Anonymous Asks (354)

“How does the Lord make me know the measure of my days?”

Today’s question is about a phrase in the ESV’s rendering of Psalm 39, though Moses asks the Lord for something similar in Psalm 90. In the fourth verse of Psalm 39, David appeals to his God this way: “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!”

What do you think: did David get an answer to that request?

Insight into the Great Unknown

We could make today’s post a good deal more concise by speculating in the negative, but where would be the fun in that? Our questioner presumes that not only did David get his answer, but that he or she can too, that finite humanity can in certain respects gain God-given insight into the great unknown.

My current job involves logging data about the dead. My previous job involved cleaning up after them. Both experiences confirmed that the average person is not well prepared to meet his Maker or to leave this world in an orderly fashion, notwithstanding the fact that we all have our appointments with eternity on the schedule. How suddenly we can be taken! In one case, I washed up a half-full coffee cup in the basement of a middle-aged man who had died suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving behind a long list of tasks he would never complete, including perhaps finishing his coffee.

From that perspective, asking the Lord to help each of us number our days seems entirely reasonable. Christians ought not to leave chaos behind us when we go to be with the Lord. That glorious moment when we will see our Lord face to face should be on our minds every day. Where our treasure is, there will our hearts be, and our actions will fall in line with them.

Setting a Date?

Of course, the average believer must rule out any possibility of very specific knowledge about the day on which he will exit this world. King Hezekiah was a rare exception to the rule. God sent Isaiah the prophet to the godly king of Judah to tell him his days were numbered and to advise him to set his house in order. That’s sound counsel for all of us, even if we don’t receive a visit from a prophet to get us moving on it. Sometimes a prolonged illness will provide a strong hint about timing, but many of us don’t get that.

To be fair, I don’t think David was looking for an exact date to pencil in on his Hebrew calendar. That’s not the sort of knowledge he seems to be asking the Lord for. He clarifies his question in the very next clause: “let me know how fleeting I am”. He speaks of his days as “a few handbreadths” and “as nothing” before God. He goes on to remark that this condition is universal: “Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!”

So then, David is not looking for a specific, personal prophetic revelation about the future, but simply asking that the Lord help him to remain perpetually conscious of the brevity of life.

Truth Applied

That need not be a morbid task. But like every bit of knowledge available in scripture to the believer, it’s information that needs to be applied, not just held between the ears where it is little or no use to us. The man whom the Lord helps to understand the measure of his days will not put off doing the things that are important today. He will prepare for the inevitable.

For the Christian, that means a great deal more than simply preparing a will or saving up for our children. It means recognizing the limited time and opportunity we all have to testify about the Lord to our loved ones, to work for his glory and to accumulate reward, and doing something about it. We are often told, “Keep short accounts with God.” We need to learn to keep short accounts with one another too. Don’t leave those I love yous, I’m proud of yous and Please forgive me fors unspoken. Get them out there where they can do some good.

Back to the Actual Question

However, our question was not “What should we do to prove we know how the measure of our days?” but rather “How does the Lord reveal it to us?” Well, he does it the same way we receive most knowledge from God these days: through his written word applied to our hearts by his indwelling Holy Spirit. The scriptures give us plenty of things around us to which we may compare our fleeting lifespans and come away encouraged to do something practical with the time remaining to us. All we have to do is read and believe them.

Some examples: Job 7:6 (“swifter than a weaver’s shuttle”), 8:9 (“a shadow”), 9:25 (“swifter than a runner”) or 10:20 (“few”); 1 Chronicles 29:15 (that shadow again); Psalm 78:39 (“a wind that passes and does not return”); James 4:14 (“a vapor”); and Isaiah 40:6 (grass that withers and a flower that fades).

If those don’t get you moving in the time you have left, I’m not sure there’s anything I can add that will. That’s what our lives are really like, and to the extent we internalize this truth and act on it, we will do good works that leave the world a better place than when we came into it.