In English class they teach about past, present and future verb tenses. Figuratively speaking you can learn from past experience to apply what has been learned to present circumstances which points to future applications. Occasionally you see in the news what smaller percent of people actually plan adequately for the future. Many don't want to confront the reality of when "you will come to the grave" (Job 5:26). There is the reality that "the honor of old men is their gray hair" (Pr 20:29). When a person confronts this he may request "Do not cast me off in the time of old age" (Ps 71:9) or "Even when I am old and gray, O God, do not foresake me" (7:18). He will ask "Do not forsake me when my strength fails" (71:9). Of course we know it is "'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit'" (Zec 4:6). Then he will ask to postpone a decision "'until I declare Your strength to this generation'" (Ps 71:18). However, we do know "You have made my days as handbreaths . . . surely every man at his best is a mere breath" (Ps 39:5). At least we can inquire "'Lord, make me to know my days; let me know how transient I am'" (:4).