For the director of music. For Jeduthun. A psalm of David.
1 I said, “I will watch my ways
and keep my tongue from sin;
I will put a muzzle on my mouth
while in the presence of the wicked.”
2 So I remained utterly silent,
not even saying anything good.
But my anguish increased;
3 my heart grew hot within me.
While I meditated, the fire burned;
then I spoke with my tongue:
4 “Show me, Lord, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
even those who seem secure.
6 “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;
in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth
without knowing whose it will finally be.
7 “But now, Lord, what do I look for?
My hope is in you.
8 Save me from all my transgressions;
do not make me the scorn of fools.
9 I was silent; I would not open my mouth,
for you are the one who has done this.
10 Remove your scourge from me;
I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
11 When you rebuke and discipline anyone for their sin,
you consume their wealth like a moth —
surely everyone is but a breath.
12 “Hear my prayer, Lord,
listen to my cry for help;
do not be deaf to my weeping.
I dwell with you as a foreigner,
a stranger, as all my ancestors were.
13 Look away from me, that I may enjoy life again
before I depart and am no more.”
John 14:2-4
Jesus Prepares Our Room in Heaven
2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.
In most if not all of King David's Psalms, he shows us his emotions, his feelings toward his life, and how close He is to his LORD...He is not ashamed of being emotional or moody in the Psalms that he writes, and we learn much about David, as a man and his beliefs, and how much he prays and talks to his Father in heaven...
The Psalmist David wanted the LORD to show him his life's end, and to give him the number of his days (that he has left to live)...I am not sure I want to know the date of my death, but the older and older one gets it is easier to pinpoint an approximate date of your life's end...King David may have been getting up in his years, when he wrote this Psalm...And maybe he wanted the LORD to tell him as he aged when he was no longer going to be king...The aging body wears down and a new king would always come...King David knew there would be a time he was no longer Israeli's King...He may have needed reminded that our time on earth is limited, he would need to make room for his son Solomon to take over -and he needed to decide what he would do after his rule ended...
David tells us that life is very short and fragile...Each man's life is but a breadth in God's time...Maybe when we know the reality of our own death, the rest of our life can be lived with greater importance to us, when we trust in the LORD as David did...He asks to be saved and pardoned for his sins...
We are but strangers here, mere aliens, as we walk along the short path of life, until we make it to our real home and are resting in our Father's house, in a room prepared by His Son...It will be the place where our Spirit, meets with the Father and the Son -and we may, in fact, enjoy life again...For there we shall depart no more...