Your Days Are Numbered

Psalm 90

Last week my work travels took me to Virginia. I passed a painting of a poem on a tunnel in Big Stone Gap that read: “Only one life. Will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last.” I have some bad news to share with you this evening: You are going to die. The harshest reality with which we must grapple in life is the fact that our lives will end. Intellectually, we all know it’s true. I KNOW that I’m going to die. I struggle to come to grips with the fact that it will actually happen. It is difficult to conceptualize. We know that one day we will die, but we don’t live like it. We often act as if we will live forever. Let me give you a very real practical example. Yesterday, I had two donuts for breakfast from Dunkin Donuts. Yesterday was Fat Tuesday, and you have to have donuts on Fat Tuesday—even though every Tuesday is Fat Tuesday for me. Here’s the problem, if I really knew the toll my poor diet choices made on my health, and how many years they will and are subtracting from my life, then I’d never touch another donut. That would be rational, right? That would be logical, right? Here’s the problem, I don’t really believe that I’m going to die. I don’t feel how truly close death is. So, I disregard the fact that my actions and choices may be hastening my death. Maybe, that’s because I’m a whipper-snapper, but I suspect this isn’t just a problem for younger people, because I’ve even seen elders (even folks on death’s door) who were in blatant denial about death’s inevitability—it’s a human problem.

The Psalmist contrasts God’s eternal and unending nature, with our very short and temporary existence. The Psalmist says we get 70 years, maybe 80, if we’re strong. They didn’t have modern medicine in those days. Some folks today can add another 10 or 15 years. Regardless of how long we live, we can agree with his statement, “But their duration brings hard work and trouble because they go by so quickly.” The days of our lives (that’d be a good name for a show) are filled with difficulty. Y’all know that better than me. The Patriarch Jacob said near the end of his life, “I’ve been a traveler for 130 years. My years have been few and difficult.” Wouldn’t you like to have an additional 50 years. The Psalmist’s point and Jacob’s point is that even if we lived to be 200 or 300 years old, it would not be enough time. Not when we contrast the blip of the centuries against God’s unchanging and unending existence.

What are we to do? The Psalmist prays this prayer: Teach us to number our days so we can have a wise heart. What limited time we are given is our most precious resource. It is worth more than gold or diamonds. Each day that passes is twenty-four hours that we will never recover. It is gone and there is no way to retrieve it. Yet, so often we think and act as if our days are infinite. We assume that we will always have tomorrow, until we don’t. The hard part about numbering our days is we can’t know their number till they’re finished. I could die tomorrow. I have no clue. The Psalmist says maybe you’ll get 70 or 80 years—if you’re lucky—there’s no way to tell. Scripture invites us to live in recognition that our days are numbered.

On Ash Wednesday the church in her wisdom sets aside a day to reflect on this uncomfortable and painful truth. We often think that the point of the Bible and Christianity is to tell us whether there is life after death—and that is true. Ash Wednesday also asks us to consider “whether there is life before, life after death,” as I heard one writer put it. I ask you to consider this question: If you really treated your days like the limited resources that they are, how would you begin to live different? What would change about your routine? How would your priorities change? What would become more or most important to you?

The Psalmist prays that God would teach him to number his days, so that he can gain a wise heart. People act foolishly because they think they’re going to live forever. You will waste time, if you think you have time to waste. Many people come to the end of their lives unfulfilled and alone because they did not consider their end. Many people meet their demise much sooner than they would have, because they lived foolishly. (Grandpa Hill-hopping story). The foolish pilfer their time away on quick pleasures, partying, and reckless fun. Or the foolish spend their days climbing the latter, getting money, status, power, all of which is fairly useless when you’re dead.

Wisdom tells us this: “You have even less time than you think you do.” How are you going to spend the rest of your life? There are so many distractions that cut us off from the fulness of our lives. Are you going to waste your limited days holding grudges? Are you going to allow petty disagreements keep you from embracing brothers, sisters, children, parents, and other family members? Don’t ever miss an opportunity to say I love you to your spouse. Don’t ever miss an opportunity to give them a hug or a kiss. It might be your last. You don’t know. Grandkids won’t be little forever. Enjoy and savor each and every moment with them, because you only get to experience it once. Most importantly, are you preparing them to know Jesus? Can you grandchildren say, grandma and grandpa taught me to know and love Jesus? Will your children and grandchildren say one day, I am in heaven because my mom and dad and grandma and grandpa taught me to know Jesus?

Don’t allow distractions to keep you from what is most important and meaningful in this life. We have an seemingly infinite number of ways to waste our time today. Do you devote your energies to temporary worldly things, or to activities that make an eternal impact? Don’t allow mindless distractions, like watching TV for hours on end, or scrolling on social media, keep you from spending time with God. Do you watch more TV than you spend in God’s Word? There’s nothing wrong with watching TV? But do you devote more time to it than to prayer? Do you spend more time on Facebook, snooping on people’s business, than you do serving people in the community? Or how about this, instead of snooping on their business, invite them to church. Wasting time with distractions is easy. But it’s not meaningful. Watching TV or scrolling on social media for hours and hours is simple—uncomplicated. But it’s not fulfilling. I invite you to ask yourself these question: Where is the real living at? What am I missing out on? How can spend my time to better connect with my loved ones, church family, dear friends, and most importantly, with God?

The Psalmist ends his song with these words: “Let the kindness of the Lord our God be over us. Make the work of our hands last. Make the work of our hands last.” Don’t allow distractions to pull you away from what matters for eternity. Only one life. Will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. How will you spend your remaining days to glorify God? How will you use your remaining days to make heaven full? What will you do in this temporary life that will last for eternity? Your days are numbered. Count them. Use them wisely, and glorify God with them. Amen.