Teach us to Number our days
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Text: Psalm 90
A Prayer of Moses the man of God. 1 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. 3 Thou turnest man to destruction; And sayest, Return, ye children of men. 4 For a thousand years in thy sight Are but as yesterday when it is past, And as a watch in the night. 5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: In the morning they are like grass which groweth up. 6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; In the evening it is cut down, and withereth. 7 For we are consumed by thine anger, And by thy wrath are we troubled. 8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. 9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: We spend our years as a tale that is told. 10 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. 11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. 12 So teach us to number our days, That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. 13 Return, O Lord, how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants. 14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; That we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, And the years wherein we have seen evil. 16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, And thy glory unto their children. 17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: And establish thou the work of our hands upon us; Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
Introduction:
Time is one of the most precious resources we have—but it’s also one of the most taken for granted. We wear watches, hang calendars, and set reminders. But the truth is, no matter how hard we try, we can’t slow it down, speed it up, or stop it.
It is better to lose anything than to lose time; we can recover lost money, but time is irrecoverable.
John Chrysostom
Every tick of the clock is a step closer to eternity.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
As Christians, we understand something deeper: time is not just a resource—it is a stewardship.
That’s what makes Psalm 90 so powerful. It is the only psalm attributed to Moses, a man who knew something about life’s fragility.
He had buried an entire generation in the wilderness. He had led a stubborn people for forty years. He had stood on Mount Nebo, just short of the Promised Land. If anyone understood the weight of time and the glory of God’s eternity—it was Moses.
And in this prayer, Moses doesn’t ask for longer life, easier days, or greater success. He simply prays:
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)
He’s not just asking us to count our days—he’s teaching us to make our days count.
Let’s say you go to church every Sunday for your whole life.
One service per week.
Each service lasts about 1.5 hours.
That’s 1.5 hours x 52 weeks = 78 hours a year.
Now multiply that by a lifetime—let’s say 75 years:
78 hours x 75 years = 5,850 hours total in church over a lifetime.
A child in school attends roughly:
6.5 hours per day
180 days per year
That’s 1,170 hours of school per year
From Kindergarten to 12th grade (13 years) = 15,210 hours in school
“Out of the 168 hours in your week…
How many are spent scrolling?
How many are spent stressing?
How many are spent seeking God?”
Then drive it home:
“Even if you come to every church service, that’s maybe 3–4 hours a week. That’s 2% of your time. Are we letting 2% shape 100% of our lives?”
As we open this psalm, we are invited to look beyond the ticking clock, beyond the calendar pages turning, and to gaze at God’s eternal nature, our earthly frailty, and the call to eternal wisdom.
Here’s the question before us today:
In light of the shortness of life and the greatness of God, how should we live?
So with eternity pressing in and the clock always ticking, Moses leads us in a prayer—not for more time, but for wisdomin the time we’ve been given. And in Psalm 90, he lays out three powerful truths that teach us how to live wisely in light of life’s brevity and God’s eternity.”
I. The Permanence of God (vv. 1–4)
I. The Permanence of God (vv. 1–4)
If we connect it with any particular time in the life of Moses, the best suggestion is the time described in Numbers 20. “The historical setting is probably best understood by the incidents recorded in Numbers 20: (1) the death of Miriam, Moses’ sister; (2) the sin of Moses in striking the rock in the wilderness, which kept him from entering the Promised Land; and (3) the death of Aaron, Moses’ brother.” (James Montgomery Boice)
A. His Shelter is Reliable (v.1)
This prayer of Moses was almost certainly written during the wilderness years on the way to Canaan. In all those years Israel lived in constant need of refuge, shelter, and protection. More than their tents and their armies, Israel had God as their dwelling place, their refuge and their protection.
Moses begins not with himself, but with God. He says, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place.” In every generation, through every trial, God has been a safe haven. Not a tent in the wilderness. Not a tabernacle made with hands. God Himself is our home.
In a world that constantly changes, we need a place of permanence—and that place is found in the person of God.
10 The name of the Lord is a strong tower: The righteous runneth into it, and is safe.
It isn’t a good thing to refer to anyone as homeless. Spiritually speaking, that never needs to be the state of the believer.
We have our home in Him, and home should be a place where we rest, where we can be ourselves, where love and happiness dominate. All this should mark our relationship with God.
B. His Sovereignty is Revealed (v.2)
God didn’t begin when the world did. He’s not bound by time. He made time. Before Mount Sinai was formed, God was already enthroned in glory.
Before the mountains were brought forth: In the wilderness on the slow route to Canaan, Moses saw mountains on the horizon and reflected on the truth that God existed before those mountains. It was God who formed the earth and the world.
Before anything existed, God was. From eternity past through eternity future (everlasting to everlasting), He exists, independent of all His creation.
“The Psalmist, about to describe man’s fleeting and transitory state, first directs us to contemplate the unchangeable nature and attributes of God.” (Horne)
6 For I am the Lord, I change not; Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Vs. 3 - Read
Moses had seen the judgment of God turn man to destruction. He saw it with wicked Egypt and disobedient Israel. The eternal God who created all things was and is a God to be appropriately feared and respected by man. God takes interest in the affairs of men and exercises His holy judgment.
C. His Schedule is Remarkable (v.4)
A thousand years to us is like a single day to God. What overwhelms us in time is only a blink in eternity.
Having introduced the idea of God’s eternal being, living outside of time with no beginning or end, Moses poetically repeated the idea. For the eternal God, a thousand years seems like a single day, and a single day in the past, not the present.
“He is raised above Time, and none of the terms in which men describe duration have any meaning for Him. A thousand years, which to a man seem so long, are to Him dwindled to nothing, in comparison with the eternity of His being. As Peter has said, the converse must also be true, and ‘one day be with the Lord as a thousand years.’” (Maclaren)
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
The reference is to a single day, when we call it to remembrance. However long it may have appeared to us when it was passing, yet when it is gone, and we look back to it, it seems short. So the longest period of human existence appears to God.
God’s permanence should humble us. We live in seconds. He rules over centuries. We must remember how small we are—and how big He is.
II. The Passing of Man (vv. 5–11)
II. The Passing of Man (vv. 5–11)
With God, the passing of a thousand years is like the passing of a day (90:4). Human beings, on the other hand, are like grass that withers (90:5–6). Our time is brief; death comes for all.
Vs. 5 - Read
The idea is, that they were swept off as if a torrent bore them from the earth, carrying them away without regard to order, rank, age, or condition.
So death makes no discrimination. Every day that passes, multitudes of every age, sex, condition, rank, are swept away and consigned to the grave,—as they would be if a raging flood should sweep over a land.
While God is eternal, man is ephemeral—short-lived, like a mist or a dream.
A. Our Lives are Fragile (vv.5–6)
Moses describes our lives like grass that grows in the morning and withers in the evening. We flourish briefly, then fade.
Elaborate.. Sleep and grass that withereth
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Vs.7-8 - Read
These verses remind us that the problem is not just that life is short, but that sin makes it heavy, broken, and judged. Only when we recognize the seriousness of sin can we begin to cry out for the mercy and wisdom Moses pleads for later in verse 12.
B. Our Labor is Fatiguing (vv.9–10)
Even our strongest days are filled with “labor and sorrow.” We’re told that life is hard. And when you get to the end of your days, it all seems like “a tale that is told”—a short story, already fading from memory.
8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
“It was toward the close of the desert wanderings that Moses wrote this sublime psalm, all the imagery of which is borrowed from the wilderness. The watch around the campfire at night; the rush of the mountain flood; the grass that sprouts so quickly after the rain, and is as quickly scorched; the sigh of the wearied pilgrim.” (Meyer)
Moses lived 120 years according to Deuteronomy 31:2 and 34:7. He did not say seventy years as either a promise or a limit, but as a poetic estimate of a lifespan. The emphasis is on the futility of life; even if one should live past the norm of seventy years and live eighty years, the end of it all is only labor and sorrow.
C. Our Limitations are Fearful (v.11)
God’s wrath is serious. Our sins deserve judgment. Moses asks, “Who knows the power of thine anger?”
Moses connected the ideas of a relatively short and frustrating life to the fact of God’s righteous judgment. Moses especially saw and lived this in the wilderness.
“Moses saw men dying all around him; he lived among funerals, and was overwhelmed at the terrible results of the divine displeasure. He felt that none could measure the might of the Lord’s wrath.” (Spurgeon)
This verse isn’t popular in today’s world. But to understand life rightly, we must view it through the lens of God’s holiness. We are frail because we are fallen.
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: And the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
III. The Pursuit of Wisdom (vv. 12–17)
III. The Pursuit of Wisdom (vv. 12–17)
Sin and death have limited the lifespan of human beings; our lives pass quickly (90:10). In light of this reality, Moses asks God, Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom (90:12)
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
Here’s the turning point in the psalm: If life is short and God is eternal, how should we live? Wisely. Intentionally. Eternally.
Ex. People who may be asking for more time…
A. A Prayer for Discernment (v.12)
“Teach us to number our days…” Not just to count our time, but to make our time count.
“Only one life, ‘twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.” – C.T. Studd
Wise people don’t assume they have time—they steward it. They live in a way that honors God daily.
Ex. All the time in the world…
“St. Augustine says we will never do that unless we number every day as our last day.
The last day is hidden that every day may be heeded.
“I expect to pass through this world but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, any good I can do, any help I can give, let me do it now: let me not defer it or neglect it, for I will not pass this way again.”” - D.L. Moody
B. A Plea for Deliverance (vv.13–15)
“Return, O LORD…satisfy us early with thy mercy…”
Moses turns from reflection to petition. “Lord, come back. We need your mercy. Life is hard—make us glad.”
Moses understood that true satisfaction was not rooted in money, fame, romance, pleasure, or success. It was satisfied with God’s mercy, His faithful, covenant goodness to His people.
“The only thing that will secure life-long gladness is a heart satisfied with the experience of God’s love.’ This means that nothing will satisfy the human heart ultimately except God.” Alexander Maclaren
Even in this brief life, God’s joy can fill our days. When we walk with Him, even our pain has purpose, and our days have delight.
C. A Passion for Duration (vv.16–17)
“Let thy work appear… and establish thou the work of our hands.”
Moses closes by asking God to make our work matter. We don’t want to just live—we want to leave a mark that lasts for eternity.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
The final aspect of blessing Moses prayed for was for the permanence of the work of God’s people. Without this blessing in our lives, our work and its effectiveness pass quickly and are of little impact.
i. Essentially, Moses asked that God would work with man.
“Fleeting as our days are, they are ennobled by our being permitted to be God’s tools.” (Maclaren)
Conclusion: The Countdown and the Calling
You don’t know how many days you have left—but God does.
The question is not “How long will I live?” but rather, “What will I do with the time I’ve been given?”
Will you waste it in fear, distraction, or sin?
Or will you number your days, apply your heart to wisdom, and live for what matters most?
"Don’t just count your days—make your days count for eternity."
Invitation:
Invitation:
As we reflect on Psalm 90, let’s be honest:
Time is slipping away.
We’re not guaranteed another year, another week, or even another day.
Moses didn’t pray for more time.
He didn’t ask God to extend his life or erase the hard parts.
He simply said,
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
That’s the heart of a man who knows what matters.
That’s the prayer of someone who has walked with God and knows how quickly everything else fades.
So let me ask you—what are you doing with the time you’ve been given?
Are you investing it in what will outlast this life?
Are you walking in wisdom, or wasting what can never be regained?
Have you allowed hidden sins to stay buried instead of bringing them into the light of God's mercy?
The truth is: life is short, sin is serious, and only God can make our lives significant.
✝️ To the Believer:
✝️ To the Believer:
Child of God, are you numbering your days wisely?
Are you seeking Him daily, not just on Sundays?
Are you teaching your children to live for what lasts?
Maybe today is the day to refocus your priorities, recommit your time, and return your heart to wisdom.
“Lord, establish the work of our hands—make our lives matter for eternity.”
❤️ To the Unsaved:
❤️ To the Unsaved:
Friend, if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior, your time may be full—but it is eternally empty.
You were created not just to live for 70 or 80 years… but for eternity with God.
But sin separates us from Him—and only Jesus can bridge that gap.
He died for your sins and rose again so that you could be forgiven and live forever with Him.
“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2)
If you’ve never trusted Christ, today is the day to come. Don’t wait.
🙏 Invitation Prayer:
🙏 Invitation Prayer:
“Lord, You are eternal, but my life is short.
I confess that I’ve wasted too much time on things that don’t matter.
Teach me to number my days. Forgive me of my sin.
Establish my steps.
Fill me with Your wisdom.
Help me live today with eternity in mind.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
