Eternal home
Amidst life’s chaos, some people seek a way to label everything in B&W. God has never offered us such clarity. He invites us, instead, to live within the mystery and the majesty of who he is.
A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
1 Lord, you’ve been our true home
from time immemorial.
2 Before the mountains were born—
before you formed the earth
and gave birth to the world—
from age to endless age
you are God.
3 You turn human beings back to dust
saying: “Turn back, mortals.”
4 A thousand years are to you
like a day—like yesterday, already gone,
or a few hours in the night.
5 You sweep people away like a dream.
We’re like grass that sprouts in the morning:
6 it sprouts and blossoms in the morning
but it’s withered and dead by evening.
7 We’re consumed by your wrath
overwhelmed by your fury.
8 You set our sins out before you
our secret sins in the glare of your gaze.
9 Thus, our days slip away under your wrath
till we end our years with a sigh.
10 Our lifespan is just seventy years
or eighty if our strength holds out.
Yet at best it’s a lot of toil and trouble
which passes all too quickly
before our time is up and we’re gone.
11 Who among us knows
how fierce your anger is
and has the kind of reverence it calls for?
12 Teach us to live one day at a time
fully alive to you
our hearts intent on your wisdom.
13 Turn back, YHWH!
How long will your anger last?
Have pity on your servants.
14 Flood our lives
with your unfailing love every morning
so we may sing for joy
for the rest of our lives.
15 Give us good times
for as many years as you’ve given us bad—
joy equal to our pain.
16 Show your servants
what you can do for them
such that their children glimpse your glory.
17 And may the smile of our Master and God
light up our lives
and make all we do endure.
Yes, make all we do endure.
Moses found leading the rebellious Israelites through the wilderness for forty years a major chore. What else would have revealed the ravages of time like such a trek? But through it he came to know God as few others have. And Moses lived before the Israelites had a homeland, holy city, monarchy, or temple. When all they had was God.
The Psalter’s Book III focused largely on how the Israelites had lost all those other things in the exile. In this psalm, which opens Book IV, Moses anchors all he says in the eternal God, his people’s true home. The chiastic structure of verses 1-2—God, time, space (mountains), space (earth/world), time, God—gives us the sense that time and space are fully encompassed by our eternal God.
Moses addresses all our biggest challenges—life’s combined hardships, uncertainty, and brevity, as well as our sins, and God’s anger over them. The list may seem depressing, but Moses is just facing the fact that all our walls are paper-thin. Verses 11-12 give us his key to flourishing, despite life’s many challenges: we must learn to live wisely, reverently, mindful of God’s intolerance of evil, fully alive each day to the God who is our home.
Moses concludes by asking for an end to God’s anger and for God’s unfailing love to replace his people’s misery with joyful song, He wants gladness equal to the prolonged discipline they’ve endured, blessing so unmistakable that their kids will see God’s splendor in it. He wants God’s favor to crown all his people do with lasting success. Death and God’s hatred of sin are constant realities in our existence. But Moses reserves the last word for God’s smile, his favor making all we do endure.
You’re my true home, Lord. Help me live one day at a time, reverently, alive to your constant presence. Help me believe you want joy to fill my life more than I do. Help me let go of the past and entrust my future to you. And may your favor crown all I do today with lasting success. Amen.
During your free moments today, pray this prayer:
Teach us to live one day at a time
fully alive to you
our hearts intent on your wisdom.
