Psalm 90:3 (from the 1748 Book of Common Prayer) For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday: seeing that it is past as a watch in the night.
Tough words, these. We have a difficult time with 50 years, but a thousand is beyond our minds’ comprehension. It would do us some good to ponder this, though. This is the beginning of the season of Lent, but not quite. We had Ash Wednesday yesterday; most of us probably did not receive ashes for it was too dangerous with the pandemic still raging. Still, Ash Wednesday asks us to remember our mortality, as does this Psalm. Some of us have had stayed up all night; with a sick child, with a sick self, waiting for someone to come home; any number of reasons. And it may have seemed that night was far too long, yet it did pass. The Psalmist proclaims that long night was equal to a thousand years in God’s timetable. If we stop for a moment and think what was a thousand years ago, it would have been 1021. Tribal wars, education for only the very wealthy, countries not as we know them now. A very different world…yet the same kinds of sentiments as this Psalmist proclaims. People pondering their mortality. Let’s do that this season of Lent. For our long night of life will pass at some point or another. Live with mortality in view and live this life well.
A psalm a day 