OUR DAILY BREAD : TRAVELING COMPANION

[cimi]

November 19
Tuesday


TRAVELING
COMPANION

READ:
Psalm 39
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For I am a stranger
with You, a sojourner,
as all my fathers were.
__Psalm 39:12
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I looked up the members of my seminary graduating class recently and discovered that many of my friends are now deceased. It was a sober reminder of the brevity of life. Three score and ten, give or take a few years, and we're gone (Psa. 90:10). Israel's poet was right: We're but strangers here and sojourners (39:12).

The brevity of life makes us think about our "end"__the measure of our days and how fleeting they are (v.4), a feeling that grows more certain as we draw closer to the end of our lives. This world is not our home; we're but strangers and sojourners here.

Yet we are not alone on the journey . We are strangers and sojourners with God (39:12), a thought that makes the journey less troubling, less frightening, less worrisome. We pass through this world and into the next with a loving Father as our constant companion and guide. We're strangers here on earth, but we are never alone on the journey (73:23-24). We have One who says, "I am with you always" (Matt. 28:20).

We may lose sight of father, mother, spouse, and friends, but we always know that God is walking beside us. an old saying puts it like this: "Good company on the road makes the way to seem lighter." __David Roper

```````````````````My times are in my Father's hand;````````````````````
```````````````````How could I wish or ask for more?```````````````````
`````````````````For He who has my pathway planned````````````````````
``````````````Will guide me till my journey's o'er. __Fraser````````````````
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As you travel life's weary road,
let Jesus lift your heavy load.

**************************Today's Bible Reading __ psalm 39************************

1 I said, "I will guard my
ways, lest I sin with my
tongue; I will restrain my
mouth with a muzzle,
while the wicked are before me."

2 I was mute with silence, I
held my peace even from
good; and my sorrow was
stirred up. 3 My heart was hot
within me; while I was
musing, the fire burned. Then
I spoke with my tongue:

4 "LORD, make me to know
my end, and what is the
measure of my days, that I
may know how frail I am.

5 Indeed, You have made my
days as handbreadths, and
my age is as nothing before
You; certainly every man at
his best state is but vapor.

6 Surely every man walks
about like a shadow; surely
they busy themselves in
vain; he heaps up riches, and
does not know who will
gather them.

7 "And now, LORD, what do
I wait for? My hope is in
You. 8 Deliver me from all
my transgressions; do not
make me the reproach of the
foolish. 9 I was mute, I did
not open my mouth, because
it was You who did it.

10 Remove Your plague from
me; I am consumed by the
blow of Your hand. 11 When
with rebukes You correct
man for iniquity, You make
his beauty melt away like a
moth; surely every man is
vapor.

12 "Hear my prayer, O
LORD, and give ear to my
cry; do not be silent at my
tears; for I am a stranger with
You, a sojourner, as all my
fathers were. 13 remove Your
gaze from me, that I may
regain strength, before I go
away and am no more."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Some see a parallel between the content of Psalm 39 and Job 7. In
both cases, we find a righteous man pondering the shortness of life
and the distress endured during that brief time. The Bible is realistic in
recording the ups and down of human experience.