Psalm 39:4-6 - May 4, 2009

Ps 39:4-6 "Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. 5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath. Selah 6 Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it." NIV

Do you believe that the length of your life is in the hands of the Lord? Do you accept the fact that some things are not yours to control? David did. This psalm is such a model of a surrendered life. David acknowledges that his future is ultimately in the hands of the Lord and not his to control. There are a number of life lessons contained in these three verses. The first picture that David paints is a call to live a life of humility before the Lord. In humble submission David acknowledges that it is God who has set the number of his days and before the eternal God the length of his life is as nothing.
This understanding is the same revelation that Job received in his encounter with the Lord as the Lord confronts Job with the reminder of his own limitations, Job 38:4-21 "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. 5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone- 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? 8 "Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, 9 when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, 10 when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, 11 when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt'? 12 "Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, 13 that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? 14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. 15 The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken. 16 "Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? 17 Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? 18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this. 19 "What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? 20 Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings? 21 Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!” The years of a man’s life are as a drop in a bucket of water compared to the eternal God and we are called to live before Him in humility and submission.
The second lesson implied in these few verses of Psalm 39 is the call to steward our time. If my time is so fleeting and my days so short, if it really is given to me as a gift from God, then I am responsible to Him. In Ps. 90:12 the psalmist asks for this same revelation of his life’s days so that he may live with wisdom. Oh that we would cultivate this same sober response to the span of our lives. Many of us waste so much of our potential on that which is worthless. In Psalm 119:37 the psalmist cries out that the Lord would turn his eyes from “looking at worthless things.” In Jonah 2:8 the consequences of wasting our lives on what is worthless are revealed, "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” How much more will God do in the life of those who live diligently before Him, stewarding time as a treasure invested in us.
The third sobering reminder of this passage is the call to guard our hearts from becoming attached to the material things of this life. What revealing language David chooses as he speaks of man “bustling about” vainly “heaping up wealth.” The tendency of the heart of man is to find his identity in the things that he has accumulated and accomplished, but the point of David’s discourse is the reminder that all of these things will fade away and that every treasure will end up serving someone else because our days are numbered. Jesus confronted this stronghold in the life of the rich young ruler who was a morally upright young man but his attachment to his own possessions was binding him from truly following God with a whole heart. There is no sin in great wealth; the problem is when our possessions possess us! God entrusts His stewards with resources to accomplish His purpose and at the end of life’s journey each man will stand before Him like the servants with the talents in the parables of Jesus and be asked to give an account for how they used what they had been given to bring increase to the master’s wealth. Today examine how you are using the resources you have been asked to steward for the Lord. Have you brought a harvest for the Lord’s purposes with how you have handled both your time and your wealth? Lord teach us that we might bear good fruit!