Now let's open our Bibles to
Psalms 90 verse 12. Psalms 90 verse 12. So teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Now this is a psalm,
not of David, but a psalm of Moses. It's called, A Prayer
of Moses, the Man of God. This is a psalm of Moses, and
it's in the form of a prayer. It begins with, Lord, thou hast
been our dwelling place in all generations. And there are petitions
and praise throughout the entire psalm. It's a psalm of Moses
in the form of a prayer. I don't have time to cover the
entire psalm. I don't have the time to cover
one verse. But I'm going to have some things
to say, beginning with verse 9. Now look at verse 9. all our days are passed away
in thy wrath." First of all, Moses measures the length of
a person's life, not in years, not in months, but in days. He says, our days are passed
away. These days are swept. They are
here and they're soon gone. They're described in the Word
of God. Our days are described as a flower blooming today and
gone tomorrow. Our days are described in God's
Word as a mist or a vapor that appears for a little while. David
describes our life, our days, as a shadow. He says man is like
the vanity His days are as a shadow that passeth away." And then
here in verse 9 of Psalm 90, Moses says, our years are as
a tale that is told, just a brief story. Someone tells a story,
has a beginning, and it has an ending, and it's over, and that's
life. A man's life is just that quickly
gone. It's like a tale that is told. Now verse 10 says, the days of
our years are threescore years and ten. The days of our years
are usually about seventy. Now there was a time when man
lived several hundred years. But after the flood, those days
were cut down to a hundred or a hundred and twenty years. Many
men lived a hundred years, some lived a hundred and twenty. Now
in the time of Moses, and after the days of Moses, they're brought
down to 70, and that's what Moses is talking about in verse 10.
The average life span is about 70 years. The days, listen to
it carefully, verse 10, the days of our years are threescore years
and ten, that's 70. And if, and here's a big if,
And if by reason of strength, that is because of a good constitution,
because of a healthy body, but most of all by the grace of God,
suppose by reason of strength our days of our years be eighty
years, four score years, that's eighty years, and yet even if
they are, these extra years Look at it. These extra years, yet
is their strength labor and sorrow. These extra years are spent in
sickness and pain and frailty. Failure of the eyes and the ears
and sometimes even the mind. These extra years, the days of
a man's life are usually about seventy years. And if by reason
of a good constitution, a healthy body, the grace of God. We live
80 years, yet these years are spent in sorrow, they're spent
in labor, they're spent in pain, they're spent in sickness, they're
spent in frailty. And then he says in the last
three words of verse 10, we fly away. The soul, like a bird leaving
its nest, the soul wings its way out of the body upward to
God. or else downward to eternal condemnation
with our sins about our necks as a millstone. But we fly away. Our days of our years are usually
about seventy, and if by reason of strength they be eighty, we
fly away as a shadow, as a bird flees from its nest, never to
return. Job said, in a few days, in a
few I shall go the way from which I shall not return." Solomon
said, Man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the
streets. So this is the introduction or
preparation for my text tonight. Moses says, our days, not years,
not months, but our days are passed away. We spend these years
as a tale that is told. Usually we live 70, if by reason
of strength, 80 years, yet we fly away. Now I have text, verse
12. So teach us to number our days. Now that's the first point in
this message. Let's think about it a moment.
So teach us to number our days. This is the heavenly arithmetic. I don't need to be divinely taught
to number my past days. That's not what Moses is talking
about. We know how many days we've lived. I know how many years I've lived.
I know how many, it wouldn't be very difficult for me to figure
out how many months I've lived, and even how many days I've lived,
and how many How many hours I've lived, I can get it right down
to the minute, how long I've lived on this earth. We celebrate
birthdays every year and we do number our past days, but that's
not what he's talking about. So teach us to number our past
days. And then Moses is not talking
about numbering our future days. It wouldn't be difficult for
me to take the number 70. That's what he says here, the
days of our years are 70. So I put down a 70, and I've
lived 48 years, and I subtracted, I've got 22 more. That's not
what he's talking about at all. We're not talking about how many
days we have left to live. That's in the hands of the Lord.
Turn to Job chapter 14. In Job chapter 14, in verse 5,
the Scripture says our days are determined. Job 14, 5. Our days
are determined. The number of our months are
with the Lord. He has appointed our bounds,
and we cannot pass. I have a designated amount of
time spent on this earth. It's determined by the Father.
It's set by the Father. He has determined my years, my
days, my months, they're with Him. He has set the boundary. Now, I don't have the faintest
idea when that is. And that's not what Moses is
talking about. Teach us to number our days. Teach us to number our days.
What is he talking about? Here's what he's talking about.
The meaning of this statement, so teach us to number our days,
is this. Teach us, Lord, the brevity of
life. Teach us, O Lord, the shortness
of life. that we may meditate on the shortness
of our days, that we may seriously consider how few these days are. Now, some men in the Word of
God had been divinely taught the shortness of life. Let's
look at some of them. For example, David. Turn to Psalms
103. David had been taught in Psalms 103, verse 14, He had
been taught the brevity of life, the shortness of life. He says
in Psalm 103, beginning with verse 14, The Lord knoweth our
frame, he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days
are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth,
for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place
thereof shall know it no more. David had been taught of God
the brevity of life, the shortness of life. And then Job, turn back
to Job chapter 14 again. Job had been taught of God the
brevity of life, the shortness of our days. He says in Job 14
verse 1, man, and here's a familiar scripture, most of you won't
even have to turn to it, man that is born of woman is a few
days. and full of trouble. He cometh
forth like a flower, he cut down. He fleeth also as a shadow, and
continueth not." Job had been taught, and certainly Moses had
been taught, because we read here in the 90th Psalm, back
in verse 3, back in verse 3, "...Thou turnest man to destruction,
and sayest, Return, ye children of men." A thousand years in
thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch
in the night thou carry'st them away as with a flood." Man's
life is like a sleep. In the morning they are like
grass which groweth up, in the morning it flourisheth and groweth
up, but in the evening it's cut down and withered. What Moses
is saying here, Lord, teach us to number our days, is Lord,
teach us the brevity of life. Lord, teach every one of us the
shortness of life. Teach us to number our days. Now then, the second point. When
we learn to number our days, when we're divinely taught, when
we sit down for a little while and meditate seriously on this
shortness of life, what do we learn? Well, we learn three or
four things. First of all, we learn this.
We learn that our days here on this earth, this brief life,
these short days, we learn that these days are spent in a world,
and this is something many of us haven't learned. These days
are spent in a world that is under God's wrath. Now look at
verse 9 again. Our days, all of them, are passed
away in thy wrath, in thy wrath. Sin has brought this world under
God's wrath. The Scripture says God is angry
with the wicked. When Peter preached at Pentecost,
he exhorted individuals to save themselves from this perverse
generation. God's wrath is upon this world. We see God's judgment at Babel's
tower. We see God's judgment upon the
people of Noah's day, when he swept them all away in a flood.
We see God's judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah. We see God's awful
wrath upon Jerusalem. We look all the way back through
the history of mankind, and we see God's wrath and God's judgment
upon this world. We spend our days in a world
that's under God's wrath, and that hasn't changed, and that's
not going to change. And not only do we consider,
when we consider the shortness of life, the brevity of life,
that God's judgment is upon this world, but we also consider God's
wrath in a man's life. When we begin our life in birth,
we begin it in pain. The painfulness of childbirth. That's the way man comes into
this world. He comes into this world through
pain. and then all the little childhood diseases, and then
he lives in pain, he earns his bread by the sweat of his brow, and then he dies in pain. And
all of this pain and disease and disappointment and trials
and suffering, all of these things are because of God's wrath on
this world. All our days, look at it, verse
9, all our days, all of them, every one of them, are passed
away, are spent under God's wrath. This world is under God's wrath,
and it's not going to change. And when you sit down and consider
life, you think about the years that you've spent on this earth
and how few you have left. and you think back over them
and starting at your very birth and you find the pain and the
suffering and the poverty and the famine and the hard work
and the disappointment and the sicknesses and the disease and
the death of loved ones and all of life is full of disappointments
because of sin. Sin has come into this world
and with sin has come disease and death and tears. Life is
full of tears. There's going to be a lot more
of them, and when you sit down and consider the brief span of
human life as a shadow, as a flower, as a fleeting mist, as a tale
that's told from its start till its finish, somebody's crying,
somebody's suffering, somebody's hurting, Somebody's disappointed. Somebody's failing. And that's
the way it's spent. It's spent under God's wrath. The whole tale is told as a tale
of wrath. The second thing, if we consider
seriously the brevity of life and the way that it's spent under
God's wrath, then we learn the second thing, that in this flesh
nobody's going to please God. This world is not pleasing to
God. This world is under judgment.
And all flesh is under judgment. God is going to destroy this
world of flesh. Paul said, In the flesh no man
can please God. He said, In my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. Our Lord Jesus said, Flesh and
blood cannot enter the kingdom of God. The world of flesh and
the world of the spirit are contrary one to the other. They're poles
apart, and nobody will ever bring them together. And the little
silly, sentimental, emotional religionists of this day are
living in a fleshly religious world. You consider some of these people
in the Old Testament who met God, and how they reacted when
they met God. When Isaiah met God, he said,
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. And immediately
he said, O Lord, I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among
a people of unclean lips. He saw the Lord high and lifted
up. Your sins, David said, have separated
between you and God. When the prophet Daniel met the
Lord, he said, My beauty, my fleshly beauty, melted into corruption. When the saintly Job met the
Lord, he said, I hate myself. I repent in sackcloth and ashes. I have spoken once, yea, twice,
things too wonderful for me. I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, and I hate myself. When we consider the brevity
of life, shortness of life, the brief years that are spent here
in this world of flesh. They're spent under judgment.
This world is under judgment. It's under God's wrath. It's
passed away in God's wrath. Oh, he said in verse 11, Who
knows the power of thine anger? Who knows it? Even according
to thy fears, so is thy wrath. We learn these things. We learn,
first of all, as we sit down and think about life, consider
it, think about it, the shortness of it. And we think,
first of all, that the whole thing is full of sin and disappointment
and starts with death because a mother literally goes through
the valley of death to bring forth life, and it ends in death. We can't please God in the flesh.
And the third thing we learn when we consider, number our
days, when we learn to number them, we learn not to boast of
tomorrow. When we seriously number our
days, we number this present day as potentially my last day. My last day. This is potentially
my last day. It's foolish for any man to boast
of anything. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 4,
What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst
receive it, why dost thou boast as if thou didst not receive
it? Who maketh thee to differ? It's foolish to boast of anything,
but it's doubly foolish to boast of tomorrow. Turn to James 4. Listen to this. In James 4, beginning
with verse 13, Now this is what we learn when
we go to school and learn heavenly arithmetic. We learn to number
our days. We don't have many of them. They
pass so quickly. And we determine this, all of
them are spent in a world under judgment. They're spent in the
valley of somebody said, Don Fixer said it the other day,
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
That's not just talking about the day you die. This whole journey
is a valley of the shadow of death. This whole pilgrimage
is in a barren, famine-infested wilderness. This whole trip,
that's what Moses is saying, we pass our day under God's wrath. This whole journey is a journey
of tears. Don't expect it to be anything
else, and don't be disappointed when it is. In this world, Christ
said, ye shall have tribulation. And we learn not to boast of
tomorrow. Look at James 4.13. Go to now, you that say, today
or tomorrow we'll go into the city, and we're going to stay
there a year, and we're going to buy and sell and get gain,
whereas you don't know what's going to be on tomorrow. What
is your life? What is your life? Why, it's
even a vapor that appears for a little time, and then it vanisheth
away. What you ought to say is this,
if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or do that. So teach us. Lord, our days are
passed away in thy wrath. Our days are like a tale that
is told. We have 70 years, maybe 80 years,
and then we fly away. Lord, teach me. to number my
days, teach me seriously to meditate and seriously to think upon the
brevity of life, the shortness of my days. And if I do, I'll
learn something. I'll learn as I look at this
little scene, as I look at this little tale that's told, as I
look at this little flower that's blooming for a while and the
morning it grows up and the night it's dying and withered. And
I look at it, and I remember it's spent under God's judgment. That's the reason it's dying.
That's the reason for the decaying teeth, and the failing of sight,
and hearing, and the graying of the hair, and the strength
leaving, and the wrinkles, and these things. God's wrath. And remember that I can't change
it. I can't change it. This flesh
cannot dress itself up to please God. I'm not going to change
it at all. And I can't boast of tomorrow.
Today is potentially my last day." And then, fourthly, I learned
to be concerned about my meeting with God, my meeting with God. Oh, people
don't like for the preacher to talk about death, but yet somebody
they know dies every day. People don't like for the preacher
to talk about judgment. People don't like for the preacher
to talk about eternity. And yet, oh, wise is the man. How wise is the woman who can
sit down with some common sense and judgment and can say, I'm
a sinner. I was born in sin. I was shapen
in iniquity. I was brought forth speaking
lies. I live briefly in a world under
God's judgment. I live in a world under God's
wrath. I pass my days in pain and sickness
and disease and frailty and disappointment. The very happiest mountaintop
experiences in life usually precede a deep valley experience. I cannot
look forward to anything but more tears and more heartache
and more disappointment because man has shaken his fist in God's
face and crucified God's Son and said, We will not have this
man reign over us, and this world is doomed to destruction and
all flesh with it. And in my flesh, born of flesh,
I cannot please God. I may not have a tomorrow. Today
may be my last day. Tomorrow I may stand before God
in judgment." And the books are open. So what am I going to do? Psalm 90 again, our text. Look
at it. But so teach us. Our days are
passed away in wrath, just a tale that's told, seventy years. So
teach me, Lord, to number my days that, in order that I can
play the fool. Be like the man in Luke chapter
12 who said as he lay upon his bed one night, I have many goods
laid up for many I've got everything taken care of for the next 40,
50, 60 years. Tear down these barns and build
bigger barns. Eat, drink, and be merry." And
the Lord came and said, "'You're a fool. This night thy soul shall
be required of thee. Teach me to number my days that
I may apply my heart to wisdom.'" Wisdom. Now, my friend, it's
wisdom to prepare for death. It's wisdom to prepare for eternity. Considering the shortness of
life and the length of eternity, it's wisdom for me to prepare
to meet God. Our Lord said that in Luke 12,
20. He said, Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required
of thee. And so is he that layeth up treasure
for himself, and is not rich toward God." He's a fool! But you know, I think there's
more here than just that. That's enough, but there's more
here. "...Teach me to number my days, that I may apply my
heart, that I may cause my heart to come to wisdom." The wisdom here is Christ. That's right. You say, well,
you find Christ in all these verses. I sure do. I sure do. Because that's the very goal
of the Word of God, to bring me into Christ. That is the very
use of the law. The law is the schoolmaster to
bring us to Christ. That is the reason for every
type and example and picture in the whole Old Testament to
reveal Christ. The prophets spoke of Christ.
And you won't find it very difficult to see that Christ is, all the
way through the Bible, called the wisdom of God. In fact, Paul
said, we preach Christ, what? The wisdom and power of God. teach me to number my days, that
I may bring my heart, or I may cause my heart to come to Christ."
How is Christ the wisdom of God? Well, let me show you briefly.
First of all, in choosing Christ to be our Redeemer, God revealed
His wisdom. For the Redeemer must not only
be a divine person, but the Redeemer must be a holy man, and Christ
as the divine person and the holy man was fit to be our Redeemer. In making Christ our surety,
wisdom is seen. Christ became our representative. He was numbered with the transgressors.
As our substitute, our sins were laid on him, and by his stripes
we are healed. Wisdom is seen in the incarnation. Christ, conceived by the Holy
Spirit, is a man, but not a man who has partaken of Adam's transgression. He is all man, but he is fathered
by God. Wisdom is seen in his honoring
the law, being tested in all points as we are, yet without
sin. That's wisdom. Wisdom is manifested
in the death of Christ as the justice of God is completely
satisfied. The living God, the fountain
of life, died in the person of Christ and reconciled the elect
unto himself. Wisdom is seen in the exaltation
of Christ, for he who is the head of the church is the king
of the universe. Lord teach me to number my days. Not my years, but my days. We talk about we are 40 some
odd years. We've got 10, 12, 15, 20 years
to go. These aren't years, these are days. Days, that's what they are, just
days. Brief, short days. As a tale
that's told, as a shadow that quickly passeth away, as a flower
that blooms and soon is withered and gone, as days. And Lord,
as I number my days, I apply my heart to Christ. I apply to
Him for mercy. I apply to Him for forgiveness. I apply to him for that blessed
atonement, I found a ransom. I found a way out of God's wrath. I found a way to escape God's
condemnation. I found a way to rise above this
world of flesh and death and corruption. I found a ransom. I apply to him for eternal life,
for the Son, quickeneth whom he will. He's got all power over
all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as the
Father has given him. I apply to him for life. Lord,
I've numbered my days. I've considered the brevity of
life. I'm not going to grieve over
it and mourn over it. I'm going to seriously and conscientiously
consider it. And then on my knees before the
throne of thy grace, I'm going to apply for mercy. I'm going
to apply for Christ. Our Father
in heaven, burn this message into our hearts. I seriously believe that we cannot
learn anything this day more important to us for how evil it is of us and
how foolish of us to live these rapidly passing days in indifference
to that which is most important, eternity. What fools we are to
give our time and our thoughts to that which shall pass away
and that which shall be gone tomorrow and neglect that which
shall live eternally. How foolish for us to heap up
for ourselves in this world treasures that rust and pass away and thieves
break through and steal, and not lay up for ourselves spiritual
treasures at thy right hand. Lord, teach us. Let us go to
school tonight. To the divine professor, let
us sit at the feet of the Holy Spirit, and Lord, teach us this
important lesson to number our days, to number our days, and
let the results be that we may apply our hearts unto Christ.
that we may find in him everlasting joy that cannot pass away. As
our Master said to the woman at the well, you drink of this
water, you'll thirst again. But you drink of the water I'll
give you, you'll never thirst. It's eternal water. And let us
not think so much about this water, but think about eternal
living water. and the blessed family relations
that we have here, they can become too important to us. And we can
make idols of clay, for that's what the flesh is, it's clay.
And we can spend our thoughts and our time upon these natural
relationships and neglect that eternal family into which we've
been born by thy Spirit. That's the important family.
It's not these fleshly ties that shall someday all of them be
dissolved and exist no more, but it's that heavenly family. And we spend our time considering
the pleasures and joys of this body and neglect the joys of
our souls. Christ our husband, our friend,
our lover. We neglect that relationship
with him in trying to build these fading relationships on this
earth, seeking the approval of men whose approval means nothing. seeking the friendship of those
whose friendship means nothing, and neglect him who sticketh
closer than a brother, our eternal friend, the Lord, and say, Lord,
teach us to number our days. Let us think on these things,
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. In the name of our
Master we pray, and for his glory. Amen.