“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on Your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with Your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” (Psalm 90:12-14 ESV)

If someone asks if you are looking forward to a planned event, you might respond, “I’m counting the days!” We count the days until a summer vacation or until we welcome family members for a long-anticipated visit. Children happily number the days until their birthdays, although adults counting down to a birthday may not be quite so excited about it. We pray that the Lord would teach us to number our days in such a way that we will grow in wisdom with the counting. In Psalm 111:10a we are told, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (ESV) The wisdom we need to learn is not based on what we have done, but on what the Lord has done for us.

Our counting begins before we had any days to number, before we had any birthdays, before there were any days at all. God chose us in Christ to be His own “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4b ESV). For the sake of our salvation, the eternal Son of God allowed His days to be numbered as He was born and lived among us. As the hour of His death approached, Jesus was betrayed, arrested, and condemned. He suffered the penalty of death that we deserved for the sin that fills our days. Then, in what was surely the most wonderful numbering of days ever done, on the third day after His death, Jesus rose to life, victorious over sin, death, and Satan! Through faith in Jesus, we have forgiveness without limit and the gift of eternal life in His presence, where there will be no days to be numbered.

Before we could number our days, God already had them counted. He knew your first day and He knows your last day: “In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16b ESV). Through all of our days, every hour, every minute, we are in our Lord’s care. As the days progress, we “get a heart of wisdom” as the Spirit teaches us through the Word. The wisdom we seek is not worldly wisdom, but godly wisdom, “the wisdom from above” that is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” (James 3:17 ESV). On each birthday and every day in between, with our new-found wisdom we pray for the one gift we want and need above all others, the gift that is ours through faith in Christ: “Satisfy us in the morning with Your steadfast love.”

Prayer: Lord, help me by Your Spirit and Your Word to grow in wisdom throughout the days You give to me. Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Carol Geisler.
Used by permission from International Lutheran Laymen’s League, all rights reserved” on your website. 

Reflection Questions:
1. What’s the last thing you really looked forward to doing?
2. How is there wisdom in numbering your days?
3. Do you keep a journal of your thoughts? If so, have you discovered any insights about yourself?