SPENDING TIME

I heard a song on the radio a few weeks ago called "100 Years," by a group named Five for Fighting. It was the tune that caught my attention at first, but the words were just as haunting. The premise of the song is that if you've only got 100 years to live, then 15 is a great age to be because you've got plenty of time—"time to buy, time to lose, time to choose." Twenty-two isn't bad either, as you're just crossing the threshold into grown-up pursuits. At 33 or so it feels like things are coming together—you have people in your life and work to do. But at 45 you're nearing the halfway mark, and time is slipping away. At 67 the sun is falling toward the horizon, and before you know it, you're 99, wondering where the time went and wishing you were 15 again, even for a moment.

When I heard that song, it brought to mind another song, a much older one. I don't mean from the sixties or seventies. I'm talking about one of the oldest songs in human history: Psalm 90. The Psalms, of course, were songs, and were to be sung by God's people in worship and reflection. Psalm 90, which is connected somehow to Moses, may be one of the oldest pieces of literature in the Bible.

Like the song "100 Years," Psalm 90 ponders the passing of time. The singer seems to be perplexed, troubled even, by the brevity of life. The way he figures it, we've got more like 70 years—threescore and 10—or maybe 80 if we're lucky. Whatever the number turns out to be, they pass quickly, he says, and before we know it, we've come to the end, and we wonder if our lives have counted for something, for anything. Has it all been trouble and sorrow, or will we have something to show for the years we've spent in this world?

That's a question we all ask from time to time. Not every day, probably, not even most days. But on certain days—when life slows down for a few moments, when the calendar flips from one year to another, when we blow out the candles on another birthday cake, when we hear of a celebrity who's passed away or of tens of thousands lost in a wave of disaster—we stop and think about the passing of time, about the meaning of our lives.

If we want our life to count, we have to number our days. Let's take a closer look at Psalm 90 and see what that means. As I mentioned above, Psalm 90 may be one of the oldest pieces of literature in the Bible. It's attributed to Moses, but we're not sure exactly what that means—if Moses actually composed it, or if it came from Moses' era, or if it was written by a later author from Moses' point of view. Whoever wrote it, and whenever he wrote it, he was thinking about the passing of time.

He could have been a young person, looking ahead to all that life held for him. He could have been an older person, looking back and wondering what his life had meant. Or, he could just as easily have been at mid-life, looking both ways at once, and wondering.

Whatever the circumstances, and whichever way he's looking, the author sees two things.

First, the eternality of God. "Lord, you have been our dwelling place through all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the Earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God."

Moses certainly understood the immortality of God. Remember, he was the one who asked God his name: "When they ask me who sent me to them, what shall I tell them?" And God replied, "Tell them, I am who I am." God always was, always is, and always will be. God has no beginning or ending. God simply is. He is eternal.

To make the point, the songwriter says, verse 4, "For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night." Now, that verse is not some cipher for decoding the Book of Revelation; it's simply a metaphor, a feeble attempt with human words to explain that God is not affected by the passing of time. He's never late. He's never in a rush. He's never tired.

The second thing he sees is the frailty of man, the brevity of human life. "You turn men back to dust," he sings, reminding us that these bodies that we work so hard to take care of, to keep healthy, to make more attractive, will one day return to the Earth and be turned to dust. We're like people living on a flood plain, verse 5 tells us, when the waters rise we're swept away while sleeping in our beds. We're like grass, the song goes on, springing up bright and green after a midsummer night's rain, only to wither and die under the afternoon sun.

Five for Fighting isn't the first rock band to echo the thoughts of Psalm 90. Some years ago, the group Kansas sang a song called "Dust in the Wind." The words go: "I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone. All we do crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see. It slips away, and all your money won't another minute buy. Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind." A few years ago we listened to yet another song about time, this one by Hootie and the Blowfish: "Time, why you punish me? Like a wave crashing into the shore, you wash away my dreams … . Time is wasting, time is walking; time, you ain't no friend of mine."

So how do we resolve this tension between the eternality of God and the frailty of human life?

We sense that we were made for something more than this life. God has set eternity in our hearts. We want to do something that will last. Yet time so quickly catches up with us, and most of what we accomplish in this life turns to dust along with these bodies we inhabit. The castles we spend our lives building get washed away when the tidal wave called time washes over us.

How can we make sure our lives will count, not only in this life, but beyond?
The answer, says the songwriter, is to number our days—to count them, to value them. Verse 12 is the turning point in the psalm, where the song shifts from lament to hope. "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Everybody counts something. Wise people count the things that really matter.

We all go through life counting things that we think will make us happy, or significant. We measure our happiness or significance by the numbers that mean something to us. When I was a little girl, I counted paper dolls. All my friends did. We'd trade them and save up our allowance to buy more. I was happy. I was cool.

I don't know what kids count today—video game scores, or the number of A's on their report card, or the wins and losses of their team. Teenagers count the number of friends they have, the number of colleges they get into. College students count grade points and credit hours—at least I hope some of them do. Others count how many beers they can drink in a night, which somehow proves their manhood. Adults measure their happiness and success by the number of bedrooms in their house, the cars in the garage, the degrees they have, their golf score, or the yield on their investments.

Psalm 90 warns us not to go through life counting the wrong things. If you want your life to count for something, number your days. Count the days and hours and minutes; value them, make the most of them, and measure your life by what you do with them.

It seems to me that three things happen when we number our days.

First, when we number our days, we realize how few of them we really have. Most people live like they have an unlimited number of days. We expect to live long lives, and figure we have so many days we can't even count them all. But the songwriter reminds us that we have a limited number of days—70 or 80 years by his reckoning. That may sound like a lot, especially when you're only 15. But when you do the math, when you actually number the days, you find out you have something like 29,200 days if you live to be 80.

Psalm 90, like the other songs mentioned above, remind us that sooner or later, we're all going to die. And most of the time, it comes sooner than we'd like. We don't like to face that reality, but until we do, we'll never know how to make our lives count. One commentator paraphrases verse 12 this way: "Teach us to remember that we must die, in order that we might know how to live."

Second, when we number our days: we spend them more wisely.
I came across a survey from some years ago of how typical Americans spend their time. The average American adult spends about seven-and-a-half hours a day sleeping, three-and-a-half hours a day working, two hours a day watching TV, one-and-a-half hours doing housework, one hour eating, half-an-hour on recreation, half-an-hour washing and grooming, and about nine minutes thinking. That study was done about ten years ago, before the Internet and video games had become so popular, so who knows what it would reveal now. It's not unusual for a kid to spend seven, eight, or even twenty-four hours straight playing a video game. And who can count how many hours adults and teenagers spend blogging, texting or communicating via Facebook?

In that survey mentioned above, the number of minutes per day on average spent in worship or service to others was so insignificant it didn't even show up in the survey!

Most people make one of two mistakes when it comes to time. Some people, younger people especially, think they have so much time they can afford to waste some. They think they'll get to the important things later when they're done with school, when the kids are older, or when things aren't so busy at work. But then they run out of time before they get to those things. Other people think they have too little time, that they can't possibly do something significant for others or for God, so they don't even try. The thing about time, unlike money, is that we all have the very same amount to work with—24 hours a day. And we all have just enough time for the things that God would have us to do.

Third, when you number your days, you're able to offer them to God and ask him to bless them. When we spend our days without really thinking about them, we miss the opportunity to ask God's blessing on them, to consider his purposes for that hour or day or year. But when we number our days, then one by one we are able to offer them up to God, and seek his direction and blessing. And when we do that, when we offer our days to God one by one, then our days begin to add up to something, something that will stand for eternity.

The psalm ends on an upbeat note. Having faced the reality of death, and having accurately reckoned the number of days and determined to spend them wisely, the songwriter invites God's blessing on the days to come. Verse 14: "Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many days as we have seen trouble."



PSALM 90
Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.

ONLY ONE LIFE....IT WILL SOON BE PAST.
ONLY WHAT'S DONE FOR CHRIST WILL LAST.