Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Live Like You're Dying | The Writings | Psalm 39

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

At the end of your life, what do you want people to remember you for? What will people say about you? In today's episode, Patrick talks through Psalm 39 and faces the dilemma of living for temporal versus eternal things. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 39

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. About 10 years ago, a friend of mine lost a grandparent. In many ways, the moment was bittersweet because he loved his grandpa and didn't want to see him die. And yet, his grandpa was a complicated man who hurt a lot of people and lived to just get a lot of stuff. While he died with much wealth, he also died almost completely alone. My friend told me one day that if his grandpa had died 40 years earlier, there would have been

thousands of people at his funeral. He was wealthy. He was powerful. People wanted to be around him. But late in life, very few people showed up. My friend loved his grandpa deeply. He wanted to be like his grandpa as a young man because his grandpa was so successful. And yet, in his grandpa's death, he saw a hard truth.

You can live for all the things the world tells you to live for. money, sex, power, prestige, fame, and influence. And in the end, you'll still end up where everybody else ends. You end up dead, eventually forgotten. You cannot take money, sex, power, prestige, influence, or fame with you beyond the grave. It's all just gone and useless. What are you living for right now? What consumes your thoughts? What do you fear losing? What are you anxiously chasing after? What do you think, you need to be happy. When people show up at your funeral, what will they be thinking about you? What will they think in their hearts that you lived for? Will they say that you lived for what lasted? Psalm 39 is in some ways a story. It's a story of someone who is surrounded by enemies. His life is

in danger. He is near death. Perhaps he's surrounded because of something he did. It seems like he thinks part of this is his own fault. He seems to think that his own sins and transgressions are part of the reason why he's at where he's at in life. He's lived for the wrong things, and now he's living the consequences. He hasn't lived for God, and so at the end, he says he's like a foreigner, a stranger with God. What about you? What are you living for right now? Does what you pursue make you feel at home with God? Or does it make you feel as a foreigner? a stranger. All of this leads the psalmist into a striking meditation about the end of his life and the purpose of his life and his desire to change his life before it's all too late.

Show me, Lord, my life's end and the number of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere hand breadth. The span of my years is as nothing before you. Has God numbered your days? The answer to that question is, Yes, you have a terminal diagnosis right now. You will die. There is only one way out of this life, in a casket or as ashes. And in the grand scheme of history, your life is but a breath. Mere decades after your death, only your family will remember you.

And they won't think of you that frequently. A century after your death, it'll be as though you never existed. And yet, we pretend like that's not the case. We pretend like everything we do matters, like everything we seek after is worth it. Like it's the most important thing as though it really lasts. This almost continues. Everyone is but a breath. Even those who seem secure.

Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom. In vain, they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be. What are you rushing around and heaping up? Money? House, cars, clothes? Houses will crumble. cars will rust, clothes will rot, or do you live for your health, your fitness? Bodies grow old, they grow weak, they grow sick. Do you live for influence and prestige? The people you want to impress,

they will die, they will forget you, they will be forgotten, they will move on to different things. What are you living for right now? God has numbered your days. Will you spend them seeking after what is eternal or after what is temporal. Will you seek after what lasts forever or what lasts only for a breath? The psalmist knows that he has been a fool in his life. We don't know if he sought after greed, blessed, or power, but whatever it was, he now acknowledges that he's lived for the wrong things and needs God to save him. He continues in verse 7, but now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you. save me from all my transgressions do not make me the scorn of fools i was silent i would not open up my mouth for you are the one who has done this remove your scourge from me i am overcome by the blow of your hand

when you rebuke and discipline anyone for their sin you consume their wealth like a moth surely everyone is but a breath hear my prayer lord listen to my cry for help do not be deaf to my weeping strange way, the psalmist recognizes that his current situation, that he's being surrounded by enemies who want to harm him, he realizes that his current life and death scenario is actually from God. It's not that God wants to hurt him, but that God does want to discipline him. God wants to show him through this life-threatening situation that all the things he's been living for, well, all those things will be consumed by moths, rust, and rot. But, the psalmist couldn't see it until his enemies were there to threaten him to take his life the moment

he saw that his end was near he was able to see how terribly he'd wasted his life if you died tomorrow what would you regret if you know you'll die in two months what would you focus on live like you're dying because the truth is you are and if you think you're too far gone hear this truth you are not. Just like the psalmist, you can cry out to God, save me from my transgressions and my foolishness, hear my cries for help. And on the cross, Jesus answers, I have saved you. And in his resurrection, he proclaims to you, I have given you a new life. Live now, today, as you will live in the resurrection. Live for the eternal. Love Jesus. Grow in grace. Grow in holiness. choose to love and show patience to those around you.

Choose to love the people around you who, just like you, will last forever. Don't live for what doesn't last. Don't live for a breath that's here today and gone tomorrow. Instead, live for the risen king who existed before you existed and whose love will never stop existing until the very end.