Weekly Update

We don’t have to look far for reminders that life is short.  Whether we’re glancing at our own experiences or looking at the headlines, the reality of the brevity of life is all around us.  Yesterday I was trying to remember the exact saying on a t-shirt that I saw several years ago – a saying that began, “Life is short…”  Since I couldn’t recall the saying I decided to do a Google search for it, and one of the results of the search caught my eye.  It was a website called “Death Clock,” and this was its tagline:  “The Internet's friendly reminder that life is slipping away...the Death Clock will remind you just how short life is.”  As if we need a reminder!  The website asks for some basic information (birth date, height and weight, etc.) and then calculates your “personal day of death.”  Now that sounds like a good time! 

While most of us don’t enjoy thinking about death, there are many passages of Scripture that remind us of the brevity of life.  Psalm 90:9-10 is one example:

 ⁹For all our days pass away under your wrath;
   we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
¹⁰The 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, and we fly away.

The writer reflects on the fleeting years of his life, pointing out that even a life of 70 or 80 years is short compared to God’s eternity (as vs. 4 says, “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past.”)  The Psalmist might as well have summed up these couple verses by simply and bluntly saying, “Life is short.”  This and other biblical (and real-life) reminders of the brevity of life can easily lend themselves to one of two typical responses:  either pessimism (“Woe is me…my life is short…what does it matter…I’m only going to die soon anyway…”);  or carelessness (“Eat, drink and be merry…for tomorrow we die!”)  But as we see in vs. 12, the writer of Psalm 90 has a different kind of a response, which is neither pessimistic nor careless:  “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”  In light of the brevity of life the words of this Psalm enjoin us to “number our days,” which is surely not a suggestion to count the days of our lives with a “Death Clock”.  Rather, what we see here is a sincere prayer for God to help us wisely prioritize our lives in such a way that is pleasing to him.  “Numbering our days” causes us to think and view life with an eternal perspective, far beyond our daily outlook. 

If we truly learn to number our days, and therefore gain the “heart of wisdom” to which the Psalmist refers, then we’ll begin to order our lives so that we seek after and pursue only those things which matter most.  What does that look like?  In verse 14 the Psalmist goes on to pray, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”  We can see in this request that the Psalmist has already begun to recognize the value of what matters most, as he seeks for God to satisfy him fully in His steadfast love rather than in the temporary and fading things of this world.  Imagine what our lives would be like – what our priorities would be – if we truly lived each day with our short life spans in view.   

If my days are numbered, and they are, then I want to use every day of my life pursuing God’s glory, and finding my satisfaction and joy in his steadfast love.  Lord, teach me to number my days. 

Pastor Andy