We are now into the final hours of 2025 and very soon, we are going into a brand-new year 2026. Do you feel that time flies by so quickly? But why? Oftentimes, we hear from our slightly older friends that time flies by so fast. Here’s one suggested mathematical theory. If 1 year is expressed as an integer 1 as a numerator over a person’s age as the denominator, the answer of the fraction shows what’s the percentage of a year with respect to the person’s age. So if you are 1 years old, you will feel like a year is all that you got, thus a year passes not so fast for you since that’s all you have got so far. As we move on, if one is 25 years old, a year is about 4% with respect to his age, so it feels much faster that one whose age is 1 year old. I am 45 this year so a year is like 2.2% to me while for another who is 65 years old, a year is like 1.5% to him. Time flies as one ages, that’s for sure. Billy Graham once said, “The greatest surprise of my life is the brevity of life.”
Psalm 39 agrees with most of us that life is short because it mentions twice that a man is just a mere breath (v5 & v11). Life on earth is going to be short and much of it appears to be meaningless, going around in circles. The vanity of life. What is life really about? As we come to the end of yet another year, how are we doing in terms of our relationship with the LORD as He is the giver of life? Psalm 39 highlights a few things for us to ponder on.
#1: Life on earth is short and passes by fast
Man is just a mere breath. This breath was first given by GOD. GOD is the Creator and He gave us breath. He is the originator of life. Even time was created by Him. Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning, GOD created the heavens and the earth.” In this verse, we can observe that GOD created time (in the beginning), space (the heavens) and matter (the earth). As we feel that time flies, this fact points us back to GOD. Psalm 39:5 suggests that “Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you.” GOD owns time and how much time we all have are determined by Him Alone.
#2: Life is full of struggles
Besides being short and passes by fast, life is full of
struggles where most are outside of our control (that is if we even can control
anything in life in the first place). Covid-19, earthquakes, typhoons,
financial crises, sickness, wars, etc are happening in life. We learn to manage
and to accept them as much as we could. This is not abnormal but what follows
through from the LORD Who Alone is Sovereign and said in Genesis 3:15, “By the
sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out
of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
This is aligned to Psalm 39:6, “Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely
for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will
gather!” The struggle is real as we all are often occupied with things that do
not matter. We are busy indeed but mostly not with the things that matter.
In this hall, most of us enjoy the privilege of knowing the LORD. Yet, the struggle continues because we continue to grapple with sin, the very notion of disobedience towards GOD. Psalm 39:1-4 and Psalm 39:8-13 highlights to us this struggle with sin. Even as David chose to guard his mouth with a muzzle, there is no peace within himself. He felt consumed with sin because sin offends the LORD and the LORD’s discipline is unbearable.
#3: Keep peace with GOD
There lies a shimmer of hope found in the middle of Psalm
39, that is verse 7, “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.”
This is the single important thing to do in life – to make peace with GOD. GOD
is our Creator but unfortunately, we have offended Him by sinning against Him.
However, He offers grace to each one of us by giving us His Beloved Son, Jesus
Christ.
For some of us who do not yet know Jesus, we need to make
peace with Him by surrendering our will to Him, seeking reconciliation to begin
this special relationship in knowing GOD. As for most of us who already know
the LORD, we need to continue to hang on to Him amid our struggles with sin to
ask for His Help to overcome challenges in our sanctification. The
sanctification journey is GOD’s Will for us as mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4:3
and this process will take a lifetime. Step by step, we progress towards a more
sanctified life today compared to yesterday.
In BB Vesper, there is a line that says, “And in thy peace,
thy servants keep.” We need to continue to keep our peace with GOD by
internalizing His Word in our lives, renewing our minds constantly and putting in
our best efforts to fight against sin by taking a stronger stance against sin
in our lives. We need to take on a radical approach against sin as we start a brand-new
year. I had shown you the chart of The Brevity of Life, now let me show you the
chart of The Christian’s Transformation. Let us ride on the uptrend towards a
more sanctified life in 2026. The goal of the Christian life is to see GOD face
to face, let’s us stay focus on this goal by putting our eyes on Jesus, our
Redeemer.
In doing so, we keep peace with GOD – O Lord, for what do I
wait? My hope is in you. Let’s look to GOD when we don’t know what to do in the
face of our struggles. And personally, for me, to hope is to hang on, pray
earnestly.
Have a blessed new year 2026.
