“A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4).
1,000 years ago Sweyn Forkbeard was crowned King of England. He didn’t last long. Few remember him now.
1,000 years ago the Holy Roman Empire was the superpower. Not many care about that now.
1,000 years ago it was believed that if a ship sailed too far west, it would drop off the edge of the world. Does anyone believe that now?
To us, 1,000 years is a long, long time. To the Lord God it’s like yesterday, or last night.
That helps us keep things in perspective as we turn the calendar to a new year. To some, the last 12 months might have sped by; to others, they may have dragged. It all depends upon what was happening in life. Happy days go fast. Hard days don’t.
We wonder what the next 12 months will bring. We hope it will be a happy new year. It’s hard for us to imagine what our life will be like 10 years from now. We give no thought to what it will be like on earth in 1,000 years. Who cares?
God does. He knows exactly what life on planet earth will be like every day in the future—and the exact day and minute it will end.
We set our clocks and turn our calendars, but we do not control our time. Thank God, he does!
We may wonder with worry. He doesn’t. Neither should we.
Moses wrote the words of this 90th Psalm some 1,500 years before Jesus was born. They were true then, they are true now, 2,000 years after that birth.
Moses pleaded, “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days” (v.14).
The only way that prayer could be granted is if the eternal God would send his Son into the realm of time and space to rescue prisoners held captive by the Prince of Darkness and doomed to forever death.
When the message of his coming went out, those who clung to the hope waited and waited. The years appeared to drag on. Finally, the day for the Desire of nations to appear arrived—and the new calendar, labeled, “In the year of our Lord”, turned its first page.
In heaven, the time between the birth of Moses and the birth of Jesus was like a watch in the night. The time between the return of Jesus to heaven and the crowning of King Forkbeard—like a watch in the night.
Between this New Year’s Eve and the end of the world will be to him like a watch in the night—or like yesterday when it is passed.
The Lord is greater than time. He is the creator and controller of time.
The new year is in good hands. So are we.
We Pray:Eternal God, we come before you with limited understanding and often limited faith. We know that our life on this earth is also limited, but you entered into the dominion of time so that we might spend a timeless life with you in glory. For the blessings of the past year, we thank you. For your blessing upon us in the new year, we pray with confidence in the name of Jesus, the ever-newborn King. Amen.
Written by Pastor Paul Ziemer, WELS National Civilian Chaplain and Liaison to the Military, Cape Coral, Florida- Provided by WELS Ministry to the Military
