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As I listened through this song and looked at the video of trees: old ones; young ones; dead ones; rotting ones; I felt like the Spirit of God was speaking to my spirit: that just as this Psalm attests, life is brief, but a breath, as evidenced by the forest.

See them standing stately, or gnarled and bent by forces outside their control; look at them, starved for nutrients on the rocky landscape, or reaching tall toward the hot sun! Many have fallen over in death. Can we hear their voices, entreating us to look and learn?

New life springs all around their carcasses. Their decay becomes a source of energy to the next generation, who each benefit from the carbon they've gleaned from the sun, as they return nutrients to the soil.

A tree's life hardly seems like just a "breath," but in terms of eternity, they live hardly any longer than we do.

We too leave behind not just our bodies, but the energy and effort we have put forth to change the world. It is important while we stand in life, to consider the "measure of our days." We may be just a shadow in light of eternity, but what sort of legacy do we leave behind which others "gather up?" Do we create a soil of love and peace, or bitterness and regret? Have we used our short lives to better the world, or are we grasping after personal satisfaction and selfish gain?

None of us are perfect, but we can each invite God to deliver us from ourselves, and to use our frailties to make the earth a better place.

It is only through God's grace that this can happen. O God, guard my ways, muzzle my vain tongue, make me Your tool to bring about a heaven on earth: the Kingdom of God!

Amen

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Psalm 39
Prayer for Wisdom and Forgiveness
To the leader: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

1 I said, ‘I will guard my ways
that I may not sin with my tongue;
I will keep a muzzle on my mouth
as long as the wicked are in my presence.’
2 I was silent and still;
I held my peace to no avail;
my distress grew worse,
3 my heart became hot within me.
While I mused, the fire burned;
then I spoke with my tongue:
4 ‘Lord, let me know my end,
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a few handbreadths,
and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight.
Surely everyone stands as a mere breath.
Selah
6 Surely everyone goes about like a shadow.
Surely for nothing they are in turmoil;
they heap up, and do not know who will gather.
7 ‘And now, O Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in you.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions.
Do not make me the scorn of the fool.
9 I am silent; I do not open my mouth,
for it is you who have done it.
10 Remove your stroke from me;
I am worn down by the blows of your hand.
11 ‘You chastise mortals
in punishment for sin,
consuming like a moth what is dear to them;
surely everyone is a mere breath.
Selah
12 ‘Hear my prayer, O Lord,
and give ear to my cry;
do not hold your peace at my tears.
For I am your passing guest,
an alien, like all my forebears.
13 Turn your gaze away from me, that I may smile again,
before I depart and am no more.’

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

#scripturesongs #psalm39

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