Articles
Meditations of the Heart (Ps. 39:4-5)
Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but a vapor. (Ps 39:4-5)
Thoughts of the brevity and uncertainty of life are often unsettling, and some deal with the discomfort by avoidance. But this was not David’s attitude; he prayed for awareness of his frailty. Why?
David was never stronger than when his life was in dire jeopardy. In such times we repeatedly read of David seeking God’s guidance and pleading for protection – first from Saul and later from the Philistines and other enemies.
It is when we forget our vulnerability and turn our attention to the things of this world that we lose perspective. We tend to drift from God, depend on ourselves, pursue our own agendas. Indeed, this happened to David later in life. Whenever our end comes, if we have the advantage of seeing it approach, our earthly existence will have seemed short. Let’s live each day so as to have no regrets.
