Numbering Our Days

Numbering Our Days

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

Until I realized how seriously and urgently Moses prayed in this passage, I didn’t understand that we should ask God to teach us to number our days. I thought everyone was just as afraid of death as I was. However, out of ten thousand people, only ten might believe that numbering their days is important. The rest of the masses of people live as if God doesn’t exist and death doesn’t occur.

But this isn’t the worst part. Some people who are about to die imagine that they’ll go on living. Others, overwhelmed by misery, still dream of happiness. Still others, who are in extreme danger, foolishly think they’re totally secure. Their delusion is the saddest part of all.

So Moses appropriately teaches us to pray that we might number our days. We aren’t supposed to ask God exactly how much time we have left. Rather, we must pray that we may become aware of how miserable and short our lives are. Death and God’s eternal anger threaten us every second.

Occasionally we’ll find people who really are concerned about the shortness of life. They are preoccupied with thoughts of their impending death, even though they didn’t pray for this knowledge. But most people aren’t aware that their days are numbered. They live as if the present moment will last forever. So for most of us, praying the way Moses suggests in this passage is indispensable.