“Lord, reveal to me the end of my life and the number of my days. Let me know how short-lived I am. You, indeed, have made my days short in length, and my life span as nothing in Your sight. Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor. Selah.” (Psalms 39:4-5, HCSB)
It may hurt our ego to think of ourselves as vapors; a wisp of life; appearing then disappearing in the blink of an eye, but against the vast backdrop of time and human history, that is what we are.
Yet, too often we act as if we are going to inhabit the earth indefinitely. We ignore the wisdom of the bumper sticker: “Life is short. Eternity is long.”
In today’s scripture, David asked God to remind him of the brevity of this life. Indeed, as believers in Jesus, we do have life after life. But let the reality of our small, short, life-span — and the reminder of each day’s obituaries — provoke us to be recklessly gracious to others; increasingly shrewd in our evaluation of the things that shall pass and the things that shall endure; and more obedient to our heavenly Father in all things. – Luther
