Week of Prayer, Day 1: Number Our Days

— Meditation —

In Psalm 90, Moses reflects on the shortness of the human lifespan—how we are here one moment and gone the next. While generations come and go, God remains. For the eternal God, “A thousand years… are like a day that has just gone by” (v4).

Moses’s aim is not despair in the face of mortality, but wisdom to live well. He prays, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (v12).

Meditate on Moses’s prayer below:

Our days may come to seventy years,
or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

If only we knew the power of your anger!
Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.
Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Relent, Yahweh! How long will it be?
Have compassion on your servants.
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Psalm 90v10-14 (NIV)

— Devotional —

What is the most well-known passage in the Bible?

Contrary to popular belief, it is not Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd”) or John 3:16 (“For God so loved the world”). Historically speaking, the most widely used and preserved passage is Psalm 90.

At least, according to archaeology.

Those who study the ancient world have uncovered Psalm 90 etched into tombstones, carved into stone, and inscribed on amulets. Moses’s reflection on wisdom in the face of our temporary lives appears again and again—especially in regions of early Christian Africa, where Scripture was often worn on the body as a daily reminder to the soul.

Why has Psalm 90 endured like this, across centuries and cultures? Because it speaks to something universal and unavoidable: the shortness of human life.

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested… life is long if you know how to use it.”

— Seneca,
On the Shortness of Life

How can we be sure not to waste our short lives? Part of living in the way of Jesus—who himself poured out his life fully—is learning how to use our time on earth as wisely as we can, by God’s grace.

Easier said than done.

The reality is that as time passes, we often struggle to know how to live well in the season we are in. And as we age, the seasons change. A young person wrestles with life differently than an older person. A single person wrestles with life differently than a married person. Just when we think we have gained wisdom for our current moment, a new season arrives. The cycle begins again.

The result is that we often feel stuck.

Unmoving.
Not progressing.
Not growing.

Some scholars imagine Moses prayed these words while Israel was stuck in the wilderness (see Numbers 14v2). In effect, he may be pleading, “God, give me wisdom to deal with these grumbling people during desert days that never end!” The Israelites were literally stuck, the time ticking by.

Have you ever felt this way? As if large portions of life have been wasted, time you cannot get back? Wondering how to make the most of what little remains?

Psalm 90 is a prayer to get unstuck.

We are always struggling and doing battle with something, but the forces that beset us change with the years… Where we once struggled to properly control our energies, we now struggle to access them. Where we once struggled not to fall apart, we now struggle not to petrify.”

— Ronald Rolheiser,
Sacred Fire

There are two main things Moses asks God to give him.

First, wisdom. “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (v12)

To number literally means to count. Moses asks God—the one who exists “from everlasting to everlasting” (v2)—to teach him how to see his limited life from God’s eternal vantage point. Much foolishness comes from losing that perspective. This is why sin is often described as “momentary” or “fleeting” (see Hebrews 11v25): it trades the long view for the immediate one. Only when we see our lives as a whole can we live wisely.

We need God’s perspective on how one day flows into the next, how one season gives way to another, and how decisions in one phase shape what follows. We need God to remind us that while life is short, it is also significant. We need his help to “redeem the time,” as Paul puts it (Ephesians 5v16). And we need him to restore what, in our foolishness, we have wasted. This is gospel math: God “repays the years that the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2v25).

Like a good teacher, God instructs us in this wisdom when we ask him and imparts this perspective as we turn to his eternal word.

Second, love. “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days“ (v14)

To be satisfied literally means to eat or drink to the full. It can even be translated “to gorge.” Sit with that image: filling yourself with the relational presence of God until you have what you need for today. As Moses prays in the next line, “Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us” (v15). Wisdom helps us see our lives; love helps us to live them.

Moses understands that life itself may feel unsatisfying. Its frailty, combined with its brevity, often brings difficulty—and sometimes deep disappointment for a season. But God’s love does not fail, and it truly satisfies. When we return to it each morning, we receive something that cannot disappoint and that leads to real, lasting joy.

The question is not whether the well is full, but whether we come to drink.

— Prayer —

Use this guide as a prompt for running to the well of God’s wisdom and love for today.

[Pray out loud] Eternal God,

You have been my constant for generations. Before creation, you were there. And before I was born, you knew me. While our lives come and go, you remain. From everlasting to everlasting you are God.

1. Examine the ways you feel stuck.

Ask the Lord to show you the areas of life where you feel unmoving—where you long to grow but have not. Be as specific as you can with God; he already knows all things. Tell him how being stuck feels right now, in this season.

2. Meditate on the everlasting nature of God.

Moses turned his attention to God’s eternal nature to gain perspective on his limited days. Do the same. Reflect on the truth that God created the world, that he knows all things, and that he knew you before you were born. He even knew your great-great-grandparents intimately. Let wonder rise in your heart as you consider the greatness of God.

3. Drink in the wisdom and love of God.

Begin to ask God for wisdom for today. Again, be specific. Yield the areas where you feel stuck into his care. Trust that he will teach you what you need to know—and that he will walk with you in his unending, satisfying love.