Numbered Days

Recently, a good friend from my college years received a terrifying prognosis- cancer. And the outlook is not good. Risk factors and treatment success leaves the future very much in the dark. My prayers are with him and his family. The Lord can bring healing. The Lord can let the disease run its course. It is in His hands.

This tragic news has sobered up the false notion that my life is under my control. It is not. I’m demystified from this expectation that the day the Lord will take me home is so far in the future that I have plenty of time. Nope. Our days are numbered. How easy it is to become caught up in life that we are just carried along losing sight of time.

I’m reminded of the prayer of Moses in Psalm 90 where he prays for the Lord to teach us to number our days so that we may get a heart of wisdom. Certainly. And as I reread the chapter, v. 14 caught my attention, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”

What can really sustain us in life that is so uncertain? What can give us the strength to wake up to a world that can be so very tragic? What courage is out there to embolden our next step forward? There is nothing so certain in life, nothing so life giving, nothing so powerful than the steadfast love of God in Jesus Christ. The gospel brings us satisfaction that the world does not know. We can rejoice and be glad all our days, even through affliction and evil days (v. 15).

Therefore, “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” (v. 17) May we live our numbered days for His glory. Let us be engaged in His mission. For the good of people and the glory of God!