| Psalm 39:4 "Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am."
One Short Journey
When my daughter Lauren turned ten years old, it was a milestone which made me realize once again that I'm getting older! In the truck not long ago, she said, "Daddy, why does God say life is so short when it seems so long?" It's amazing how your perspective changes as you get older; the older you become, the shorter life seems. It does us all good to consider the brevity of our lives, not so that we become morbid, but so that we become wiser with the time we have.
Here in this passage, David first considered his end. Here is something profound: I will die someday and so will you. No matter how strong and wise we think we are, our lives are but a "handbreadth" (v.5) to the Lord. And "our age is nothing" to Him. God's perspective is eternal. So many times, we get caught up in our own little world and forget that our lives are only drops in the vast ocean of eternity. It is truly amazing that any of us could ever become arrogant. In reality, I'm not much and you're not much. Encouraging, isn't it? Well, it gets better!
In verses 5-6, David considered his days-how he spent this short life God granted him. He said, "Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them." When you consider the shortness of life, you won't become overly possessive of material things. How discouraging it would be to spend your whole life working for riches that you have to leave behind when you die!
Remember that our "days" in eternity are incomparably longer than our days here on earth. Notice that David says, "They are disquieted in vain. . . ." Don't waste your days worrying about things that don't really matter! Life is too short for that. Life is too short to worry, to be bitter, to waste time, to live without a purpose, and to not know where you are heading. Every day must count.
Lastly, David considered his hope. Verse 7 says, "And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee." We dare not place our hope in anything or anyone else but the Lord. Everything else will pass away before we know it; everyone else will die too. God is unchanging and eternal; and His purpose for our lives is much bigger and greater than we can imagine.
May we live with David's perspective in verse 12: "I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were." Just as the many godly believers who have come and gone before us, we are travelers just passing through this life to our final home. Place your focus and your hope in God and His plan, and live each day according to that hope. The journey is a short one, so travel wisely!
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