Getting Contemplative
Ever had those moments where it dawns on you just how insignificant you really are? I’ve been having those moments often these days.
And whenever I think about my life, my mind always goes to Psalm 90:12, which reads: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (ESV). On first glance, it seems like Moses is saying that wisdom is found when we consider the length of our lives. …But that little “so” at the beginning points to his previous point found in 1-11. In those verses we see that we’re not to just take note of the length of our lives, but that we ought to recognize our life in light of God’s days–eternity.
- In verses 1-2, Moses notes our Creator God as a secure dwelling place.
- In verses 3-6, Moses contrasts our frailty as people of dust with God’s sense of time.
- In verses 7-10, Moses highlights our seventy or eighty years are full of secret sins and end in death
Verse 11 concludes, “Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you?” Truly. Who does? Who can?
…And then rolls in verse 12, which begins the second part of Psalm 90 (verses 12-17) with a reorienting of the mind’s eye to the only source of true wisdom: The Eternal Compassionate Creator who will satisfy us and make our hearts glad all our days, and His glory will live on even to our children. What a thought! That God would use my very short, fragile, troubled life as a way to show off His extravagant mercy to me by satisfying me and making me glad in the midst of the affliction of my days.
When Psalm 90:12 says, “teach us to number our days”, Moses is reminding us to consider the magnitude of history, and then consider even beyond history the God who lives outside of time. Consider that this God, the one for whom a thousand years are but a day, this God is the One who desires to satisfy us in the morning with His steadfast love. He is the One who will make us glad for as many days as we get. And considering that will produce in us a heart of wisdom.
Getting Practical
So what are some ways one can learn to “number our days” in light of eternity past? The primary and most important way: spend time searching the scriptures for evidence of God’s Great Name. Dig deep. Look for His fingerprints all over the history of the Israelites and then on the early days of the church. Perhaps you can even join me in reading the New Testament this summer to do that!
But here’s another way to number the days that is relatively new to me: reading biographies–books about people from the past that give us tangible, on-the-ground proof of God’s hand in history. Biographies are history in your hand.
I’ve been doing this over the last couple of years, and here are four lessons I’ve learned so far:
- My life is just a breath in light of the rest of time. I probably won’t get a single paragraph, much less a page, in the volume of history. I likely won’t even make it to the footnotes!
- People’s opinions come, go. The only opinion that matters is Jesus’. And His opinion of me is eternal secure.
- What is right now probably won’t be in the future. What hasn’t been made right now, will be made right and new then.
- God is Sovereign over all things. I can’t see it from this side of glory, but when the book has closed, the Bible says I’ll see more clearly what He was doing.
Maybe you can probably add to this list from your reading of history–add them in the comments! Maybe you haven’t yet picked up a biography that will help you number your days–check out this list to get you started! But these are the kinds of thoughts that lead our minds to numbering our days, and numbering our days results in a heart of wisdom.
“Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in your left hand are riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold fast are called blessed” (Proverbs 3:13-18).
What you’ll find here is a collection of musings, thoughts, writings, and ramblings about things I’m reading, watching, and thinking about. It’s my goal to inspire, encourage, and instruct my fellow sisters in their walk with Jesus and their understanding of the Word.
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