Teach Us To Number Our Days

Psalm 90

Introduction 

A video went viral this week of a bunch of celebrities singing John Lennon’s Imagine.

“Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell below us. Above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Imagine there's no countries. It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one. I hope some day you'll join us. And the world will be as one.”

 Imagine everyone believed in atheistic materialistic humanism. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic; in light of losing Bill DiTrapani and Mabel Mcpherson; in light of Joe Jr. having to close his stores; in light of depression and anxiety, is this supposed to bring us hope? No religion? No heaven? This is the unifying vision for the world?

This is the best answer secular humanism can muster. If there was a secular catechism the first question might read, “what is our only hope in life and death?” The answer, “There’s nothing after death; today is all you live for.” How does that bring hope to Pat Bourland, who’s quarantined at Royal Oak Beaumont with coronavirus? Thank God that secular humanism isn’t our only option. God has spoken to us in the Scripture and Psalm 90 is as good a text as any for the situation our world finds itself in.

Verse 12 is the climax of the psalm and so it is the lens through which we read it this morning – So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. A little context before we immerse ourselves in the pericope: the Psalter is divided into 5 books. Notice above Psalm 90 there’s a heading: Book 4. Jim Hamilton says that the Psalms are constructed into 5 books intentionally to mirror the Pentateuch. Where the Law spoke in theory of how God’s people were to live in the land, giving a bird’s eye view, the Psalms are like the Law in street clothes, giving us perspective from the ground. The Psalms give us the emotional perspective of living the Torah.

Numbering Our Days Means Looking to God

Psalm 90 begins with the superscript – a prayer of Moses, the man of God. This gives us the setting. This is one of the oldest poems in human history, written long before most of the psalms. Yet the Holy Spirit found its perfect canonical spot here. And Moses, who wrote the book of Genesis, gives us insight into reality before the creation of Genesis 1. He addresses the Lord (אֲֽדֹנָ֗י) who has been our dwelling place in all generations. All believers for all time have found their refuge in God.

Moses originally wrote this to Israel wandering in the wilderness. Moses himself wasn’t even allowed to enter the Promised Land. This psalm begins book 4 of the Psalter, which happens during the Exile. Moses is telling us that even when we’re homeless, God is our home. What a word for us now, as we’re evicted from the normal, as we find ourselves socially homeless. This is the 1st time, at least in my generation, which we’ve been unable to gather as a church. The Word reminds us that even in the darkest of moments, God is our dwelling place.

Before God created the world, before he birthed the mountains and formed the earth, listen to the majesty here, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Before there was time and into the eternal future, God is God. This is the beginning place of what it means to number our days. Numbering our days means looking to God. He is our creator; he is the eternal holy and loving deity. To number our days means to see that God is the beginning of all things; he is from everlasting to everlasting. We acknowledge that he is and if we are to have any refuge, it is in him alone.

This is where Judaism and Islam have a leg up on most of the world. They are monotheistic religions. This is where Buddhism, Hinduism, and all forms of secularism already lack. If there is no God then there is no dwelling place, no refuge. There is no intention in existence, and by default no purpose in suffering. It’s a good start, but it’s not enough. And that’s why there is no hope is Judaism or Islam either. We begin with God and then we move forward.

Numbering Our Days Means Looking at Ourselves

John Calvin begins his Institutes of the Christian Religion by stating that the only way that we can know ourselves is to know God, and the only way to know God is to know ourselves. The two are indubitably linked. And the picture that Moses paints of us in Psalm 90 is grim. Verses 3-11 show us what it means to number our days by looking at ourselves.

Moses, who wrote Genesis 3, takes us back to the garden. In Genesis 2.7 YHWH formed Adam from the dust and after the fall he said to Adam, you are dust and to dust you shall return (Gen 3.19b). Psalm 90.3 says, you return man to dust and then it literally reads return,  בְנֵי־אָדָֽם - sons of Adam. And then Moses evokes Genesis 5. Remember in that genealogy we see men who lived hundreds of years. Methuselah lived the longest 969 years, but Scripture says 1,000 years is like yesterday to God. Remember how quick yesterday was over? The longest recorded human life in history was like yesterday to God. 

Scripture paints a dark picture of our mortality. Our lives are like the grass that rises in the morning and withers at night. We live 70 years, 80 if we’re strong, but then our years end in a whimper. I’m in my fourth decade. That means if I’m strong, I’ll have four more. Our lives are like a dream. Once it’s over, it’s over and you can barely remember it. Our life is like a mist; it’s unsubstantial and fleeting. So regardless of whether you live to be 100, or you make $1,000,000, or whatever you do, you’re going to return to dust, alone. 

Why is life like this? Why do spouses die and mothers experience post partum depression? Why coronavirus and unemployment? Why must we return to dust? Moses uses another redemptive historical moment to teach us. Verse 5 – You sweep them away as with a flood. YHWH flooded the earth because every intention of the heart of humanity was only evil continually. This is what we call original sin. Look at verse 7: we’re brought to an end by God’s anger. We’re dismayed by his wrath. His light exposes our secret sins. God’s right response to our sin is anger and wrath.

We mustn’t move from here too quickly. Of course we believe in the εὐαγγέλιον, the good news. We’re new covenant Christians. We live on this side of Good Friday and Easter. And yet, our good news is so good because the bad news is so bad. The bad news is that God is justly angry because of our sin. His wrath is like a flood that will drown us. Apart from him, our lives will be 70, maybe 80 years of meaninglessness, and then we will return to dust. Imagine there’s no religion. Imagine there’s no heaven. That’s what you get. 70 or 80 years and then death.

To number our day means to see ourselves for who we truly are. We aren’t innocent; we aren’t even neutral. We are rebellious creatures. We return to dust because of our sin. We rightly deserve the flood of God’s wrath. When we see God in the light of his holiness, it exposes the darkness of our hearts. On Ash Wednesday I took my boys to a service that Brett was co-leading at Beaumont. During the service we went to the front and Brett spread the ashes on each of our foreheads in the shape of the cross and he said, “From dust you came and to dust you’ll return. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” And that is where we must go.

Numbering Our Days Means Loving Christ

This brings us to the climax of the psalm – verse 12: So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. As Christians who live on this side of Easter Sunday we know that this Psalm, like everything else in Scripture, finds its meaning in the gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1st Corinthians 1.24 and 30 Paul calls Jesus Χριστὸν...θεοῦ σοφίαν Christ the wisdom of God. God’s wisdom is on display in the person and work of Jesus, so whenever we see wisdom in the Bible, we know it’s point us to Christ. So to have a heart of wisdom is to have a heart that loves Christ. The heart represents the seat of your affections and wisdom is summarized I Christ. You see when we see God and we see ourselves and we see the problem we’re in, the only answer is Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the only answer because he is the eternal Son of God. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Jesus is the creator and redeemer. He is YHWH himself; the great I am. But Jesus is also truly human; and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is human in every way that we are, yet without sin.

What God the Father did through Jesus Christ is reverse that dusty curse. When Satan tempted Adam he took the crown jewel of God’s creation and turned it to dust. Through the incarnation God took the dust on himself in Jesus. He lived the sinless life, died on a Roman cross, and don’t miss this, he was buried. Jesus returned to the dust for us. But he didn’t stay there. On the third day he resurrected and ascended to the right hand of the Father almighty. What Satan did in the fall was to take creation’s crown jewel and turn it to dust, what God did through the gospel is that he has placed the crown on the dust. Now a man rules the creation – Jesus of Nazareth. 

To number our days means that we live under the beauty of King Jesus. It means that we live and move in have our being for Jesus and the gospel. It means that we turn from ourselves and lay the full weight of our lives and hope on his death and resurrection. To get a heart of wisdom is to have a heart that is transformed by the beauty of King Jesus. “Turn you eyes upon Jesus Look full in His wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace.”

Numbering Our Days Means Longing For Christ’s Return

Once your heart has been turned to Jesus, you long for his return. There’s a Hebrew word play in verse 13. Moses writes, Return O YHWH! How Long? In verse 3 he said that we return to dust and now he’s petitioning YHWH to return. It’s the same word (שׁוּב). Just as surely as we return (שׁוּב) to the dust, so will YHWH return (שׁוּב) to make all things new.  Verses 13-17 are about resurrection.

Bask in the beautiful hope that Moses paints here. We are satisfied with God’s steadfast love (חֶ֫סֶד). We may rejoice and be glad all our days. As many days as we’ve been afflicted, we will be glad that much more. How many days have we been afflicted? Moses said 70 or 80 years. He’s asking God to give us a whole ‘2nd lifetime – resurrection! 

In the new creation our children will experience his glorious power and his favor will be upon us. Moses is so excited by the end that he repeats himself: establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! If our lives are withering grass how can they be established? The answer was through the gospel of Christ. The eternal got dusty so that the dust might be eternal. Now the work that we do has eternal value. 

Remember the end of 1st Corinthians 15, that long chapter about the resurrection? Paul ends it by writing, Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain (1 Cor 15.58). The resurrection is our guarantee that what we do in this life matters. This is what it means for our works to be established. Our life is a meaningless as the withering grass and as intangible as a dream, unless we have a heart that loves Christ and longs for his return. If we do, then our work will be established!

There’s no doubt that this has begun to happen through the church, but it’s not yet complete. We’re reminded of that by global pandemics, and unemployment, and depression, and funerals. But there will be a day, a day when Jesus Christ returns and he will raise the dead, and judge the world and make all things new. On that day he will wipe away every tear from our eyes. On that day he will say to hell with the devil. On that day there will be no coronavirus and no anxiety and Jesus himself will officiate death’s funeral. To number our days with a new heart means to cry out, Return O Jesus! How Long?

Conclusion

Imagine if the church numbered their days in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Imagine if the world saw us in a time of global anxiety looking to God in his sovereignty, looking at ourselves for the dust that we’ll become, loving Jesus with our whole hearts, and eagerly anticipating his return when he’ll make all things new. Imagine if God used this global pandemic to bring a revival where people realized that they are dust and they repented and believed the gospel, it’s easy if you try. Imagine all the people living for eternity.