In recent years, I’ve felt the gnawing dread that all the norms in life – all the things I’ve come to expect over the course of my life – could be overturned and reversed in an instant.
In the new year, will I be able to get a car loan? Is the buying power of my money going to erode further? Will the challenges with my kids get better or grow worse? Will I gain a new friendship, or will one of my friends stab me in the back? Will the political season stir deeper division in the church?
There’s much I don’t know about the new year. But as I turn to the Word of God, there’s much I can know. The Bible – and Psalm 90 in particular – gives a set of constants on the horizon as the calendar flips from December to January.
1) God will still be my refuge
‘Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God’ (Psalm 90:1-2).
The great constant in my life, year after year, is the unending fact of the presence of God. He has been there, and he will be there. No matter where I find myself this year, God will be there. No matter how strong the storms hit this year, God will always be there for me.
I love how Moses prays this ancient psalm not just to the abstract God who is ‘out there’ somewhere but to the God who is our dwelling place – the God at the centre of my life, to whom I can run when my life is threatened.
2) This year – and all my life – will slip through my fingers
‘You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers (Psalm 90:3-6).’
