Teach Us To Number Our Days

Subject: "Teach Us to Number Our Days"

Text: Psalms 90:12 “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

Introduction: Moses dealt with Israel for more than 80 years. Just think about all that has taken place in the last 50 years. During the last 50 years, the golden age of communication, radio, telephones, television, Color TV, the polio vaccine, Disneyland opened in California, and Elvis Presley made "The Ed Sullivan Show. The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. You talk about exciting times, the 50s saw segregation ruled illegal in the U.S. and the beginning of the civil rights movement. To many, the 60s can be summed up as the Vietnam War, hippies, drugs, protests, and rock 'n roll. A common joke goes, "If you remember the '60s, you weren't there." Other revolutionary movements included the Stonewall Riots and the beginnings of gay rights, the Women's Lib movement, and the civil rights movement. Who could forget Motown, and its dominance in the music industry, the Jackson Five, The Beatles and the reinvention of Michael Jackson. During that time, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Alongside these revolutionary cultural changes, world politics was equally dramatic. The U.S. entered the Vietnam War, the Berlin Wall was built, the Soviets launched the first man into space, and President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy were all assassinated. Tragic events dominated the era, including the deadliest earthquake of the century, the Jonestown massacre, the Munich Olympics massacre, the taking of American hostages in Iran, and the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island.

Culturally, then came disco, M*A*S*H*, and "Star Wars", Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court made abortion legal, and the Watergate scandal reached its climax when President Richard Nixon resigned. Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev brought an end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There were also disasters like the eruption of Mount St. Helens, the oil spill of the Exxon Valdez, the Ethiopian famine, a huge poison gas leak in Bhopal, and the scourge of AIDS. Culturally, the 1980s saw the Rubik's Cube, the Pac-Man, video games, and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. CNN, the first 24-hour cable news network debuted exposing viewers to worldwide news Instantly. We saw the Cold War ended, Nelson Mandela was released from prison, the internet changed life as everyone knew it—in many ways, the 1990s seemed a decade of both hope and relief. But the decade also saw its fair share of tragedy, including the Oklahoma City bombing, the Columbine High School massacre, and the genocide in Rwanda. We lived through it all. The past two years, we saw an invisible virus temporarily shut down the world now we have a new variant.

Psalms 90 is the oldest psalm. It is said to have been written by Moses. Moses was great prophet and law giver of God, who led the children of Israel out of Egypt. Although the children of Israel had been freed from the bondage of Egypt, freedom cannot really be enjoyed until life is understood. Israel's new freedom led them into a life of disobedience to God. If they only had the wisdom for living out their purpose, they would have entered into the Promised Land and experienced the rest of God. There is a rest for the people of God. Because of disobedience, the first generation died in the wilderness, never reaching the Promised Land, never enjoying the land that flows with milk and honey.

In our text today, we are allowed to hear what Moses thought about all the changes he experienced. Moses has the tremendous responsibility of preparing this new generation to go in possess the land that God had promised them. We can hear the heart of Moses in this Psalm as he prays to God. Moses does not ask God for a life of ease, nor to be translated out of his troubles. He does not ask God for a longer life, or riches and wealth. Moses had witnessed fellow travelers who lived in ease, eating manna from heaven, and drinking water from a rock. They were shaded by the cloud of God by day and warmed by the fire of God by night. They disobeyed God’s instructions and the consequence was the death of an entire generation. The Hebrews wandered in the desert for thirty-eight years. Over those years, nearly a million people died - about eighty-seven funerals a day. Moses was surrounded by death and despair. Moses, the man of God took out his journal and began to pour out his prayer to the Lord. Moses affirms that God is eternal, faithful, and completely holy. He contrasts the eternal God with fragility of Israel. Israel like all mankind is finite, fickle, and faithless. Moses is confronted by mortality and time. If dealing with this virus has taught us anything, its taught just how fragile and uncertain life really is.