Be Still And Know

Psalm 90.10 and 12 NLT 'Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away. Teach us to realise the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.' It’s wonderful that so many people are living to the age of 100. In the UK there are more than 15,000 centenarians and that figure is about double the number twenty years ago. But such long lives are as nothing when placed on the timeline of history or when we think of our God, for whom a thousand years are like a day. So it is important for us all to listen hard to the psalmist. He observes that seventy years is a typical life span, and that some even reach eighty. In the light of this, he asks God to teach us to realise that life is brief. That could sound sad and morbid but that would be to forget that every single day of life is a gift that we couldn’t possibly deserve. Facing up to our mortality is actually a very positive thing to do. When we accept that our