Psalm 90: The Number of Our Days

All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan.
The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. -Ps. 90:9-12 NIV

As I watch my ninety-four year old mother struggle with the end of her life, I am reminded of how fleeting and fragile are the years we have been granted.  I have seen many lives of promise cut short before all their dreams and all they could have accomplished came to fruition.  I have seen just as many outlive the promise to become trapped in bodies or minds that no longer function.  What is the sense in all of this?  Would it be better if we were all allotted the same number of years?  Would we all leave nothing undone if we knew exactly how much time we have?  Or would some of us still fritter away the days while those with more ambition burned the candle at both ends?

In any case, the number of our days is in God's hands.  All of us will end our days with a moan.  Either the moan of one dying too soon or the moan of one who's life is slowly draining away.  We all reach the same fate.  The difference lies in  how we number our days.  We have no choice as to how long our lives will be, our only choice is whether we fill them with vanity or productivity.