Ps. 90.12 (a glimpse at wisdom)

Teach us / how to number our days
that we may obtain / a mind of wisdom. 

This is a rather fascinating petition. And I think, at this initial moment, I want to draw attention to something I have found rather important in most other psalms—that in the face of injustice or suffering the petitioner does not ask Yhwh to help him ‘understand’ what is going on. He doesn’t want an ‘answer’. He wants deliverance. He wants Yhwh to act, to change the situation, and to rectify things. He doesn’t want to live with evil; he wants it destroyed. It has been, to me, a very important and revealing insight on a lot of levels. And yet here, it appears as if the psalmist has moved into that realm, at least in some fashion. Before he launches into the petition proper, where he does ask Yhwh to act and change the situation, he asks Yhwh for wisdom and teaching. It is important to see, I believe, what draws forth this petition. As we saw yesterday there are twin pressures exerted on the psalmist. On the one hand, he is completely aware of his mortality and the brevity of life. He is aware, in other words, of the ‘quantity’ of his life. On the other hand, he is simultaneously aware that the ‘quality’ of his life is now lived in the ‘wrath of Yhwh’ and, as such, it is full of ‘toil and trouble. Importantly, both of these realities are laden with mystery and sense of incomprehensibility. Although man’s ‘toil and trouble’ are a result of his sinfulness, he is unable to perceive that sinfulness to anywhere near the degree that Yhwh can. Similarly, the psalmist cannot fathom the extent of Yhwh’s authority over his creation. It simply dwarfs every attempt. It is, I think, these two realities that lead to today’s petition for wisdom. 

This is why: so long as injustice and suffering are easily identifiable, they can be ‘petitioned to Yhwh’. A proper petition can be fashioned such that Yhwh will ‘hear it’ and respond. However, what happens when man is a mystery to himself, and he is unable to perceive the depth of his fault? He cannot fashion a proper petition. This is a very different situation than, for example, Psalm 51 where, even though David says he was ‘born in sin’, the ‘problem’ lies much more within his purview. This is one aspect. Now, the psalmist also knows that his life is ‘fleeting’. The ‘quantity’ of his life is running out, and it is only in ‘life’ where goodness is achieved. It is here where ‘wisdom’ emerges: when the psalmist is surrounded by a mystery and a tragedy that he cannot comprehend he seeks to find a way to ‘live properly in the moment given him’. In other words, he wants to know how to ‘number his days’, so that he can, with what he has, live well, make smart choices, and see things with wisdom and prudence. It is, of course, absolutely essential that the psalm will, following this verse, move into petition, where the psalmist will, in fact, ask Yhwh to ‘turn to his people’. Yet, this brief request, before that petition is incredibly revealing. 


There is another important level to all of this. We are aware that ‘the fear of Yhwh is the beginning of all wisdom’. The immediately preceding verse asked who knew the power of Yhwh’s wrath, according to the fear due him. The fact that we now immediately transition into a verse about ‘wisdom’ should be revealing. In a sense, the psalmist has ‘positioned’ himself properly to receive ‘wisdom’; he has acknowledged the magnitude of fear appropriate to Yhwh through indirection (“who could know the proper amount…?”). This recognition of Yhwh’s wrath, in response to man’s sins, is, for him, what puts him in the necessary place of a student to Yhwh—“Teach us…”. In other, within the particular pressures this palmist is experiencing, the previous verse operates as a type of ‘introduction to wisdom’ or a prerequisite.