Everybody knows that he must die. No one, however, knows when he shall die. And death is so awful, so big with consequences! But who minds it? Most people are as unmindful of death as brute creation. Others, again, despair. Regenerate Christians should learn to pray as Moses does in the oldest of Psalms: "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom." For to do this is a gracious gift of God. To number one's days with a proper regard to death, and to truly apply one's heart to wisdom, no one can do of himself; God, through His Word and the Holy Spirit, must teach a sinner to do this. How should we number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom? What wisdom is able to help us against the assaults of death? We should consider that death is the wages of sin, and therefore leads us to Judgment; and we should be heartily sorry for having sinned against God and merited eternal punishment. But in numbering our days we should also consider that our Saviour has redeemed us from sin, death, and the Judgment, and we should therefore flee to Him in true faith. If we thus number our days, we shall have applied our hearts to wisdom, and found salvation from death. And daily we must so number our days; daily our hearts must thus be applied to wisdom; daily we must pray God to teach us thus to number our days, and thus to apply our hearts to wisdom. For death may come any day. Such a meditation does not make us downcast and unfit for life here on earth, as some say; on the contrary, this makes us glad and courageous to run our course; for then we shall not fear death.