Psalms 88-90

Let’s take a closer look at Psalm 90. 

Sometimes I have to slow down and think about how short life is. I am not that old, but the older I get, the shorter this life seems to be. 

When I stop and think about how short life is, I always think “what am I doing with my life; how am I spending it?”

This Psalm is a little different. It was written by Moses, who led the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, and led them through the desert for 40 years. I love the title in this psalm. In my translation it is read, “A prayer of Moses, THE MAN OF GOD.” I don’t know about you, but at the end of my life, I would love for those four words to be used to characterize me. I think the reality of the brevity of our lives makes us consider these things. How would people characterize you? Would they say “______(your name in the blank), the man or woman of God?”

Let’s look and see what Moses says: in verse 12, he says “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

So what brought Moses to this prayer? It seems as if he is reflecting on infinite or eternal God, and the finite, or brief, life of man. In verses 1 and 2, Moses says, God has been a dwelling place in all generations, he says, “before the mountains were formed…from everlasting to everlasting He is God.” In verse 4 he says, “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past…”

In verse 6 he talks about man being “dust” or “like a dream”….like, “grass renewed in the morning…and in the evening that fades.”

So in light of the reality that God is eternal and man is just here for a short time, he says, “teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

Think about it: if you go on a long trip where you have one short stop before your vacation, you prepare differently for each stop, right? You might pack an overnight bag for the short stay and save the big bag for the longer stay. 

Think about our lives. We have such a short time here on this earth; it is here today and gone tomorrow. But we will spend an eternity somewhere else. It is crazy that we would make decisions that impact the short stay more so than what impacts the eternal stay, am I right? Like, why do we make decisions that have no eternal value, decisions that might impact us only for a moment, when we can make decisions that impact eternity?! That is what a heart of Godly wisdom looks like! If you know you are only here for a short time, you think differently. If you know you are going to spend an eternity in heaven or hell, then you make wiser decisions that impact your eternity.

Moses ends this prayer like this in verse 17, “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands, yes establish the work of our hands.” 

Since we only have a short time on this earth, and we know that we serve an eternal God and we can make eternal impacts not just in our own lives but an eternal impact in the lives of others, let us stop wasting time on things that fade away, that are here today and gone tomorrow. Let us stop praying for things that will only fade but start praying that lives would be saved for an eternity; that we would live in a way that shows we do not live for this life, but for the life in eternity that God has prepared for us. 

If you are reading this now and you have not placed your faith in Jesus, take a minute and just think about what happens after this life. Not in a way that scares you, but consider how short this life is; there has to be something greater after this! There is through faith in Jesus, not through how good of a person you are, but solely through faith in Jesus and how good He is! Placing your faith in Jesus saves you for an eternity and gives you something with eternal purpose to live for! 

As a church, let us think about our lives: are we actually making an eternal impact in other peoples lives? Would this world, would eternity, be any different if our church were to cease to exist? Let us not let another day go by where we do not consider the eternal implications of our lives and live life for the eternity that God has prepared for us, and for the lives of those around us!