"I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert. I lie awake, and am like a sparrow alone on the housetop....My days are like a shadow that lengthens, and I wither away like grass....But You, O Lord, shall endure forever." (Psalm 102)
You may have been here, or are here.
I was with some of my high school graduating class last evening. It was a party for us on our 75th birthdays. I was amazed as to how many of the 720 are no longer with us. One of my fellow football players lost his wife a few years ago. He could tell me right away the years, the months, and the days. I sensed continuing grief, "like a sparrow alone on the housetop." I plan to try to get together with him.
It is okay to feel as the psalmist. It does not necessarily reflect a "lack of faith," or backslidden state. It can just reflect the reality of our humanness. I felt like our text that summer so long ago. When I think of Stephen, which is daily, sometimes I have those, "pelican of the wilderness,..owl of the desert-- like a sparrow alone...," moments.
But notice later in the Psalm where the psalmist takes himself, "But You, O Lord, shall endure forever, and the remembrance of Your Name to all generations....Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will continue." This is the reality of who we are in Jesus Christ. Jesus, in His Blood, His triumphal shout from His Cross, "It is finished," His Resurrection, has brought us into His Total Triumph, "Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in Himself." You and I are a part of the, "Triumphing over them," People.
Now, my dear friend, "having disarmed principalities..," Jesus is now in His Glorious, Resurrected life living in us. Jesus has brought out of that despair of that, "wilderness," that, "desert," that, "alone on the housetop." Indeed, "He brought me to His Banqueting Table, His Banner over us is love."
Father, in Jesus' Name, Thank You so much for bringing me into Your, "Everlasting Habitations." Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
