01/15/2009 Psalms 39:6

01/15/2009

Psalms 39:6 - 7 (HCSB) ⁶Certainly, man walks about like a mere shadow.
    Indeed, they frantically rush around in vain,
    gathering possessions
    without knowing who will get them.
⁷“Now, Lord, what do I wait for?
    My hope is in You.
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Have you ever been to an “estate sale”? I like those. Unlike the traditional garage sale, an estate sale has some really good stuff. The things that a person has accumulated over a lifetime now up for sale. The owner and curator of these items has passed on and their heirs (if they have any) have left these things for the public to pick through and haggle over. there is an area in North Dallas where the wealthy live. That is a great place to go estate shopping.

But somehow, as you stand in a 3-million dollar house, looking at things you could never afford (along with a few trinkets you can), you can’t help but wonder about these people’s lives. Who were the people who spent a lifetime accumulating these specific items?

Perhaps they were like those persons who always seem to be in a hurry. They are always busy with something and their list of things to do never gets any shorter. We sometimes call those people “type-A”, but really, anyone can have that sense about them. They always need to be doing something. If they sit, then something, somewhere is being neglected.

I’m not necessarily suggesting that all wealthy people have that personality, but this is how the psalmist describes people who see this life as more important than eternity. If the author was David, then imagine as he watched the advisors and other officials in the palace as they hurried about like ants never taking a moments rest. Look how the author classifies these people: “frantically rush[ing] around in vain, gathering possessions without knowing who will get them.” “Who will get them” is an allusion to inheritance. Someday, those frantic people will be gone. All the possessions they (or perhaps we) have collected will become someone else’s property. Everything they (or we) own will someday be in an estate sale, garage sale, or perhaps in the garbage.

Why do we work so hard for things?

Are we putting some hope in these things for security, happiness, health?

The psalmist concludes very well, that our hope should be in the Lord. When we pass from this life to the next, that is the only thing we take with us: our hope in the Lord. Shouldn’t our focus in this life be more centered on what we CAN take with us?

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