Dev: Nov 16 - 1 Chronicles 29:15

For we are aliens and transients

before you, as were all our ancestors;

our days on the earth are like a shadow,

and there is no hope.

1 Chronicles 29:15

 

I've been fascinated by how this word hope is used chronologically at the beginning of the Bible. 

 

·         It's used first in Ruth 1:12, with Naomi saying sadly that there is "[no] hope for me." (She's looking hopelessly for earthly solutions, rather than hopefully up to the Lord.)

 

·         The second time that "hope" occurs is in 2 Kings 6:33 when the king of Israel implies that he used hope in the Lord, but with all the trials on earth, "why should I hope in the Lord any longer?” (He too is looking hopelessly for earthly solutions, rather than hopefully up to the Lord.)

·         The third occurrence, 1 Chronicles 29:15, sounds utterly hopeless too. Looking down at this things of this earth, King David says, "For we are aliens and transients before you ... Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope."

Here’s the context … David's days are numbered. He was the transient shadow who was about to pass away (and pass the mantle of leadership to his son Solomon). Are his concluding words, "There is no hope"?

Only if he was only looking down!

 

David, you see, was also looking up. For those of us who have the tendency to look earthward, we’ll all get to come the realization of this verse: "15 For we are aliens and transients before you ... Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope." That in a sense is our truth, our reality. 

 

But … David also surrounds this sentence with words that draw his listeners (including us) upward, instead of down. 

 

He points heavenward and sings, "10 Blessed are you, O Lord ... 11 Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty ... 12 Riches and honor come from you ... In your hand are power and might." 

 

And then, because he's still looking up, King David then turns humble, “14 But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to make this freewill offering? For all things come from you ...” And that’s where our verse for today fits in. “14 Who am I … 15 we are [but] aliens and transients before you ... our days on the earth are like a shadow, and [on our own] there is no hope. 16 [But] O Lord our God, all this abundance ... comes from your hand and is all your own."

 

Do you see the humble power in David's prayer? Do you see the source of hope? On our own, we are but transient shadows. But hope comes from looking up!

 

It comes from praising.

 

It comes from trusting.

 

It comes from recognizing God's pattern of care and blessing throughout our lives in past times … and applying that to today in trust and hope. 

In Christ's Love,

a guy who wants to

finish this devotion like

David finished this prayer:

"17 I know, my God, that

you search the heart, and

take pleasure in uprightness ...

18 O Lord ... direct ... forever

... the hearts of your people

... toward you.