Teach us to number our days

A meditation

A Meditation

By Pastora Cate Covert

Psalms 90:12  So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

May the Lord grant us wisdom and open hearts to hear and understand His Word. Amen

As far as we know, there was only one Psalm ever written by Moses, yet it is a beautiful, passionate prayer full of personal discernment, wise counsel for the reader, and praise to the Lord of Glory.

Psalms 90:1-17  A Prayer Of Moses the Man of God. LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.  (2)  Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.  (3)  You turn man to destruction, And say, "Return, O children of men."  (4)  For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night.  (5)  You carry them away like a flood; They are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up:  (6)  In the morning it flourishes and grows up; In the evening it is cut down and withers.  (7)  For we have been consumed by Your anger, And by Your wrath we are terrified.  (8)  You have set our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.  (9)  For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; We finish our years like a sigh.  (10)  The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.  (11)  Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath.  (12)  So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.  (13)  Return, O LORD! How long? And have compassion on Your servants.  (14)  Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days!  (15)  Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, The years in which we have seen evil.  (16)  Let Your work appear to Your servants, And Your glory to their children.  (17)  And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands.

This is a prayer from a man whom Jehovah God called humble. Moses had a relationship with God. This prayer covers the scope of creation, from a time when man in the Garden had the ability to live forever, until he fell in sin, and had no more access to the Tree of Life.

Moses’s words take us through the earliest recorded times, through the time of Methuselah, Enoch, Cain and Abel, Abram and Sarai, and the march of the Children of Israel out of Egypt and into the wilderness: through the ever-sinful ages of man, when the human lifespan became less and less as mankind became more and more violent, and God declared that His Spirit would not strive with man forever (Gen. 6:3).

Moses knew that even though God turns man toward destruction, He is always calling out for him to repent. Moses knew that if man did not repent, the lifespan will grow shorter until mankind is altogether cut off.

Moses truly knew the fear of God, and had also seen His wrath toward certain rebels in the wilderness as he led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and to the very threshold of the Promised Land – a place Jehovah God did not allow Moses to set foot in, but only let him see from a distance because he disobeyed God by striking the rock twice in anger, rather than once as the Lord Jehovah had said. (Numbers 20:10-13)

You may wonder why God would punish Moses for hitting a rock twice. See, God was using Moses to paint a picture of Messiah to come, and God only intended to strike the Messiah once (that would one day be Jesus/Yeshua, on the cross). Moses messed up the picture by striking the Rock of Messiah twice, so Jehovah had to bring the consequences. Hence the name, Meribah – a bitter reference to the strife between the Children of Israel and the Lord.

Still, The Lord Jehovah impressed upon Moses that he should be content with His judgment, so He made Moses able to accept that the Lord God was enough for him, and the Lord God allowed him to see the Promised land from on top of Mount Pisgah. Moses served the Lord until he died at 120 years of age. So precious was Moses to the Lord, that the Lord Himself buried Moses in a secret place.

Apparently, there was much interest in the body of Moses:

Jude 1:9  Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"

If angelic beings disputed over this man’s body, it’s possible that people might have taken his body to bury it and possibly engage in worship. God in His wisdom knew it would be best if no humans knew the final resting place of the body of the humblest man on the earth.

Though the fact of his death is a bit mysterious, Moses clearly had learned the secret of life in service to the Lord God Jehovah. He was a passionate man, and he even argued with God on behalf of the stubborn people God gave to him to lead. Moses knew that God was Merciful and Just, and he encouraged man to turn away from his sin and to embrace righteousness in order to have a full life.

A view of this present life demands that we put it into context. Nothing can be in proper context unless it is understood within the scope of Eternity. Moses had enough experience with serving the Lord to realize he needed a proper view of eternity. Thus, he said, “So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Or, you might say: “Teach us to understand our proper position in you so that we can know how to proceed on a path that will please you, Oh Lord.”

To put Moses’s life in some historical perspective, Moses is the author of several books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Psalm 90. He is also widely believed to be the author of the book of Job. If you have wisely invested your time in reading these great works, you already have an inkling of Moses’s wisdom and powerful testimony of faith.

Yet after all of these accomplishments, he was not proud, but he remained humble. Here is what the Lord God Jehovah had to say about Moses to his brother Aaron, and sister Miriam after He heard them spitefully slandering Moses for taking an Ethiopian wife:

Numbers 12:3-7  (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.)  (4)  Suddenly the LORD said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, "Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting!" So the three came out.  (5)  Then the LORD came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both went forward.  (6)  Then He said, "Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream.  (7)  Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house.

God was telling them that while other prophets received visions and dreams from the Lord, that HE spoke to Moses personally AND that Moses was faithful in all His house!

If we have misunderstood the word humble, we will not be able to process what it means to be meek in the Lord, and yet able to hold ourselves in reserved strength.

Was Jesus, who could have called down a legion of angels, weak? No, He was meek and humble while he walked the earth. But He will return in power and glory as the Conquering King, the great Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the King of all kings, and He will bring His reward with Him.

Moses did not simply fear the Lord, He also trusted Him, and recommended a devoted life to Jehovah’s servants and to their children. Moses believed in God’s promise to bring forth His Messiah, and because of this, Moses always looked toward Eternity with faith and expectation.

Our world is growing darker by the day. The words of Paul the apostle seem more appropriate, more imminent, than when we first pondered them:

Romans 8:18-22  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.  (19)  For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.  (20)  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;  (21)  because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  (22)  For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

Creation has suffered because of the first Adam (man) and has been reconciled to God through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, who voluntarily gave up His life, allowing His blood to be poured out for the remission of sin. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The only pure soul Who never sinned, and so was qualified to take the penalty of our sin on Himself to satisfy God’s judgment that “the soul that sins must die”. God longed to bring Mercy, and Jesus stepped up on our behalf.

While we are talking of looking at things with an eye to Eternity, we should hear from John, the Revelator, the author of the Gospel of John, who said this of Messiah Yeshua/Jesus.

John 1:10-18  He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  (11)  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.  (12)  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:  (13)  who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  (14)  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.  (15)  John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.' "  (16)  And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.  (17)  For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  (18)  No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Verse 12 says all we need to know – As many as received Him (Jesus), to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name.

John nodded to Moses, through whom the perfect law of God came. Then John gave the preeminence to Christ Jesus, Messiah Yeshua, as the Son of the Living God, and established the way for sinners to come to God.

We are given a certain number of years on the earth. If we want to live in such a way that we do not waste that time, we should take time to think about what we’ve done, where we are, and where we think we are going; these matters are of intense interest to the Lord Jehovah, and the Host of Heaven. They should be equally important to us so that we make the most of the time we have left. If we are prudent, we will meditate on this until we have learned to ask this same favor of the Lord.

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