Psalm 90: Praying Our Death
DEATH IS NOT a popular subject. We live in a society characterized by the denial of death. This is unusual. Most people who have lived on this earth have given a great deal of attention to death. Preparing for a good death has been, in every century except our own, an accepted goal in life. Psalm 90 has been part of that preparation for millions of Christians.
Warming Up to God
When you think about your own death, what do you think about? What do you feel?
Read Psalm 90. »
Discovering the Word
- Read Psalm 90. Death sets a limit to our lives and stimulates reflection on the context of life, which is not death, but God. In verses 1-2 how does the psalmist set death within his view of God?
- How does the psalmist describe God's anger and its effects on our lives (vv. 7-11)?
- How do you integrate this view of God with John's well-known statement "God is love"?
- Luther commented on verse 12: "Lord, teach us all to be such arithmeticians!" What does it mean to number our days aright?
- Study the verbs in verses 14-17. What emerges as most important for you—what you do for the rest of your life or what God will do in your life? Explain.
Applying the Word
- How long do you expect to live?
- How do you plan to live the years left to you?
- Plato believed that philosophy was nothing more than a study of death. In the Middle Ages pastoral care concentrated on preparing you for a good death. How does your meditation on death affect the way you live your life?
Responding in Prayer
Express your awareness that you will die. In your prayers be conscious of Christ's death.
For Further Study
Jesus' Final Week Edited by Cindy Bunch