Commentary on the Gospel of
For a thousand years in your sight are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night. - Psalm 90
Every now and then when I am having a bad day, I try to remember what I was worrying about a couple of years ago, or even a couple of weeks ago. Occasionally I’ll dip into the journal where I reflect and vent –one of those notebooks you hope no one will find after you die, grateful that no one could possibly read the penmanship.
Then I think of how trivial my worries and problems must seem to a God in whose sight “a thousand years…are as yesterday.” Who knows what was happening a thousand years ago? The Battle of Hastings wasn’t until 1066!
Psalm 90 gives me a sense of peace because it leads me to reflect on the God of eternity and to put things in perspective. Today I’m worrying about a couple of home repairs, getting the schedule of spring classes in, how my son’s overseas deployment is going and a few other things. By Christmas such concerns will be long gone (I hope), replaced by new issues. And God will still be God.
How many thousands of years did God's creation of the earth exist before people appeared? And what of the vastness of the universe? When I’m troubled, it helps to envision my life as a grain of sand against the background of the cosmos.
Thinking of the eternal God to whom a thousand years are as yesterday also helps me to let go and trust that my transitory stresses are part of God’s larger plan for me.
So let us take a deep breath, and go look at some stars if we can see any and contemplate the wonder of God and his creation. Then we can turn our worries and fears over to God and find them seeming much smaller. In a thousand years, no one will care!
