Known Number Knows

“The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away…So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” (Ps 90:10, 12 AV)

 

The more I read these verses and the older I get, the more real they become.  Our lives are a predetermined length.  In the mind of God, He knows exactly how long we will live.  The psalmist puts the length of natural life at seventy years.  If God is good and adds strength to our years, we might make it to eighty.  We know this is not a hard and fast rule.  Some are cut down in the prime of their lives.  Others, like my father and his father, live into their eighties.  However, the natural length of life generally seems to be seventy or eighty years.  The writer is concerned the truth of limited life not be lost on him.  He desires to remember he will not live forever.  At least in this earthly tabernacle.  He desires to learn that life is temporary and to the opportunity to live in submissive faith is limited.  The broader context is living in obedience and God’s displeasure when we do not.  In other words, our writer is fully aware of his failures and the displeasure of God because of it and desires to completely understand how limited his time is so that he might learn to walk in obedience before God.  Eternity will fix all that.  But it is something else to learn on this side of glory.

Because of recent events, I have been reminded how brief life can be.  Or, at the very least, that life that remains is not forever.  I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful that is.  It changes your perspective.  It doesn’t add fear, it relieves it.  Knowing one is on the downward slope and picking up speed sure forces one to re-evaluate priorities and make every day count.  This has added joy on top of joy.  The world may be sinking, but the saint is rising!  I will turn fifty-nine this coming year.  One year away from old age.  At least I think that is how it works.  If the math is correct as it appears in our passage, I may have only ten years left.  That is not a lot of time.  I have only ten Christmas’ to celebrate.  I have only ten birthdays to remember.  There are only ten more Thanksgivings to observe.  In ten years, I may be a great-grandfather.  Well, hopefully not.  But close.  Only ten more anniversaries to celebrate.  At least on this side glory.  I plan on celebrating that day for all of eternity with my love and friend, Lisa.  I cannot tell you how the brevity of life has made me more patient, and not less.   Certain things have become more urgent.  I want to do more soul-winning and discipleship, not less.  I want to put my church in a good position to grow again.  I have aspirations of helping more young men into the ministry.  There are books to read.  There are more sermons to write.  There are additional revivals, services, and special occasions to plan.  There is a lot to do.

However, the concern of our writer is to walk in obedience and faith toward the God who saved him.  He wants to learn Christlikeness before he graduates to glory and it becomes an instantaneous operation of the Holy Spirit of God.  He wants to know what it is like to gain victory over sin because he has learned to rely upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit and not because of the instantaneous transformation which will eventually occur.  The opportunity to live by faith exists here.  Not in eternity.  The opportunity to fully submit to the will of God while overcoming a part of us that refuses to do so exists now.  Not in glory.  This chance to learn Christlikeness through personal experience and circumstances of life is the blessing of our human existence.  As frustrating as it can be and as depressing failure can be, there will be no opportunity to overcome the old man by faith and discipline.  This is the psalmist’s prayer.  He wants to learn that life is temporary and the opportunity to apply wisdom while fighting a battle over the old self is fleeting.  So, let us realize life is short.  Life has a limited amount of days, weeks, months, and years.  The opportunity to apply wisdom by a choice of faith rather than sight will not last forever.  And the riches of His grace can only be learned in this context.  Look at a calendar.  Know it has only twelve pages on it.  And, you or I may not flip through them all.