A Meditation on Psalm 90
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” ~ A portion of Psalm 90
No one needs more of my advice, but I will give you all some anyway. Do not commit to maintaining a grass lawn in Phoenix. Between the cost and the waste of what precious little water we have in our desert city, the futile struggle to keep what is basically a bunch of decorative weeds alive in a Phoenix summer has led me to a place where I say, “never again!” to a grassy lawn. The Psalm appointed for the Eucharist this Sunday is Psalm 90, which uses the image of withered grass to describe the condition of humanity in relation to God: “they are like the grass, which in the morning is green, but in the evening is dried up and withered.” The familiar image of dried up grass signifies the mortality of humanity, a theme continued in the Psalm. “The days of our life are seventy years, and though some be so strong that they come to eighty years, yet is their span but labor and sorrow; so soon it passes away, and we are gone.” The great hymn, Immortal, Invisible, God only wise, puts it this way “we blossom and flourish like leaves on the tree, and wither and perish, but naught changeth thee.” For the Psalmist, this reflection on the brief lives of human beings in relation to the eternal changelessness of God is not meant to discourage or put-down, but to sharpen and refine those who follow after the God of Israel. Lord, “teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” In other words, this recognition of our short lifespan relative to the life of God is to lead us to seek lives of wisdom, and that we should do so sooner rather than later.
Holy Scripture says a great deal about wisdom in many places, some of which can even appear to exist in tension with one another. But all of what Scripture has to say about wisdom is encapsulated in the cross, and this wisdom of the cross is starkly opposed to that of the world. As St. Paul says in his letter to the church in Corinth, “when I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” As learned in the skills of oration and the philosophies of his day as Paul was, he did not rely on them when he first ministered to the Corinthian church, instead, preaching the cross of Christ, wisdom that no human would dare to craft or wield apart from the inspiration and power of God.
Returning to the theme of Psalm 90, we can say that this wisdom of God most visible on the cross is where we direct our hearts, in recognition of the short span of our lives and the infinite span of God’s own life. What a strange and profound thought it is that the wisdom of the infinite one is known, not only in His own willingness to enter into our finitude to save us but in dying a humiliating death on our own behalf. May God shape our hearts in light of such wisdom.
Fr. Matt