Number your days

I am not writing the post I had intended to write.  

I have just come from seeing a friend in hospital whose entire life has changed in the space of a day. 

My eyes are burning from the tears.

On Sunday I preached a sermon that I want to now share in part with you. 

Do you know how many days you have left? 

Great question I know.  There was a nervous ripple of laughter when I asked the question on Sunday morning.  It was not that I wanted to make anyone uncomfortable and I am not wanting to make you uncomfortable. 

I preached from Psalm 90, a lament sung out to God in response to trauma and bad decisions made generations before.  It is so beautiful and so raw.

Bear with me.

 God, the Eternal

90 A prayer of Moses, God’s prophet

1 Lord, you have always been our eternal home,

    our hiding place from generation to generation.

2 Long before you gave birth to the earth

    and before the mountains were born,

    you have been from everlasting to everlasting,

    the one and only true God.

3 When you speak the words “Life, return to me!”

    man turns back to dust.

4 One thousand years pass before your eyes

    like yesterday that quickly faded away,

    like a night’s sleep soon forgotten.

5–6 One day we will each be swept away into the sleep of death.

    We glide along through the tides of time—

    so quickly gone, like a dream that fades at dawn.

    Like glistening grass that springs up one day

    and is dry and withered the next, ready to be cut down!

7 Terrified by your anger, confined beneath the curse,

    we live our lives knowing your wrath.

8 For all of our faults and flaws are in full view to you.

    Everything we want to hide, you search out

    and expose by the radiance of your face.

9 We are banished to live in the shadow of your anger.

    Our days soon become years until our lifetime comes to an end,

    finished with nothing but a sigh.

10 You’ve limited our life span to a mere seventy years,

    yet some you give grace to live still longer.

    But even the best of years are marred by tears and toils,

    and in the end with nothing more than a gravestone in a graveyard!

    We’re gone so quickly, so swiftly;

    we pass away and simply disappear.

11 Lord, who fully knows the power of your passion

    and the intensity of your emotions?

12 Help us to remember that our days are numbered,

    and help us to interpret our lives correctly.

    Set your wisdom deeply in our hearts

    so that we may accept your correction.

13 Return to us again, O God!

    How much longer will it take until you show us

    your abundant compassion?

14 Let the sunrise of your love end our dark night.

    Break through our clouded dawn again!

    Only you can satisfy our hearts,

    filling us with songs of joy to the end of our days.

15 We’ve been overwhelmed with grief;

    come now and overwhelm us with gladness.

    Replace our years of trouble with decades of delight.

16 Let us see your miracles again, and let the rising generation

    see the glorious wonders you’re famous for.

17 O Lord our God, let your sweet beauty rest upon us

    and give us favor.

    Come work with us, and then our works will endure,

    and give us success in all we do.

(From The Passion Translation)

I realise reading though this Psalm, you may feel far from encouraged.  I wasn’t the first few time I read it, until the motivation shone through. 

Psalm 90:12

“Help us to remember that our days are numbered,

    and help us to interpret our lives correctly.

    Set your wisdom deeply in our hearts”

“Numbered” here come from the root word mawnaw which means to weigh out, allot, constitute officially, also to enumerate or enroll, appoint, count, prepare, set, tell.

In laymen’s terms it means something like this, you don’t have the time to not take it seriously, your life, I mean.  It means live each day to full.  It means each moment of your day is an opportunity to truly live, not just survive. 

I listened to a really great sermon today, it was the beginning of a series by Erwin Macmanus, entitled Chasing Daylight.  The thing I took from it, the thing that really has stuck with me is that we have this free gift of choice. 

Let me ask you again, and I do it with much love, how many days do you have left?

Do you have the time to hold on to your bitterness and unforgiveness? Do have the days to hold out on sharing love? 

What is living joyful, abounding in love really going to cost you? 

This is my heart for you and my heart for myself. 

Live, live well. 

Live rich, colorful, big, beautiful lives, filled with laughter and people and food and love.  There will be loss, but loss won’t destroy, it will add layers and details.

You are on my heart

Philippa