Meditations on old age from Psalm 71 and other Scriptures
Two
Life’s Little Day
Walking the path of life
“Abide with us, for evening approaches, and the day is almost over”.
(Luke 24:29)
Introduction
The summer of 1983 proved to be a significant turning point in my life. A month short of my 19th birthday I signed up to join a summer mission team in the Solway village of Creetown. It would become, in my mum’s words, “the beginning of days” in my Christian experience. On the team’s day off our leader took us on a visit to a small hamlet called Anwoth a few miles further south. It was there that I learned about one of the most significant ministries in Scottish church history. It belonged to the renowned churchman Samuel Rutherford.
On returning from that two week mission I discovered a biography of Samuel Rutherford in my parent’s collection that I still have to this day (it’s now held together by sellotape!). One sentence stood out from the pen of its author, Andrew Thomson. He comments, “We find him, more than once, when exhorting young men to consecrate to God the morning of their days, lamenting that he had delayed this step until it was high noon.” The little phrase, “consecrate to God the morning of their days” has stayed with me all these years. It imagines the span of our life being like a single day with its key phases:
Dawn
Sunrise
Morning
Noon
Afternoon
Sunset
Dusk
Twilight
Evening
And it urges the young, in the morning of their days to “Remember their Creator…” (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
Andrew Thomson’s vivid phrase brings home the brevity of life and Psalm 90 is a poignant reminder of this truth: “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” (Psalm 90:5-6). There is a poem attached to a clock case in Chester Cathedral written by Henry Twells which echoes Moses’ words:
When as a child I laughed and wept, time crept.
When as a youth I waxed more bold, time strolled.
When I became a full-grown man, time ran.
When older still I daily grew, time flew.
Soon I shall find, in passing on, time gone.
O Christ! wilt Thou have saved me then? Amen.”
In light of this, the crucial question we must ask ourselves is how we will spend “life’s little day”? Or to put it another way, and to quote from Mary Oliver’s beautiful poem, “The Summer Day” -
“What is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
We must recognise that life is short and fleeting; eternal value comes from living according to God’s will rather than selfish ambitions. Therefore, the call of Scripture is to spend our lives on a number of key pursuits. Whatever part of the day you find yourself living in let me encourage you to aim in the following directions:
➡️ Get to know the Lord
Philippians 3:10 is, in many ways, the heart cry of the apostle Paul. Ask him what he wants most in life and he will reply, “That I may know him…” He desires a deep, personal relationship with Jesus, not just the accumulation of facts about him. We often default to knowing about Jesus - having information and facts about him - and missing out on the most important thing…actually knowing him.
Jesus himself said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only truth God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). And the apostle Peter urged us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.”
I recall choosing Philippians 3:10 as the text for a sermon in my homiletics class (preparing and delivering sermons) at Bible College. The lecturer gave some favourable comments but said the sermon left him wondering how he would get to know the Lord in practice! Therefore, let me address that flaw in my preparation 38 years later! We deepen our knowledge of the Lord if we:
→ Study the Scriptures Daily
By this I mean that we read and meditate on the Scriptures to more fully understand Jesus’ character and teachings.
→ Pray Regularly
Spend quality time in prayer to communicate with God. This enables us to discern his guidance and align our heart with his.
→ Connect with a Local Church
The Lord’s heart is that we belong to a local fellowship of believers where his word is taught and where we can be encouraged and encourage our brothers and sister in Christ
→ Practice Obedience to the Lord
As we read and meditate on God’s Word, the Lord Jesus calls us to apply what we’ve learned in our daily life. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
→ Cultivate, with the Holy Spirit’s Help, Spiritual Graces
Galatians 5:22 (the fruit of the Spirit) and 2 Peter 1:5-8 (the ladder of faith) are wonderful passages to reflect on which encourage us to develop godly character thus becoming like Christ.
Secondly,
➡️ Learn to live wisely
The apostle Paul urges us in Ephesians 5, “Be very careful, then how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (verse 15).
In John Piper’s book, “Don’t Waste Your Life”, he tells two contrasting stories that illustrate the importance of Paul’s words.
In the first he introduces us to two missionaries around the age of 80. Both had devoted their lives to making Jesus Christ known to the unreached, the poor, and the sick in Cameroon, West Africa. In April 2000 the brakes failed on their car and it went over a cliff killing them instantly. Piper then asks the question, “Was that a tragedy? Two lives, driven by one great passion, namely to be spent in unheralded service to the perishing poor for the glory of Jesus Christ…No, that is not a tragedy. That is glory. Their lives were not wasted. And these lives were not lost. “Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35).”
He then goes on to tell us what he believes to be a tragedy and quotes from a story in the Reader’s Digest magazine. It introduces us to a couple who took early retirement and moved to Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells. Piper drives his point home by saying, “Come to the end of your life - your one and only precious, God given life, and let your last great work of your life, before you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells…That is a tragedy…Don’t waste your life.”
Echoing down from the first century, inspired Scripture implores us, “Be very careful, then how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil”
And finally,
➡️ Seek to make the Lord known
1 Peter 3:15 states, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…”
The importance of this is highlighted by a survey that “the Institute for Church Growth” took which asked over 10,000 people this question: "What was responsible for your coming to Christ and this church?" Their replies were…
a. I had a special need - 3%
b. I just walked in - 3%
c. I liked the minister - 6%
d. I visited there - 1%
e. I liked the Bible studies - 5%
f. I liked the programmes - 3%
g. A FRIEND OR RELATIVE INVITED ME - 79%
In the ordinary stuff of life sharing our faith is like “one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread!”
Conclusion
We’ve reflected on “life’s little day” which highlights both its brevity and the urgency to make the most of the precious life we’ve been given to the glory of God. For the believer in Jesus Christ there is the promise of an eternal day. In the closing chapters of Isaiah he presents it in the following way: “Your sun shall no more go down, not your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of morning shall be ended” (Isaiah 60:20).
I conclude with a night prayer of the church from the centuries old “Book of Hours”:
Abide with us, Lord Jesus,
for the night is at hand and the day is now past.
As the night watch looks for the morning,
so do we look for you, O Christ.
Come with the dawning of the day
and make yourself known in the breaking of the bread.
The Lord bless us and watch over us;
the Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious to us; the Lord look kindly on us and give us peace.
Amen.
(picture - sunset over the Summer Isles)
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