O LORD, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man, that You think of him? Man is like a mere breath; his days are like a passing shadow... How blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!
There are two things that will hold you in good stead, and help you keep a level head, all the days of your life: (1) Know who you are and (2) Know who He is. In other words, know yourself and know your God. And the most important thing to always keep in mind about ourselves is the brevity of our lives--"Man is like a mere breath; his days are like a passing shadow". A real grasp of this truth will take the strut and stupidity out of anyone. But in spite of the stench of death all around us, man just doesn't get it. We stupidly strut our way through our short life. This reminds me of an incident my younger brother, Dwight, witnessed years ago. Going into a small hardware store in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, he noted that someone had slapped a note on a young, strutting worker's back that said, "Pateenme por ser burro". Literal translation: "Kick me for being an ass". How many of us are strutting around with a note like that on our back? The very brevity of life should cause us to keep a right perspective of life. But, in that, the most important thing to always keep in mind is the One who always keeps us in mind. Here's how the Psalmist put it: O LORD, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man, that You think of him? It's this greatest of great truths that causes the Psalmist to say, "How blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!" What else can anyone say? This is the most amazing thing about anyone of us; not what we think of ourselves, but that God should think of us at all! And He not only thinks of us, but He takes knowledge of us! He puts His attention on us! Need we say anything else? No! We should just bow down and worship. Amen!
There are two things that will hold you in good stead, and help you keep a level head, all the days of your life: (1) Know who you are and (2) Know who He is. In other words, know yourself and know your God. And the most important thing to always keep in mind about ourselves is the brevity of our lives--"Man is like a mere breath; his days are like a passing shadow". A real grasp of this truth will take the strut and stupidity out of anyone. But in spite of the stench of death all around us, man just doesn't get it. We stupidly strut our way through our short life. This reminds me of an incident my younger brother, Dwight, witnessed years ago. Going into a small hardware store in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, he noted that someone had slapped a note on a young, strutting worker's back that said, "Pateenme por ser burro". Literal translation: "Kick me for being an ass". How many of us are strutting around with a note like that on our back? The very brevity of life should cause us to keep a right perspective of life. But, in that, the most important thing to always keep in mind is the One who always keeps us in mind. Here's how the Psalmist put it: O LORD, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man, that You think of him? It's this greatest of great truths that causes the Psalmist to say, "How blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!" What else can anyone say? This is the most amazing thing about anyone of us; not what we think of ourselves, but that God should think of us at all! And He not only thinks of us, but He takes knowledge of us! He puts His attention on us! Need we say anything else? No! We should just bow down and worship. Amen!
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