#DailyDevotion Life Is Fleeting. Our Hope Is In Jesus
Introit (Ps. 39:4–5, 7–8, 12a; antiphon: 2 Pet. 3:13b NIV)
we expect new heavens and a new earth where righteousness lives.
4“O LORD, tell me about my end, how many days I have left, so that I know how fleeting my life is. 5You made my days a few inches, and my whole life is nothing to You…7And so, what is there for me to look forward to, Lord? You are my hope! 8Save me from all the wrong I’ve done, and don’t make me the scorn of fools…12Listen to my prayer, O LORD, and hear my cry for help.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
we expect new heavens and a new earth where righteousness lives.
The antiphon from the introit sets the tone for introit, is the first to introduce the theme for the rest of the lessons for Sunday morning. The antiphon is not from the Psalms as usual but from 2 Peter, its context there being the coming judgment, Christ’s second coming, the destruction of this cosmos and its renewal. “We expect new heavens and a new earth where righteousness lives.” Fears of mankind destroying this world and mankind along with it are unfounded. Can we mess it up a bit, certainly. But mankind isn’t going anywhere that the world itself isn’t going, along will creation at the hand of God. We shouldn’t fear it but rather look forward to the day Christ comes and gives all who follow him a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness lives. This new creation will no longer be tainted by man’s sin or the curse. Only the righteousness of God will be there. I do believe it will be better than even it was in Paradise before the fall.
So no with that context we have selected verses from Psalm 39. In this Psalm David contemplates his own mortality and transitiveness. We would do well to follow suit. He asks the LORD to make known to him how many days he has left so he realizes how fleeting his life is. When we are young we are not concerned with such things. When we are much older, we look back and see how fleeting time actually it. It was only yesterday I got married, I graduated from college and high school, and I was riding my bike popping wheelies. Where did the time go?
Our life is but a few inches on the timeline. David seems a bit disturbed by it. He thinks his life is nothing to God. David has a short refrain not in the introit, “Every man stands there as just a vapor.” It does seem pretty pointless. We live, we accumulate things, and then we die. What difference does it all make. Then there is all the wrong we have done which we are answerable to God for at the judgment. That makes things even worse. We probably didn’t leave the world behind better than we found it.
David cries out and so should we, “You are my hope!” The LORD Jesus Christ is most certainly our hope as well. David has the audacity to ask the LORD to save him from the wrong he has done. Yet the LORD does just that in Jesus Christ. We look in hope to him. He did the good we did not. He resisted the tempter for us. Jesus on the cross atoned for our sins by shedding his blood and ransomed us. Christ’s death paid the price for our sins. His resurrection conquered death for us. His ascension to the right hand of God foretells the glory he has prepared for all who trust in him.
Gracious God and Father help us to number our days and know our weakness that we may cast our hope upon Jesus and in him await the new creation. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.