TUESDAY, AUGUST 2
Isaiah 38:9-20
Psalm 18:19-24

"…he delivered me,
because he delighted in me."

HEZEKIAH’S PSALM OF LIFE

What are the sentiments of a man given fifteen more years to live in answer to his pleading? Let us discover Hezekiah from this psalm he has written from that traumatic experience. Let us call it Hezekiah’s psalm of life. What other psalms of life are there for comparative study? Psalm 90 by Moses is the most well-known, being put to English verse in "O God Our Help in Ages Past." Another psalm of life may be found in Psalm 49. As for Hezekiah’s, we may gather three main points of his feelings.

1. Life is short. It is like the pitching and removing of a shepherd’s tent (in contrast with a permanent home). Like a weaver, how fast is his weaving!

2. The grave, the pit, even death, in contrast with the land of the living, is a negative place. Hezekiah mourned like a dove, chattered like a crane or a swallow when he considered death. He did not go deeper into the judgment or reward after death.

3. Life, though short, is worth living. Hezekiah had the zest for living a God-given life. "The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth" (Isa 38:19). He praised God for saving his life and was so grateful that he overflowed in a psalm to be sung to stringed instruments.

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime;
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
— Longfellow

THOUGHT: Every Christian should live a faithful life of service, and so make the profit of such a life as to render it profitably to the Lord before the Judgment Seat of Christ. A Christian who lives for himself is no friend of king Hezekiah.
PRAYER: Make my life count for Thee, O Lord! Posted in Adult RPG