This week we are looking closely at Psalm 90.  Today we will look deeper at the world of the text.  What are we being told by the words of scripture?  

We see here in this passage the biblical words that inspired the old hymn, “I’ll Fly Away.”  We are told when this life is over we will fly away. But this passage has to it the word we’ve heard before about the length of life, is 70 years, maybe 80.  We see in this passage the reality of God’s eternity.  Verse 4 says 1000 years in your sights like yesterday when it’s passed.  I think Scripture teaches us that God exists outside of our mind’s ability to understand time. Here it says, and we see this echoed in other places in Scripture. But 1000 years in your sight is like yesterday.  We try to project our human understanding upon God, and He is so much more. 

Our time here is so brief, and the worries of this day are literally a speck in the grand scheme of eternity.  We see that our lives are like grass that withers at the end of the day.  Think about Moses and the people and their experience with manna.  It was there at the beginning of the day, and by the end, it was gone.  Our lives are like that, they wither in the same manner. 

Life is fleeting, is passing.  Verse 12, is the heart of the song, teach us to count our days, that we may gain a wise heart.  Wisdom for Moses comes not from great knowledge because who knew more than Moses, Moses received the law, Moses saw face to face with God, Moses knew God the way that very few of us know God, Moses, God knew Moses is a friend. Moses says that wisdom is not something that is found, by your great knowledge. Wisdom has come from understanding the truth, wisdom comes from seeing things in God’s way.  When we number our days, we know that they are short. But they are great in the light of eternity. And the worries of this day, when compared to the knowledge that is to come, compared to the light that is to come, that makes a great difference. The thing that you’re worried about now, the stress that you’re dealing with now the fears of this day, the stuff that you’re dealing with now, in light of eternity, is nothing. 

That is wisdom comes from that. Teach us to number our days, that we understand our days in the light of eternity. Because that’s where wisdom comes from, it is seeing through God’s perspective. Wisdom is not intellectual knowledge. Wisdom is sight, seeing things through God’s eyes, seeing things from God’s perspective, seeing things from God’s truth. That is what wisdom is, wisdom is not us learning more. Wisdom is our understanding more.

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