“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
My Notes
What Does Psalms 90:12 Mean?
"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Moses prays for the most counter-cultural gift: the awareness of mortality. Teach us to COUNT our days — to realize they're finite, to assign each one a number, to live with the consciousness that the supply is limited. The numbering produces the wisdom. The mortality-awareness produces the heart-application.
The phrase "number our days" (limnot yamenu — to count our days) means to reckon each day as a unit in a finite sequence: day 1, day 2, day 12,847... the counting forces awareness. You can't count something without recognizing its limits. The days have a number. The number has an end. The prayer asks God to make that end REAL in our consciousness.
The result — "apply our hearts unto wisdom" (navi levav chokmah — bring/cause to come a heart of wisdom) — means the numbering PRODUCES the wisdom: the awareness of mortality doesn't produce despair. It produces wisdom. The person who knows their days are numbered lives differently than the person who assumes they're infinite. The finite heart is the wise heart.
Reflection Questions
- 1.If you knew the actual number of days remaining, what would you do differently today?
- 2.How does numbering your days produce wisdom rather than despair?
- 3.What decisions would change if you lived with daily awareness of your mortality?
- 4.Why does Moses pray 'teach US' — and what would a community that numbers its days look like?
Devotional
Teach us to count. Number our days. Make us aware that the supply is limited. Moses' prayer is the most counter-cultural request in Scripture: make us feel our mortality. In a world that does everything possible to forget death, Moses asks God to make death REAL in our daily consciousness.
The 'number our days' means each day gets a number — and the numbers run out. Day 1. Day 5,000. Day 27,375. There IS a last number. There IS a final day. The prayer asks God to make that mathematical reality FELT — not just known intellectually but experienced viscerally. The person who numbers their days lives differently than the person who assumes the days are infinite.
The 'apply our hearts unto wisdom' is the result, not the method: the numbering PRODUCES the wisdom. The awareness of finitude IS the path to wisdom. You don't become wise and then start numbering your days. You start numbering your days and wisdom arrives. The mortality-awareness creates the conditions for wisdom the way soil creates the conditions for a seed.
The prayer is 'teach US' — not just teach me. The awareness of mortality needs to be communal: a community that numbers its days together makes different decisions than a community in denial about death. The collective awareness shapes collective priorities. The congregation that knows its days are numbered builds different things than the one that assumes it has forever.
How many days have you lived — and how many might you have left? Does the number change how you spend today?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
So teach us to number our days,.... Not merely to count them, how many they are, in an arithmetical way; there is no…
So teach us to number our days - literally, “To number our days make us know, and we will bring a heart of wisdom.” The…
These are the petitions of this prayer, grounded upon the foregoing meditations and acknowledgments. Is any afflicted?…
So teachus] Sothen, as Thy fear (Psa 90:90) which is "the beginning of wisdom" requires, makeus knowhow &c.: give us…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture