Week 15 Psalm 90
So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.
I thought about this verse because I once heard a story about a guy who used Psalm 90:12 in a literal way.
I think this guy lived in Victorian England. I don’t know at what point in life he came up with this idea…but let’s say it was at age 30. Let’s say the national life expectancy of people in England at the time was 60-years old. Since he was 30 he could project that – statistically-speaking – he’d live 30 more years.
So his Life Calculation was: 30 years x 365 days-per-year = 10,950 (he could say “I have ~10,950 more days to live”). So then when he was 31 years old he could figure he had ~10,585 days to go (10,950 – 365 = 10,585).
The guy kept a journal and each day he wrote that day’s number. So his journal recorded a steadily declining Number of Days Left as he counted down the years.
I checked six other bible versions to see what they said.
All seven versions began with the expression teach us.
Five out of seven used the expression to number our days.
Six out of seven had wisdom as being the preferred outcome.
It’s the outcome that intrigues me more. Asking myself “how much time do I have left?” seems kind of quirky (no disrespect to the Victorian guy). I’m really more interested in the goal of pursuing wisdom.
Note: Psalm 90:12 (NASB and also NIV Modern-KJV Amplified Living-Bible NLT Contemporary-English)