New Years Psalm 2
Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
You turn people back to dust,
saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”
A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—
they are like the new grass of the morning:
In the morning it springs up new,
but by evening it is dry and withered.
Psalm 90:2-6
We live in the strangest of times. We have never been more aware of abstract suffering due to social media and global news. And yet, we have never been further from it personally.
I turned 42 this year. In almost any other time in history, I could expect to have had at least one wife and the majority of my children die. I would have fought in a war, or had friends die from war. My body would be a series of aches and pains from hard labour, tooth decay and an absence of painkillers.
These realities have led humans, as long as there has been writing, to consider the problem of death, suffering and God. I won’t go into the philosophical history of what we call ‘theodicy’. But Psalm 90 deals with this very subject and reminds us of two principles:
Firstly, that God is God and we are not:
I’ll go on into tomorrow’s blog with the second principle. But maybe suffering and hardship have been an ongoing struggle between you and God. Whether it’s abstract or deeply personal, as we ask “why”, the first thing to remember is that God is God.
For Today:
Pray:
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
You turn people back to dust,
saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”
A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—
they are like the new grass of the morning:
In the morning it springs up new,
but by evening it is dry and withered.
Psalm 90:2-6
We live in the strangest of times. We have never been more aware of abstract suffering due to social media and global news. And yet, we have never been further from it personally.
I turned 42 this year. In almost any other time in history, I could expect to have had at least one wife and the majority of my children die. I would have fought in a war, or had friends die from war. My body would be a series of aches and pains from hard labour, tooth decay and an absence of painkillers.
These realities have led humans, as long as there has been writing, to consider the problem of death, suffering and God. I won’t go into the philosophical history of what we call ‘theodicy’. But Psalm 90 deals with this very subject and reminds us of two principles:
Firstly, that God is God and we are not:
- God is everlasting, He was before creation.
- He is creator. He brought forth the whole world.
- He has the power over life and death.
- He is timeless while we are finite.
I’ll go on into tomorrow’s blog with the second principle. But maybe suffering and hardship have been an ongoing struggle between you and God. Whether it’s abstract or deeply personal, as we ask “why”, the first thing to remember is that God is God.
For Today:
- Do you see that God is God?
- What does it mean to you that He is?
- Pray for those who are suffering today.
Pray:
- Praise the Father that He is from everlasting to everlasting, He is God.
- Give thanks for Jesus Christ who came to suffer as one of us.
- Ask God for His Holy Spirit to help you and others be at peace with who God is.
Posted in Psalms
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