Wisdom Wednesday : Wisdom in the Psalms
Part 6 The Wisdom of Considering Time
Submitted by Debbie’s Dad
“So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”
(Psalm 90:12) NASB 95
As we proceed through the Psalms examining the wisdom theme, we have seen the following emphasis:
- The contrast of wise and foolish lives (Psalm 1)
- The wisdom of worshipping the Lord (Psalm 2) and extolling His grandeur because of His glory (Psalm 8).
- How the heavens revealed God’s glory, leading to the fear of the Lord, and that God’s written word revealed His wisdom and was the foundation for living a wise life (Psalm 19)
- The security of fearing the Lord and living in the wisdom the Lord provides to walk through life without stumbling (Psalm 37 and 49).
The 90th Psalm has, in the original text, a superscription indicating that it is “a prayer of Moses, the man of God,” and some commentators believe it was written by Moses during the wilderness wanderings, when an entire generation of the people died. The theme is consistent with this background because it extols the eternality of God and the temporal nature of man’s existence. The Psalm has two parts:
1) Man is temporal (90:1-12) – Our life is short, spent like grass that flourishes and fades, and because of sin, we are consumed by God’s anger. We complete our life like a sigh (v. 9; this reminds us of T.S. Eliot’s conclusion of the world as “… not with a bang, but a whimper” in his 1925 poem The Hollow Men). The word “sigh” may also be translated “a whisper,” and “…soon it is gone and we fly away…” (v. 10). Because of this, we must be taught by God to consider the brevity of our life by considering the days of our life (v. 12).
2) Appeal to God’s Mercy (13-15) – Considering this, the Psalm appeals, “Do return, O LORD; how long will it be? And be sorry for Your servants.” (v. 13). The Psalm seeks God’s lovingkindness (v. 14), gladness (v.15), and satisfaction in life (v. 17).
The Wisdom of Considering Our Temporal Nature in Verse 12
Verse 12 appeals to the Lord for wisdom – the wisdom that is learned by the Lord teaching us to consider how finite we are, “So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” Numbering our days refers to considering our days and I think this can occur in many ways:
- To realize where I am in life – my current age and how I am walking with the Lord.
- To think about the past years and how God has worked in my life.
- To think about how many years I might have left in life (maybe) and how I can walk closer as God teaches me to have a heart of wisdom.
The sobering thought of the temporal nature of our life is articulated by David in the 39th Psalm where he seems to recognize that he is near death:
LORD, make me to know my end
And what is the extent of my days;
Let me know how transient I am. (Psalm 39:4)
We must realize that we, like the grass that withers, will pass away with a sigh. Another Psalm pictures the battlefield and recognizes that God alone knows the “number” of days we have to live: “My times are in your hands ….” (Psalm 31:5)
Let us pause and consider the number of our days: the past days where we sinned and yet God forgave and worked in our lives, the present day and our current walk with God, and the future that we may have to grow in wisdom.