Consuming Like a Moth What is Dear to Us (Psalm 39)

Psalm 39

vs 4 – Lord, make me know my end,
the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting I am...

vs 7 – For what do I wait? My hope is in you.

vs 10 – Remove your stroke from me,
I am spent by the hostility of your hands;
vs 11 – When you discipline a man with rebukes for sin,
you consume like a moth what is dear to him.

Somehow, Lord, there is this background radiation in our lives – we are incredibly brief, our only hope is to hop in you, and so the universe wars against us, not overtly hostile (usually), your common grace sees to that, but relentlessly stripping us of our pretenses, our illusions, our vain hopes, our misplaced loves.

This is not punishment. It is discipline (teaching, healing, curing, etc.). And part of what this discipline involves is "consuming like a moth what is dear to us."

That certainly involves things like beauty, success, money, and career... but it also includes things like Zeke.

Lord, how do you strip us frail creatures of our sinfulness (self focus, misplaced hopes) without breaking us, destroying us? Only you can do it...