TIME

So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.(90:12)

This verse baffled me until I thought about it during a meditational walk last week. The language seemed odd to me that God would tell us to count our days. While there are lessons to be learned about timing, existence, numbers, days, all of which are presented in this verse, I never saw much sense in counting days as the word, “number”, seemed to suggest. As I walked along on that rainy morning with umbrella in hand, the battery went out on my ipad so I couldn’t take notes on my thoughts so I was just left with the task of thinking. The more I thought about it, the clearer the verse became. A number is a value. It tells us how important or unimportant a thing is, how great or small a thing is. As I walked along, I thought to myself, “That’s it. A number indicates value and God wants us to make our days count for something.

Then I thought to myself, why is the Holy Spirit bringing this verse to me? Am I wasting too much of the good time that God has given me. Is God telling me to take this day, this precious day, and make it count for something that He values?

Let me bring it down to where the rubber meets the road. If anger has enveloped an area of life, don’t waste time being angry. Fix it. Don’t waste time in hating and hurting and being uncaring. Fix it.

Remember that the purpose of valuing time is to encourage us to become wise in our thoughts and actions, that is the meaning of the phraise, “that we may present You a heart of wisdom.” In other words, stop the hate, open the doors, etc. Fix it.

THAT ENDS THIS TFTD. FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PARTICULAR PSALM, READ ON.

When I sat down to write this TfTD I was impacted by all of the references it makes time which indicates how important time was to the Psalmist. I suggest you read it and see if you can detect the many references time time.

1Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.

      2Before the mountains were born

            Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,

            Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

      3You turn man back into dust

            And say, “Return, O children of men.”

      4For a thousand years in Your sight

            Are like yesterday when it passes by,

            Or as a watch in the night.

      5You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep;

            In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.

      6In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew;

            Toward evening it fades and withers away.

      7For we have been consumed by Your anger

            And by Your wrath we have been dismayed.

      8You have placed our iniquities before You,

            Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.

      9For all our days have declined in Your fury;

            We have finished our years like a sigh.

      10As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,

            Or if due to strength, eighty years,

            Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;

            For soon it is gone and we fly away.

      11Who understands the power of Your anger

            And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?

      12So teach us to number our days,

            That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

      13Do return, O LORD; how long will it be?

            And be sorry for Your servants.

      14O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness,

            That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

      15Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us,

            And the years we have seen evil.

      16Let Your work appear to Your servants

            And Your majesty to their children.

      17Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;

            And confirm for us the work of our hands;

            Yes, confirm the work of our hands.