WHEN ETERNITY COMES NEAR

Ps.39:4-6 – LORD, let me know my end,

And what is the extent of my days;

Let me know how transient I am.

Behold, You have made my days like hand widths,

And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight;

Certainly all mankind standing is a mere breath. Selah

Certainly every person walks around as a fleeting shadow;

They certainly make an uproar for nothing;

He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.

I think one of the strangest things about getting older is how quickly the time is flying by. Each day, month, year, and even decades seem to be just flying by me. In today’s passage David is making note of that, just how transient our lives are, and asking the Lord for a sense of eternity in his life. I think that is something all of us need to catch a real glimpse of; life is precious, our days are numbered, and eternity is very real. We may all know this in our heads but when we see it, you know, really see it as a reality in our world, it will affect everything we do in an enormous way. Jesus lived with that sense of eternity, it comes from communion with the Father. Here is something Augustine said about all of this.

“But here the prayer is not simply, “Make me know the number of my days,” but “Make me know the number of them that ‘is.’ ” What does that mean?… These days of ours do not have being; they depart almost before they arrive, and when they do arrive they cannot stand still. They join onto each other; they follow one another and cannot hold themselves together. Nothing of the past can be called back, and the future that we await will pass away; as long as it has not come, we do not possess it, and when it has come, we cannot keep hold of it.… What I am seeking is the simple “is.” I seek the true “is,” … which is the bride of my Lord, where there will be no death, no deficiency, where the day passes not but abides, the day that is preceded by no yesterday and hustled on by no tomorrow. “Make known to me the number of my days,” this number, “the number that is.””

This revelation of eternity is simply a revelation of the kingdom of God. When you see the nearness and reality of God’s kingdom for yourself you see how it will change the way you live. No one has to set up a bunch of rules and regulations in the kingdom mindset, your life becomes heavily influenced by the love of God. Your worship changes because you love Him. You seek Him in the scriptures because you love Him. You abstain from sin because you love Him. You do your utmost to win souls because you love Him. Love is the life of eternity, it becomes our life when eternity comes near.