It was C.T. Studd, the former British missionary who said, “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
Our lives are transitory and brief. Mere vapors in the tapestry of time - and in light of the fleeting and fragile nature of life, there is amongst God’s children a yearning to live for something that lasts - to leave a legacy.
David’s 145th Psalm helps us in this regard. In this Psalm David is concerned with living a life that lasts for one main reason: He is consumed with the greatness of God. God’s goodness, sovereignty, mercy, and love never promotes passivity in the hearts of those who know Him, but rather a passion to live exclusively for His glory. David is enthralled by God’s character and for that reason, he wants his life to count. David wants…to leave a legacy.
IN DAVID’S FINAL PSALM, WE OBSERVE FIVE HALLMARKS OF A LIFE THAT LASTS.
- HUMILITY
David says in Psalm 145:1, “I will extol you my God, O King.” To extol means to “exalt,” to “lift high,” and to “elevate.” And the only ones who can lift high the name of God are those who are brought low in humility.
Humility is the soil where praise blooms. God is opposed to the proud, but He exalts and employs the humble to His service (Luke 14:11).
David continues by saying, “I will bless your name forever and ever (Ps. 145:1b).” The Hebrew word for “bless” is בָרַךְ (barak), it means to “praise,” it means to “adore,” but it also means something else: It means “to bow.” To “bless” God is to kneel down before Him. Why? Because you cannot worship God if you are high, you must be brought low. God is lofty and exalted and He can only be known and approached by those who are humble, lowly, and who bow down before Him.
Humility is the only proper response to the greatness of God and it is the first hallmark of a life that lasts.
2. RESOLVE
Four times in the opening two verses David makes emphatic statements that reveal his determination to live exclusively for God (Ps. 145:1-2). David says, even if no one else lives for God, “I will.”
A resolve to live for God is not the antonym of reliance upon God, nor is it an exhibition of pride - it is rather, the manifestation of a heart that truly loves God. The Apostle Paul said that he buffeted his body (1 Cor. 9:27) to honor God, as a young teenager Daniel determined (or “purposed”) in his heart (Daniel 1:8) that he would not eat the king's food, and here, King David makes personal commitments to live for God alone.
In the fall of 1722, a teenager named Jonathan Edwards began to write a series of resolutions that would provide the foundation and framework for his entire life. By the following year on August 17, 1723, he penned his seventieth and final resolution. Let me highlight a few:
4. “Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, but what tends to the glory of God.”
17. “Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.”
53. “Resolved…to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in him, and consecrate myself wholly to him”
George Marsden, in his biography of Edwards, observes: “Jonathan directed his ‘Resolutions’ toward plugging every gap that would allow distraction from what he saw as his only worthy activity, to glorify God”
Here is something we need to understand: No one lives a godly life by accident. It must be pursued.
Although Edwards expressed his determination and resolve to live for God, before he ever penned his first resolution, he offered a prefacing word: “Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will for Christ’s sake.”
Resolutions without God’s grace and power are vain, but resolutions accompanied by grace, girded by prayer, and enabled through the Holy Spirit availeth much.
3. STEWARDSHIP
As I write this, my daughter Lily is two-years-old and the reality is, Lily’s grandchildren will know very little about me. And her great-grandchildren (my great, great, grand-children) won’t even know my name.
This is a message that the Bible preaches in your face: You are going to die and you are going to be forgotten. This, however, does not not promote despair, but rather a passion to pass down the greatness of God to the following generation.
David says, “One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts (Ps. 145:4).” David details that every generation’s profound responsibility is not merely to “tell” of God’s works, but to “commend,” “praise,” and “laud” the works of God to the next generation. Those who revel in the greatness of God are not content to merely pass the torch of truth, but to model for their children and the world around them what it looks like to know God personally and intimately.
David says, “Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, and I will tell of Your greatness (Ps. 145:6).” If you were to ask a young child, “What do men talk about?” What do you think they would say? I wonder if they would respond and say: “Men speak of the greatness and awesomeness of God.”
All godly men and women understand that their lives are brief and will soon be gone and the only thing worth living for is the commendation of the truth to the next generation. This sense of stewardship in lauding the works of God to the next generation is not only a logical response to the goodness of God, but the hallmark of a life that lasts.
4. GRATITUDE
David says, “All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord and Your godly ones shall bless You (Ps. 145:10).”
Do you want to leave a legacy? Then let your gratitude propel you to proclaim the excellencies of God to those around you.
Gratitude is a distinguishing mark of a genuine believer and it is the fuel of a life worth living. Our thankfulness for God’s love (Ps. 145:8), goodness (Ps. 145:9), glory (Ps. 145:11), might (Ps. 145:12) eternality (Ps. 145:13) provision (Ps. 145:15), and righteousness (Ps. 145:17) promote a disinterest in worldly distractions and an eagerness to live exclusively for God.
5. NEARNESS TO GOD’S WORD
David says, “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth (Ps. 145:18).”
God is omnipresent, which means He is everywhere. Therefore the Lord is near, but He is not in this sense to “all,” nor to “all those who call,” but to “all those who call upon Him in truth.”
In order for our lives to matter, they must be tethered to the word of God. We walk through this world blind, without wisdom, and without guidance when we deprive our hearts and minds of the truth of Scripture. Through God’s Word, God’s Spirit makes us pure, wise, discerning, and ultimately, transforms us into the image of Christ.
Do you want your life to last?
Then pray that your life is marked by these five hallmarks:
- Humility
- Resolve
- Stewardship
- Gratitude
- Nearness
Abridged from Jonny Ardavanis’ Dial In podcast episode, “Living A Life That Lasts.”
