Psalm 90:12-14
‘So, teach us to number our days — so that we may apply our hearts to wisdom!… O Lord, how long?… Satisfy us early with Your mercy, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days!’ Psalm 90:12-14.
Calvin comments: “It indeed seems at first sight absurd to pray, that we may know the number of our years!… Since even the strongest scarcely reach the age of eighty years — is there any difficulty in reckoning up so small a sum?
“Children learn numbers, as soon as they begin to prattle…. We do not need a teacher in arithmetic, to enable us to count the length of a hundred — upon our fingers. So much the fouler and more shameful, is our stupidity in never comprehending the short term of our life!
“Even he who is most skilful in arithmetic, and who can precisely and accurately understand and investigate millions of millions — is nevertheless unable to count eighty years in his own life. It is surely a monstrous thing that men can measure all distances outside themselves; that they know how may feet the moon is distant from the centre of the Earth; what space there is between the different planets; and, in short, that they can measure all the dimensions both of Heaven and Earth — while yet, they cannot number seventy years in their own case” or life!
“It is therefore evident that Moses had good reason to beseech God, for ability to perform what requires a wisdom which is very rare among mankind. The last clause of the verse…teaches us that we then truly apply our hearts to wisdom, when we comprehend the shortness of human life….
“What can be a greater proof of madness — than to ramble about, without proposing to one’s self any end? True believers alone, who know the difference between this transitory state and a blessed eternity for which they were created — know what ought to be the aim of their life. No man then can regulate his life with a settled mind, but he who — knowing the end of it, that is to say death itself — is led to consider the great purpose of man’s existence in this world, so that he may aspire after the prize of the heavenly calling!…
“‘O Jehovah — how long?’… Moses adds a prayer that God, Who had not ceased for a long time severely to punish His people, would at length be inclined to deal gently with them….
“They could not fail…to remember that dreadful oath, which He had thundered out against them: ‘Surely they shall not see the land…I swore to their fathers! But as for you, your carcases…shall fall in this wilderness!’ (Numbers 14:23,32)….. Moses…bewails their protracted languishing, in the words ‘how long?’….
“‘Satiate (or satisfy) us early with Your good (mercy), and we will be glad and rejoice all our days!'” So, then, Lord — teach us to count our days, so that we may acquire wisdom! And you too!
