SCRIPTURE: Psalm 39
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it… When you discipline us for our sins, you consume like a moth what is precious to us. Each of us is but a breath. [Psalms 39:6,11]
David is going through a crisis, and this causes him to ponder the meaning of life.
He is overwhelmed by the brevity and hardship of life, by how fleeting everything is; his pondering leads him to explode with frustration and desperation.
In the end, his only hope is in the Lord [Psalm 39:7] – everything else is meaningless.
We are totally dependent on God; He is the one that holds everything together, the only eternal and unchanging reality – everything else is temporal and unreliable.
Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. [Matthew 6:19-20]
Jesus echoes David’s discovery that the things of this world are temporal and unreliable.
He urges us to put our hope, our confidence, in God (our treasure in heaven).
Let’s be honest, in this short life we spend most of our time running after trinkets and knick knacks that have little lasting value.
We invest more money in how our bodies or homes or cars look, than in the state of our soul or character.
This reminds me of engaged couples who invest more time and energy in planning for their wedding than in preparing to be married – and all their busy rushing ends in nothing!
Life can be hard, it is certainly unpredictable.
Some of us experience a period of time when things go well, and everything seems ok, but eventually a storm blows in and we go through a crisis.
Some of us may even explode like David, in frustration and desperation; some may even despair of life altogether.
Both David and Jesus would say to us, put your hope in God, not in health or wealth or popularity which are here today and gone tomorrow.
God is eternal and unchanging, everything holds together in Him.
Clinging to God will not take away our problems or suddenly make life easy; but clinging to God will give us an eternal and unchanging anchor by which we can endure the storms and one day reach safe harbour.
Hang on to your money, your possessions, your health, your reputation, etc., and one day they will all slip from your fingers; hang on to God and one day you will be standing safe and secure in Him, forever.
PRAYER:
Lord, right now I am in a fairly easy season of life; help me not to wait for the storms to come but to start now in clinging to, and hoping in You!