Psalm 90:12

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

-Psalm 90:12 (NIV)-

Let’s look at the context of the verse first and answer a few key questions.

Who wrote it? Moses

When was it written? During the 40 years of wilderness wanderings

To whom was it written? To the Lord

For what purpose?  To remind us that our time on earth is limited, and we are to use it wisely, not living for the moment, but with our eternal home in mind.

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  Psalm 90:12

Wisdom is knowledge applied.  To have wisdom, you must have knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight.  

That’s what the dictionary says, anyway.
I look at it like this… Knowledge is having a gun in your pocket and knowing HOW to pull the trigger.  Wisdom is knowing WHEN to pull the trigger and WHEN NOT to pull the trigger.

When we look at Psalm 90, this was a prayer of Moses.  This is the Moses that saw the back of God and His glory while in the cleft of the rock, and when he came off the mountain his face shined so much that the people had to cover it.  Gosh, I love that story in scripture!

Moses was a man that had a knowledge of God, right?  He knew Him in the sense that He got to see the glory of God pass right by him.  Scripture says he was literally covered by the physical hand of God until He passed by.  That gives me cold chills thinking about that encounter.  He actually saw God and knew He was real!  There was no denying that in his mind!

So, when we read this Psalm in its entirety, and we look at this week’s memory verse, we see that Moses had that knowledge of God and knew His nature, but this psalm contrasts that with the nature of humans.  

God is everlasting to everlasting, but humans are compared to new grass in verses 5 and 6.  Verse 10 says that our days may come to 70 or 80 years of our strength to endure…and they pass quickly.
We can be eternal, but we can never be everlasting.  We have a beginning, but we don’t have to have an end if we accept Jesus as our savior.  God is everlasting… He doesn’t have a beginning or an end…He always was and always will be.

Maybe Moses knew he didn’t always use his time wisely for the Lord or make the best choices.  He was a hot-tempered dude who took some molding from God…a man who was reluctant to speak because of past failures…a man who never got to see the promised land while living because of His sin.

When we are taught, we hopefully learn, right?  Maybe Moses is saying that we need to learn WHAT to do in our numbered days… so we can gain a heart of wisdom that understands through common sense, insight, and experience the fragility of life and that it passes quickly.  

Moses learned a lot about Who God is…
He learned to be dependent upon God.
He learned to be aware of the necessity of God’s presence.
He learned being apart from God, he could do nothing.
He learned that the reproach of Christ was greater than the treasures of Egypt. (Hebrews 11:26)

We must learn to number our days so that we use our time wisely for the Lord!  As a child, we think 70 years is an eternity, but as we get older we realize that 20 years passed in the blink of an eye!
Let us have a heart and mind that knows WHAT to do with the day we have been given.  We know as children of God that today is the only day that we can count on…tomorrow is not guaranteed.  Help us Lord to be good stewards of the days you give us and help us to use our knowledge and wisdom for your glory!

Written by: Ashlee Canipe from Paint It Up

Ashlee is not only a super-talented writer, but an artist as well. She sells her artwork on her website. I love supporting other small businesses!!