Cancer Blog #48
By Brian Zimmerman
Begun on July 31, 2021
Email: dyingman1@yahoo.com
My Dying Words
Entry #48 – Death and Our Frailty
July 16, 2022
[Psalm 78:38-39 NASB95] 38 “But He, being compassionate, forgave [their] iniquity and did not destroy [them;] And often He restrained His anger And did not arouse all His wrath. 39 Thus He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes and does not return.”
The psalmist is here relating the history of Israel, saying that God delivered them out of the furnace of Egyptian slavery. Yet even having experienced such a miraculous and powerful release by God, Israel was constantly complaining and rebelling against their covenant Lord. He would discipline them even, at times, execute some of them for their obstinate disobedience. That punishment would cause them temporarily to relent from their sins, and yet they would almost immediately turn back to them. But, as the psalmist notes here, God is a compassionate God, one who was willing to forgive their rebellion and ingratitude. And, He did this not just from His own trait of mercy, but also because of the nature of His people. He knew that He needed to corral His anger and should not release it fully against His covenant people, even when they deserved it. That restraint was because of their construction, for they were flesh, made like the wind, so insubstantial compared to their God that they could pass by and never be seen again.
This lesson from the psalmist is a warning to all humans, even to those of us who are among His covenant people. We should always remember the power of God’s anger. Though we may feel solid, rooted, substantial, even safe, in reality, compared to God, we are frail, weak, as thin as the wind, and just as fleeting.
That perspective should temper our view of life every day, for we are passing by and are here only as briefly as a breeze that blows by us. What difference will our wealth, position, accomplishments matter when we receive that diagnosis of death? It is at that moment, if not before, when heeding the psalmist’s message, that we will finally realize how brief and fragile our lives truly are.
Next: Clemency for Brevity