“So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12
Christ said it is a sin to leave our first love. He has this against his church who when they walk away from Him, leaving his side. But how do we fight that tendency in our busy lives? Moses gave us his secret in Psalm 90. He asked God to teach (the word is “know”, like knowing Christ) him to number (count or appoint – dedicate) our days (this is a literal 24 hour day that God used in creation). What does it mean to number our days? Billy Graham was once asked what he was most surprised by in life. He answered, “Its brevity. Moses, who lived to be 120 years old realized the truth of that statement. His life, my life and your life is just a vapor. We don’t
comprehend that truth when we are young. Life is bright and exciting and the years look almost endless in front of us. But they slip by very quickly.
Moses saw that each day he spent was just like he was spending money. He was trading a day for something in return. The question is “was it a wise purchase”? This gets to the quality aspect of the use of our time. Do we waste our time on wood, hay and stubble that will be burned up at the Bema Seat or do we buy value – gold, silver and precious stones that will matter for all eternity. This is why Moses asked God to teach him. He had to realize God gave him only a limited number of days. (Moses likely looked back with sorrow knowing he had spent 40 years of those days in the wilderness. That “waste” motivated him. He did not want to lose another day doing something that did not count for eternity.
What did Moses seek? What did he want God to teach him to gather, collect and do in this life. He tells us. Moses asks God to teach him to
exchange the value of a day of his life to gain (brought, bring in or enter) a heart of wisdom. Like Solomon, Moses’ great desire was to gain the wisdom of God. This would make his day worthwhile – a worthy purchase that would please God and count for all eternity.
Note where Moses wanted to store what God taught him – in his heart. Spending quality time with the Lord, abiding in Him, staying by His side is first a matter of the heart. There are several lessons about gaining this great treasure that are important for us to meditate on.
1. We have limited days to store up this treasure. When our time is over the opportunity is no more. We don’t understand the ramifications of what this means for eternity but we do know this – it matters! Count each day – what did you put in your spiritual 401K on this day?
2. Gaining wisdom is hard work. In multiple scriptures we read how wisdom is of much higher value than gold. “Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold.” (Proverbs 8:19) We usually interpret this as God telling us how valuable wisdom is. That is true but perhaps there is another message in the passage as will. In order to find gold, silver and precious stones takes hard labor. Miners often have to dig deep into the earth to locate a few gems. The worth of those stones is so high, however, that the miner will continue in hard labor to find even more precious stones. Thus we realize that the effort to search for God’s wisdom is likened to mining precious metals. “If you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures.” (Proverbs 2:4) Mining takes hard work and it takes time. This is likely what Moses had in mind as he asked
God to teach him how to gain the ”gold” God has given. How do we waste the opportunities? Don’t put in the effort to read God’s word, study it for its wisdom, memorize it and meditate on it to achieve success.
3. How do we use our hours to maximize our gain of wisdom? To find wisdom we must be willing to put the effort and we must be willing to find the time to search for wisdom. But how do we do that when our day are jammed with activities? There are only so many hours in a day. This is where we must integrate activities – searching for wisdom while we do our secular work. We can pray without ceasing as we go through our day turning every decision into a spiritual one by taking it to God. We can give thanks in everything as we see all that comes into our lives as from God. We can ask Him to show us the opportunities He is giving us to represent Him. We can meditate on scripture throughout the day. We can do that through memorization of
verses or by using cards with verses on them to look at during the day. Maximize our time! Search for God’s gold throughout the day in everything we do.