Readings for today: Psalms 39-41, Acts 23:12-35
Life is fleeting. It comes and goes. It is here today and gone tomorrow. It’s full of ups and downs. We have moments when we feel like we are on top of the world. We have moments when we feel we are living in the depths of despair. Circumstances conspire to steal our joy. Situations are thrust upon us over which we have no control. Sacred moments rush in filling our souls with peace. We experience special moments of feeling deeply loved and accepted. But it’s messy. It’s a jumble. Life is not always up and to the right.
The Bible acknowledges all these things, of course. One of the things I love most about God’s Word is that it never shies away from real life. It embraces all that is good and bad and ugly about our experience in this world. It reminds us never to place our trust or hope in the things of this world. Instead, the Bible encourages us to store up our treasures in heaven. To look beyond the horizons of this earth to the world to come. The reality is we are eternal creatures. We are creatures made to live forever. Death is not the end for us but merely a doorway to another dimension of life. That dimension could be heaven. That dimension could be hell. Either way, we will find ourselves still very much alive. Conscious. Aware. And that should create a sense of perspective for us. It should right-size our expectations of life in this world.
I love how the Psalmist puts it in today’s reading…“O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!” (Psalm 39:4-6) It’s also good to read in the Message version…“Tell me, what’s going on, God? How long do I have to live? Give me the bad news! You’ve kept me on pretty short rations; my life is a string too short to be saved. Oh! we’re all puffs of air. Oh! we’re all shadows in a campfire. Oh! we’re just spit in the wind. We make our pile, and then we leave it.”(Psalm 39:4-6)
It sounds pretty hopeless, doesn’t it? Sounds like the Psalmist is struggling to come to grips with meaning and purpose in the face of death. As he feels his own life potentially ebbing away, he wonders what the point of it all might be? Our days are indeed few. We spend quite a few of them in turmoil. Our lives are strings too short to be saved. We are but puffs of air on the wind. We are shadows in a campfire. Naked we came from the womb and naked we shall return to the dust. We can take nothing with us. All this is true and still the Psalmist declares, “My hope is in You.” (Psalms 39:7) Despite how he’s feeling. Despite what his lived experience is teaching him. Against all natural human instinct, he clings to hope as he clings to God. It’s a powerful testimony and one we all need to hear especially in this cultural moment.
There is so much about life right now that causes us to despair. People we love are getting sick or suffering or even dying. Friendships we once enjoyed are fracturing. Whatever work/life balance we had before the pandemic has been completely upended. Routines have been scrapped. Rhythms disrupted. Schedules shot. Layer onto that the increasing polarization of our country, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our schools, our churches, even our families, and it probably feels like nowhere is truly safe. The Psalmist knows how we feel. “I was mute and silent; I held my peace to no avail, and my distress grew worse. My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned…” (Psalm 39:2-3) So what did he do? Did he lash out? Did he burn everything to the ground? Did he let his despair get the best of him? No. He turned to the Lord. He cried out to God. He took a step back and tried to see things from God’s perspective. This is what gave him hope. Not that everything would turn out okay in the end or that he would live happily ever after but that God would hear his prayer. God would see his tears. God would meet him in his sojourning and cause him to smile again.
Readings for tomorrow: Psalms 42-43, Acts 24