“Lord, through all the generations you have been our home! Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God. You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals!” For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours. You sweep people away like dreams that disappear. They are like grass that springs up in the morning. In the morning it blooms and flourishes, but by evening it is dry and withered. We wither beneath your anger; we are overwhelmed by your fury. You spread out our sins before you— our secret sins—and you see them all. We live our lives beneath your wrath, ending our years with a groan. Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away. Who can comprehend the power of your anger? Your wrath is as awesome as the fear you deserve. Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. O Lord, come back to us! How long will you delay? Take pity on your servants! Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives. Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery! Replace the evil years with good. Let us, your servants, see you work again; let our children see your glory. And may the Lord our God show us his approval and make our efforts successful. Yes, make our efforts successful!”
Psalms 90:1-17 NLT
Moses was a man who gained wisdom over time. Many know that he died at 120 years of age. This is the prescribed amount of years of a standard long-lived human by the end of genesis. Yet, many don’t know that he didn’t begin ministry till he was 80. The passage of time is significant because he was old before he started the hard work. In fact, he was raised for the majority of that time, as a prince of Egypt, and lived in relative splendor to the suffering of Israelites. Proverbs says the beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord and Moses connects to this concept by showing that one ought to fear him. The way in which they ought to fear him is to understand the brevity of life. Specifically they ought to understand the disparity between the infinite and the finite and mortal and divine. When one understands this, they can make their time count for meaningful things and not waste their lives. This is punctuated by his final plea that God show his approval by making our efforts successful. In Christ, we need not worry about this. Paul notes that all things work to the good of those who love God. However, because of Christ, we ought to want this. We ought to not want to waste a moment of our existence in 80 years of splendor.
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