“Let Your work appear to Your servants, and Your glory to their children. ![]() Now in the final two verses of Psalm 90, a glimmer of hope appears. Like the psalmist, a desire remains for life to have joy, meaning and purpose. “The Hebrew verb turn/return (shûv)…is the verb used in the prophetic literature to call on the people to return (in repentance) to their God.” 6 “Oh, satisfy us early with your mercy that we may rejoice and be glad all our days!” 7 We now know that in our fallen state we can do nothing but cry out for mercy. We are literally asking God to repent and to have mercy on us. With the psalmist, our hearts cry out, “Return, O Lord! How long? And have compassion on Your servants.” 5 This is a bold plea issued out of desperation. Slowly with disturbing surety, our minds grasp our dire situation. And insignificant, temporal creatures that we are, we have sinned against the eternal God and have angered Him. Like the grass that withers, our labor is futile and fleeting. In comparison to eternity, our life is but a breath. “So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” 4 Realization begins to dawn. But why, you might ask, what have I ever done to Him? “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.” 3 Every wrong done is unveiled before this eternal Creator God, and we cannot hide. Why this brevity of life? If so shallow a whisper, why is man even spoken? And if once destined for greater things as the beat within man’s heart cries, why now the futility? Psalm 90 verse 7 answers “For…” The reason? God is angry with us. So is man’s time when held to the eternal standard. Though he flourishes in the day, by evening he is withered and gone. Verse four further compares the eternal time of God to man’s temporal, fleeting time: “For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night.” Furthermore, man himself is passing away, here and gone like a sudden flood, soon forgotten like the sleep of night. The time of God is also brought into the picture-His time is eternal, “from everlasting to everlasting.” 2 In contrast, verse three states that man will be destroyed, giving reference to inevitable death. In verse one of Psalm 90, God is introduced as both a refuge and the Creator. I invite you then to follow me on a path through time that will lead to answers for today. Through an exploration of Psalm 90, this article will strive to give answer to the eternal question of meaning and purpose, particularly in the entrepreneurial realm of business. Psalm 90 clearly describes this conundrum of human life and powerfully gives a word of hope to the existence and purpose of man. “We finish our years like a sigh…their boast is only labor and sorrow for soon it is cut off, and we fly away.” 1 Of what use then will our accomplishments be when the memory of them has long faded? Of what purpose was our life when the spotlight has sought its next celebrity? Our hearts begin to despair at the hopelessness, meaninglessness, and futility. Slowly our strength ebbs, and exhausted we collapse in the dust only to realize that from dust we came and irrevocably to dust we will return. A glance at our magazines and self-help books reminds us that our worth and meaning will be found once we finally capture the elusive prize of wealth, fame, or similar significance. ![]() From the midst of the scurry, we occasionally lift our heads and pause long enough to wonder what we are striving for, if there is lasting purpose in what we do, or if we are caught on an endless wheel. ![]() In our modern society, much of life is spent at a frantic pace, an endless striving to keep up with the many demands placed upon it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |