“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

Psalm 90:12 ESV

The eternal God

In the 1972 film Play It Again, Sam, the American comedian and actor Woody Allen plays a character named Allan, whose nihilism is a repeated theme. In one scene, Allan has a dialogue with a woman as they look at a piece of art in a gallery:

Allan: That’s quite a lovely Jackson Pollock, isn’t it? Woman: Yes, it is. Allan: What does it say to you? Woman: It restates the negativeness of the universe. The hideous, lonely emptiness of existence. Nothingness. The predicament of Man forced to live in a barren, godless eternity like a tiny flame flickering in an immense void with nothing but waste, horror and degradation, forming a useless, bleak straitjacket in a black, absurd cosmos. Allan: What are you doing Saturday night? Woman: Committing suicide. Allan: What about Friday night?

The woman then walks away, leaving Allan to stare at the painting.

Psalm 90 is, in one sense, terrifying because it is set in the context of the transience and frailty of human existence and the terrible judgment of God on sin. However, this Psalm, along with Psalm 91, provides excellent comfort and security for the believer, for God is a dwelling place or a refuge for all who put their trust in Him (90:1-2).

In contrast to Allen and others’ bleak existential nihilism, in which the universe is an immense void with nothing but waste, horror, and degradation, Moses, the author of this psalm, takes us back before time began to remind us that God is self-existing. Before the universe was created, God has always been and forever will be (see Gen 1: 1-27).

Christopher Ash writes, “He is unchangeably the same, unchanging in his essence, consistent in his providence, unalterable in his affections, not swayed or moved by passions. It is in and with him that we live, amid “the changes and chances of this fleeting world.” (1).

Moses sets before us the contrast between man’s mortality and God’s immortality. Time does not have the same meaning for God that it has for us. We couldn’t imagine living for a thousand years, but to God, a thousand years is like having a short nap (90:4). The great lesson of this Psalm is that the immortal God is the answer to our mortality. He is the great I AM (see Ex 3:13-15).

God is the dwelling place of His people because He is the protector and the redeemer of His people. Even when mankind rebelled, God promised to rescue His people. A promise that was fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ (see Gen 3:15, John 3:16-17).

In that sense, this Psalm is about living, not dying. This truth gives security in the chaos of our generation (see Psalm 91).

Confronted by death

In the wilderness of the exodus, Moses was confronted by death (see 1 Cor 10:1-10). Moses knew the reality of what Isaac Watts would later write in his hymn:

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

In the last two years, the emergence of COVID-19 has caused the excess death of millions of people worldwide. Moses reminds us that God’s judgment on sin returns us to dust (90:4, 7-10, Ps 39:4-5, Ps 89:47-48, Gen 2:17, 3:19, James 4:14).

This is why the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds his listeners, “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” (Eccl ‭7:2, 4‬).

In other words, going to a funeral is better than a party. Our generation’s motto is Carpe diem—seize today because that is all there is. However, wisdom is found in the serious meditation on our mortality in the context of God’s judgment. We must confront death before death confronts us (90:7-8, Eccl 12:1).

Moses uses metaphors to describe the transience and brevity of human life. Life is like a dream; you can’t quite remember when you wake up. Like the grass, here today is gone tomorrow like a flood that sweeps people away unexpectedly, so people are swept away in death (90:5-6, Eccl 9:12).

“Let us be anxious rather to live well than to live long.”

W.S. Plumer

In his folly, man seeks to avoid death, but death is unavoidable. Even the funeral service has lost its seriousness as death is trivialised. We attempt to minimise the pain of death with vain platitudes, but it’s bereavement that makes death so very painful.

Moses makes it clear that we die because we have rebelled against God. Death is a judgment of God on sin (90:7-9, 11). The Apostle Paul writes, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—” (Rom 5:12‬).

This is a deeply unpopular message today, but the Bible is clear that God’s anger with sinners results in judgment. The wise person remembers that life is brief and transient and will seek to humble themselves as they consider God’s power and wrath (90:11).

The wise will number their days within the context of the reality of verse 11 (90:11-12).

A heart of wisdom

What we are now and what we do now will matter because it is “Appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment.” (Heb 9:27).

Within the context of death and judgment, we are to pray for a heart of wisdom. Matthew Henry writes, “We must live under a constant apprehension of the shortness and uncertainty of life and the near approach of death and eternity.” (2).

A foolish heart lives as if it is immortal. We will be left in our futility until we bow before the eternal God. We will never learn the lesson of this Psalm in our strength because, by nature, we suppress the truth in unrighteousness (see Rom 1:18). If we have convinced ourselves that so long as we are happy and healthy, we will live a long life, we need to be rescued from ourselves. Nehemiah Rogers writes, “There is none so old but thinks he may live one year later; and though, in the general, he say, “All must die,” yet, in the false numbering of his own particular days, he thinks to live for ever.”

We need a heart of wisdom.

Pointing to Jesus

Nothing would be more terrible than a God indifferent to the human predicament.

The excellent news of the gospel is that God is not indifferent to humanity’s plight. God’s covenant love, which Moses speaks of in verses 13 to 17, finds its fulfilment in Jesus. The death of another has dealt with our rebellion and death.

Moses points us forward as he prays for the coming of Christ, who will fulfil the covenant promises and whose work as an atoning sacrifice was established by God (90:17, Is 53:11, Rom 5:18-19).

However, what Christ has done will be no help to us as long as we remain outside Him. Wisdom begins with transformation. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We must have a spiritual heart transplant. A repentance that leads to spiritual renewal (see Prov 9:10, 2:Cor 5:17, John 3:3, Acts 3:19).

“Such a change of heart and mind does not emerge as a result of calculation, but only as a result of transformation.”

Alistair Begg

The warning is that if we fail to count our days, we will go into eternity without God and without hope. In this Psalm, God brings foolish humanity to its senses. Psalm 90 is a prayer that Jesus prayed, and it’s a prayer that we can pray as we consider the fragility of our lives.

Let death confront you so that you might deal with it by the grace of God.

Notes

1. Christopher Ash – Psalms For You, The Good Book Company, 2020, p247
2. Matthew Henry – Commentary on the Whole Bible, Hendrikson Publishers, 1997, p876

All scripture quotations are from the ESV