Covenant Relationships

Heart of Wisdom
In Psalm 90, Moshe HaNavi (Moses the Prophet) sings
a psalm unto YHWH, his Creator.
Tehillim (Psalms) 90:10-12
10 The days of our lives are seventy
years; but 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.
Moshe’s prayer was that YHWH would teach us to
number our days, so we might gain a heart of wisdom.
But what did Moshe mean by this? How will numbering
our days lead us to gain a heart of wisdom?
Let us go ahead and number our days, so we can find
out what Moshe meant. Perhaps as a result of
numbering our days, we too shall gain this heart of
wisdom. But how should we number our days?
Let us begin by counting how many we have.
Thirty Thousand Days
19
Moshe’s song tells us that the average Israelite will live
to be approximately seventy years old. However, if we
are strong, we may live to be eighty.
20
10 The days of our lives are seventy
years; but 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.
While there are 365 days in the western Roman
(Gregorian) calendar, there are only 360 days in the
Hebrew calendar year. However, in order to adjust
itself to the start of the agricultural growing season in
Israel, the Hebrew calendar adds leap months every so
often. That being the case, over millennia, the average
year works out to about 365.25 days; let us use that
number here.
If we should live for 70 years (verse 10), then at 365.25
days per year, most of us will live approximately 25,568
days.
70 x 365.25 = 25,568
Let us round this number up to 26,000.
If we should live to be 80 years old (by reason of
strength), then we will live approximately 29,200 days.
80 x 365.25 = 29,200
Let us round this number up to 30,000.
According to Scripture, then, most of us will live a
lifespan of not more than about thirty thousand days.
Our personal (individual) life span may average a little