“Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days.” Psalm 39:4 NIV
Two things always make me think about the shortness of life: illness and the new year. When I get sick, I realize how weak and vulnerable I am. An invisible germ can invade my body and sap my strength and there isn’t much that I can do about it. When you’re well and especially when you’re young, you tend to think that you’re strong and invincible. Changing the calendar to a new year also has a way of reminding me of how short life is. The clock of life never stops to give you a time out. Since life is so short and goes by so quickly, how can we make the most of it? None of us would say, “I’d like to waste my life!” However many years God gives us, we want to make them count for eternity. But, how? Psalm 39 reflects David’s struggle with this problem. We encounter the mixed emotions of a man who is reeling under God’s discipline as experienced in some illness (Psalm 39:10), and yet who knows that God is his only hope (Psalm 39:7). He has no one else to turn to. David’s answer is simple and yet profound: Because life is so transient, we must live it for the Lord. James 4:14 states that life is a vapour. Scripture often mentions that we are like the grass of the field, flourishing in the morning, but faded and gone by sundown. Because life is so short, so as to be lived meaningfully and productively, it must be lived for the Lord in light of eternity. I once read the following statement, “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” That is what David is saying in this psalm.
PRAYER THOUGHT
Lord, may we live each day of this new year to Your glory and honour.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
Lord, because life is so short, for it to be lived meaningfully and productively, it must be lived for You in the light of eternity. Let this be true of us in this new year. AMEN
INTERNATIONAL BIBLE READING ASSOCIATION (IBRA)
1 Samuel 14:24-30
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