‘Teach us to number our days’
[Psalms 90]
There is an actress named Ingrid Bergman. She became famous for <For Who Will Ring the Bell>, <The Eighth Gospel>, and <Gas Light>, and the films she starred in were always top rated for her performance. Originally from Sweden, she went to Hollywood with great ambition to gain a greater fame from European flavors. And she starred in movies in Hollywood and won two Academy Awards. Perhaps there are few great actress like her. But the great actress cried out at the peak of her success: ‘Hollywood! Silver screen … Why is it so desolate and empty ….’ After abandoning her husband and daughter, she married a famous filmmaker, and soon broke up. After that, she had married several men. Then one day, a terrible thing happens in which her daughter kills her stepfather. Ingrid Bergman had a goal. And that goal had been achieved. But there was no purpose. Eventually, she died miserably from cancer. She lived her life with a goal but no purpose. Many people have the goal, but they don't have the purpose of their lives. If the goal speaks direction, the purpose asks meaning. ‘Why live” is a question for purpose, and ‘Where to go’ is a question about goal. Many people confuse goal and purpose, wandering as if they were one, ruining their precious life that can live only once in this earth (Internet).
Like the actress named Ingrid Bergman, who has achieved her goal but experienced vanity, how many people are experiencing it? The representative biblical character is King Solomon, who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. Seeing that he said in Ecclesiastes 1:2, “’Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher, ‘Vanity of vanities! All is vanity’”, we can see how he really experienced how empty life is. If we summarize the book of Ecclesiastes in one word, it teaches how empty life without God is. In other words, it shows that all human labors apart from God are in vain, and in the end, only by restoring the relationship between God and man, this man can find eternal value and meaning. Apart from God, wisdom is vain (1:12-6:9), pleasure and material things are vain (2:1-11), material life is vain (vv. 12-23), oppression is vain (4:1-3), all labor is vain (vv. 4-12), and politics is vain (vv. 13-16). The author of Ecclesiastes didn’t put forth these thoughts out of thoughts or ideas, but talked about them as lessons based on his own experiences. As a result, eternal and real joy cannot be found in this world, and the real satisfaction of life can be found in a relationship with God or in God (Internet).
How are we to live in this vain and meaningless world? In order to answer that question, we must also offer God the prayer the psalmist gave to God in Psalms 90:12. That prayer is ‘Teach us to number our days’. We can think of this prayer topic in two ways. The prayer ‘Teach us to number our days” has two contents.
The first content is, ‘Teach us the vanity of life’.
Psalms 90:3-10 teaches three ways why life is vain:
- Life is vain because it returns to dust.
Look at Psalms 90:3 – “You turn man back into dust And say, "Return, O children of men.” God told Adam, “By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). God who made Adam out of dust said to Adam, “For you are dust, And to dust you shall return”. That's right. We have no choice but to return to dust. That’s why life is futile. So King Solomon also said in Ecclesiastes 3:19-21: “For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust. Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth?” As King Solomon said, everything is vain because all is made of dust and everything will return to dust.
- Life is vain because it is short.
Look at Psalms 90:4-6: “For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the night. You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew. In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; Toward evening it fades and withers away.” Life is like falling asleep and grass which sprouts anew. Time and life that comes and goes quickly is vain. Life is like being swept away by a flood, the lives of people die quickly. Life is like falling asleep for a while and then waking up. When a person sleeps, it passes unconsciously. So time passes faster than when a person is awake. Not only that, as there are many dreams when sleeping, and there are many empty plans like dreams throughout life (Park). Like the psalmist said, life is like grass which sprouts anew. Just as flowers bloom and grow in the morning and dry up in the evening, life is also empty. So the apostle James said: “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (Jam. 4:14). Especially in the light of the word that “Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Ps. 90:2), life cannot be compared with the eternal life of God. Truly, life is very short. Life is meaningless and futile that can only be a moment.
- Life is vain because its’ pride is labor and sorrow.
Look at Psalms 90:10 – “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.” For as long as our years are seventy, if strong is eighty, life is vain because soon it is gone and we fly away and there is only labor and sorrow. That’s why King Solomon also said: “For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun? Because all his days his task is painful and grievous; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity” (Eccle. 2:22-23). The Bible tells us that since a life is full of sorrow, full of pain and suffering, and full of labor without rest at night, this is also vain. That’s why King Solomon says, ‘Vanity of vanities, Vanity of vanities! All is vanity’ (1:2).
Like the psalmist, we must pray to God, ‘‘Teach us to number our days’. In particular, we must learn that Psalms 90 teaches three things about why life is vain. We must have deep understanding. We must understand deeply that life is vain because it returns to dust, it is short and its’ pride is labor and sorrow.
The second content is, ‘Teach us how to live a short life worthwhile’.
Knowing the vanity of life, we should never waste our lives. In other words, we have to think about how to live a short life worthwhile. We can receive three lessons from Psalms 90:
- In order to live the short life worthwhile, we must fear God.
Look at Psalms 90:11 – “Who understands the power of Your anger And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?” In order to fear God, we must seek “a heart of wisdom” as the psalmist asked God (v. 12). What is the reason? The reason is because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 1:7). That is why King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes “Vanity of vanities,” and conclusively in Ecclesiastes 12:13, “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.” The Bible tells us that man's duty is to fear God and obey His commandments. Therefore, in order to live our short lives worthwhile, we must seek God for wisdom and live a life that fears God.
- In order to live the short life worthwhile, we must be satisfied with God’s lovingkindness.
Look at Psalms 90:14 – “O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.” God has given and is still giving true joy in Jesus Christ to us who had no choice but to live our lives in vain in our sorrows throughout our lifetime. That joy comes from the Lord's lovingkindness. In other words, when we are satisfied with His lovingkindness, we can live this whole life with true joy. And we can live our lives worthwhile when we love God and love our neighbors with His love as Jesus commands.
- In order to live the short life worthwhile, we must live for God’s glory.
Look at Psalms 90:16 – “Let Your work appear to Your servants And Your majesty to their children.” The psalmist asked God to “Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us” (by the number of years being afflicted) (v. 15). In order to do so, the psalmist prayed for the Lord's work and His glory to be appealed to them. In order for us to enjoy the joy that God gives us for a lifetime of labor and sorrow, God's works must be appeared in our lives. In other words, when the glory of God appears in our lives, we cannot help but rejoice in the Lord. The reason life is bound to suffer amid toils and sorrows is because we live for our own glory, not God's glory, and only our glory appears. In order to live a truly worthwhile life, we must live for the glory of God. Then, when God's work appears in our lives, that life will be truly rewarding and worthwhile.
- In order to live the short life worthwhile, we must seek God’s favor.
Look at Psalms 90:17 – “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; And confirm for us the work of our hands; Yes, confirm the work of our hands.” At the morning prayer meeting on Tuesday morning yesterday, I meditated on the “the kindness of God” (2 Sam.9:3) that David gave to Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth, who was crippled in both feet, based on 2 Samuel 9:1. David, who was faithful to the covenant he made with Jonathan, said to Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, “I will surely show kindness to you for the sake of your father Jonathan” (v. 7). He restored to him all the land of his grandfather Saul (v. 7) and made him to eat at David’s table regularly like one of the princes (vv. 7, 10, 11, 13). Then, David made Saul's servant Shiba, along with him his fifteen sons and twenty servants to serve Mephibosheth (v. 10). At that time, this was Mephibosheth’s response: “What is your servant, that you should regard a dead dog like me?” (v. 8) As I meditate on these words, the conclusion is that we are only grateful and thankful for the fact that God has given me the grace of salvation and every spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ. That’s why I sing this hymn “Since Christ My Soul From Sin Set Free” to the Lord: “Since Christ my soul from sin set free/ This world has been a Heaven to me/ And 'mid earth's sorrows and its woe/ 'Tis heaven my Jesus here to know/ O hallelujah, yes, 'tis heaven/ 'Tis heaven to know my sins forgiven/ On land or sea, what matters where?/ Where Jesus is, 'tis Heaven there” (v. 1 & chorus).
I would like to share with you a poem I found on the Internet while meditating on Psalms 90: ‘The stream flows, wherever it goes, it shows off its beauty before the fallen leaves fall. There is only a moment when we show off our dazzling beauty, and our lives also show off our youth in no time. As the sun turns into a lonely fallen leaf, the late autumn comes, only in vain. Even when we cried out that life was difficult, it made us think of the true meaning of life in the gloom of all the passing and falling leaves watching the last moments of life. Like the color of beautiful autumn leaves, the lingering lingering sound of life disappears without a trace. Whatever the meaning of life in this land, our life becomes the color of beautiful autumn leaves, dyeing our hearts with memories’ (Internet). We desperately need to realize the vanity of life in this vain world. Therefore, we must learn and practice how to live a life worth living once through the Bible. Let us live in fear of our God and be satisfied with His lovingkindness. And let us seek His favor. I hope and pray that we live our short life for the glory of God.
Wanting to live my short life worthwhile before God while thoroughly feeling the vanity of life,
James Kim
(Having been taught by the Lord the death perspective)