Pondering the Brevity of Life

Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes the familiar refrain "meaningless, meaningless, all is meaningless". In our vernacular, it all sucks. We struggle each day to get through the day, then each week, then each month. Then another year and here we are at 2014. I am 54, but it seems like just yesterday, I was 20. My father-in-law just passed away - doesn't seem possible to lose a parent.

I was reading this week Psalm 39 and it was comforting that David struggled with these same thoughts. This psalm is brutal in its honesty. Yet it was not written to be individually contemplative because it was written to a musician (Jeduthun), the choir director, no doubt to lead in public worship. God wants us to contemplate the brevity of life. In fact, it is essential to the Christian walk. The devil wants us to not consider this at all. In fact, Warren Wiersbe writes the devil wants us to be amused or entertained. Amusement is a word of two main parts.  The heart of the word is the word "muse" which means to ponder or meditate.  The prefix is the negative "a" which negates it.  So the word literally means "not thinking" or "not pondering". The devil wants us to go through life into eternity in hell without thinking.

The heart of Psalm 39 is verse 5 which says:

Behold, you have made my days as handbreaths,

And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight;

Surely every man at his best is a mere breath.

The word breath is the same word Solomon uses as meaningless which he uses 31 times in Ecclesiastes. So this passage is literally saying that man is at his best meaningless. Hardly the kind of words to say win friends or influence people. Yet David wants us to not only meditate on this truth, but to even embrace it. A handbreath was about four fingers wide, the smallest popular measuring unit of ancient times.  After verse 5, David introduces the word "Selah" which is a pause which causes us to pause and reflect. He introduces it again after verse 11 where he says again that "man is but a mere breath".

Why? Pondering the brevity of life is not fun. Rather be out biking or playing baseball or watching sports. Wait, scratch that last one - I am a Cleveland sports fan. Because God wants us to appreciate life, to appreciate it to the fullest.  Secondly, because He wants us to understand it in relation to eternity. Life is short - we are all to live in eternity whether in God's presence or outside of God's presence. Finally, God wants us to understand that the things we do here have eternal consequences. Can we live our lives in light of eternity?

It has been a major step for me to accept each day at a time. I have been motivated by Psalm 5:3 which says "I will order my prayer to you and eagerly watch". I am anxious to see what God does each day and most times it is not what I expect. I have a hard time exacting day-to-day trust of God. Doggone it, why doesn't he just tell me what the deal is. Why am I forced to live out this mystery daily. Because God wants me to live each day in trusting relationship to Him. 

The end of the story in Psalm 39 is not pleasant. David says:

Turn your gaze away from me, that I may smile again

Before I depart and am no more.

David is in agony. The days are bitter. Some say that Psalm 39 is a followup to Psalm 38 which shows David in deep distress potentially at death's door because of his sin.  Isn't that what causes us to contemplate the brevity of life - when things are going wrong? Psalm 40 brings us back out of the depths. 

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

Joy cannot be experienced fully without seeming despair. They are ying and yang. Resolved conflict only leads to renewed resolve.