March 29, 2014

Blood everywhere!—where’s grace?

It's kind of gross, really--we're not on the farm, but in the beautifully outfitted tabernacle, with the priests in their robes woven of scarlet and blue and purple linen ornamented with precious gems and twisted cords of gold... It's a beautiful setting. The furnishings are overlaid with pure gold. The altar with bronze. Skillfully embroidered curtains hang on silver hooks all around... But what's that smell?!

Burning on the altar are the fat, the kidneys and the liver of the bull that's been killed for the priests' consecration. The rest will be burned outside the camp. It's a sin offering. Up next is the ram. Its blood will be spattered on the altar and its whole body burned there. It is a burnt offering to the Lord. He is pleased with the smell.

There's blood everywhere. A second ram has been killed. Its blood is spattered on the priest's clothes and pools at the base of the altar. Aaron and his sons wear this blood on their right ears, right thumbs and right big toes. It marks them as God's priests. It sets them aside as holy to the Lord. This ram has been killed in their place. They will boil it and eat it.

The sacrificial requirements for the consecration of the priests are all quite detailed, all quite bloody, and all quite pleasing to the Lord. And I get this uncomfortable feeling as I read (Ex.29) that this God is so 'other', so different from the One I think I know...

I flip to Numbers and read about the cleansing of the Levites. This is the tribe set apart to serve in the Tabernacle. They own no share of land but are themselves the Lord's possession in exchange for all the firstborn Israelite children. Ever since the death angel passed over the houses with blood on the doorposts, God has claimed the firstborn of man and beast for Himself. The Levite tribe represents them and will serve in the tabernacle making atonement for the sins of the people 'that there may be no plague among [them]' Num.8:19

It all sounds so stern, so foreboding, so...serious. And then comes the institution of the Passover feast (Numbers 9) It is the first month of the second year since they were liberated from Egypt. In each home a lamb will be slaughtered, its blood spilt as a reminder of the night the death angel passed over their homes in Egypt resulting in their rescue from bondage. They must never forget how God spared their lives that night: "When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you" (Ex.12:13) They must remember how He freed them from bondage to serve Him. It cost the death of many lambs.

The system of animal sacrifice that God established disturbs our modern sensibilities. In our day animals have rights to long and happy lives, babies don't, and 'sin' is nearly obsolete. We sense its reality when our own perceived rights are violated, but seldom spot it in ourselves, and certainly not as something necessitating or ending in death. Even as Christians we tend to define sin in terms that describe somebody else's behavior. We prefer not to think of it at all except perhaps as something forgiven and forgotten. Over and done with. We are after all forgiven, and that's that, right? The Old Testament is... well, it's old, obsolete.

To refer to oneself as 'just a sinner saved by grace' is strictly taboo in some circles. We are saints now. Sin is past tense.

Meanwhile sin wreaks havoc all around us. It spreads like a cancer even in the Church. No lambs are slaughtered in our sanctuaries and we seem to have forgotten the cost of sin. The fear of God is little known. We prefer to think warm fuzzy thoughts about how special we are to Him. We have misconstrued grace to mean we are ok because we are loved.

God loves me? Oh, so do I! Great, everything's good.

Into this kind of fuzzy thinking Old Testament teaching comes as a sharp jolt. What kind of God is this who requires perpetual blood sacrifices and demands the death sentence for rebellious children and adulterous women... How is this loving? Where's grace? We look at the Law and fail to see it for what it is--both a manual containing our design specifications and a set of warning lights to show us when we've exceeded them.

For the last couple weeks I've been immersed in the study of grace, stuck there trying to perceive the connection between a grace-filled life and a holy life. You'd think one were at odds with the other based on the way 'grace' is lived out in the modern church scene! But the Bible describes a grace-based life that leads us always to a holy life as described by the law.

The initial passage that arrested my attention was this:

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." (Titus 2:11-12)

Hmm... Grace teaches us to live righteously. There it is. How is that?

I've done more reading and thinking than I can pack into a read-able blog post. But what is the 'take-away'? My study started with a question posed in a small group setting: "Do we really need more teaching on grace?" Isn't that part of the problem? I mean, we're saved by grace, true enough. We (think we) get that. But surely we need to move on, to grow up, to learn to be holy and not always default to 'grace'. And what value is teaching on grace if we don't recognize that we are sinners?

That set my wheels churning. Are the grace-resistant sticklers for 'holiness' right? Are we designed to move on from grace and learn to tackle sin some other way? Does teaching on the grace of God prevent people seeing sin for what it is?

Long study short, I don't see this disconnect in Scripture. (Cf. I Pet.1:15-19  Luke 6:46  II Pet.1:9 ) Grace births us into lives of holiness, when rightly apprehended. The problem seems to be with our understanding of grace and our misunderstanding of what the law is for. The law was never intended to make us righteous, but neither has it become outmoded.

As a standard of righteousness it is truly an expression of God's love for us; it shows us something is terribly wrong about us that requires a blood sacrifice to be made to buy our pardon. It is good, but it cannot save us. Try as we may, we will always fall short. This is part of the definition of sin, that which falls short of God's glory!

This is where all that blood comes in. Blood everywhere. Blood sacrifices day after day, year after year to remind God's people of the gravity of sin, the destruction it causes, the death it entails. It's so messy. Blood is, and sin is. Yes, this is the Old Covenant, based on law and blood sacrifices for failing to keep it. But without going back here to read Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers we miss the immensity of our sin problem, the terrifying holiness of our God and the significance of Jesus death on our behalf.

John the Baptist declared:

"Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world". Jn.1:29

With the imagery of the Tabernacle in mind, this makes perfect sense. Every lamb slaughtered foreshadowed this ultimate solution to sin. The grace we live in and lounge in and tend to take for granted, was bought with BLOOD.

“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” Heb.9:22   It is good to be reminded. This is what the Passover observance was for. We no longer need look back to the worth of a bleating sheep in deterring the death angel. We look back to God's Lamb who 'by means of his own blood secur(ed) an eternal redemption.' Heb.9:21

This do in remembrance of Me Lk.22:19

Every time we pick up the little cube of bread or the chip of matzah cracker, and every time we sip a few drops from a 'Communion' cup... we are remembering Jesus' broken body and spilled blood, for us, until He comes again to complete this saving work He has begun. It's not over!

Our redemption's been purchased; we're brought near to God. But this grace in which we now stand is for a purpose. We're not meant to stay in subjection to sin, anymore than the Israelites were left helpless slaves in Egypt! The blood has bought us newness of life--the Lamb's life. In Him we live, by grace, for God's glory.

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. I Cor.6:20

And when we fail, when we return to the sin that promises freedom but always enslaves leaving us vulnerable to condemnation...there is the BLOOD of Jesus to lay claim to. Because of it we can simply confess our sins and our slate is washed clean.(I Jn.1:9) It's the Lamb’s blood; it's grace that acquits us of guilt and restores us to fellowship with the Father of lights. The Accuser cannot defend his case when we lay claim to Jesus' blood as our claim to righteousness. This is the grace of God in which we humbly stand. 

It is not grace to sin—how is that freedom? Sin enslaves. But it is grace to stand in blood-bought freedom from sin’s clawing grasp. And it is good. We stand ears, thumbs and toes tipped with blood, priests made holy for God's service. We stand freed from the law's condemnation, but ironically, now fulfilling its decrees from the heart as the risen Lamb lives His life through us.

Grace has brought us to this place and will enable us to live lives befitting saints in the midst of an increasingly corrupt world. The world would squeeze us into its mold were it not for God's grace as ministered to us through His indwelling Spirit. And that is a glimmering of what I see of grace in Scripture. It is inseparable from Blood.

Grace is not merely a necessity to clear the guilt of the moral slacker…It is not something we outgrow as we become more proficient saints. (II Pet.3:18) It is not a painless ticket to glory... It is a hard-won, blood-bought provision of God for the one who finds himself a hopeless sinner with no lamb good enough to bring.

"Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world..."

Behold "the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (I Pet.19) The Lamb has been given; it is ours to lay claim to in humble faith, whether we be sinners far from God, or sinners who have been brought near. We all need the Lamb. We all need grace. We all need blood everywhere. 

Amen?

--LS

You have come to... Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Heb.12:24

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. Heb.9:11-12

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Heb.9:13-14

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works... Heb.10:19-24

March 21, 2014

Has God got you Cornered?

 

The enemy was coming. They could see his chariots glinting in the sun. The thunder of horses' hooves made the ground shake beneath their feet. Terror rose in their throats. We're gonna' die; it would have been better to stay in Egypt, slaving, but alive.

This is actually what the people said. Poor Moses. Poor God! This must have pierced his heart. With his mighty arm He'd whisked them from under the enemy's nose and was in the process of leading them to their new home...like a gallant Prince.

Only there was this detour. It wasn't a comfortable one, but then it wasn't for their sakes that He'd turned them around and maneuvered them into this sticky position, between a rock and the sea. Somehow the Egyptians had caught wind of it and Pharaoh decided to go get his slave force back! It should have been easy; they were cornered in the desert. No way out, but for God.

After all that Pharaoh had already seen of plagues and death wreaked by this God, you'd think he would have known better than to mess with God's people. But this was as God had planned it. He'd led his people into this awkward position to tantalize the enemy to oppose Him one more time so that one more time He could show himself strong and 'get glory over Pharaoh and all his host' so the Egyptians would know beyond a doubt that 'I am the Lord.'  (Ex.14:4)

It's a story worth considering if you find yourself in a tight spot through no fault of your own. God may have you cornered for purposes that go far beyond you to the praise of His glory.

So what are you to do?

First, what NOT to do...

By way of negative example, from Exodus 14, written no doubt for our benefit:

1) 'they feared greatly' As long as we're focused on the terror this will be our lot. Had they paused to consider that God had led them to this place... and that God had gone to great lengths to free them from their enemy prior to this...they might have had a different response.

2) 'they cried out to the Lord' This would have been a good idea, if they had gotten past the initial panicked AAAAaaaaa!!!! to a prayer powered by faith. Instead, they turned on Moses...

3) they blamed their hero for all their troubles, completely disregarding the fact that he was in this mess for their sakes. And they ranted a jumble of terror-stricken nonsense about wishing to be slaves in Egypt.

That's what they did when they were cornered. And to be honest, I have done the very same thing in times of crisis. The memories stand etched in my mind as witness. But God didn't abandon them for their want of confidence in Him. He would use this crisis, (as He has used mine) to build their faith in Him and in their leader, Moses.

So what ARE we to do in times of crisis
when we feel cornered and helpless?

For this we turn to Moses’ instructions and example:

#1 Fear not. (smile) It's easier said than done, but nevertheless, our calling. And it will be more easily accomplished when we turn our gaze away from the crisis long enough to hear what God is saying. Singing praise songs is a time-honored strategy for gaining perspective. (See: II Chron.20)

[At risk of distracting us from the story in view, may I commend to you a parallel account of God rescuing His people. It's in II Chronicles 20 and I'll slip in some quotes from there as we go..]

"O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you." (II Chron. 20:12)

#2 Stand firm. Was this the story Paul was considering when he gave the Ephesian church a strategy for the fight of faith? "...and having done all, to stand firm."  No running around willy-nilly, no jumping up and down in an agitated panic, no tearing off to hide. Just stand firm, feet planted, right where God has put you until He gives the next instruction.

"You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.' Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the LORD will be with you." (II Chron.20:17)

#3 Watch God do the fighting! "See the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today." (Ex.14:13) We often think things are up to us that in reality are up to God to perform. He sometimes asks only that we stand on the sidelines in confident expectancy while He does the fighting and gets all the glory.

And he said, "Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the LORD to you, 'Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God's.' " (II Chron.20:15)

#4 Oh and last but not least they were to 'Shut up!' That's not exactly how Moses said it, mind you. To his credit he appears to have responded calmly and confidently to all the drama: "The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent." (Ex.14:14) Whew, what a welcome silence that would have been! The last thing that's needed in a crisis is to multiply desperate faithless words. Better to be quiet.

At that point Moses could hear God's direction--Stop crying out to me; use that staff I gave you to part the sea! Why of course, why hadn't he thought of that?! Maybe this is a reminder when we pray, to also listen to what God is saying in answer to our dilemma. It could be that we have in our hand the very thing God will use to answer our request.

We know the rest of the story--

...how God brought premature darkness and a cloud to delay the foe until the path through the sea had been blown dry...

...and how his people crossed safely but when the Egyptians followed, their chariot wheels ran amuck and God put them in a panic until they were the ones attempting to flee!… “Resist the devil and he will flee from you." (James 4:7)

...and how He brought the waters crashing back down to bury the enemy in a watery grave.

And what was the end result?

God was glorified--made to look great, just as He'd planned! His own people now feared Him and believed in the LORD and in their appointed leader (Ex.14:31). And the surrounding nations were terrified and let the Israelites pass on by! "Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone." (15:16)

So if/when you find yourself huddled in terror, heart pounding in your ears as you imagine the worst--stand firm in faith and see what God will do. He has you cornered there for His own glory. He is mighty to save! Our Redeemer is strong; the Lord of Heaven's armies is His name! He will surely defend us. (Jer.50:34)

--LS

"You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode." Ex.15:13

March 14, 2014

Recipe for Dismay

Have you felt it—that sickening discomposure that leaves you weak and confounded and thinking, “What am I gonna do?!” but too overwhelmed to imagine there is anything that can be done…?

Literally ‘dismay’ means to be shattered, to be broken down with fear, ‘shorn of strength’—’like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown.’  (II Kings 19:26)  You get the feeling. 

There are plenty of examples.  Joseph’s brothers knew this sickening dread the instant Joseph, that foreboding Egyptian ruler, identified who he was to them.  They recognized not only his power, but the grave wrong they had done him and what was due them in return. (Gen.45:3) This is an interesting picture of what it will be like to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ—nothing but dastardly unworthiness on our part, but… He is our Brother and has forgiven.  And that makes all the difference…  But that is a tangent.

Dismay is the temptation Joshua faced when called to lead the Israelites to conquer all of Canaan and claim it as their own. There were giants in the land!  The people back-pedaled fast, figuring it would be better to go back to Egypt.  God must hate them to have brought them to this juncture. (Deut.1:27ff.) They were the picture of dismay.  All but Joshua and Caleb.

Dismay is what all Israel felt--everyone but David, when Goliath stood up!  Another giant in the land. (I Sam.17:10,11)

And it’s what they felt again when hordes of Moabites and Ammonites came to fight their puny numbers. (II Chron.20:15)

It’s easy to find examples of dismay.  I’ve tasted it too—that sickening something in the pit of your stomach.  So, just in case you haven’t, I’ve written down the recipe.

It’s a common sense recipe really.  You just follow your best judgment with the proportions.  Start with a good look at the situation.  What are all the problems you face?  How big are they?  Compare them to your own strengths and aptitudes to see how you’ll measure up… You’ve got to really focus here.  Keep the problems foremost in your mind.

Then forget about any hocus-pocus promises. They’re only words on paper after all.  What you need is solutions you can work toward--a concrete plan of action.

Don’t be deterred by thoughts of what’s happened in the past—times when things all worked out for good.  Those were lucky exceptions. This situation is going to require some brute force, either that or some astute maneuvering.  You dare not leave it to chance.

And what about prayer.  Well, the recipe that always works for me involves praying in my own name.  Do you know what I mean?  This is how I see the situation.  This is what I want to see happen.  And this is how I’d like to see it accomplished.  Now for a game plan. Hmmm….this will require some quiet time to fret and fume.

Well, those are the main ingredients for mixing up a masterful batch of dismay, with a hint of discouragement and a touch of depression.  Oh, and there’s one important instruction for mixing it up properly. Pay careful attention to every thought that flits through your head.  Take each one seriously, as if it were the gospel truth.  Think those thoughts and don’t question their source.  It’ll give your batch of dismay a creative flare.

And that’s that—Be thou dismayed.  Good Luck!

--LS

P.S.  For more detailed instructions, consider the Scripture links included in the above instructions.  They will help to flesh out the complete picture. And should you wish to brew an antidote for dismay, these links will serve that purpose too!

To get a jump on the antidote to dismay, start here!

March 7, 2014

Travelling Light—thoughts for a pack-light pilgrimage

 

Do you travel light?

I don’t;  though it is an ideal I have crept toward over the years. To be able to travel light shines as an ideal only because I know what it is to travel HEAVY.

When the babies were young and airlines used to let them fly free under 2 years old, I would get a hankering come spring, to visit my Grandma on the farm and introduce her to one or the other of them, whosoevers ‘turn’ it was.

What a harrowing event it can be travelling with a toddler single-handed, especially when you have no clue how to travel light.  Is there a way to do this with a baby, a baby carrier and a baby’s diaper bag all hanging from hip and shoulder on one side while you cling to your own carry-on, your purse, a blanket and that hot lunch of BBQ beef and peach pie that you grabbed but didn’t have time to finish before they called your flight to the gate…? I chuckle at the memory.  Those were the days when restrictions were lax and they didn’t keep such strict track of exactly how many items you were towing through the gate, so long as you could get to your seat.  Whew!  Just barely.

But it is occasions like this that make travelling light look so ideal!

I’m pleased to see there are tutorials available for these things.  If you’re curious, a fantastic bunch of practical information can be found at OneBag.comthe Art and Science of Travelling Light.  But regardless of how much good advice you find it will come down to a willingness to do without something—the something that you just might need, the other thing that ‘would be nice’ and the extra stuff that you wouldn’t want to be without in case…

It seems that we are determined to carry with us those things that make us feel at home, and it is precisely these things that bog us down and keep us from being fully present in the places we travel through and to. To be convinced to pack light we must first  "understand that attempts to replicate one's "familiar" lifestyle are a good way to subvert a common goal of such temporary relocations: experiencing the place and purpose of the destination." --OneBag.com

Or put more bluntly:

Trip enjoyment is inversely proportionate to the amount of crap (distractions) you bring with you. –Tim Ferriss

I hadn’t thought of it that way.  The point is not to bring ‘home’ with me, but to temporarily suspend the need for every comfort so as to experience the present and fulfill my purpose in it.  Ahhh……….

Now, I have no intention of writing a travel blog here, but I read these things with the backdrop of last week’s post in my head---that long one I intend not to repeat this week (!)  It was about Abraham, sojourning in a foreign land, by faith in the One who has promised to give it to his descendants as their home. Abraham, traveling light, with his most precious possession--God’s promise.

Sojourning.  I like the ring of that word, such a nice way to describe a temporary stay.  And once I saw it in the life of Abraham it started popping up everywhere.

re: Abraham’s descendants: “Your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years.” Gen.15:13 (Now that was a long sojourn!)

re: Isaac:Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you.”
Gen 26:3 ESV

re: Lot, facing the scoundrels of Sodom: “And they said, ‘This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge!’” Gen 19:9 ESV

It seems we kin of Abraham are destined to be sojourners this side of Home.  We are strangers here, misfits, foreigners. Jesus said so: “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” Jn.15:19

“We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” (1Jo 5:19)  If this is not readily apparent around you, have a peek at our forebears in the faith in Hebrews:

“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. for people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.Heb11:13

We are indeed travelling through—but are we travelling light?

I’m not thinking here of possessions.  Though, in North America, we are all rich men, like camels passing through the eye of a needle to enter the Kingdom! Impossible, but for God. Downsizing and simplifying our lives, weaning ourselves from the love of ‘stuff’ may well be in order, but that’s a subject for another site (and there are plenty of them!)

What’s come to my attention is that my life can weighed down with virtual luggage.  I haul it around as if it were essential—old habits, patterns of thinking, customary ways of facing situations…These things I’m so used to travelling with, in fact, hinder me from seeing the lay of the land and my purpose in it. 

Besides that, I get so pre-occupied with keeping track of my own bags that I miss what’s going on around me. I miss lending a hand to fellow travellers.  Have you been there?  Are you shouldering bags that were meant to be checked?  There’s Someone who’ll see them through to their destination without you having to lift a finger.

That’s what I’ve been thinking about this week-- surveying the baggage I carry and asking the Lord to show me how to lighten my load.  It’s not so much about the enjoyment of the trip.  (“In this world you will have tribulation” Jn.16:33). This is after all not a cruise.  But I am temporarily on the planet for a purpose and it’s not just to manage my suitcases!

What am I carrying that pre-occupies me, making me short-sighted and short of hands to help another?

I’m asking the Lord…

  • What needs to be jettisoned’I can live without that.’  (But show me how!)  Help me to assess old stubborn thought patterns and make them obedient to Christ.  Show me the lies that cripple me from fulfilling God’s agenda for my journey.
  • What needs to be ‘checked’'Lord, you carry this one to its destination.’ Teach me to pray and leave the results in your Hands.
  • And what is mine to carry’What is my mission in life?’ And what are the tools and skills I need to carry it out?  Help me identify my priorities and feel free to leave the rest.

I watched out the window one afternoon as a mom walked by with her young boys.  They were heading home from school.  On each of the mom’s shoulders hung a backpack, while her two boys scampered about kicking stones, tussling with each other, falling behind and dashing ahead, as carefree as puppies let out to play. 

Is this  what God wishes to do for me—to carry my burdens?  They are nothing for his shoulders.  He would gladly take them and free me to be a child in His care-- freed to laugh, to run, to celebrate His company.  And in my freedom  might I not better see beyond myself to passersby in need of a hand and a hope of Home?

Ahh, to travel light.  I’m dreaming of it. 

What’s more, spring is on its way; it might be just about time for a trip east to visit kin…better start a proper packing list!

--LS

He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me. ... Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. Ps. 55:18, 22 ESV

I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me!
Ps. 119:19 ESV

"Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers.
Ps. 39:12 ESV

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God: Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. ... The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. ... So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Ps.90:1, 10, 12 ESV