![]() ![]() They may amass great riches and luxuries in this world, but where will that ultimately get them? This world and everything in it will one day pass away. They are worried, anxious, busy, and striving after air. We saw the people around us moving with such speed and making such noise. How tragic it is that so many people live for this brevity! We began this post examining the market place, the stock exchange, or the city streets. Compared to the glory that I will experience for all of eternity, this brief struggle is nothing. But I have an eternal amount of days left ahead of me. I can put forth my best effort in this lifetime, and struggle for all of my days. Whatever analogy you want to make, when confronted with God, we must conclude that “my lifetime is as nothing before you.” Spurgeon says, “before the Eternal, all the age of frail man is less than one tick of a clock.” David goes on to compare his life to breath and shadow. Today, we would say that our life is but a vapor. If this tempts us to despair, then we should ask, as David does, for God to teach us “what is the measure of my days.” When we do so, we will find that, even if we live to be one-hundred years-old, our days are “fleeting.”ĭavid compares them to “a few handbreadths,” which was one of the shortest natural measures used in his time. We may spend years, decades even, striving for godliness, and still fail to reach our goal. Of course! But we must do so with a proper perspective. Should such vain strivings leave us in despair? If we cannot achieve godliness with even our best efforts, then should we even try? You may find yourself growing more and more like Christ, but you will never achieve His holiness while still on this earth. The wisest saint will tell you that you will never achieve godliness in this lifetime. And even then, we are left with these fleshly bodies that are given to temptation. ![]() This only reminds us that one cannot achieve godliness over night! It takes years of struggle to learn how to tame one’s tongue. Even when he gave his very best effort, he fell far short of godliness. But he found that all of his attempts were for naught. He tried to keep his lips from sinning he tried to honor God in his own power. Please read Psalm 39:4-6 with that thought in mind.ĭavid began this psalm with a desperate attempt to guard his own tongue. Broken rest, anxious fear, overworked brain, failing mind, and insanity are all steps in the process of attempting to gain riches, or, in other words, to load one’s self with thick clay, clay that all must soon leave.” Then listen to the clamor of the market, the hum of the exchange, the din of the city streets, and remember that all this noise (for so the word busy means), this breach of quiet, is made surrounding unsubstantial, fleeing vanities. 13 O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.While commenting on this psalm, Charles Spurgeon wrote: 12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry hold not your peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with you, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. 10 Remove your stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of your hand.ġ1 When you with rebukes do correct man for iniquity, you make his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. 9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth because you did it. 8 Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish. 7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in you. Selah.Ħ Surely every man walks in a vain show: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heaps up riches, and knows not who shall gather them. 5 Behold, you have made my days as an handbreadth and my age is as nothing before you: truly every man at his best state is altogether vanity. 3 My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spoke I with my tongue, 4 LORD, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am. 2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good and my sorrow was stirred. 1 I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |