Three score and ten years ago . . . No, those aren’t the opening words of the Gettysburg Address; Lincoln’s famous 1863 speech began with, “four score and seven years ago,” and referred to the founding of our country in 1776. So to what major event does “three score and ten” refer? Why, to my birth, of course! Yes, in a little over a week from now, I will celebrate my 70th (three-score and tenth) birthday. It’s hard to believe that I’m now that old, though I’m even older according to Native American reckoning – 71 – since many of those tribes counted the time in the womb as the first year of life.
In most respects, 70 is just another number, and my birthday will be just another day. I will be just another day older and won’t feel much different from the day before. No church bells, sirens, fireworks, or parades to mark the occasion (though there should be!). No, I will just go to bed at age 69 and wake up the next day at age 70.
But in one respect, seventy is a significant age, and that is because of its use in Psalm 90 – the only Psalm ascribed to the great prophet and leader, Moses. This Psalm describes the Lord as being “from everlasting to everlasting” (verse 2), and says that to him, a thousand years are like one night (verse 4). Then it asks the Lord to teach us to “number our days” (verse 12) because unlike God, our time on earth is limited. How limited? According to verse 10, “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty . . . they are soon gone, and we fly away.” In King James English, that’s, “threescore years and ten; or fourscore years.”
It’s interesting that despite our advances in nutrition and medical care, in 2020 our life expectancy in the U.S. falls right in the biblical parameters set over 3000 years ago: 75 years for males and 80 years for females. (Maybe I should follow the trend and change genders – and thereby extend my life another five years?)
Whatever my own personal “expiration date,” I think that reaching the three-score-and-ten-year milestone does call for me to number my days and evaluate where I stand.
First of all, I have come to realize that there are just some things I will never accomplish. I will never win an Olympic gold medal (or silver, or bronze); I will never be a billionaire and fly into space; I will never win an Oscar, or an Emmy, or a Grammy; I will never climb Mt Everest; I will never win a Medal of Honor; I will never run in the Boston Marathon; I will never swim the English Channel (though I did once pass underneath it!); I will never again sing a solo in church; I will never raise water buffaloes; and I will never become President of the United States (though, based on the last two elections, I’m barely old enough to run!).
On the other hand, I have done a lot of amazing things in my three-score and ten years: I have been on the radio, on TV, and in several national journals; I have published a book and written two others; I was a national Merit Scholar and graduated third in my high school class; I once did sing a solo in church, backed up by an all-Black Gospel choir; I have been to 12 countries on four continents (inadvertently invading one of them*); I rode on a Soviet tank and swam in a river in Siberia; I sailed in France, petted reindeer above the Arctic Circle, and preached a sermon in Spanish in Peru; I won my division in my city’s tennis tournament; I earned a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree summa cum laude; I served in the pastoral ministry for 22 years; I read the Scriptures during a worship service in Martin Luther’s church in Wittenberg, Germany; I have learned (and am still learning) several language; I have a blog (duh!); and, last but not least, I have been married for 47 years!
But of all the important things I could say about my life, there is one above all others: I am a Christian, redeemed by Jesus Christ, forgiven of all my sins, and written in the Book of Life for all eternity (Revelation 3:5). This is ultimately the one that matters, for as Psalm 90 says, my years “are soon gone, and we fly away.” As wonderful as my blessings in this life have been, they will all pass away, and only one thing will remain: eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Other passages in Scripture also emphasize our mortality. 1 Peter 1:24-25 proclaims, “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” Genesis 3:19 says, “for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Ecclesiastes 3:20 lumps us with the animals, saying “All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.” Psalm 90:3 says, “You return man to dust and say, ‘Return, O children of man!'” Psalm 39:4 says, “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” In the New Testament, James 4:14 says, “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” And Hebrews 9:27 reminds us, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. . .”
By now you’re probably thinking, “Rich sure has gotten morbid now that’s he’s turning 70!” But that’s not the case, because my – and all mankind’s – limited lifetime is not the whole story; as Christians we know that our lives have really just begun. Not only do our spirits go to the Lord at our death, we can look forward to our bodily resurrection, when we will rise to new life in a new heaven and new earth (Isaiah 65:17 and Revelation 21:1). For as Christ has by his own death and resurrection conquered death, so we too shall live: Paul tells us beautifully in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55,
“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. or this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?'”
In the book of Job, that ancient, suffering saint proclaimed joyously in the Bible’s earliest reference to resurrection,
“For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” (Job 19:25-27)
The most well-known statement of eternal life is John 3:16, which says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
In the words of the contemporary Christian song, 10,000 Reasons, the last verse reads, “And on that day when my strength is failing, The end draws near and my time has come, Still my soul will sing your praise unending, Ten thousand years and then forever more.”
You may have one more question at this point: Do I consider my eternal life to be my greatest accomplishment? Well, no, because like Paul I cannot boast in anything except in Christ my Savior: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31). Why? Because my salvation is not my accomplishment, but the gift of God and by his grace alone. Remember, we are saved by God’s mercy through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28).
Therefore, my greatest “accomplishment” was not done by me, but by God working in and on me. It is to him I turn in thanks for the three score and ten years he already granted me, and for how many years there are still to come. But most of all, I look forward to his greatest gift of all: eternal life in his presence, given by his mercy and love.
Seventy years old? No, not old. Based on God’s promises – which I believe – at 70 years I’m just a new-born babe!
Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.
Read: Psalm 90; 1 Corinthians 15; Revelation 21.
*I invaded Canada in high school when the bus I was in failed to check in properly at the border. On the way back to the U.S. the Canadian border agent couldn’t admit an entire bus had gotten past him and entered his country illegally, so he let us go.