Title: Numbering Our Days
Text: Psalm 90-:1-17
Thesis: If you want a life that counts, number your days.
Introduction
In his sermon, Spending Time, Bryan Wilkerson cited the Five for Fighting song, 100 Years lyrics as a window into the way humans think of the time of their lives:
I’m 15 for a moment…
I’m 22 for a moment…
I’m 33 for a moment…
I’m 45 for a moment…
I’m 99 for a moment…
With every stanza the singer moves through the years of his life noting that he has 100 years to spend… time to buy, time to lose, time to choose. It seems he has lots and lots of time until it occurs to him that with each passing year his 100 years are being eaten away until at last he is 99 for a moment, and then he has no more time to buy or lose of choose.
God has entrusted a number of things to us… one of them is time. If it is true that everything belongs to God and if it is true that one of his good and perfect gifts to us is the gift of time, we want to be responsible stewards of this gift.
I recently overheard a conversation between our daughter and our daughter-in-law. They were discussing the merits of artificial verses real Christmas trees. What interested me is that they were not discussing the convenience and lack of mess related to an artificial tree… they were discussing the, for lack of a better term, morality of cutting down a tree that took years to grow so it could decorate their homes for three weeks and then tossed. They discussed Christmas trees as renewable resources… they discussed them as essentially crops that are grown, harvested and replanted. In that case, a Christmas tree is like wheat or corn or any other renewable resource that can be grown for consumption and then replanted.
Unlike Christmas trees and other renewable resources… time is not a renewable resource. Once it is used… it is gone forever and can never be replenished or reclaimed or reused.
This morning I am 58 years, 7 months and 9 days old… I have lived 21,389 days. They are spent days. I’ve used them up one way or another. I can never relive a single one of those days. They are days of accomplishment and regret. Among them are memorable days and others not so. There were days of pleasure and days of pain. There were good days and bad days and there were lots of “just another day” days. Whatever kind of day each of those 21,389 days was… together they serve to remind me if I want my remaining days to count and have meaning, I need to be diligent in the way I spend the time of my life.
Our text today encourages us to make the most of our time be reminding us that human life is temporal.
I. God may be eternal but human life isn’t!
“Before the mountains were created, before you made the earth and the world, you are God, without beginning or end. [However] Seventy years are given to us! Some may even reach eighty… but soon they disappear, and we are gone.” Psalm 90:1-2 and 10
Every day we are reminded of the temporal nature of human life. Some of us read the obituaries every day just to make sure we aren’t in there.
Early New Years morning Broncos Cornerback, Darrent Williams was murdered outside a club in the SoCo (south of Colfax) district of Denver. He was 24 years old. He was known as a good guy with a promising career and a bright future… the key word here is “had.”
The first ten verses of Psalm 90 are devoted to marking the contrast between the eternity, power and sovereignty of God and the frailty and temporality of man. The Psalmist says we are like dust or like dreams that are swept away or grass that flourishes and then withers.
The point of the passage is not to drive us to the despair reflected in the lyrics of the group Kansas who gave us Dust in the Wind.
I close my eyes, only for moment, and the moment’s gone.
All my dreams, pass before my eyes… dust in the wind.
All they are is dust in the wind. (And then as the song concludes the lyrics become more personal and dismal…)
Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind…. everything is dust in the wind.
The point rather is to remind us to make the most of the time God gives us.
II. We are wise to make the most of our time in this life.
“Teach us to make the most or number our days, so that we may grow in wisdom.” Psalm 90:12
One of my most favorite things to do is pick up our mail at the post office when we’ve returned from vacation. Our post office is a very friendly place so I like to go there anyway but sitting down and going through a bag of mail when I get home is something I look forward to doing. Among the collection last week was the latest issue of Newsweek Magazine with a profile of President Ford on the cover.
It was a marvelous issue. The stories about that good and gracious man were heartening. I was blessed when I often recalled the words his mother taught him from Proverbs 3 as he made his way through life, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.” As I read about his life I longed for the likes of that old-school politico whose life and presidency was marked by wisdom and character.
His was a life spent well.
The same issue carried the story of the new Leadership Academy for Girls Oprah Winfrey has built and is financing near the town of Henly-on-Klip, South Africa. Oprah has spent five years of her life and 40 million of her dollars building this school for promising young African girls.
Oprah is spending her life well.
You and I will never be President of the United States of America, nor will we likely spend 40 million of our dollars building a new school for girls in Africa or anywhere else for that matter. But, we do have time to spend and we do have some control over how it is we will spend that time. So we pray, “Teach us to make the most of our time…”
Bryan Wilkerson says that we often make one of two mistakes when it comes to time:
1. “Younger people especially, think they have so much time they can afford to waste some; they’ll get to the important things later when they’re done with school, when the kids are older, or when they aren’t so busy at work.”
2. “Others think they have too little time, that they can’t possibly do something significant for others or for God, so they don’t even try.”
Everyone of us in this room has time that will be spent well or frittered away… hopefully, we will be motivated to spend it in ways that are enriching to us and to others and pleasing to God.
III. In regard to the time of our lives… our goal is to spend our lives in ways that gain God’s approval and blessing.
“And may the Lord our God show us his approval and make our efforts successful. Yes, make our efforts successful!” Psalm 90:17
The text reminds me of The Prayer of Jabez in I Chronicles 4:10, “Oh, that you would bless me and extend my lands! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain.” The verse ends stating, “And God granted him his request.”
We all have 24 hours to spend every day. We have to do some things. We have to sleep, take care of our personal needs, eat, go to work or school. We have to take care of our children and loved ones. We have to clean our homes, do our dishes, do the laundry, and shovel the walk. The point is not the disregarding of our responsibilities in lieu of more meaningful pursuits. There is no greater pursuit that lovingly caring for and providing for our loved ones.
Nor is the point the necessity of infusing some meaningful activity into every waking moment of the day… In a church I served years ago there was a wheat farmer whose son-in-law was a pastor. He was a disciple of management guru John Maxwell and he was determined to maximize every waking moment of his day.
Every year he and his family traveled to Kansas to help with the wheat harvest… every year he arrived with a tape player and a stack of motivational tapes. He converted the cab of his old wheat truck into a mini-motivational university. When he sat in the fields, he listened. When he drove to the elevator, he listened. When he got to the elevator, he lectured. He would jump out of his truck and direct traffic, urging the farmers tighten up the lines and to be more diligent about efficiently getting their wheat dumped. I don’t know if God was impressed but I know he made quite an impression on the farmers in the community.
Perhaps God would have approved of him propping open the door of his truck and basking in the bright July sunshine. Perhaps God would have approved if he feasted his eyes on the beauty and grandeur of the golden wheat waving in the breeze. Perhaps God would have approved if he had sat in the shade on the running board of a truck and made small talk with the farmers.
Perhaps the point is that we consciously place ourselves in the place where we are open and receptive to God’s leading in our lives… perhaps the point is that we consciously give consideration to how we are living and what we are doing and with whom, asking ourselves, “Is this good for me? Is it beneficial to others? Is this pleasing to God?”
Conclusion
When I was a teenager, I was given a daily devotional book written by Vance Havner by the title Day by Day. I first read the following quote in that book… it is a quote that has stuck in my mind all these years. You may recognize it…
“Only one life, twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
Will you pray with me this prayer as I conclude this talk:
“Lord, teach me to make the most of the time you have entrusted to me. I pray that you will bless me, be with me, guide me, and protect me in all I do. And, may my life be personally satisfying, a blessing to others and pleasing to you. Amen.
