Psalm 90:14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Many people read what might be termed “disaster genre” literature. So, Into Thin Air is disaster on the mountain as described by John Krakauer. The Perfect Storm, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Death in the Canyon are all stories of disaster where people may have survived, but in many cases did not survive.
Psalm 90 is a psalm written from the background of disaster. The context is disaster because this is a prayer of Moses, the man of God. He says in verse 1, “LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.” He talks about the eternality of God. He says in verse 2, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” Then, “a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past.” Moses contrasts the eternality of God with the brevity of human life. He talks about our days, our years, the days of our years, and in verse 12 he famously says, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” He is saying, “God, help us to take stock of how brief our life is so that we can live it well and do the wise and right thing.”
What caught my attention was verse 14, “O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” Notice the words “early” and “all.” Now, you do not know what “all” is. You do not know how many days comprise your life. So, “all our days” is an unknown period of time. You don’t know. If you go into Cracker Barrel, you will see all these old pictures in the dining room. There are pictures of long-bearded farmers and their wives whose hair is in a bun, and they both look stoically into the camera. Those people that looked so old were probably fairly young. People were older in 1910 than they are now. I know a lot of eighty-year-olds that do not seem old to me. So, while age may be relative, that is our perception of it. None of us know how many days we have.
We do know what “early” means. You are younger today than you will ever be again. So, today is not as early as yesterday, but it is certainly earlier than tomorrow. What the psalmist is indicating here is both a sense of need and a sense of brevity. “Dear God, satisfy us early.” That is a sense of need. Then there is a sense of brevity. “Satisfy us early because we don’t know how many days we have.” There is a sense of need and a sense of brevity.
Both of those things generally lead to a life well lived because we are seeking God and we are seeking God now. The bottom line is that the earlier you seek God’s mercy, the more you may rejoice in life. The Bible is not promising health and wealth. All of us have disaster, but there is a difference between disaster on your own that leaves you like an orphan in the universe and disaster knowing that God cares, hears, and is in control.
Even as Israelites twenty years and older dropped and died as the long funeral procession made its way through the wilderness, Moses said, “Teach us to number our days…satisfy us early…that we may…be glad all our days.” You can’t take back yesterday, and there is no point in regretting your life going into the future. Do not let your past blackmail your future. Today is the day to seek God’s mercy. God is plenteous in mercy. He is a God Who loves you and wants to give mercy.
Whatever yesterday has been for you, remember today that the earlier you seek God’s mercy, the more you may rejoice in life.