Twenty-Five Thousand Days

In looking at the length of life, the Psalmist said: “The days of our years are threescore years and ten;… Thou carriest the away as with a flood;… So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” And so, for a moment or two, let us number our days, let us break down this scriptural allotment of life into a few startling figures:

Seventy years times three hundred and sixty-five means that this allotted length of life is about twenty-five thousand days. Of course, we may live longer than this. And then again, we may not live this long. But suppose we assume that when we breathed our first breath, each of us had twenty-five thousand days to look forward to in this life.

When we are young, it may look like a long time. But remember we have already used three hundred and sixty-five days for every year we have lived. If we’re sixteen, we have used some six thousand days. If we’re thirty, we have used nearly eleven thousand. If we’re forty, we have used almost fifteen thousand. When we reduce life to this formula of figures, it serves notice on us that if we spend it for one thing, we can’t spend if for another. If, for example, we should spend one day each with twenty-five thousand different people, we would have spent all this allotment of life.

Some of these days belong to rest, some to work, some to worship. Some belong to our friends and to our family. Some of these thousands of days will be filled with success and satisfaction, and some with waste and some with waiting. Some will be lived in the sunshine, and some in sorrow and shadow.

Surely the subject suggests starting early to learn what we have to learn and to do what we have to do. And surely it suggest carefully considering our pleasures and pastimes and every purpose we pursue.

Twenty-five thousand days⎯minus what we have already spent, minus more if we don’t live that long, plus a few more if we live a little longer⎯but there comes a time in the life of every man when he arrives at the realization that the days are far spent. “Thou carriest them away as with a flood… So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” and fill them only with the finest things.