Pastor’s Thoughts – 08/09/2026
August 8, 2026
“Just as a parent is pleased with the efforts of his little child to please him, though it be only by picking a daisy or walking across a room, so is our Father in heaven pleased with the poor performances of His believing children. He looks at the motive, principle, and intention of their actions, and not merely at their quantity and quality. He regards them as members of His own dear Son, and for His sake, wherever there is a single eye, He is well-pleased.”
J. C. Ryle
Can you imagine a mass of people traveling in circles or sometimes back and forth in a desolate desert going nowhere, while living in tents with no hope of improvement or leaving the desert, but just waiting for 40 years to die? That is precisely what the Israelites did according to God’s judgment on them because of their great sin of unbelief. Yet even though they were destined to that desolation and to ultimately die, God took care of their basic needs. It was during this time that Moses is attributed to writing Psalm 90. It is an amazing Psalm from a man God raised for His purposes and worked through him in the most unusual experiences and circumstances. The Psalm reflects his faith as a man who spoke with God, as a leader over a difficult people, as a prophet, and as an intercessor for the wayward Israelites. Psalm 90 provides us with profound insights into the relationship between God’s eternal nature, and our frail, finite, human life in this fallen world. To read Psalm 90 is for us a type or heightened picture of our living under the curse. We live with the certainty of death. We live in a sinful world of desolate realities, and yet God takes care of our needs. The sinful world itself is void of that we most need, which is a right relationship with God.
Did you know that the life expectancy in the US in 1900 was 46.6 years? In 1930 it had grown to 58 years for men and 62 years for women. By 1960 it had increased to 66.6 years for men, and 73.1 years for women. Currently it is 75.8 years for men, and 81.1 years for women. Even with all our advances in medicine and nutrition, these are relatively minimal increases. As a man who has already passed the national average, I reflect on what Job said, “My life is but a vapor” (Job 7:16), or James, “For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (James 4:14). Think of the amazing analogy Scripture gives to the brevity of our lives. How very quickly does a vapor disappear leaving no trace.
It was in the desert experience that Moses wrote what we also need in considering the brevity of our life and our relationship to God, He said, “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Moses is saying to reflect soberly upon and realize that all of us have at best a limited and even unknown few days in this current life. Hidden within this simple request that Moses makes to the Lord is the basic and wise question of, what we are going to do with the days God has given us? How will we spend the precious limited time we have? And, just as God had a timeline for Israel in the desert, he has a timeline for each person today. Since we at best know that we have a limited number of days, implied for the wise is to make the very best of the days that we are given and live them to the fullest measure.
In aiding our thinking, Solomon wrote something that many people think of as being despondent or negative. He said, “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every person, and the living takes it to heart” (Eccl. 7:2). This is the sobering focus from God that we need. It matches with numbering our days, “that we may present to You (to God) a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12b). Rather than living like a soulless creature, we should live with the understanding of the value God has entrusted to us in the limited number of days we each have. We should know that this life will end at any time, and at best in a short time, but that we are eternal creatures. The life which is next is the life of truest value, for it carries within it an eternity. And for those in Christ Jesus, the many promises of God from His Word are that the life to come is very much better (Phil. 1:23).
Consistent with this reasoning, Moses goes on to write in Psalm 90, “Satisfy us in the morning with Your graciousness, that we may sing for joy and rejoice all our days. Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us, and the years we have seen evil. Let Your work appear to Your servants and Your majesty to their children. May the kindness of the Lord our God be upon us; and confirm for us the work of our hands; yes, confirm the work of our hands” (Ps. 90:14-17). By contrast to the usual living and only considering its misery and daily tasks, Moses requests God’s wisdom in our thinking. He knows that only God can bring a true spirit of contentment, and even turn the routine matters of daily grinds into times of thankful joy. He then closes out the Psalm seeking the Lord’s blessing to, “Confirm for us the work of our hands” (Ps. 90:17). Moses is expressing the need for every person to have before them the purpose of God in their life. Knowing God, and having His will being accomplished through us in whatever task, no matter how routine or mundane, is required as that which makes all the difference.
The basic idea behind our key verse, “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom” (Ps. 90:12), is to trust God always and that in doing so remain faithful to Him no matter our circumstances. Our life here is temporary. We are limited and confined by time, location, and circumstance and yet in this is the opportunity to prove our faithfulness to honor God by living by faith wherever we are until we are taken home to glory. This is the wisdom and the privilege God has given us. Now is the time to live for Him. Thank you Lord for Your plan in each of our lives!
