LIVING IN LIGHT OF ETERNITY

“So Teach Us To Number Our Days That We May Gain A Heart Of Wisdom.”
—Psalm 90:12

THE WORD OF GOD teaches us that our life upon this earth is a very short duration. Our text tells us that our days on earth are all numbered. We read in Job 14:1, “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.” James says that our life is like a vapor that is here today and gone tomorrow (James 4:14). We read in 1 Peter 1:24-25, “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the LORD endures forever.” And Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 9:5, “For the living know that they will die.”

CONSIDERING THESE TEXTS, is it any wonder that the psalmist asks the Lord to teach him to number his days? In other words, the psalmist wants the Lord to teach him how brief his life is upon this earth in order that he might walk in wisdom. When a believer realizes the brevity of life he then begins to live wisely because he understands the Lord has given him only so much time to live and labor for God’s glory. Do you really understand the brevity of your life? Does your life reveal a heart of wisdom in living for God’s glory and Christ’s Kingdom, or do you run after the vain things of this earth to establish your earthly kingdom and make a name for yourself? Scripture tells us that we are fragile people who live moment by moment by the grace and power of God. “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Daniel declared to the prideful and arrogant Belshazzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar, who was aware of all that had happened to his father, the following words, “And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified” (Daniel 5:23). Nothing else keeps our heart pumping and our lungs breathing but the Lord, “who upholds all things by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3).  

KNOWING THAT OUR lives are compared to a vapor, here today and gone tomorrow, ought to teach us who we are before the true and living God, “who owns all our ways and in whose hand is our breath.” Knowing that the living must die ought to teach us to humble ourselves before God and walk by faith in Jesus Christ knowing that we must all give an account of our lives to Him. “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13). Hear the word of the Lord, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).  

Friday Devotional: November 22, 2024
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry