Number Our Days

"Teach us to number our days, 

that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

Psalm 90:12 NIV

Pastor Al preached on Psalm 90 this past Sunday, December 30, 2018 and today, anuary 2, 2019, verse 12 is the “Verse of the Day” on Bible Gateway!  When God’s Word shows up in my life twice in such a short time, I take notice and pay attention.  There’s obviously something He’s trying to get through to me.

“Teach” – when the writer asks God to teach him, he is expressing his willingness to learn.  Taken in context with the whole verse, he’s also declaring his willingness to be a lifelong learner at the feet of God.  I need to be the same – a student for my whole life!  No matter how much I know, there’s just so much more to learn!  I’ve learned in recent years that I LOVE learning…and learning more and more about my Father is good for my soul!

“Us” – this verse is not all about me.  Lessons are to be shared, passed on, discussed and dissected so that deeper truths and other messages can be gleaned from them.  All our perceptions and understanding come from our lifetime experiences.  And since none of us have lived identical experiences, there’s no way we will all get the same message from God, even if He uses the same words for each of us.  That’s what makes His Word LIVING – it ALWAYS applies to our lives in ALL WAYS!  Thank You, Lord, for giving us Your Word to feed on, to live on, to be guided by and to love!

“Number our days” – When God created the Garden of Eden and placed Adam and Eve within its confines, they would not have been aware of “their days”.  Time had no meaning and was not a boundary in that garden of perfection.  But sin occurred…and that sin put a boundary on life.  No longer would man live LIKE God…forever and ever…in his human body.  There was a consequence for sin…a consequence God put in place, so we would not have to spend our eternity living in our sin!  How can we not thank Him for bringing an end to our sinful humanness and offering us an eternity of perfection with Him in heaven?  I know that my days WILL END.  I don’t live my life as if it will last forever.  Nothing breaks my heart more than a person whose life is cut short…shorter than the 70 years the Bible says would be a normal life span.  I want my 70 years to have meaning.  I want to be 70 years more like Christ at the end than I was at the beginning.  I want 70 years of giving and service to be part of my legacy.  I’ve lived six-sevenths of my lifetime…there’s something special about knowing I have 10 years to end on a good note.  Of course, I could live longer than that…and every day after my 70^th birthday will be blessings from God.  But every day counts as an opportunity to know Him more and more…to keep learning…to keep letting my heart move towards wisdom.

“Gain” – obtain, secure, increase, acquire, achieve, earn, capture, reap, collect, grow, reach, realize, gather, harvest…these are just some of the many synonyms for the word “gain”.  But every one of them have something in common.  I MUST DO SOME WORK to “gain”.  It won’t happen at all if I do nothing.  Apparently numbering our days also means doing something with each of them that will result in a gain…a gain of something extra special.  The work we do as we learn to number our days brings us a gain of something we can achieve in no other way.  Our experiences as we love and serve the Lord in the quickly fleeting days of our human lives have a reward that is a prize we ought all want.  We’re also made aware, as we number our days, that our days WILL end…His will NOT.  It’s called perspective when we understand that we are not invincible, but the God Who is loves us, died for us, forgives us and wants to spend eternity with us.

“Heart of Wisdom” – nothing in life is so valuable as wisdom.  I remember that Solomon’s request for wisdom, when told he could have ANYTHING, was the request that pleased God so much He gave Solomon everything…wisdom, financial wealth, friendship and everything good that can come in life.  Wisdom is not an easy prize to attain, because it sometimes comes with a huge cost.  When we’re willing to accept that our experiences are preparing us for God’s plan in our lives, that means we accept ALL experiences…the bad with the good.  I’ve had plenty of experience with bad…I wouldn’t want to try to list all the things I’ve done wrong or the wrongs that have been done to me.  I’m always grateful to God when good things are happening.  But I’ve only learned in the last few years to thank Him for the “bad” ones too.  I’ve learned that He stands with me in the bad.  He holds me in the painful.  He comforts me in hurting times.  He loves me in loneliness.  He shows me silver linings when my skies are dark gray.  He strengthens me when I feel weak.  I don’t anticipate He will do it.  I don’t “believe” He will do it.  I don’t live with “blind faith”.  I now live with WISDOM…with the experience that PROVES He is Who He says He is, He does what He says He does.  HE IS GOD and everything that could possibly mean.  There are no words to describe His holiness, His power, His love, His righteousness, His personal touch in my life.  His mercy and grace go beyond understanding and comprehending.

While MY days are numbered, His are not!  He knows the numbers of my days.  He has a plan for every one of those days.  My only joy is to find and fulfill His will for His pleasure and His joy.  So…I will number my days on the way to a heart of wisdom…a gift from Him that will allow me to one day enter His Presence prepared for an eternity with Him.  I’m grateful on this second day of a new year to be reminded that days are important.  They are not something just to be tolerated.  They are not something to “get through”.  They are to be celebrated.  They have purpose.  They have meaning.

Solomon, the man of wisdom, lost his focus and his life ended so sadly.  I will not go the way of Solomon…I will die still learning Who God is and why He loved me so.  I pray this new year finds you numbering your days and working towards gaining a heart of wisdom.