Summer in the Psalms, Part 5

To make the most of the time you’ve been given, embrace both the joyous and sorrowful moments, recognizing that each serves a unique purpose in shaping wisdom and understanding. By reflecting on past experiences, living fully in the present, and maintaining hope for the future, you can align your life’s work with the enduring story of God’s faithfulness and redemption.

Take You At Your Word
Cody Carnes

Everlasting God
William Murphy

Forever Reign
Hillsong

Promises
Maverick City Music

Margaret Renkl
“Perhaps the reason I didn’t feel sad about the onset of fall when I was younger is only that I was younger, with my whole life still ahead. In those days my only worry was that my real life, the one I would choose for myself and live on my own terms, was taking too long to arrive. Now I understand that every day I’m given is as real as life will ever get. Now I understand that we are guaranteed nothing, that our days are always running out. That they have always, always been running out.”

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Ecclesiastes 7:2-4, ESV
“It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”

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Tish Harrison Warren
“Most of us spend much time and energy trying to avoid the reality that we and those we love will die. But in facing the reality of death, we learn how to live rightly. We learn how to live in light of our limits and the brevity of our lives. And we learn to live in the hope of the resurrection.”

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Psalms 90:1-17
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

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God’s relationship to time
Our relationship to time
Our relationship with God through time

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Derek Kidner
“This opening of the psalm corresponds to the close, in that God is seen here as our God, whose eternity is the answer, not simply the antithesis, to our homelessness and our brevity of life.”

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Galatians 4:4-5, NLT
“…when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.”

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Romans 5:6-8, NIV
…At just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

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Paul David Tripp
”How could we not be blown away by God’s patience as we [make] our way through the grand redemptive story? How could we not be amazed by the thousands of years between the fall in Eden and the victory of the empty tomb? …How could we not be comforted by the fact that in patience God’s judgment still waits while his mercy works? How could we miss the fact that our daily hope is connected to our Savior’s patience and grace? Both the meta story in the Bible and our individual stories are portraits of an ever-faithful and patient Redeemer. He continues, “ [God’s] work is a process, not an event. Redemption is longevity work. Redemption is legacy work. Redemption takes patience.”

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Spiritual Timekeeping
Past – Remembrance
Present – Reorientation
Future – Resignation

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James Smith
“If all that I’ve become and learned and acquired and experienced was just overwhelmed and made null by grace, then salvation would be an obliteration rather than redemption. The God who saves is the God…who wants to unleash the unique constellations of talents and experiences that make me who I’ve become. When…my history–including its traumas and wounds–intersects with the renewing power of the Spirit, a chemical reaction of possibility awaits. Grace, he says, is not a time machine. Grace is not a reset button. Grace is something even more unbelievable: it is restoration. It is reconciliation of, and despite, our histories of animosity. Grace isn’t an undoing; it is overcoming.”

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“God, would you establish the work of our hands? Would you bring your kingdom in our generation? And if not, would you use our life and our generation to advance your purposes?”

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1 Corinthians 15:20-26, NIV
“Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

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Every Moment Holy
Children of the Living God, Let us now speak of dying, and let us speak without fear, for we have already died with Christ, and our lives are not our own. Our dying is part of the story that God is telling to us, and part of the story God is telling through us. It is not a dark and hopeless word we must take pains to skirt or mention only in hushed whispers lest our conversations grow awkward and uncomfortable. Rather, death is a present and unavoidable reality, and one through which we–the people of God–must learn to openly walk with one another. Yes, it is cause for lament. Death is a horrible and inevitable sorrow. It is grief. It is numb shock and raw pain and long seasons of weeping and ache. And we will experience it as such. But it is more than all of that. For it is also a baptism, a prelude to a celebration. Our true belief that Christ died and was raised again promises this great hope: That there will be a newness of life, a magnificent resurrection that follows death and swallows it entirely. Death will not have the final word, so we need not fear to speak of it. Death is not a period that ends a sentence. It is but a comma, a brief pause before the fuller thought unfolds into eternal life. Beloved of Christ, do not hide from this truth: Each of us in time must wrestle death…so we should remember death throughout our lives, that we might arrive at last well-prepared to follow our Lord into the valley, and through it, further still to our resurrection. Death is not the end of life. It is an intersection–a milestone we pass in our eternal pursuit of Christ.

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