![]() ![]() We are not only ignorant if left to ourselves, but we suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18). If our need is to number our days by contrasting their shortness with the eternal nature of God, then our prayer to God is that He would teach us: “Teach us to number our days.” We will never learn that lesson in our own strength. As God had brought suffering by His power, so Moses prays that God will send blessing: “Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil” (v. Moses, who had seen the power of God often displayed in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, continues to pray that the majesty of God’s works would remain before the eyes of the people: “Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children” (v. This eternal God directs the course of history by His infinite power. He is eternal, above the time that He created. For God, it is no different from a very short period of time. For us, a thousand years is a time so long that we cannot really imagine experiencing it. ![]() Moses makes this point in another way in verse 4: “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” Time does not have the same meaning for God that it has for us. He has always been, and He is sufficient to Himself without us. Moses takes us back before God created the earth to remind us that our God is before and beyond time and this world. “Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (v. Moses reminds us that while the life of man is frail and short, God is eternal. God remains the home of His people because He is the redeeming God. Even in the garden of Eden, He promised that He would redeem His own (Gen. Through all the generations of His people’s existence, reaching back all the way to creation, God has always preserved and protected His people. God is the home of His people: “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations” (v. It is surely frightening to think that God’s wrath will equal all the obedience that is due to Him.Īlthough life is short and the wrath of God terrifying, the mercy and protection of God for His people are great. Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?” (vv. “For all our days pass away under your wrath we bring our years to an end like a sigh. He knows that his holy God visits His judgment on sinners. The psalmist acknowledges that sin frankly, saying, “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence” (Ps. The shortness and weakness of human life are the fruit of sin and judgment in the world. “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days let me know how fleeting I am” (Ps. Such realism about our weakness is the necessary foundation of any true wisdom. Here, Psalm 90 shows its connection to the concerns of Psalm 89 about man’s frailty: “Remember how short my time is! For what vanity you have created all the children of man! What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol?” (Ps. 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, and we fly away” (vv. 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. A reflection on time leads us to see how weak we are and how short our lives are: “You return man to dust and say, ‘Return, O children of man!’. In Hebrew, verse 12 begins with the words “to number our days.” This phrase picks up the theme of time that is so pervasive in this psalm. It is a key part of a meditation on God and on living as the people of God. ![]() This verse is often treated as if it were a proverb that means, “Life is short, so live wisely.” But in the context of the whole psalm, it means much more than that, as we will see. “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90: 12) ![]()
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