A vapor or grass, continued (Psalm 39)

 

There are some times in our lives that we are brought face to face with our mortality. We run face-first into the wall of "I'm only here for a while." Or we stumble right into the sidewalk crack of "What just happened? I'm blessed to be alive!"

You know what I'm talking about, right?

One of those times is when you're sick. You're bopping along, keeping track of your diet, making sure you stay hydrated, and exercise like you should. You're sleeping the right number of hours each night. But in spite of your diligent care, an invisible germ creeps inside. That little invader starts to run amok and make more of itself, and (just like God designed it) your body turns up the heat to try and squelch the invasion. Your white blood cells are marching into the fray to kill the critters, and all of this hard work on the part of your body really does sap your strength! Down you go, onto the couch, with a fever and achy fatigue. You suddenly are aware of just how weak your body's defenses are, and how vulnerable you might be. Especially with the Covid virus flitting around (even though the survival rate is over 99%), your thoughts may be rather blue. You grab your Bible and it falls open in your hands at James 4:14 . . . . .

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 

Well, that's encouraging.

Or perhaps you've had the experience of a New Year's Eve that you don't have a whole slew of people around. The familiar "ball drop" is just not as much fun without a bottle of soda and your friends giggling and talking about resolutions to lose weight. Your eyes fall on the calendar affixed to the side of the refrigerator, so you reach over and turn the page to January 1. You're feeling kind of old. Kind of decrepit. The clock of life just keeps on ticking in your head. Reaching for your Bible, you lay it in your lap and it opens to the psalms:

My days are like the evening shadow;
    I wither away like grass. Psalm 102:11

Well, now I'm just smiling all over.

I AM being a bit tongue-in-cheek here, to make my point.....life IS short and goes by very quickly. What can we do to make the most of it? Nobody wants to think that their life is wasted. However many years we have here on earth by God's grace, we want to make them count for eternity.

But the question is HOW?

Psalm 39 allows us to peek in the window at the royal residence, as David struggles with just this problem. We read the emotions of a man who appears to have experienced a profound illness and realizes it may be God's discipline in his life. He knows that God is his only hope:

“But now, Lord, what do I look for?
    My hope is in you. (Psalm 39:7)

Other places in scripture talk about how transient life is. Remember how Job was overcome by a severe illness, too? He got blue, too:

“Mortals, born of woman,
    are of few days and full of trouble.

They spring up like flowers and wither away;
    like fleeting shadows, they do not endure." (Job 14:1-2)

People nowadays don't talk quite like Job. But they might repeat the old adage: "Only one life, will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last."

Life is transient. The dictionary defines that as "passing with time." Or (this sounds worse) "decaying with time." Oy vey.

Because life is short, we want to live it meaningfully. Productively. As we study David's words, we will discover that the key will be to live it for the Lord - always having eternity in mind. 

Join me next time as we dig into Psalm 39.