HANDBREADTHS

Every day is like a handbreadth

And like a shadow are our days;

A simple vapour in the wind

Are our thoughts and all our ways.

Our frailty is known

By the One who understands;

Who has measured our every day

By the sovereignty of His hand.

Teach us to keep Your precepts

And open our eyes to eternity,

And keep a guard over our soul

To resist all the vanity.

At his best man is vapour

Like a flower in all its glory;

Who will boast in his achievements

To invent just one more story.

Surely all is vanity

When riches they are heaped,

Not knowing who will gather them

And not knowing what they’ll keep.

When You rebuke us Lord

It’s for our best interests indeed,

Because You’ve seen our beginning and our end

So it’s wise when we take heed.

Every day is like a handbreadth

Short and sweet just like our palm,

And the bridge between us and You

Is Your outstretched arm.

The arm that crosses over

Where the cross at Calvary,

Redeemed us through Christ’s sacrifice

So eternal life we see.

You’ll never leave us nor forsake us

As You remember we’re just a breath;

A speck in the scheme of eternity

Where our days are just handbreadths!

“Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. 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 vapour, 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.” Psalm 39:4-6

“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” Hebrews 13:5

“All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” 1 Peter 1:24

“But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.” 1 Timothy 6:9

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’” Matthew 19:23-24

“Your hands have made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding that I may learn Your commandments.” Psalm 119:73

“Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end.” Psalm 119:33