As we approach Easter Sunday together, we are in what is known as Holy Week. Today through Saturday, I will share a brief devotional giving us a thought from scripture leading us into this incredible weekend!!!
Psalm 71:1-9
“IN YOU, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.
2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me and save me.
3 Be to me a rock of refuge,
a strong fortress, to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from my birth;
it was you who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.
7 I have been like a portent to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
and with your glory all day long.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
do not forsake me when my strength is spent.
In some translations this Psalm has been a “Prayer for old age”. It is the only Psalm where old age is mentioned. Old age and failing strength is the unavoidable part of our human condition. Even those who are young feel the effects of fatigue, exhaustion, sickness, pain, and failing human strength. This among many other scriptures as well as life’s experience, reminds us we are frail and finite beings. As we reflect on this concept with Holy Week as our background we are reminded of our limitations, our weaknesses, and our failing human conditions.
Christ was fully human and fully God. Yet in the cross event, we see His human frailty and finite condition become a reality and not just a myth. His divine nature willingly allowed it, but nevertheless, He suffered pain, His strength was spent, and He experienced His body coming to the end of it’s life.
Closing Thought – As we come face to face with Jesus’ frailty at Calvary, let us confront our own mortality as well. Let us recognize how Christ identified with our humanness to the fullest extent and in doing so, we can have faith that He is with us, when our strength fails, when we are exhausted, and when we come to the point of even death. He is our rock, OUR CORNERSTONE, and in Him we take refuge, when we are young and strong as well as when we are old and gray.
Have a great day!