Episode Details

Psalm 90: The Prayer That Counts Our Days

This is the oldest psalm in the collection — attributed to Moses himself — and it has the feel of a man who has stood at the edge of eternity and looked back at human life with clear, unblinking eyes. "A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." The metaphors come quickly: we are carried away as with a flood, we are like grass that flourishes in the morning and by evening is cut down. It would be unbearable if it were merely observation. But Moses is not lecturing; he is praying. And the prayer pivots on one of the most quietly revolutionary lines in all of Scripture: "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." The numbering is the point. Not to make us gloomy but to make us serious — to give weight to each ordinary Tuesday, each unremarkable afternoon. And then, as if brevity of life has cleared the air rather than clouded it, Moses asks for something breathtaking: "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." The shortest lives, it seems, can still bear the mark of the Eternal.

00:00 From Everlasting to Everlasting
01:00 Our Days in His Wrath
02:00 Teach Us to Number Our Days