The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Psalms 90:10
So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom. Psalms 90:12
Every verse in Psalm 91 talks about the Eternity of God. It begins with the author describing about God as our Eternal refuge and dwelling place in every generation since eternity past. The author then mentions about God's age, from everlasting to everlasting.
The author of this psalm is Moses. Since Moses saw God face to face, he saw everything, including his relationship with God, from an everlasting perspective. A person who sees God's face gets an everlasting understanding about God, because of which he sees everything from an eternal perspective. Eternity and eternal things get hold of him. Everything he does will be from an everlasting perspective. His actions will have a touch of Eternity in them. His plans will point to living with God eternally. He will not be shortsighted, but rather eternity sighted, meaning he will see everything from an eternal perspective and plans everything in order to spend eternity with God. He recognises that his brief time(short lifespan) on Earth is not sufficient to completely understand and know God.
He sees the time on earth (70 or 80 years) as insufficient (or limited) to know God. Even if we spend 80 years continuously every second to know God, we will know only at 1% of God. Because of the short time remaining on earth to see and know God, he will recognise the importance of time and tries to spend more time to know God. A person's desire to seek God (his hunger and thirst to know God) can be known by how he spends (makes uses) his precious limited time on Earth. He will manage his time effectively and efficiently.
Moses describes about God’s eternity and fits man’s timeframe in God’s Eternity. In God's sight, a thousand years are like a day, and the events of that day are like grass which grows in the morning but withers or dies in the evening. Man's years of 70-80 years are fitted into that day, like a sigh or a breath for a very short time. Moses sees humanity and creation’s lifespan through God's eyes.
He describes that the days of our lives are seventy and at most its eighty years. In the next verses, he says - teach us to number our days. If 1000 years are like a day, then millions of years are like eternity. In comparison to eternity, our 70 or 80 years seem like nothing or very insignificant. A God who is already Eternity years old, how will our 70 or 80 years on earth be sufficient to know him? And these 70 to 80 years are not sufficient to gain a heart of wisdom. Moses said that, "Teach us the number of days," implying that the Lord has to teach us that we have a limited amount of time on earth to gain a heart of wisdom. Our lifespan of 70-80 years is not sufficient to gain a heart of wisdom.
Unless God teaches us that our days are short and every day is valuable to gain a heart of wisdom, we will not gain a heart of wisdom. A heart of wisdom is needed to wisely balance our time to seek and know God while also prepare to live with God in eternity. Many people plan for their future (on the earth) for the next 20-30 years. However, very few people plan and prepare to spend the next 1000 years with God. A heart filled with God's wisdom is required to plan and prepare to spend the next 1000 years with God. Earthly journey is a place where we will gain a heart of wisdom which we need to live with God in Eternity.
We think that we have a lot of time to know God, but only a person who sees God’s face can understand how limited or short time (70-80 years) on earth we have to know God. God is more unknown than known. There is so much to know about God, but we have very less time to know that much. For example, suppose the universe holds 10000 billions of data about God accumulated over millions of years, but we only have time to process 1 million data about God over our 70-80-year lifetime on earth.
That’s why Elihu says – “Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; Nor can the number of His years be discovered.” We don’t know if Elihu understood the intensity of this verse or not. This verse applies to all generations. It's been 300 generations (6000 years) and we still know very little about him.
There is so much which we don’t know about him(His greatness, character and nature). We have less time to get to know him completely. How can we spend eternity with a God whom we do not know? Ask God to give you His wisdom so that you can use your time effectively to prepare to spend the next 1000 years with Him.
