How are you? How is your week going? Have you reflected on the expiring and the everlasting?
This past Sunday, we talked about the brevity of the human life. Our days are numbered. We are like the grass and the flowers of the field. We will live short lives, and we will all die.
When you look at life with this lens, it will bring you into an existential crisis. I remember experiencing this crisis when I was a child. I asked myself all these questions: What is the point of living if we’re all going to die anyway? What is the purpose behind trying when everything will fade away? What are we doing if everything is vanity and we will eventually lose our place?
Once you start on this thought trajectory, it can get depressing really quickly, especially when you start to think about the wickedness of man. What is our hope for this dying world and for our expiring lives? What is the point? What is the purpose?
Psalm 103 gives us the answer. It’s the steadfast love of God of which David says is from everlasting to everlasting. Although we are dying, we will live forever in His everlasting steadfast love. Although we will lose our place, God’s steadfast love will hold our place for all eternity. Although we are insignificant, God’s steadfast love tells us that we are significant. Although it may seem like we don’t matter, God’s steadfast love tells us that we do matter.
How do we know this? It’s because God’s steadfast love is fulfilled in and embodied by Christ. Although we deserve death because of our sin, Jesus took on our sin on the cross for us. Although our place should fade away, Jesus took our place on the cross and received the judgment for us.
How is God’s everlasting steadfast love our hope in the midst of our dying lives? It’s because the One who is everlasting became an expiring man in order to die for us.
This is our sure hope in the midst of a dying world. This is what gives us an eternal purpose in the midst of our purposeless lives. This is what gives us strength through hardship and difficulty. As Psalm 103 so eloquently describes the steadfast love of God, I encourage you to read through the whole psalm this week. Meditate on it. And may it become true for you, and may it give you life.
See you on Sunday for Lord’s Day Worship, and please prepare your hearts for the Table.
In Christ,
Pastor Tim
Photo Credit: Here