In Parts 1 and 2, we considered some foundational facts or realities that Moses passed on to the generation of the children of his contemporaries. He poetically communicates that they need to grasp the reality of God, the reality of death, the reality of life’s brevity, and the reality of life’s fragility and imperfection. The tone has been sobering, almost despairing, but with this final reality, Moses begins to show how life can be lived with wisdom. And in that wise living, we can experience satisfaction, joy, and blessing.

The Reality of Numbered Days – Psalm 90:9-12

All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish our years with a moan.
The length of our days is seventy years—
or eighty, if we have the strength;
yet their span is but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
Who knows the power of your anger?
For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart

The final reality is that of numbered days. But rather than this causing further sorrow or despair, Moses shows us that it is basic to learning how to live well.

Let’s first examine the fact of numbered days and take half the distance between the 70 and 80 years that Moses mentions. The number of days to reach age 75 = 27,375 days. Therefore if today is your birthday, then consider the following:

For many years, off and on, I’ve done this little exercise. I calculate, to the day, the days I have left until I reach 75. I write this number on my calendar for today. Then each day, I cross off that number and write in on the calendar date, the new number of days left. The whole point is to make me more conscious of the days I have, that the meter is running, and that I have one less day. It makes me more aware and alert to how I live. Try it for the next 30 days and see how it affects your thinking and perspective.

A few years ago, I was sharing this with a group of business executives. After I finished, one CEO shared his version of this exercise. He has a large jar filled with marbles on the desk in his home office. Each marble represents a weekend that he has left before his only son leaves home to go to college. Each Saturday, he takes out one marble and sets it aside. He went on to tell us that one day, his son walked into the office and started up a conversation. As the son was talking, he casually reached into the jar and took out a marble, tossing it up and down in his hand as he talked with his dad before laying the marble aside. The CEO could hardly talk as the tears came down his face, overcome by the preciousness of that moment with his son. Needless to say, none of us could keep our composure either as we thought about our own kids.

A Heart of Wisdom

In the passage above, the phrase “that we may gain a heart” is more properly translated “that we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom.” The Hebrew idea of wisdom was not knowledge or information, but skill in living. Numbering our days makes us more careful, more skillful in the way we live. We must go far beyond our rushing existence on the treadmill or the rat race. We must skillfully live the measured days that are ours. What a difference it would make to our families, our businesses, our schools, our society, if lived each day wisely, creating daily masterpieces of life.

Numbering our days plus what Moses shares with us in the remaining lines of Psalm 90 bring us to a place where we can experience satisfaction, joy, and blessing in our brief lives.