It's raining today. Driving Michael to work in the rain is hard because the rain makes the highway so shiny and our highway department doesn't place painting the stripes on our highways a very high priority! (At least this is the way it appears to me.)
Now I'm back home and going through Morning Prayers. Psalm 49, is the psalm for the morning. After reading it I had to go back and make sure it was a psalm. I thought it was a chapter from Job. Reading this depressed me so much. I have to share just to see if it affects you the same way.
O HEAR ye this, all ye people; * ponder it with your ears, all ye that dwell in the world; High and low, rich and poor, * one with another. My mouth shall speak of wisdom, * and my heart shall muse of understanding. I will incline mine ear to the parable, * and show my dark speech upon the harp. Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, * when wickedness at my heels compasseth me round about? There be some that put their trust in their goods, * and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches. But no man may deliver his brother, * nor give a ransom unto God for him, (For it cost more to redeem their souls, * so that he must let that alone for ever;) That he shall live alway, * and not see the grave. For he seeth that wise men also die and perish together, * as well as the ignorant and foolish, and leave their riches for other. And yet they think that their houses shall continue for ever, and that their dwelling-places shall endure from one generation to another; * and call the lands after their own names. Nevertheless, man being in honour abideth not, * seeing he may be compared unto the beasts that perish; This their way is very foolishness; * yet their posterity praise their saying. They lie in the grave like sheep; death is their shepherd; and the righteous shall have dominion over them in the morning: * their beauty shall consume in the sepulchre, and have no abiding. But God hath delivered my soul from the power of the grave; * for he shall receive me. Be not thou afraid, though one be made rich, * or if the glory of his house be increased; For he shall carry nothing away with him when he dieth, * neither shall his pomp follow him. For while he lived, he counted himself an happy man; * and so long as thou doest well unto thyself, men will speak good of thee. He shall follow the generation of his fathers, * and shall never see light. Man that is in honour but hath no understanding * is compared unto the beasts that perish.
It's several days later and I just reread Psalm 49 and I was wrong about feeling like it was from Job. There is a very somber feel to this chapter but it is because it is a somber subject. People are dancing into their own oblivion oblivious to their upcoming doom.
The thing is how do we wake them up?
One of my guilt's, my sadness and my confusion is how I am so blessed while others are not. This chapter shows how the richness of Americans may not be a blessing but a curse because we don't see the truth, we only see our comfort right now. How many people go through their day only thinking about what they can buy or what they can do?
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