NUMBERING OUR DAYS
G Allan Brown
Psalm 90: 1-17
Philippians 1: 18-23
This is a remarkable psalm, possibly the first one ever to be written. Most of the psalms were written in the time of David and Solomon and their contemporaries, but this is “A Prayer of Moses”: a prayer. The fact that it is the ninetieth psalm does not take away from the fact that it was probably the first one to be written. It speaks of the greatness of God and His essential being as the One who inhabits eternity. It is not that eternity ceased, but God, who is love, to express His love, made that dip down into time and created man in His own image and likeness, having in view ultimately that Christ should appear and the whole universe be patterned after Him. All this was to take place in time.
What this psalm brings out is the relative shortness of time, some thousands of years perhaps, maybe millions of years; we do not know. Scripture tells us about six thousand years at least, but the shortness of our own lives here, our pathway here, is emphasised. “From eternity to eternity thou art God”: what a God we have! I was encouraged to read this from the hymn we sang, thinking of what God has in view, a universe of bliss, populated with persons patterned after Christ. What a scene it will be!
The whole vast scene of glory will display
That fulness in a quickly-coming day
(Hymn 293)
Sin having come in, man had to return to the dust: we know that only too well. The psalm speaks of how the grass springs up and flourishes in the morning and in the evening it is cut down and so on, but the verse that laid hold of me particularly was verse 12, “So teach us to number our days”. If we think of the vastness of eternity, what is human life? The Lord may come at any time, of course, but even at the most “threescore years and ten”, or perhaps a little more, but it is all “labour and vanity, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away”. That is the mortal condition in which we are.
So we do not have all that many days, even at the longest, and I feel challenged, dear brethren, in saying this. More than challenging anyone else, I challenge myself as to each day. Can it be numbered in the divine calendar? What does it mean for God, for His pleasure, for His service, for His word today, in your life, in my life? What was there yesterday? Lord’s day, of course, is special, but every day: “So teach us to number our days, that we may acquire a wise heart”. This is very testing, dear brethren. I cannot say too much about it except to raise the challenge as to how our days are spent. Of course, we have lots of legitimate matters to attend to. Work has to be done, and education, and family affairs and such things have to be attended to; but then it says, “And let the beauty of Jehovah our God be upon us; and establish thou the work of our hands”. Whatever we do, let it be in the dignity of the anointing! Let us learn “to number our days”!
I turn now to Philippians because I think you see in the apostle Paul an example of one who is numbering his days. He is in prison and uncertain as to what is going to happen. He might be condemned to death very soon; he does not know. But he says, “for I know that this shall turn out for me to salvation, through your supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”. Every day, every moment of every day, “the supply”, boundless, endless “supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” is available. The apostle is making use of it. He could say, “For for me to live is Christ, and to die gain”. He would rather have died: he says so. It is as though the Lord had given him an option. He says, “what I shall choose I cannot tell. But I am pressed by both, having the desire for departure and being with Christ, for it is very much better”. Who of us would not want to be with Christ? It could be your portion and mine tonight. The Lord could come and take us all to be with Himself tonight, but whether it be that way or whether it be through falling “asleep through Jesus” (1 Thess 4: 14) to be with Him “is very much better”. “But”, he says, “remaining in the flesh is more necessary for your sakes” (v 24); so he was prepared to live on in service, but always numbering his days and drawing upon that infinite, endless “supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”. What a thought!
Beloved brethren, this is available to you and me and, as we number our days, may there be something for the pleasure of God, something for the delight of the Lord Jesus, something too for the blessed Holy Spirit as He indwells us, and finds His promptings are being fully responded to! That is how our days are to be numbered in view of that glorious day when our sojourn here will be completed and we will enter into that wondrous day of which we have sung when
Thy greatness, Lord, the universe shall see.
(Hymn 293)
I trust the Lord may bless the word.
Word in a Meeting for Ministry, Grangemouth
16th July 2019