You sweep them away as with a flood. They are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
(Verses 5-6)
Our lives are like floods, dreams and grasses. I'd like to take those one at a time. Remember it's Moses writing this psalm. He has a new group to take to the border of the Promised Land. He is not allowed to enter, though. Moses took on God's anger and disobeyed Him when he struck the rock in the wilderness instead of speaking to it as he was instructed (Numbers 20). After all the years of struggle with a "stiff-necked and stubborn" people, Moses is left out. He was eighty when God met him at the burning bush and commissioned him to free the Jews from Egypt. For forty more years the prophet walked around and around in the desert, waiting for a generation of griping, sinful people to die off. God got them out of Egypt but couldn't get Egypt out of them. Their children and grandchildren, who had no memory of the good ole days of slavery, were now ready to take all God had planned. So at the ripe old age of 120, Moses looks back at life--lives.
The flood. Moses watched as God's hand took several thousand people out at one time. Came in like a torrent flowing through a canyon and passed swift judgment on the fornicating, drunken and blaspheming nation as it built a golden calf out of the jewelry they took from Egypt. This, while Moses is up on a holy mountain receiving the law from God. The Israelites thought Moses died up there. It'd been over a month and they hadn't heard hide nor hair from him. Let's make up our own god! Why did that sound like such a good idea? Because their hearts were still trapped in Egypt. Many were born there and missed the food and their former culture. And, they were stuck in the desert. When Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, glowing from the presence of God, what he saw was an NC-17 scene playing out in the sand and a shining golden calf glistening in the sun. Furious, Moses broke the tablets. Broke the law...as they were. God was, of course, even more outraged by this people He loved enough to rescue from slavery. Whoosh. A flood of deaths to remind them of His holiness. Suddenly a plague overtook those who had made the golden calf and worshipped it. God might've destroyed them all, but Moses reminded Him of His promises.
The dream. I had one last night. It was so real I awakened from it with a sense it had actually taken place. Wide-eyed, I had trouble going back to sleep. But the dream came and went. A phantom of the night. Leaving its trace in my mind, but evaporating in the dark of my room. I'm sure as Moses stood on Mount Nebo and thought of all that he'd been through, it seemed to have gone by so quickly. Here they were, ready to go over into their dream land. He'd taken them through the nightmare, and all he could do was bask in one long glance at the green trees and lush fruits of his labors without touching them. Maybe he took a deep breath and thought, like I have lately, that it all went by so fast. Life, like a dream, that's left its aura on your soul and then is gone. Will the vapor that is me leave a mark to be remembered, or will I fade quickly into the background like my dream last night?
The grass. Renewed each morning by dew. Our youth is spent in growing, our strength encouraged by the water and sun pouring power into our heart and limbs. We get better. Wiser. Moses must've remembered his relative youthfulness when they all started out. The vigor with which he trusted his God to miraculously deliver His people. The energy to organize and drive a crowd of over a million people toward Cana. As the years passed, the weariness set in. The same old problems with the same old crowd. And, Moses was getting older. Evening was casting its shadow over his life. The dew wasn't quite as able to quench his thirst. Withering set in. Life was fading naturally into death.
Since we will go away someday, somehow, maybe it's the now we should involve ourselves in. Looking back to Egypt, that slavery we were caught up in and remember as being such a kick, might just sweep us away in a flood of misery and death. If life evaporates like a dream, with Moses, I want to do the thing God wants today. Leave a fragrance where I've been like the perfume of a woman stays on your clothes when she has walked away. That there is a trace of me that lingers for God's glory. If we are allowed to journey into dusk, fading and withering, our years are still few. But there are generations behind us who need to know in our twilight what our greener years were like. How God was faithful to us. How He loves us. Through the good and bad. So that no matter how they travel through, they end up rejoicing in heaven before a holy God. Now is the only day I'm promised. These hours are important in my short span.
Lord, I want to seize today for You, not dwelling on the past nor fearing the future. Hold my hand because I want to go where You are going every minute of every day!
(Verses 5-6)
Our lives are like floods, dreams and grasses. I'd like to take those one at a time. Remember it's Moses writing this psalm. He has a new group to take to the border of the Promised Land. He is not allowed to enter, though. Moses took on God's anger and disobeyed Him when he struck the rock in the wilderness instead of speaking to it as he was instructed (Numbers 20). After all the years of struggle with a "stiff-necked and stubborn" people, Moses is left out. He was eighty when God met him at the burning bush and commissioned him to free the Jews from Egypt. For forty more years the prophet walked around and around in the desert, waiting for a generation of griping, sinful people to die off. God got them out of Egypt but couldn't get Egypt out of them. Their children and grandchildren, who had no memory of the good ole days of slavery, were now ready to take all God had planned. So at the ripe old age of 120, Moses looks back at life--lives.
The flood. Moses watched as God's hand took several thousand people out at one time. Came in like a torrent flowing through a canyon and passed swift judgment on the fornicating, drunken and blaspheming nation as it built a golden calf out of the jewelry they took from Egypt. This, while Moses is up on a holy mountain receiving the law from God. The Israelites thought Moses died up there. It'd been over a month and they hadn't heard hide nor hair from him. Let's make up our own god! Why did that sound like such a good idea? Because their hearts were still trapped in Egypt. Many were born there and missed the food and their former culture. And, they were stuck in the desert. When Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, glowing from the presence of God, what he saw was an NC-17 scene playing out in the sand and a shining golden calf glistening in the sun. Furious, Moses broke the tablets. Broke the law...as they were. God was, of course, even more outraged by this people He loved enough to rescue from slavery. Whoosh. A flood of deaths to remind them of His holiness. Suddenly a plague overtook those who had made the golden calf and worshipped it. God might've destroyed them all, but Moses reminded Him of His promises.
The dream. I had one last night. It was so real I awakened from it with a sense it had actually taken place. Wide-eyed, I had trouble going back to sleep. But the dream came and went. A phantom of the night. Leaving its trace in my mind, but evaporating in the dark of my room. I'm sure as Moses stood on Mount Nebo and thought of all that he'd been through, it seemed to have gone by so quickly. Here they were, ready to go over into their dream land. He'd taken them through the nightmare, and all he could do was bask in one long glance at the green trees and lush fruits of his labors without touching them. Maybe he took a deep breath and thought, like I have lately, that it all went by so fast. Life, like a dream, that's left its aura on your soul and then is gone. Will the vapor that is me leave a mark to be remembered, or will I fade quickly into the background like my dream last night?
The grass. Renewed each morning by dew. Our youth is spent in growing, our strength encouraged by the water and sun pouring power into our heart and limbs. We get better. Wiser. Moses must've remembered his relative youthfulness when they all started out. The vigor with which he trusted his God to miraculously deliver His people. The energy to organize and drive a crowd of over a million people toward Cana. As the years passed, the weariness set in. The same old problems with the same old crowd. And, Moses was getting older. Evening was casting its shadow over his life. The dew wasn't quite as able to quench his thirst. Withering set in. Life was fading naturally into death.
Since we will go away someday, somehow, maybe it's the now we should involve ourselves in. Looking back to Egypt, that slavery we were caught up in and remember as being such a kick, might just sweep us away in a flood of misery and death. If life evaporates like a dream, with Moses, I want to do the thing God wants today. Leave a fragrance where I've been like the perfume of a woman stays on your clothes when she has walked away. That there is a trace of me that lingers for God's glory. If we are allowed to journey into dusk, fading and withering, our years are still few. But there are generations behind us who need to know in our twilight what our greener years were like. How God was faithful to us. How He loves us. Through the good and bad. So that no matter how they travel through, they end up rejoicing in heaven before a holy God. Now is the only day I'm promised. These hours are important in my short span.
Lord, I want to seize today for You, not dwelling on the past nor fearing the future. Hold my hand because I want to go where You are going every minute of every day!
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