Sermon Audio: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ministrybymail

A Prayer of Moses the man of God.

LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. ² Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. ³ You turn man to destruction, And say, “Return, O children of men.” ⁴ For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night. ⁵ You carry them away like a flood; They are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up: ⁶ In the morning it flourishes and grows up; In the evening it is cut down and withers. ⁷ For we have been consumed by Your anger, And by Your wrath we are terrified. ⁸ You have set our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. ⁹ For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; We finish our years like a sigh. ¹⁰ The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. ¹¹ Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath. ¹² So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom. ¹³ Return, O LORD! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. ¹⁴ Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days! ¹⁵ Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, The years in which we have seen evil. ¹⁶ Let Your work appear to Your servants, And Your glory to their children. ¹⁷ And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands.

One of the greatest gifts that God has given to mankind to use on earth is time. Even the world around us understands the importance and value of time. Think of how many popular proverbs deal with the importance of time: “Time is money;” “Time heals all wounds;” “Time is of the essence,” etc. We as Christians should place an even greater value on God’s gift of time than the unbelieving world. Our perspective of time should always include the thought that our lives and the lives of all people on earth are what we call “a time of grace”—a limited-time opportunity that God gives every person to hear His Word, to repent of their sins, to believe in His Son Jesus for Salvation, and to spread that Good News to others. God hasn’t told any of us how much of this gift of time we have been given, and He gives more time to some on this earth than others, but He always wants that gift of time to be used for the increase and strengthening of His kingdom.

Why is it then that it seems like oftentimes the one thing that we are really good at—the one thing that we truly excel at and have “mastered”—is the ability to waste time? We can do it with just about anything that’s set in front of us in almost any situation. As a society we have perfected the art of wasting time and employing many otherwise useful tools to serve our time-wasting purposes.

Think of some of the greatest time-wasting devices in our world today: Aren’t they also some of our most influential and powerful tools? Take the television, for example. I believe that the TV—undoubtedly a very powerful and useful tool—has become the all-time greatest time-wasting device ever developed. In one class I took during my freshman year at a college in Michigan we had to assess how much TV we watched on average each day. I was astounded and appalled by some of the answers I heard and couldn’t believe how much time these people wasted in front of the “tube” each day! Nearly everyone in the class admitted to watching an enormous amount of TV each day—almost as much as they slept! I remember thinking to myself that day in my naïve 18 year-old mind, “I’d never waste that much time in front of the TV.” Well, the next year my parents finally got cable TV! And while I may never have gone through consistent stretches where I’ve watched TV more than I’ve slept, I must admit that the electronic box that sits in my living room—that can’t do a thing unless I turn it on—has taken up far too much of my time of grace. How about you? If you had to honestly assess the amount of time you’ve spent in front of the TV, would you be appalled at the amount of time you’ve wasted? And that’s not even considering how much of what we watch is not “quality” programming, but rather is filling our minds with garbage.

Let’s consider another example: How about the Internet? The Internet may have overtaken the TV in recent years when it comes to tools that we use for time-wasting—if not yet, it’s a close second and gaining by leaps and bounds as time goes on. Hours and hours can magically disappear in front of our computer monitor while we check email, check the weather, check our Facebook, post on Instagram & Twitter, check the stock market, check the sports scores and news, surf the web, check email again, check our Facebook again, surf the web some more, and so on. Yes, it is a very powerful and useful tool, and much of our time spent on it is productive work and good for keeping in touch with others, but it can also help us waste time better than nearly anything else in our world today.

Time wasting is not all technology’s fault either. We can waste time doing just about anything with just about anything—even with nothing. Busywork around the house or with countless projects and hobbies can easily turn into time consuming obsessions that rob us of God’s precious gift of time. Books, magazines, and newspapers although very healthy and educational in the proper amount can also help us waste away our precious days and hours. Let’s not forget just plain old-fashioned laziness. All we need is a semi-comfortable place to lie down or recline and we can shut our eyes and make the hours disappear with incredible speed and ease. Maybe I haven’t touched on your particular weakness when it comes to time wasting, and perhaps you’re feeling a bit more comfortable with yourself than the rest of us. Well, the fact is we all have been guilty of wasting God’s gift of time many times. We like Moses in our text need to ask the Lord to “teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom” (v. 12). In other words we need to ask the Lord to help us in this New Year’s resolution to not waste time.

Let me ask all of you one question before I continue: How many of you can remember what “New Year’s Resolutions” you made last year? It’s hard to remember the resolutions we make by the time February rolls around, much less remember them a full year later, right? Why should we think this one will last any longer or be any more effective than any of the other resolutions we’ve made in the past? Well, for one thing, this “resolution” is not like any of our usual resolutions to lose weight, get in shape, or save more money. This resolution is made knowing that we are fully dependent on God’s help to carry it out in our lives. It is actually a New Year’s prayer, rather than a New Year’s Resolution. It looks to God, just like this psalm that is our sermon text. Its very first line tells us that it is “A prayer of Moses the man of God” (v. 1). Moses’ prayer is our prayer this New Year’s Eve and we can be confident that God will “teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom” (v. 12) in the coming New Year.

We can be confident for at least five reasons, which we find in this Psalm. We can be confident because this New Year’s “resolution:”

1) Relies on God and His eternal steadfastness

“LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (v. 1-2)

2) Realizes our weakness and temporary-ness compared to God

“You turn man to destruction, And say, “Return, O children of men.” For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night” (v. 3-4).

3) Looks to God for guidance and wisdom to use His great gift of time

“So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom” (v. 12).

4) Looks to God’s mercy and forgiveness for our sins—including forgiveness for all the time we have wasted in the past

“Return, O LORD! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days!” (v. 13-14).

Finally, we can be confident because this New Year’s “resolution:”

5) Looks to see God’s work and His hand in all that He has allowed to come our way and prays for His blessing on all that we will do this coming year and always

“Let Your work appear to Your servants, And Your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands” (v. 16-17).

Don’t waste time in the coming New Year, “redeem the time” as the Apostle Paul said in our Scripture reading from Ephesians. “Make the most of your time” [Literally: “redeeming the time.], he says, “because the days are evil. For this reason, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:16-17 EHV). Doing the will of the Lord now, while we have been given the time shows a heart that is truly wise.

This doesn’t mean that we can’t ever take time to relax, or enjoy some free time or recreation. Our bodies and minds need rest daily, as a matter of fact! Even Jesus took some time to rest and “get away.” But He never wasted time. Jesus knew how to “number His days.” He once told His disciples, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4). “While it is day” we can find ways to serve and please the Lord, even in our “free time” and recreation: Sharing in joy and love during our get togethers with our fellow believers; being a Christian example to those around us by our words and actions in whatever we are doing.

Or how about this “radical” idea: How about actually thinking about using some of our “free time” specifically for serving the Lord’s kingdom? What if we watched one less sitcom and instead used that time to read a devotion, or a section from our Bible? What if instead of watching an entire sporting event, we just watch half of it and spend the rest of the time in Bible study and prayer? What if instead of always thinking about our “free time” as “time to ourselves,” we began to view that time as a gift from God and decided instead to share some of it with others in need? What if this year we consciously and purposely set aside time for prayer, for Bible study, for sharing Jesus with those who may not know Him yet, and for simply finding more ways to serve Jesus by serving others? Can you imagine how greatly the Lord could “establish the work of our hands for us” (v. 17) if we used our time like the precious gift from Him that it is?

The “night,” that Jesus spoke of, will one day come for all of us. That is the one thing we can all be sure of: One day the number of our days will come to an end. True wisdom then is not only “numbering our days” and making the best use of the gift of time that God has given us, but also means being prepared for death at all times, since we don’t know when that day is going to be. It’s estimated that over 150,000 people die each day worldwide. Do you think that the people who died, or will die, today woke up this morning thinking that this would be their last day of life on this earth? I would bet that a vast majority of them didn’t. True preparation for death means having the “wisdom of salvation—faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15).

Our Savior is the one who truly “prepared” us for death by defeating death and sin on the cross and empowering us to a new life filled with the desire to serve Him. By His resurrection from the grave, He has guaranteed us that our new life in Him will never end, even after we leave this world. While we are still here our “resolution” for this New Year, and always, needs to be the prayer that Moses prayed in the last verses of our Psalm: “So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom. Return, O LORD! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days! … Let Your work appear to Your servants, And Your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands” (v. 12-14,16-17). Amen.

—Pastor Luke Bernthal

Messiah Lutheran Church
Hales Corners, WI

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