4 Inches of Life

It is a good thing to be reminded just how short my life is. When I am healthy and full of energy and busy with work and family life seems like it will just go on forever. In the busyness I do not often take the time to meditate on the shortness of my days.

In Psalm 39 King David is suffering, possibly from physical illness. He is struggling inwardly with all the questions that suffering raises to the surface. He is trying to be careful to hold his tongue so that he does not say anything that shows disdain for the Lord or that questions His goodness. When he finally speaks, the outpouring of his soul includes questions and statements regarding the brevity and frailty of his life. He says,

"O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!" vv.4-5

God has made our days a "handbreadth." A handbreadth was the distance across the 4 fingers of the hand, about 4 inches. My life...a few inches of time. From where I stand most of the time life looks endless. I am strong and healthy and encouraged (much of the time) and life for this guy looks like kilometers or miles! But against the backdrop of eternity, in comparison to God, I can measure my life with a grade school ruler.

A few implications from this truth:

• I need to live with the END in mind. If I am in Christ, eternity in Heaven is my permanent lot. Life is for loving and serving God in a way that lays up rewards that will be measured in more loving and serving God through the endless ages to come. As Randy Alcorn says, "You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead." What are you sending ahead?
• Humility. I tend to think that my life is the BIG PIECE of the puzzle of what God is assembling in this world. Surely the impact of my life is what the church through the ages has been waiting for and the angels in heaven have been longing for. But my life is one small, short piece. A piece to be sure, by God's grace, but one amongst the numberless multitude that Christ will win as a reward for His sufferings and that He will use to bring universal applause to His name when it's all said and done.
• God is my hope. David writes in v.7 of Psalm 39, "And now, O Lord, for what do i wait? My hope is in you." I can forever moan over the brevity and frailty of my life or I can turn my heart's gaze to the ETERNAL ONE, who sovereignly and purposefully controls all things. My confident expectation is that God is FOR ME, the 4-inch life, with plans and rewards that are quatrillion of miles in length...and that's just the warm up phase!

A proper view of a short life is meant to lead us to a LONG look at our eternal God.