Getting life into perspective
October 30, 2017
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Psalm 90: 1-6
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling-place
in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.3 You turn us back to dust,
and say, ‘Turn back, you mortals.’
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are like yesterday when it is past,
or like a watch in the night.5 You sweep them away; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning;
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
The psalmist paints this evocative picture of God who has been our ‘home’ since the beginning of time and compares it sharply with the fleetingness of our own lives; the image of the grass flourishing, fading and withering is sobering. Our sense of time from ‘I’ve got all the time in the world’ to ‘time is running out’ contrasts sharply with God’s ‘a thousand years is like yesterday when it is past’.
Mary Oliver, a poet, ends one of her pieces with the question;
‘what are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?”
And it's a question for every age, to begin the morning with, to end the day with, to use to look back on a year past and to look forward for the year to come.
God of our past, or present and our future
God of the NOW
God in our good days and our bad days,
guide us in our thinking and doing and being today.
let us never lose sight of the goal
God our home and our hope. Amen.
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