Title: Life is a stranger
Contents
The text is Psalm 39:4-9
Here are 4 things that life like a stranger should know.
First, you must know that life must have an end.
Verse 4, “O LORD, make me aware of my end.” The end means “end, the end,” meaning death. Knowing that there is an end does not mean that you can know life only with science and knowledge in the world. To truly know life is to know that there is an end. In Luke 16:19-31, the story of the rich and poor Lazarus is introduced. A rich person, a person who is successful in the world, a person with good fortune, a person with a slack figure. So everyone is envious. However, this rich man did not know that the end was coming, and he did not prepare for it, so after he passed away, he saw him crying in pain in the flames of hell. We should always be vigilant, knowing that there is an end to life, and live a life that pleases God.
Second, we must know that life has a set time limit.
Verse 4 “Let us know our age” Life has a given period and a fixed period. In Psalm 90:10, “Our years are seventy, and if we are strong, we are eighty years old, but they boast only in toil and sorrow; they go quickly, and we fly away.” There is a set deadline. We do not live indefinitely, we live the life God has given us, but many people do not live up to that limit. Still, we Christians go to heaven, but the lives we live knowing that this world is everything is amazing. According to Isaiah 38:5, King Hezekiah lived 15 years longer than the number of days he had lived. Proverbs 5:9 “May your days be taken away by the cruel” Dear saints, I pray that you will save your time and live a life filled with the Holy Spirit for the number of years God has appointed.
Third, life must know its own weaknesses.
Verse 4 “O LORD, make me aware of my weakness” When a person knows his weakness, he can live righteously and depend on God. We need to know our own weaknesses. Isaiah 64:8 “We are clay, and you are the potter; we are all the work of your hands.” Knowing that we are as fragile as earthen vessels, we must humbly rely entirely on God. If we meet the Lord properly, the body dies, and the spirit lives, but if we do not meet the Lord, the spirit dies and only the body lives. We must be awake before God. Many of the great people in the Bible were arrogant at first, but after meeting the Lord properly, they realized their weakness and became humble.
①Moses: When you were young, how confident were you when you learned Egyptian culture and gained authority as the son of a princess? They even do murder. However, 40 years later, after meeting the Lord in front of a thorn bush at the foot of Mount Horeb in the wilderness of Midian, he realized his weakness and was used as a humble person. ②David: Although he was a king who had great power, he knew his weakness before the rebuke of the prophet Nathan, and humbly fell down before God and repented, becoming a man pleasing to God. ③Paul: As a student of Gamaliel, how proud were you when you were running on the road to success? But it was completely broken after meeting the Lord on the road to Damascus. “I am the chief of sinners.” He became humble and became an apostle to the Gentiles. ④John: He was so quick-tempered that he was called the “son of thunder.” However, after meeting the Lord, John became an “Apostle of Love.” Let's be humble. If you have a church office, you need to be more humble. If you have had a long life of faith, you should be more humble. If you have been to the Shepherd Church for a long time, you should be more humble.
Fourth, you should know that life is short.
Verse 5, “You have made my days a span a span, and my whole life is as if nothing before you.”
King David, through the text, expresses how finite life is, contrary to God's infinity, and expresses that life is short, but that life is futile. This expression is that in the light of God's eternity, life is almost non-existent. God is eternal from eternity to eternity. “As long as a span is the length of my day” means the same as “as wide as a hand”. For the Hebrews, “as wide as a hand” is a very small, short word that expresses one thing.
Dear brothers and sisters, I pray that you will realize once again that life is like this, and live with hope in my eternal hometown of heaven, where I will return to this world as a sojourner.