Daily Devotion – October 5, 2021 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
Psalm 90:12-17
90:12 So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.
90:13 Turn, O LORD! How long? Have compassion on your servants!
90:14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
90:15 Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil.
90:16 Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
90:17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands– O prosper the work of our hands!
This is a psalm that prays for perspective.
We need this psalm when we have the blues and feel defeated. We hope that the Lord will bring us at least as many blessings as we have woes. But when in the midst of woe, it is sometimes hard to remember the good times or imagine that there will be any more of them.
So teach us, Lord, to count our days (calculate our life’s experience) so that we may gain a wise heart.
To be fair, the writer is also asking God to turn the tide now so that there isn’t so long to wait for the good times. But especially, at the end of these verses, the writer asks the Lord to prosper the work of his/her hands. Why is that so important? Because even in the gloomy times, if we know that our work can outlive us, if we know that we’ve made a contribution to the world, we can shoulder through the fight with more confidence and energy.
This psalm also reminds us that in fact there will be challenging times, and that, in the end, all times, both good and bad, will pass. Just knowing that is the beginning of wisdom. If we suffer both the highs and the lows of life with wisdom, we can make it through anything and encourage others as we do so.
Teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.  A verse to recite every day.
Gracious God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for being with us every day as we live in both good times and bad times. Teach us to be wise about our time, and wise about how we spend our lives, honoring both the good and bad for what comes out of them. Amen.
