Make me to know how frail I am

Psalm 39:4 says,

"Lord, make me to know my end,
And what is the measure of my days,
That I may know how frail I am."

To those who will live forever, this life is indeed very short, only a vapor, not an enduring solid.

But why would David want to know what his end will be?  Why would anyone want to know how long he was destined to live, at which time he would have to die?  No one wants to know, except the one who has a solid faith in eternal life.  Only Jesus Christ has promised this.  The Old Testament saints had some idea of eternal life.  David certainly taught such ideas.  The translation of Enoch and Elijah (without death) also argues for an eternal life.

But Jesus promised it explicitly.  Not only did He promise it, but he demonstrated it by his own resurrection and ascension.  No other religion can make such an iron-clad guarantee of eternal life to those who believe.  But that is our end, endless; and the measure of our days is without measure.

Praise be the the Lord Jesus Christ!  To know that our end is only passing from here to There is wonderful. We are not going away, just going home to Him who is our Maker, and to be forever with our Redeemer.  And the end that we face here, death, is only a beginning, the beginning of life that is not temporal or mortal, but everlasting!

This doesn't mean I am not frail.  My health, be it ever so strong, can change in a moment.  One wrong step could do me in, or one innocent habit, unchecked after many years, could be fatal.  Trusting the wrong medication, these days, can be a life and death decision.  This shows how frail our knowledge is too.  Drugs once thought to be safe turned out to be disastrous over a long period. Who predicted that having knowledge of nuclear power would prove to create so much fear and greed and war and anxiety in the world. 

But we must know that we are frail, both physically and in knowledge. And I think that perhaps this knowledge alone gives man the humility that can save his soul, and the world.  God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.  This wasn't to come and puff us up with self-reliance and pride and humanism. It was to show us how frail we are, how doomed to destroy all that is good, and ourselves in the process, if we do not retain the knowledge of God.

Lord, send forth the knowledge of thyself to people in this generation, through me and all those who call you Lord, by the proclamation of the gospel of your Son Jesus Christ.  AMEN