Who Am I: The Nature of Life (Psalm 90:3-10)

“Still, You hear me when I'm calling. Lord, You catch me when I'm falling, and You've told me who I am…” – Casting Crowns 📞

Dear fading flower,

In terms of our present life, we’re just like plants whose days on earth are numbered. Like pretty, fragrant flowers, we bloom but then wither.

God doesn’t intend for us to die, but when sin opened its eye, it craved owning God’s position, which is a lie. No one can take God’s place. He’s the one true God, and though other people don’t believe Him, it doesn’t change who He is. There’s one Truth and that’s Jesus Christ (John 14:6).

We last stopped at Numbers 14. Now we’re taking a detour to a different book of the Bible. Let’s look at the first psalm ever written. Moses wrote this after God said the passage I featured in the entry before this. (← Click the link to read.)

 

Psalm 90:3-10 (NKJV)

³ You turn man to destruction,

And say, “Return, O children of men.”

⁴ For a thousand years in Your sight

Are like yesterday when it is past,

And like a watch in the night.

⁵ You carry them away like a flood;

They are like a sleep.

In the morning they are like grass which grows up:

⁶ In the morning it flourishes and grows up;

In the evening it is cut down and withers.

 

⁷ For we have been consumed by Your anger,

And by Your wrath we are terrified.

⁸ You have set our iniquities before You,

Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.

⁹ For all our days have passed away in Your wrath;

We finish our years like a sigh.

¹⁰ The days of our lives are seventy years;

And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,

Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;

For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

 

“For dust you are, and to dust you shall return (Genesis 3:19).” Our earthly bodies eventually come to destruction. Some live fully, but some die too soon. In our story, the generation of the Israelites, except for Caleb and Joshua, were subject to die without dwelling in the Promised Land. As for the other spies who gave the false report about the land, they immediately died by the plague. Commentaries say that this means they had a stroke (Bible Hub).

Verse 4 of our passage today describes that a millennium to us is just a day or mere night hours to God. He’s eternal while our earthly bodies are mortal. We’re flowers quickly fading, waves tossed in the ocean, vapor in the wind. I’m referencing this entry’s featured song, “Who Am I” by Casting Crowns. I love how the chorus starts saying man is a flower that’s gone tomorrow and ends by saying God tells this man, “You’re Mine.” The actual lyrics are “And You've told me who I am: I am Yours.” That’s the continuation of the quote I left hanging at the top of this entry.

Let’s talk about the flower metaphor. I remember in the Catholic school I attended, there’s a person assigned every day to bring flowers for the classroom’s altar. (I’m not Catholic, and I don’t agree with bowing down or praying to images.) I witnessed that flowers don’t last–well, picked flowers, that is. So I searched how long they last in the field. Flowers and plants are classified three-way in terms of their life span: annuals, biennials, perennials. Annuals are planted in spring and die in fall. That’s less than a year. Biennials die the following year’s fall. Perennials die in winter, but the roots remain alive. They regrow the next spring, but that’s a new flower already (Kelley & Lamont, 2007). We see here that flowers last as long as two years only.

Thinking about plant life coming to an end made me wonder if plants might have been meant to last forever like humans, but then I remember they’re made to be our food. I was thinking maybe flowers that don’t become fruits don’t have to die. Remember God cursed the ground to make it hard for man to harvest (Genesis 3:17)? Maybe there shouldn’t have been waiting seasons for crops to grow. Maybe there shouldn’t have been spring, summer, fall, and winter at all.

I did some searching and found from an article on Ichthys.com, a Bible study material site, that the seasons started after the deluge/flood when Noah made the ark. In the Aramaic Bible in Plain English version, God said “And from now, all of the days of the Earth, seed and harvest, frost and heat, summer and winter, daytime and night, shall not cease (Genesis 8:22).” The article states that in Genesis 8:21, the phrase "curse the ground" has both a different verb and a different noun from the curse in Genesis 3, the Fall of Man. Genesis 8:21 translates to "I will never again diminish (i.e., worsen) the earth (i.e., its condition)". The language indicates much more of a one-time effect, so it could be that part of what God did was He tilted Earth’s axis in order to have seasons (Luginbill).

Genesis 8:22 animated illustration with pictures taken from Animal Crossing (New Horizons & Pocket Camp)

The seasons represent life cycle. New life starts in spring while death comes in winter. That’s the literal cycle for plants at least. But as an analogy for us humans, life starts and then ends. Life ends because of sin. God is just, so when we sin, we have to pay for it. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).”

Christ made a way for us to have eternity with Him. All we need to do is to accept Him as our Lord and Savior. Let Him rule over your life. Give the steering wheel of your earthly ride in His hands. Seek His counsel through prayer and Bible reading. Fill yourself with His overflowing love and because you can’t contain it, share it with others.

Human life has an expiration. Once you get to know God, you’ll see there’s a mission. We’re meant to worship Him and bring that love to others. Imagine we’re worker bees transferring pollen to flowers. Sharing the gospel brings life eternal. Let it be known that earthly death isn’t final.

With love,

Celina <3

References

Bible Hub. (n.d.). Numbers 14:37 Commentaries. From Bible Hub: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/numbers/14-37.htm

Kelley, K., & Lamont, P. (2007, October 22). Plant Life Cycles. From PennState Extension: https://extension.psu.edu/plant-life-cycles

Luginbill, R. D. (n.d.). The Origin of the Four Seasons. From Ichthys.com: https://ichthys.com/mail-seasons.htm

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