4 O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!
5 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!
6 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!
What a reality check! How important do we think we are? Don Wyrtzen says this: "Our busyness makes us think we are more important than we really are. Yet in all of our bustle and activity, we are still mere phantoms. We have little control over the destiny of our heaped-up wealth. Our lifespan is nothing before God. And life itself is empty without Him."
I think the best barometer for this is celebrity status. How our society has lost its way! We magnify and glorify these people as if they are someone important. The whole concept of "reality TV" (what a misnomer) has created these monsters that truly believe that they are important people (Heidi/Spencer, Kate Gosselin, Kardashians). These people are nobodies, yet we have elevated them, and for what reason? They have no talents. They have no skills. They are not actors (Gosselin is certainly not a dancer!). They are nothing. Just like you and me.
In the grand scheme of things, we are all nothing more than a vapor. We work and work and work, and for what? So that everything can turn back to dust when its all said and done.
David had figured this out. He wasn't asking for God to tell him how he was going to die, or even how long he was going to live. He was asking God for perspective! "Show me the measure of my days. Show me how fleeting I am. Let me understand that I am nothing more than a mist that blows away with even the gentlest of breezes!"
And the point of all of this is not to make us feel bad about ourselves. Rather, it is to keep us from feeling more important than we really are. It is, perhaps, even to save us some suffering in life. If we understand that "all flesh is grass," and that "it's all gonna burn," then we don't worry quite so much about things that
SIMPLY
DON'T
MATTER.
What does matter? People matter. Souls matter. How people relate to Jesus matters. And how we relate to each other matters. We are supposed to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. And, more importantly, we are supposed to love each other (I'm speaking of believers, here) as Christ loved us. That raises the stakes quite a bit, because Christ DIED for us!
So. I am fleeting. My life is nothing before God. I need to get over myself. We all need to get over ourselves.
Heheh. Henry doesn't pull any punches, does he? But how many would bristle at his first statement? How often have we heard those who would teach us that we deserve all of God's blessings? What we deserve is eternal punishment. But God, in his great mercy, has given us grace. And mercy and grace are all about what we don't deserve.
Hallelujah!
Grace and peace, friends.