Teach Us How To Number Our Days

As we come to the end of another year, Scripture calls us to something deeper than nostalgia, resolutions, or self-evaluation. In Psalm 90—the oldest psalm in the Psalter—Moses leads God’s people in a sober prayer that confronts the realities we often try to avoid: God’s eternality, man’s frailty, the seriousness of sin, and the brevity of life.

This psalm was written in the wilderness, in the shadow of death, by a man who watched an entire generation pass away while waiting on the promises of God. Rather than asking for longer life, easier circumstances, or clearer answers, Moses prays for something far more necessary: wisdom. “So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

In this sermon, we will walk through the entirety of Psalm 90, allowing the text to shape how we think about time, mortality, and faithfulness before a holy God. We will see that our days are not merely short, but numbered under God’s sovereign authority—and that true wisdom is not found in productivity or control, but in fearing the Lord and living rightly before Him.

Ultimately, Psalm 90 leads us beyond ourselves to Christ, the eternal Son who entered our frailty, bore God’s righteous wrath against sin, and redeemed our numbered days. This is a sermon of sober reflection, gospel hope, and prayerful dependence—calling us not to manage time better, but to live wisely before God in the time He has given.