Psalms 90:12 - The Brevity of Life

"Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom" (NLT)

Throughout this psalm, Moses emphasises how short life is. He shows how short our existence is when compared to the eternal God. Towards the end of this psalm, Moses writes these words, he urges us to realise how brief our time on Earth is, so that we may grow is wisdom.

Before I say anything else I want to emphasise the last part of this verse. It doesn't say to realise how brief life is and then panic, sell everything and go experience life to the fullest; it doesn't say to go into the streets and spend every possible moment preaching to the lost (though if that is your calling I definitely won't stop you); and he doesn't say to ignore everything else and spend every possible second in Church. Moses simply says to grow is wisdom.

I want to briefly talk about wisdom. According to Proverbs 1:7, true wisdom is fear of the Lord. This isn't fear in the way we usually use the word. This isn't saying that wisdom is being afraid of the Lord, on the contrary, the Bible often states that we don't need to be afraid when he is with us. The fear of the Lord is best likened to the fear you have of someone in authority. Think about anyone who has been in a position of authority over you. Whether they be your teachers, government officials, or police officers, you will have a form of fear when they are present. This doesn't mean that you are afraid of them, it means that you view then with respect and you consider them important to your life. The fear of the Lord is exactly like that. God Is the ultimate authority, he is far more important to our lives than anyone else and therefore it makes sense to view him with respect and awe.

So, wisdom is great and we should get as much as we can, but how does realising how short life is aid us in this endeavour? I believe it is because, if we don't realise how short life truly is, especially when compared to eternity, then we can make excuses for not doing things right away. Yet it is foolish to believe that we will have another chance, it is foolish to assume that we will live to see tomorrow for the scriptures say "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring." (Proverbs 27:1) For all we know, we may die in our sleep tonight, or something terrible might happen today and we won't live to see tomorrow. If we truly realised this, we wouldn't ignore the promptings of the Lord, we wouldn't make excuses by talking about doing it another day. We would do everything with an urgency, we would do what God told us to do because it might be our last chance.

Once again, I want to assure you that realising that life is short needn't give you a panic attack. You don't need to freak out because we are promised an eternity of life at the end of this life. Nevertheless, once you truly understand hoe short life is a feeling of urgency will naturally come over you. Use this feeling to expand the kingdom of God.

Another benefit of realising how short life is, and this is something we all need to improve on, is that we realise that, at any moment, our unsaved friends could be lost for all eternity. If we understood how brief life truly is, surely we would put aside out worries about being embarrassed, or about them not liking us anymore. We would count the cost of telling them and easily determine that the potential benefits of sharing the good news far outweighs the pain of them disliking you for it.

We are all guilty of ignoring the promptings of the Lord. We've all said things like "I'll do it tomorrow" or "next time." However none of us are promised a tomorrow, there may never be a next time. We need to realise just how short life truly is when compared with eternity, then we will grow is wisdom.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, we are sorry for all the times we have ignored you because we assumed we would have another chance. We're sorry for not sharing our faith because we assume there will be a next time or because we are worried about what they think of us. Lord help us to view life in the light of eternity. Lord help us to realise the brevity of life, so that we may grow is wisdom.