Finish Your Assignment

God had plans for you.

For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A Psalm by Asaph. A song.

Psalm 76

1 In Judah, God is known.
His name is great in Israel.
2 His tabernacle is also in Salem.
His dwelling place in Zion.
3 There he broke the flaming arrows of the bow,
the shield, and the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah.
4 Glorious are you, and excellent,
more than mountains of game.
5 Valiant men lie plundered,
they have slept their last sleep.
None of the men of war can lift their hands.
6 At your rebuke, God of Jacob,
both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
7 You, even you, are to be feared.
Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?
8 You pronounced judgment from heaven.
The earth feared, and was silent,
9 when God arose to judgment,
to save all the afflicted ones of the earth. Selah.
10 Surely the wrath of man praises you.
The survivors of your wrath are restrained.
11 Make vows to Yahweh your God, and fulfill them!
Let all of his neighbors bring presents to him who is to be feared.
12 He will cut off the spirit of princes.
He is feared by the kings of the earth.

********

All the heroes and warriors eventually die. God outlasts them all. And they fear God because they know eventually they will be judged by Him. God is supreme and everlasting. So we should fulfill His plans and obey Him. If we want to stand before Him in good stead, and we should make that our goal. The Bible says that we were created for the purpose of good works, they were prepared from before the foundations of the earth (Ephesians 2:10). We should be fulfilling our assignments rather than any sense of our own vanity.

Now that I am 67 and considering the end of my days, I am taking inventory of what is important. And I am reminded of that Dylan Thomas poem that I like so much when I was a teenager. It begins:

“Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

I do not want to spend the last 20 years of my life getting fat and coasting. The idea of retirement is repugnant to me. I don’t want to play golf or fish or go to bingo at the VFW Hall. I want to burn and rave at close of day.

I want to burn for the glory of God. I want to burn what fuel that I have left. And I want to burn that I may ignite others. I am at the age where so much of the dross and waste of my life has been consumed. What I have now is the long lasting fuel in the heart wood. I don’t want to bury it or drown it under a deluge of worldly busy work.

It wasn’t too long ago that I said I wasn’t afraid of dying, but I was afraid of not completing my assignments. In order to do that, I have had to make sure that I have rediscovered my first love. That is what Jesus said in His letter to the Ephesian Church, commending them for their faithfulness but warning them that they must return to their first works.

Back when I was a new Christian, I understood that I should warn others of the same judgment that had gotten my attention. It was the fear of the Lord that brought the beginning of my wisdom, and I thought it was a good idea to present that fear to others. That is because fear is such a potent motivator. It clarifies the mind when you consider that maybe everything else you are doing is worthless. So, it is without apology that I return to warning people that judgment is coming.