While I Have My Being

Psalm 104: 1, 33-34

Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD my God, You are very great!
You are clothed with honor and majesty...

I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

May my meditation be sweet to Him;
I will be glad in the LORD.



If I would really try to number my days, I would be more careful to be occupied with Christ. For I  see before my eyes how fleeting my days really are, each day when I look into my 8x magnification mirror in the morning and see my face getting older. A dear friend just lost her Dad to Alzheimer's and as I watch loved ones struggling with memory issues, I am reminded that my day, too, is coming. I might be faced with memory issues. I remember Mom saying that I had my whole life ahead of me. I was sitting in the backseat of our Ford Country Sedan that day and my legs hardly reached over the edge of the seat. I remember it like yesterday, though it was almost fifty years ago.

I can walk into a room and forget what I went in there for, or catch myself repeating the same story. I don't like it. But it is all part of the seasons of life. Just like there are four seasons in nature, it seems there are fall and winter seasons as we age and prepare for life after death.In some ways, I don't mind the fact that I am growing older, for I really don't want to have to learn life lessons over again.

But reading this Psalm this morning, I was encouraged to resolve that I can yet praise God while I have my being. In the limited amount of days God give me, with mind intact,  I can choose to put on the mind of Christ (Phil 2:5) and let His Words dwell richly within me (Col. 3:16).

Each day I must choose. It's easy for me in the morning, but as the day wears on I find that I can easily lose my focus. Sometimes when I hit the pillow I am so relieved to just pull up the covers and call it a day. But in the morning, He renews my strength.

How about you? If I think that I am in my mid 50's already, I probably only have a couple of decades left, if that. I don't want to be bitter. I don't want to have regrets. So I must choose now to keep off the  old man and clothe myself afresh each day with the mind and thinking of Christ. In this way, I can choose happiness with the number of days left allotted to me on this planet. And if my memory starts to go, I hope that the memories that remain will be thoughts of how precious my Savior and Lord is, and how much He proved His love to me, and not only to me, but to the whole world.

Each day I choose, now, so that hopefully at the end I will die like the Psalmist, so glad in the LORD, and anticipating a glorious and hope filled future. The time to do it is now.

"...Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." Hebrews 3:15