Mist Matters

Psalm 90:4

4  For a thousand years in your sight

are but as yesterday when it is past,

or as a watch in the night.

Today is like a flea on a hair on a wart on a frog on a log on the bottom of the sea when placed as a mere blip on God’s screen.  Psalm 39:5: “Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! “  So why should God care about today, or tomorrow, or even a single life?  Why does He engage with mankind in all of our petty dealings, our silly wars, our worries and woes?  Why would He care if I slept with another man’s wife, or was fraudulent with money, or spoke angry words at my children?  Again, James 4:14, says, “ . . . yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”  

Moses, the author of this Psalm, answers our questions.  “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us” (v. 17).  It has been God’s favor, His delight, to be our dwelling place (v. 1).  He has chosen to enter into the minute details of our lives.  God had every right to ignore His creation and to ignore us, yet He chose rather to invest deeply.

We see this most fully in His Son.  The advent of Jesus upon the earth was a demonstration of God’s willingness to enter into our condition.  Even the life of Christ upon the earth, in regard to eternity, was the smallest of molecules in comparison.  Yet His life impacted all of eternity for us!  Of the very angels He says, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14)?  Yet Christ is considered far greater, “having become much superior to angels” (Hebrews 1:4).  So how much more, if angels are ministering spirits, is Christ a compassionate Savior?  

We need only to look to the cross to find out.  On the cross we see God’s willingness to dwell near His people and to enter where no other mortal man could enter.  The closest I can get to my bride of one flesh is not near as close as Christ has entered into the heart of His people.  Christ has known sin more than the deepest sin you and I will ever encounter as He has taken the burden of the sins of those who live by faith in Him upon Himself and took on God’s wrath for us.  

Therefore, Lord, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days” (Psalm 90:14). I have very great reason to live each day rejoicing and pursuing Your glory and righteousness.  Though my life is a mere vapor,  You have chosen to enter into it.  You care deeply about my each hour and day.  Thank You for revealing Christ as the display of Your love for me and all of Your people who call upon His name.  I ask for the desire, the motivation, and the strength to live today in Your sight because Christ matters above all else.