Oh Lord, make me know my end. And what is the measure of my days? Let me know how fleeting I am. Behold, you have made my days a few handbreaths and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath.
– Psalm 39:4–5
Well, those are sobering verses, aren’t they?
Psalm 39:4–5 reminds us of the brevity of life.
David, the psalmist here asks God to remind him how short his life is, how fleeting his life is. Let me know how fleeting I am. Make me to know my end. Why does he pray that? Because he knows just like you and me, that we’re tempted to think we have plenty of days left. We don’t think about the reality that none of us is guaranteed tomorrow, that we’re not guaranteed to make it through today. Not one of us is.
Our lives are breaths. Just think about that imagery. Take in a breath, breathe it out. It takes a second or two. That’s your life. This is James 4, “Your life is a vapor. It’s here. One second and gone the next.” The same word that’s translated breath here in Psalm 39 is what starts the Book of Ecclesiastes when likely Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, says, “All of life is a breath.” And some translations there say it’s meaningless like it’s short, it’s a vapor. And you and I need God to remind us of this.
We need to know that the end of our days is coming. It’s almost like the Bible is telling us the only thing that is certain in your life and my life is our death. And I don’t mean to be depressing, but the Bible is being very eye-opening here. Unless Jesus returns, we’re all going to die and it could be any day for any one of us.
Psalm 39:4–5 teaches us to live wisely.
So start there at your coffin in a sense, what do you want to be true of you on that day? And let your answer to that question change the way you live today, like live today as if you’re not guaranteed tomorrow. What matters most in your life today? A relationship to the God who made you and relationship to the people around you.
Oh God, help us to know the end of our days and to live accordingly. Help each of us today to live for what matters most. God, help us to live, to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Think about the end of Ecclesiastes, the author saying, “This is the end of all things. Fear God and keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man.” Help us, God, to walk faithfully with you like we’re ready to meet you today.
This verse encourages us to live faithfully.
We want to come face-to-face with you today. We’re eager either for you to come back, Lord Jesus, or for the day when you bring us home. And we want to be faithful before you. So help us to live today accordingly with whatever you’ve entrusted to us in our lives, relationships, jobs, and resources, with the breath you’ve given us. God, help us to be faithful to do all that you call us to do according to your Word in our lives.
And God, help us to faithfully love the people around us today. God, help us to look people in the eye, to take our eyes off our screens and put them on people and love them and care for them and serve them and point them to you and share the good news with them that can change their lives for all of eternity. And God, we know that the people around us today also aren’t guaranteed tomorrow. Help us to share the gospel with them, with urgency we pray.
Prayer for the Northern Yemeni Arabs
And God, as we pray for unreached people for millions and millions of Northern Yemeni Arabs, most of whom, almost all of whom have little to no knowledge of you. God, we pray for the few brothers and sisters among them, help them God to spread the gospel, help those who are working with them to spread the gospel to millions of northern Yemeni Arabs who are not guaranteed tomorrow and need the gospel today.
God, we pray that you would help us as your people to follow you to the fall today and to make you known in the world as long as we have time. This little bit of time that we have here, help us to make our lives count for what matters forever. We pray all this according to your Word in Psalm 39:4–5. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
