Numbering Our Days

"LORD, reveal the end of my life and the number of my days.  Let me know how short-lived I am.  You, indeed, have made my days short in length, and my life span as nothing in Your sight.  Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor" (Ps. 39:4-5, HCSB).

"Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts" (Ps. 90:12, HCSB).

Time is something most of us assume we have.  Under normal circumstances, we operate without a sense of urgency.  A sixteen year-old assumes that there is another fifty or sixty years to come.  A thirty-five year-old assumes that there is another thirty or forty years left.  A fifty year-old assumes there is another twenty or so years left.

The reality is that none of know when life will end.  All we really know is that life will end.  It might be different for humanity if they came out of the womb with an expiration date.  David  (Psalm 39) wanted to know his expiration date.  He wanted to know the number of his days so that he could squeezes the most out of them for the glory of God.  It seems he knew how prone people can be to assuming that time is on their side.  David didn't want to be lulled into a false sense of security, he wanted to make the days he had count.

Moses (Psalm 90) also wanted to know the best way to go about numbering the days.   Moses reasoned that the right numbering of our days leads to wisdom.  If we are going to walk in the way that pleases the Lord, without turning to the left or right, we need to focus on the end.  The end must always be in sight.

Living with the end in sight allows us to major on the majors.  It keeps us from chasing all the time consuming rabbits that devour the precious moments of our lives.  It teaches us to maximize every opportunity.

It is dangerous to drift through life thinking that we will never run out of time.  That kind of thinking keeps us from fleeing to Christ for salvation.  We assume there is time for us to "live a little," and then come to Christ.  We fail to see that today is the appointed today, and that tomorrow may never come. 

Thinking there will always be more time, keeps us from fully devoting ourselves to Christ once we have trusted him.  "Tomorrow, Jesus," we say, "I promise I'll get on that first thing in the morning."  Time is ticking away, but we don't seem to hear it. Tick-tock. Tick-tock.  How long before the trumpet sounds?  We don't know.

I'm not suggesting we mope around worried about the day of our death.  Rather, I am suggesting we live as if our days are numbered and as if we want them to count.  Are you counting your days?  Are you making your days count?