wrote about resolutions under the title ‘A No-Resolution New Year’. He noted that making resolutions puts the focus on my resolve to live in a certain way, and he asserts “I have no faith in that”. Rather, he says, he wants to live in the light of God’s resolve. You can see his post here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=5752492968121164&set=a.164293480274502
I can’t help but feel this is in part what Moses is saying in Psalm 90:12 as he asks God to teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90 is a passage often quoted around the New Year. It is a “perspective” psalm – by which I mean it puts life in perspective. Moses reminds us that God exists from everlasting to everlasting (vs. 2) but the days of man “are soon gone, and we fly away” (vs. 10).
My wife and I were watching Monday Night Football two days ago as Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills made a tackle, and then fell to the ground in obvious distress. The 24-year-old Safety for the Bills, at the acme of good health and conditioning, suffered cardia arrest on the field, postponing the game and turning the celebratory mood of Paycor Stadium into a somber prayer meeting. The two teams stopped the game, knelt for prayers and watched as medical personnel loaded the stricken player into an ambulance bound for the local critical care centre. He is reported to be in critical but stable condition. The game did not resume that night.
How quickly life turns sometimes. The vaunted plans we have for our families can be redirected and changed through divine providence in a single moment. Our plans, our ambitions, our desires can all be overturned with a thundering suddenness. Hence, Moses says teach us to number our days. How do we do this? In verse 14 he asks God to satisfy us with His steadfast love in the morning. In the final verse of the psalm he asks God to let His favour rest on us and let the work of our hands be established. This is not a string of loosely connected thoughts, rather Moses is showing a process that answers the longing of verse 12.
We gain a heart of wisdom when we number our days. What does this mean? It is more than counting our days, as if the oldest survivor among our peers is to be considered the winner. We all probably know old people who are simply old fools, who have lived many years on earth without seeming to have learned how to really live at all. O Lord pity us.
Moses suggests in verse 14 that the Lord can satisfy us in the morning with His love, and that can make us glad. Do you want to have a glad heart? Go searching for the Lord’s steadfast love in the morning, and delight in it. Find the points in your life where God has touched you with His steadfast love. Maybe it springs immediately to mind; perhaps you have to meditate for a while to see its subtle action; maybe in your despair you need to cry out to God to show it to you, as you cannot seem to see it at all currently. But when you see it, dwell on it. Let it fill your mind with peace. IT will make your heart glad.
Once we have been refreshed by His steadfast love, the psalmist asks God to favour us and establish the work of our hands. What work does he mean? Any old job that we choose to do to satisfy our own wants or needs? No, in verse 16 he asks the Lord to show His work to His servants. Moses is asking God to show us what work he wants us to do, and then prays the favour of the Lord over it in the next verse.
To put all these requests into a straight and simple flow, Moses is asking God to
- Help us gain a heart of wisdom (by numbering our days)
- We do this by being satisfied each day in God’s steadfast love
- With this satisfied attitude we can hear God direct us as to the work He wants us to be doing
- And as we do what He asks, we pray His favour over the results so that whatever we do is established by His power.
This is not so much a pattern for resolutions, but it is a pattern that can help build a life. And that is something worth seeking and worth learning.
So Lord, teach us to number our days……
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