Tuesday 11th April
Read Psalm 90:3-6
“You turn people back to dust,
saying, ‘Return to dust, you mortals.’
4 A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
5 Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death –
they are like the new grass of the morning:
6 In the morning it springs up new,
but by evening it is dry and withered.” (NIVUK)
It is only as we age that we reflect on life’s fragility and briefness. The brevity of life is centre stage in this psalm. Generation after generation go past (v1) but the Lord Himself is from ‘everlasting to everlasting’ (v2). Just as humanity was created from the dust of the earth, so we are now returned to that dust by God’s word (v3). The psalmist will explain why life is so brief later (v7-11), but at this point the contrast he establishes is brutal. Not even a day, just a watch in the darkness, is the length of life (v4) compared with the unending span of time. Particularly when one considers that immediately after God’s word established that,
“By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.’” (Genesis 3:19) (NIVUK)
Moses describes the immense length of days of early humans (Genesis 5). Yet none of them even reached to a thousand years. Even their mighty length of years is considered nothing more than the three-hour watch before dawn in the sight of Yahweh. It is not the most uplifting thought on which to dwell! Life is brief. Even briefer now.
Peter does find something uplifting though. As people begin to mock the absence of Jesus, his ‘slow’ return to judge the earth, Peter reminds these new Christians of this important fact.
“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:8-9) (NIVUK)
Jesus is not slow in returning, barely two ‘watches of the night’ have passed! God’s eternity works in favour of those yet to repent. But even so we are encouraged not to delay – because life truly is brief (cf 2 Corinthians 6:2).
It is only as we age that we reflect on life’s fragility and briefness. The psalmist would have us ponder it sooner than that.
