The Brevity of Life

[Christsfreeservant]

Psalm 90 ESV

Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.​

For those of us who have trusted in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives, our Lord is our dwelling place. We abide in Christ, and he abides in us. And we have sweet fellowship together. He is our strength and our support, our shield of defense against our enemy Satan and his hordes. We can rest secure in our Lord, even when all hell is breaking loose all around us. Amen!

For, God is our everlasting God. He is eternal. He has always existed, and he will always exist. Jesus is our creator God, and he is completely sovereign over all that he has made. He is in total control. Nothing escapes his notice, and nothing can thwart his plans. Satan can only do what he does because God allows it for a time, but he (Satan) is a defeated foe, for Jesus already conquered him via his (Jesus’) death on the cross and his resurrection.

3 You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.

5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.

7 For we are brought to an end by your anger;
by your wrath we are dismayed.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.​

We who live in flesh bodies have a beginning and an end to our earthly lives. We are born into this world, and then one day we die. We will all die physical deaths unless Jesus returns for us, who are his followers, before we die, and then he takes us to be with him forever while we are still alive. But then we will all be changed, and what is now mortal will put on immortality.

Sometimes we, as humans, are brought to the end of our lives by the anger of God, because he is angry over our many sins. For our God is not just a God of love and mercy, but he is also a God of justice and of righteousness, and he will judge, and he will bring people into his judgments.

He judges individuals, and he judges his own people, and he judges nations, too. And, when his people stray from him, and forget him, and become wicked, and they won’t listen to him any longer, he is known to bring judgments upon them in order to punish, in order to weed out those who will not bow the knee to him, and in order to revive his people, too.

And, he judges wicked nations, too, who refuse to bow the knee to him, and who persecute his righteous ones, and who sin against their people and against the people of other nations, like he will judge “Babylon” in these last days.

9 For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of your anger,
and your wrath according to the fear of you?​

I am seventy years old, so I have already lived a normal lifespan. And, life on this earth, in these flesh bodies, is toil and trouble, heartache and pain. But it is also rejoicing and peace if we know Jesus, and if our lives are found in him, and if we are walking in sweet fellowship with him.

The thing that stands out to me most with this passage of Scripture is how much it reminds us of the brevity of life here on this earth. Not everyone lives seventy years, as I have. Not one of us is guaranteed a long life. None of us are promised tomorrow. So, we should live our lives as though tomorrow we could die, and not as though we just assume that we will live on forever, as many presume.

We should consider the shortness of our lives, in light of eternity, and in light of the fact that God will judge people in his wrath, even many who profess faith in him. For there are many people who ignore the Lord, and who put their hands up to him and tell him “No!” And, they do this by how they live their lives, doing what their evil hearts desire rather than submitting themselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

12 So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O Lord! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil.
16 Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!​

So, we need the Lord Jesus to teach us to number our days, to take life seriously, to take God seriously, and to realize that we could all be gone tomorrow without warning. We need to take seriously that we are only on this earth for a short time and then we are gone. And, we should consider how we should be spending the time God has given to us while we still have it, for it could be gone quickly.

For, our Lord did not put us on this earth for ourselves, but to give him glory and praise, but not just with our lips, but with our lives. He put us here that our lives might be for his glory, and that we might honor him as God and Lord by surrendering our lives to him, leaving our lifestyles of sin behind us, and by walking in his ways and in his truth.

We need to have hearts of wisdom that follow our Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands (New Testament), and that walk in his ways and in his truth. And, we need to have spirits of discernment to separate lies from the truth so that we are not easily deceived, and so that we do not fall into the devil’s traps. For there are many liars and deceivers out there who are trying to trip us up and to lead us away from our pure devotion to Christ.

And, it appears to me that what we read here in these verses is a prayer for revival of God’s people who have drifted from their pure devotion to Christ, and who have gone off to follow after the ways of man and the gods of this world. And, it is a prayer for restoration and renewal, too, after the Lord judges them for their many adulteries and their idolatry.

We in America need revival. So much of the church has strayed from the Lord, and so many professing Christians are living no different from the world.

But God has been calling his church to repent and to come out from among the ungodly for a long while now, but most have not repented, and so he is judging the church in our nation, I believe, in order to bring her to repentance so that he can revive, restore and renew her to fellowship with him before he comes back to take his bride to be with him forever.

How Beautiful Heaven Must Be

Songwriters: A. P. Bland / A. S. Bridgewater / Dwight Moody Brock

We read of a place that's called heaven,
It's made for the pure and the free…

In heaven no drooping nor pining,
No wishing for elsewhere to be;
God's light is forever, there shining…

How beautiful heaven must be
Sweet home of the happy and free;
Fair haven of rest for the weary…

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