The ChurchTogether event held in Perth recently featured a guy by the name of John Bishop. John, who hails from Oregon, spoke on destiny and how the worst day in a person’s life can in fact turn out to be their best day (as so many are saved into the kingdom of God this way [like me, for instance] can appreciate). We heard that John had had a serious accident and his life literally hung by thread. It was decision time for him; God pressed him for an answer. He highlighted that we’re destined (as we believe) to die only once, then we are to be judged[1] for what we actually did and did not do. And he alluded to the fact that when we all (yes, all) come face to face with God, he might actually say,
“Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'” –Matthew 7:21-23 (NIV).
Do we want to be recognised by God or not? That is the question in truth; we may have confessed with our mouths and even given a lifetime of service in his Name; yet it could all be for nought as Jesus is truly only ever known through the heart. I, personally, can vouch for the false, incomplete, pharisaic faith--I spent thirteen years there! Humbling isn’t it? Where are you? Seek a 'heart-full' of the Lord now while there is still time; he will cause you to repent.
Psalm 39 recognises some facts of life regarding our acts and eternity and the Psalmist seeks to reconcile himself to them. He is fervently watchful of his tongue though he knows it’s only a matter of time before he’ll be pressed to blurt out something, later to be regretted; in this he acknowledges his need for God and the fact that his life is but a whisper, a wisp of air--his days numbered.
And that’s the fact for us all. There is the humbling brevity of life, echoing the sentiment of Job and Ecclesiastes. Who of us really wants the bad news, yet that is what the Psalmist begs for. For most of us, our lives are significant--but of what significance is most of what we choose to do in light of God’s plan. To state it more plainly, what would we do, or not do, if we had more of a plain view of eternity at mind and at heart? Our days are numbered. It’s a fact. So what are we going to do with the rest of them? Are we ‘redeeming time,’ making the most of every opportunity, as Paul urges us to do in Ephesians 5:15-17?
No matter how resolved we are to keeping our mouths closed we always end up spilling the beans in one or another don’t we? Socrates, called Scholasticus, met a plain man called Pambo for bible study sometime in the 5th Century. They opened up to Psalm 39 and read about not sinning with the tongue; Pambo went off enthusiastically after his first lesson vowing to not return until he mastered it--he returned forty-nine years later and still hadn’t mastered it.[2] James devotes a whole half chapter to the deadly tongue, the scourge of humankind. Indeed, our hearts grow hot within us and we don’t contain them; we can’t, though we try, and we can and do get better, but we’re destined to imperfection this side of the wall.
Verse 7 jumps to the present. The Message paraphrase is strikingly similar to a vision of God I had in a dream recently:
“What am I doing in the meantime, Lord? Hoping, that's what I'm doing—hoping...”
It is a hoping for salvation--that the purposes of life that are true, in God, won’t be missed. In all the turmoil that the Psalmist experiences, he places his hope directly upon the only one who can save. This is real ‘fear of the LORD’ stuff; the discipline and rebuke to hasten and chasten us beyond our own small minds and hearts. It’s a terrific brush of truth.
This is a psalm of the second chance. Not only does he seek reconciliation and ongoing relationship with the living God, but he seeks opportunity for some life experience before he leaves for good. Any opportunity to rejoice and gain strength to live would be good. And we want more strength and we want more success; we live for it. It spurs us on.
This is an outstandingly rich psalm of biblically epic proportions. It calls forward to a time and a theology of salvation, yet it speaks beyond the past back to the very reaches of time into eternity.
Copyright © 2008, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
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