Singing Psalm 144 to pass the baton since your time is limited
When I began using a 3,000 ft. roll of plastic wrap, the thought crossed my mind that it would likely outlast me. Yet, that roll was eventually used up, and I’m still alive to write about it. Ever mistype a date (2922) and think, wow, won’t be here then!?!
Psalm 144:4 gives perspective on time using two similes comparing our time here to a breath and a passing shadow.
Psalm 90:10 says it this way:
The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
With this in mind, it makes sense to think about future generations. You pray for your sons to be like mighty oaks for strength and protection in society and your daughters like palace pillars for stability and beauty wherever they are. You want to pass the baton of a life worth living to the next generation.
As you pass the baton, Psalm 71:18 focuses on the baton-passer reliant on the Lord’s mercy, eager to tell about his faithfulness and steadfast love:
So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.
Lyrics ride on catchy tunes that are planted and take root in your mind. As you move about at the grocery store you hear ‘tell me sweet little lies.’ You long to hear someone say of you that ‘every little thing she does is magic.’ Music that moves you to think of yourself and what others think about you is standard audio programming fare and quite effective at molding a population of people who are primarily concerned with their own self.
Indeed, you need the Lord to rescue you from “the ones whose mouth speaks what is false” (quoted from Psalm 144 in both verse 8 and verse 11). In those same two verses, you are warned against those whose right hand is the same as their mouth, “a right hand of deceitfulness.” Can your hear God’s voice as he asks the questions: “Will you love what’s worthless? Will lies be your aim?”
You ask the Lord to rescue the next generation from those who would smile to your face as they speak what isn’t true – those who would embrace you with their right hand then stab you in the back with their left.
Singing Psalm 144 is a refreshing switch from self to caring about those that God has placed under you and for biological mothers, those whom God has placed within you for a time. A mother is fed upon for another person’s development and her care continues throughout that person’s life.
Though the feeding mode changes from sharing her body’s nutrients through the umbilical cord, to breast or bottle, to preparing and guiding them to prepare meals, her care is evident, consistent, and growing throughout their lives.
Singing Psalm 144 moves biological mothers, adoptive mothers, and those with a heart to mother, to be willing to sacrifice in prayer for the triune God to supply what is lacking not only in nutrition but also in faith, wisdom, and discernment.
They are learning from her not to live by their senses, sight and sounds, smells, tastes and touches, but to be touched by faith in the one who is redeeming them from the futility of living for self. As you come to Jesus, take his yoke upon you, and find rest in his arms you are teaching them to do the same one day.
Although your time is short, the next generation is the joy set before your eyes. You pass the baton to them because they are precious to you.
Singing Psalm 144 to pass the baton to the next generation
As you pass the baton, Psalm 144:12-15 focuses on the baton-receivers and their provisions from the Lord:
May our sons in their youth
be like plants full grown,
our daughters like corner pillars
cut for the structure of a palace;
may our granaries be full,
providing all kinds of produce;
may our sheep bring forth thousands
and ten thousands in our fields;
may our cattle be heavy with young,
suffering no mishap or failure in bearing;
may there be no cry of distress in our streets!
Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall!
Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!
Singing Psalm 144 reminds you that your time here is limited. You ask the Lord to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus as you meet the needs of the next generation that “such blessings fall” as you pass the baton with purpose and not intentionally let it fall.
Some pass the baton through adoption to a mother receiving it at a stage somewhere between birth and maturity along the continuum of the development of the child. You rely on the Lord to place what is needed within you to recognize and meet the needs of the child whatever their stage of development.
The triune God will help you not to fear what is frightening. He forgives you as you stumble and will supply the words of kindness that come from your mouth. He will enable you to do the good that he prepared in advance for you to do while you are here no matter what you did in the past.
As you find ways, single or married, to give yourself away to meet needs and serve others, you find that the Lord has been sculpting you into the self he created you to be without hardly a thought to yourself along the way. He has been molding you to look more and more like Jesus with whom he is well pleased.
The Lord is making us ready for a never ending life of love unobstructed by lives consumed with self when he establishes the new heavens and the new earth.
Although it is more blessed to give than to receive, when you pass the baton to the next generation there is blessing in both the giving and the receiving. It is received in the spirit of giving as it gets passed through the generations as a channel of peace and into the age to come.
June 10-24, 2022
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