So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Psalm 90:12 is Moses’s prayer for wisdom in view of death. Men return to dust, generations pass away, a thousand years are as yesterday before God, and human life flourishes briefly like grass before it is cut down (vv.3-6). Sin stands before God, His anger is fearful, and even a life of seventy or eighty years is soon cut off and gone (vv.7-11). Moses does not answer these facts with despair. He prays. Since life is short and God is eternal, men need divine instruction to use their appointed days wisely.
“So.” This word draws a conclusion from everything Moses has just confessed. Because God is everlasting and man is temporary, because sin is before God and death is certain, because human years pass quickly under His government, “So teach us.” Doctrine must produce duty. A man has not understood mortality properly if the only result is fear, sadness, or fascination with death. Moses wants the knowledge of life’s brevity to produce wisdom. Truth about death should govern how a man lives before death arrives.
“Teach us.” Moses admits that men do not naturally use life wisely. He does not say, Remind us of what we already know perfectly. He asks God to teach. Men know that they will die, yet often live as though their days were unlimited. Youth expects time. Strength assumes tomorrow. Plans multiply. Duties are postponed. Sin is excused for another season. Moses, the man of God, who had spoken with God and led Israel, still asked to be taught. Age does not automatically produce wisdom; long experience can harden a fool as easily as instruct a humble man.
David prayed similarly, “LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am” (Psalm 39:4). Such knowledge requires humility. Man gladly studies how to extend life, enrich life, entertain life, and protect life, but he must also learn how short life is. God is the Teacher who can make mortality useful instruction rather than an ignored fact. A funeral can teach more wisdom than a feast: “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting” (Ecclesiastes 7:2).
“To number our days.” To number the days is to reckon them as limited. Moses is not commanding an obsession with calculating the exact date of death, which God has not revealed. He is teaching men to account for life as finite, passing, and appointed. Job said of man, “Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass” (Job 14:5). Life has a boundary fixed by God even when man does not know where it lies.
This numbering changes priorities. A man with endless days could postpone every duty, but no man has endless days on earth. Reconciliation should not wait. Repentance should not wait. Teaching children should not wait. Service to God should not wait. Solomon commanded, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Numbered days should produce timely obedience, and each day is valuable precisely because it is limited. Once spent, it is gone.
Numbering also protects against presumption about tomorrow. James rebuked men who confidently planned business in another city while ignoring the uncertainty of life: “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). Planning is not sinful, but planning as though tomorrow belongs to us is pride. The wise man plans under this confession: “For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that” (James 4:15).
“That we may apply.” Moses asks for more than knowledge. He wants application. Many men know life is short and continue living foolishly. They attend funerals, watch parents age, feel their own strength decline, and still refuse to change. Knowledge that produces no altered conduct has failed its purpose. Paul commands the same careful living: “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16). Wisdom asks what present duty God has given, what sin must be refused, and what opportunity may not return.
“Our hearts.” The application must reach the inward man. Moses does not pray only for better schedules, greater efficiency, or more accomplished tasks. A man can organize every hour and still waste his life before God. Desires, loves, fears, priorities, purposes, and decisions must come under wisdom. Scripture commands, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2). A short life should be governed by worthy affections.
This makes Psalm 90:12 searching. What owns the heart during these numbered days? Money? Comfort? Reputation? Resentment? Pleasure? Anxiety? Ambition? Earthly success? None of these can stop the passing years. Moses wants the heart applied to wisdom that remains when this life is over. The problem is not only that men have few days; it is that they can spend those few days loving foolish things.
“Unto wisdom.” Wisdom is the right destination. Moses himself later sang, “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” (Deuteronomy 32:29). Wisdom considers the end before choosing the path. It fears God, obeys His commandments, judges present things by eternal truth, and refuses to exchange lasting good for temporary pleasure. A man who remembers death but still chooses sin has not numbered his days wisely.
Jesus Christ displayed perfect wisdom throughout His appointed earthly course. He knew His hour, did the work the Father gave Him, refused distraction from His mission, and near the end prayed, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4). He wasted no day and neglected no appointed duty. His example presses every servant of God to use time according to the Father’s will rather than personal vanity.
Life is short enough without wasting it. Ask God to make mortality a teacher rather than a fact you repeatedly ignore. Fear God, redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16), perform present duty, and spend your remaining days on what will still have been wise when your last one comes.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Psalm 90:12 is Moses’s prayer for wisdom in view of death. Men return to dust, generations pass away, a thousand years are as yesterday before God, and human life flourishes briefly like grass before it is cut down (vv.3-6). Sin stands before God, His anger is fearful, and even a life of seventy or eighty years is soon cut off and gone (vv.7-11). Moses does not answer these facts with despair. He prays. Since life is short and God is eternal, men need divine instruction to use their appointed days wisely.
“So.” This word draws a conclusion from everything Moses has just confessed. Because God is everlasting and man is temporary, because sin is before God and death is certain, because human years pass quickly under His government, “So teach us.” Doctrine must produce duty. A man has not understood mortality properly if the only result is fear, sadness, or fascination with death. Moses wants the knowledge of life’s brevity to produce wisdom. Truth about death should govern how a man lives before death arrives.
“Teach us.” Moses admits that men do not naturally use life wisely. He does not say, Remind us of what we already know perfectly. He asks God to teach. Men know that they will die, yet often live as though their days were unlimited. Youth expects time. Strength assumes tomorrow. Plans multiply. Duties are postponed. Sin is excused for another season. Moses, the man of God, who had spoken with God and led Israel, still asked to be taught. Age does not automatically produce wisdom; long experience can harden a fool as easily as instruct a humble man.
David prayed similarly, “LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am” (Psalm 39:4). Such knowledge requires humility. Man gladly studies how to extend life, enrich life, entertain life, and protect life, but he must also learn how short life is. God is the Teacher who can make mortality useful instruction rather than an ignored fact. A funeral can teach more wisdom than a feast: “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting” (Ecclesiastes 7:2).
“To number our days.” To number the days is to reckon them as limited. Moses is not commanding an obsession with calculating the exact date of death, which God has not revealed. He is teaching men to account for life as finite, passing, and appointed. Job said of man, “Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass” (Job 14:5). Life has a boundary fixed by God even when man does not know where it lies.
This numbering changes priorities. A man with endless days could postpone every duty, but no man has endless days on earth. Reconciliation should not wait. Repentance should not wait. Teaching children should not wait. Service to God should not wait. Solomon commanded, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Numbered days should produce timely obedience, and each day is valuable precisely because it is limited. Once spent, it is gone.
Numbering also protects against presumption about tomorrow. James rebuked men who confidently planned business in another city while ignoring the uncertainty of life: “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). Planning is not sinful, but planning as though tomorrow belongs to us is pride. The wise man plans under this confession: “For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that” (James 4:15).
“That we may apply.” Moses asks for more than knowledge. He wants application. Many men know life is short and continue living foolishly. They attend funerals, watch parents age, feel their own strength decline, and still refuse to change. Knowledge that produces no altered conduct has failed its purpose. Paul commands the same careful living: “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16). Wisdom asks what present duty God has given, what sin must be refused, and what opportunity may not return.
“Our hearts.” The application must reach the inward man. Moses does not pray only for better schedules, greater efficiency, or more accomplished tasks. A man can organize every hour and still waste his life before God. Desires, loves, fears, priorities, purposes, and decisions must come under wisdom. Scripture commands, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2). A short life should be governed by worthy affections.
This makes Psalm 90:12 searching. What owns the heart during these numbered days? Money? Comfort? Reputation? Resentment? Pleasure? Anxiety? Ambition? Earthly success? None of these can stop the passing years. Moses wants the heart applied to wisdom that remains when this life is over. The problem is not only that men have few days; it is that they can spend those few days loving foolish things.
“Unto wisdom.” Wisdom is the right destination. Moses himself later sang, “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” (Deuteronomy 32:29). Wisdom considers the end before choosing the path. It fears God, obeys His commandments, judges present things by eternal truth, and refuses to exchange lasting good for temporary pleasure. A man who remembers death but still chooses sin has not numbered his days wisely.
Jesus Christ displayed perfect wisdom throughout His appointed earthly course. He knew His hour, did the work the Father gave Him, refused distraction from His mission, and near the end prayed, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4). He wasted no day and neglected no appointed duty. His example presses every servant of God to use time according to the Father’s will rather than personal vanity.
Life is short enough without wasting it. Ask God to make mortality a teacher rather than a fact you repeatedly ignore. Fear God, redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16), perform present duty, and spend your remaining days on what will still have been wise when your last one comes.