Psalm 90:12 Meaning — Teach Us to Number Our Days

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Psalm 90, attributed to Moses, is a sober meditation on how short life is — and this verse turns that sobering truth into a prayer.

To number our days is to live with the honest awareness that they are limited. Far from being morbid, this awareness is clarifying: people who know their time is finite tend to spend it on what matters. A day counted is a day less likely to be wasted.

The goal is to apply our hearts unto wisdom. Recognising life's brevity is not meant to make us anxious but wise — to loosen our grip on trivial things and tighten it on God, people, and eternity. Ask God to teach you this arithmetic; it changes how you live.