“For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past . . . so teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.”–Psalm 90:4
Lately, I have felt rushed off my feet. Deadlines are pressing, children’s summer schedules need managing, laundry is piling up, and pretty soon, it will be time to shop for school supplies. I love preaching, but Sunday seems to be rolling around faster and faster all the time. And now our stove, almost as old as I am, needs replacing.
Sound familiar? Everyone I meet seems to be caught in the same time crunch. We’re supposed to be seizing day, but it often feels like the day is seizing us! There’s just never enough time.
Psalm 90 offers a way to reframe how we think of time. The psalmist reminds us that God’s view of time is a cosmic one, broader and longer and deeper than we can fathom: “ a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past.” God takes the long view.
We humans are reminded of our frailty and impermanence, compared to grass that withers and fades. The psalmist prays for an end to God’s wrath and a return of God’s compassion, for the people to enjoy as many days of gladness as they have of affliction. Humanity’s days on earth are so few that they need to be numbered and cherished. Every day counts.
But every day counts not in the sense that we have to rush to get everything done, but because each one is a gift from God. We only have so many. Each day deserves to be welcomed and cherished as the gift that it is. Not rushed through, not busied away, not white-knuckled through, but honored.
Each morning brings one more day to love God and be loved by God, to love our neighbors as ourselves and receive that love. Perhaps that’s the first thing that belongs on my to-do list, as I slowly, taking the long view, learn to count my days.
