Psalm 90 New American Standard Bible
BOOK 4
God’s Eternity and the Brevity of Human Life.
A Prayer of [a]Moses, the man of God.
90 Lord, You have been our [b]dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were born
[c]Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
3 You turn mortals back into dust
And say, “Return, you sons of mankind.”
4 For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it passes by,
[d]Or like a watch in the night.
5 You have [e]swept them away like a flood, they [f]fall asleep;
In the morning they are like grass that [g]sprouts anew.
6 In the morning it flourishes and [h]sprouts anew;
Toward evening it wilts and withers away.
7 For we have been consumed by Your anger,
And we have been terrified by Your wrath.
8 You have placed our guilty deeds before You,
Our hidden sins in the light of Your presence.
9 For all our days have dwindled away in Your fury;
We have finished our years like a [i]sigh.
10 As for the days of our [j]life, [k]they contain seventy years,
Or if due to strength, eighty years,
Yet their pride is only trouble and tragedy;
For it quickly passes, and we disappear.
11 Who [l]understands the power of Your anger
And Your fury, according to the fear [m]that is due You?
12 So teach us to number our days,
That we may [n]present to You a heart of wisdom.
13 Do return, Lord; how long will it be?
And [o]be sorry for Your servants.
14 Satisfy us in the morning with Your graciousness,
That we may sing for joy and rejoice all our days.
15 Make us glad [p]according to the days You have afflicted us,
And the years we have seen [q]evil.
16 Let Your work appear to Your servants
And Your majesty [r]to their children.
17 May the kindness of the Lord our God be upon us;
And [s]confirm for us the work of our hands;
Yes, [t]confirm the work of our hands.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Daylight savings day is here!
Do we reset our clocks forward one hour and lose an hours sleep?
Do we reset our clocks back one hour and gain an hours worth of sleep?
The old adage I was taught: “Spring Forward one hour Fall Back one hour”
So today, we are going to reset our memory clocks backwards “one hour.”
Does anyone remember the vast array of shortages that people faced during the recent COVID-19 pandemic – some of which continue yet to this day in 2023?
In some areas, it seemed there was no yeast or bread, milk or eggs to be found.
Supply chains were severely interrupted, and it was difficult for many people to find some basic things that they needed to get through the day.
The Israelites faced a scarcity of food in the desert, and they loudly complained bitterly to to their leaders Moses and Aaron.
But there was, however, a significant problem with the people’s perspective.
They didn’t maintain their :much bragged about” trust in God, who had shown them all His great power by freeing them from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12-14).
Their cravings, and their confused memories, and priorities, left them short-sighted and unhappy—and they began to say they were better off in Egypt!
Nevertheless, God heard their grumblings and God provided for them by giving them quail meat every evening and the “bread from heaven” every morning.
That very evening, “quail came and covered the camp,” the people ate heartily.
And in the morning they found flakes on the ground that they could eat and make into bread.
They called it manna.
But it wasn’t long before the people were grumbling and complaining again.
How humbling it can be to realize that we often do the same: we get focused on a set of priorities, on something that we think we need in order to be happy, and we overlook the goodness that God is already pouring into our lives each day.
Recently for myself, life seemed out of sync, although I couldn’t figure out why.
Something just felt off.
My priority became a regimen of Grumble, Grumble and Grumble some more
Restless tossing and turning replaced sleep as my life filled up with allegedly important things-to-do – like serving my family, my neighbors, and church.
But it was obvious to anyone observant enough to notice, I wasn’t enjoying it.
In fact, I wasn’t enjoying much of anything.
Stuck inside some kind of “repeating cycle of monotony” I needed a reset, so I reset my priority, turned to the Lord in prayer, asked for the Holy Spirit’s help.
I started a habit of coming to God each morning with my morning caffeine and my Bible and Smart Phone in hand, began inviting the Holy Spirit into my day.
That time together became a precious gift I guarded with conviction.
I learned so much about the value of “numbering my days” (Psalm 90:7-12) during those morning prayers which then became these morning devotionals.
As I reflected on my priorities and my schedule and talked things over with God, I noticed a disturbing trend – my planning no longer aligned with my priorities in life, and the end result was an ocean of grumbling and that needed to change.
Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Moses, well and deep into his senior years cried out these words to God in a prayer of lament when the Israelites were seeing God’s supremacy firsthand.
Moses’ prayer shows each of us, no matter how old we are, a valuable truth.
In all things— whether in the abundance of grumbling, suffering or blessing— we need to recognize a time to reset, keep our priorities aligned with God’s will.
We should value each day as we walk in humble obedience to our loving Father.
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary explains it this way. “To number one’s days is an act of recognition of the vast difference between God and finite humanity. The wise reckon continually with God’s existence and human accountability.”
When we come to that place of recognition, when we learn to “reset” our days, we then become more aware of God’s Holy Spirit at work in us and through us.
And staying in sync with Him helps us consider and then reconsider and then reset each item on our to-do list and decide whether it is in fact a true priority.
Proverbs 16:1-9 GOD’S WORD Translation
Wisdom’s Blessings Come from the Lord
16 The plans of the heart belong to humans,
but an answer on the tongue comes from the Lord.
2 A person thinks all his ways are pure,
but the Lord weighs motives.
3 Entrust your efforts to the Lord,
and your plans will succeed.
4 The Lord has made everything for his own purpose,
even wicked people for the day of trouble.
5 Everyone with a conceited heart is disgusting to the Lord.
Certainly, ⌞such a person⌟ will not go unpunished.
6 By mercy and faithfulness, peace is made with the Lord.
By the fear of the Lord, evil is avoided.
7 When a person’s ways are pleasing to the Lord,
he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
8 Better a few ⌞possessions⌟ gained honestly
than many gained through injustice.
9 A person may plan his own journey,
but the Lord directs his steps.
One way to ensure we are reassessing our priorities living our God-directed priorities is starting each day with Him in scripture, prayer, asking for his help.
When we ask, God will freely give us His wisdom – all of the guidance we seek.
We will probably discover we have let less important tasks replace those better things like our prayer, Bible study, and spending quality time with loved ones.
But it’s never too late to “hit the reset button” realign our priorities with God.
Today, on this day of “daylight savings time, when we “fall back” anyway, let’s try to start a new habit together with this prayer to help evaluate our priorities.
God will definitely meet us where we are and give us the reset we long for today.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let’s pray:
Dear Lord, Lately I’ve been feeling out of sync, and I’ve been distracted by all the things on my schedule. I need the help of the Holy Spirit today. Search my heart, Lord. Reveal anything in my life or on my schedule that needs to change, be reset.
When I look and relook at my calendar, I get discouraged. I hit my grumble button, I haven’t been putting you first, which has thrown everything else off balance. I am starting anew right now, coming to you each morning in prayer to evaluate my own priorities. Help me to see what’s most important according to your truth. As I bring each decision before you, guide me with your wisdom in how I spend my days.
Even in the midst of my grumbles, stumbles and struggles or busy seasons, help me to reset myself, to pick up my bible and to remember to enjoy this life you’ve given me. I will also give myself grace when I notice I’m out of alignment with you. Because you are always there, ready to give my heart the reset it needs. Thank you, MY ABBA for filling me with wisdom, teaching me to number my days. Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” This is such an important verse … and a very timely one 😉
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