1 I said, “I will watch my ways
and keep my tongue from sin;
I will put a muzzle on my mouth
while in the presence of the wicked.”
2 So I remained utterly silent,
not even saying anything good.
But my anguish increased;
3 my heart grew hot within me.
While I meditated, the fire burned;
then I spoke with my tongue:
4 “Show me, Lord, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
even those who seem secure.
6 “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;
in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth
without knowing whose it will finally be.
__________
What struck me today are David’s questions about the number of his days, the fleeting brevity of his life. This question is the issue that is burning within David, which he is trying in vain to muzzle. He is in anguish as he meditates on how quickly life passes and how like a fleeting breath it ends.
There are no lack of reminders all around us of the brevity of life. Terrorist bombings. Celebrity deaths in the news. Coronavirus. Shootings. The truth is that death is never far from any of our lives if we are reasonably connected to other people. There are mourning people all around us. Perhaps right now you are one of them.
“How fleeting . . . “
“A mere handbreadth . . . “
Yes, because of the brokenness of this fallen world, life is too brief. Painfully, agonizingly, frustratingly brief, and every fiber of our being screams that it should not be so! We know we were made for life. Embracing our culture’s denial of death won’t solve anything. Pious wishful fantasies about grandma watching from the sky won’t really comfort the ache within us. Death needs to be dealt with at its core. It needs to be drained of its power. It needs to be overcome and eradicated.
On Good Friday Jesus experienced the fleeting handbreadth of life as His was extinguished on the cross. But this – along with the victory that came three days later– is the answer to David’s anguish. And ours. Jesus took death on, and by taking it all on Himself, drained it of its power. All the weapons of the enemy came crashing down on Him, and He took them all with Him to the cross and the tomb.
On the cross we see not just the death of Jesus. We see the death of death. For in Him and only in Him life – true life in the new creation – is not brief, not a mere handbreadth, not a fleeting breath. In Him is Life: Eternal, indestructible, victorious and abundant.
So my prayer today is for those who are mourning, for those who are facing death, for those who are anguished by the brevity of life in this fallen creation. I’m praying for them to have comfort, the only true comfort, which is found in the death and resurrection of Jesus, who has defeated death for us and given us His resurrected life.
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