ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

 TU’APULELULU SUNE 25, 2026

SAAME 90-95; SAAME 39:4-5

It is important to understand and live within the limits that God, in his infinite wisdom, has set for us.

‘Oku mahu’inga ke tau mahino’i pea nofo ‘i he ngaahi fakangatangata kuo fokotu’u ‘e he ‘Otua ma’a kitautolu, ‘o fakatatau ki he taumama’o ‘o hono poto.

One of the most significant limits that God, in his wisdom, has set for us is the limit of time. You and I will never enjoy a ten-day week. We will never experience the luxury of a forty-day month or a five-hundred-day year. We will never be granted a thirty-five-hour day, and none of us will physically live forever on this fallen earth. It is the height of foolishness to deny the limits of time that God, in his infinite knowledge, has set for us.

God has hardwired us with the limit of time. Denying this reality will only get you into difficulty. Psalm 90:12 reveals how we should approach this limitation:

Teach us to number our days

that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Notice that the psalmist connects numbering your days with gaining a heart of wisdom. Acknowledging the limits of the life God has given you is a significant part of living wisely. When you live with your limits in view, you don't waste your time. You don't load your schedule with things that don't matter. You value your time, and you want to invest it wisely. When you live with your limits in view, you want to understand what is important to God and you spend your days pursuing those values.

Wasting time is easier now than it ever has been before. With the twentyfour-hour infotainment media, social media platforms, network television, and streaming services-most of this content available on your phone-it is possible to waste hours every day without even being aware of how much time has blown by. It takes humility and discipline to say no to visual noise that greets you from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed.

Here's our problem. Humility and discipline aren't natural for us. We love what is comfortable and pleasurable. Most of us would rather be entertained than study, learn, work, and serve. So, like every other psalm, Psalm 90 preaches the gospel to us. It confronts us with the fact that our biggest problem in life isn't outside of us. No, our biggest problem in life is us. Psalm 90 reminds us that Jesus lived, died, and rose again both to rescue us from the external evils of this fallen world and to rescue us from us. He offers us not only forgiveness but also empowering and transforming grace. In the power of his grace, we can humbly admit our limits and live with the discipline of wisdom, investing ourselves in that which has eternal value. Our days are numbered; may we reach for the grace to invest in them well.