Chapter 8, the final chapter of Receiving the Day, ends with a description of a funeral. It is appropriate that Bass would conclude her book about time with this inescapable truth: at some point, we all run out of time. In her discussion of Psalm 90, traditionally understood as “a prayer of Moses,” Bass describes how these verses “bring together two kinds of time–our short sigh and God’s mountainous eternity–together” (121).
My favorite paraphrase of Psalm 90 is found in the beloved hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.” Despite our commitment to inclusive language at FC, I’d like to offer up Watts’s original words. For me, the old language makes the hymn’s themes even more poignant; the poet may be long dead, but his spirit endures through these verses…