An unexamined life is not worth living. We all know that there is always a time when you reflect on your life, and you have a cause to feel lonely and sad if things are not going according to plan.We try to find answers to basic questions like 'why am I here on earth, what is my purpose, where am I going, how am I suppose to know my purpose and fulfill it, is there any life hereafter? Fortunately, we see that we have every cause to pull ourselves together. When you feel or get in that mood, you need to put on the right thinking cap. What is the right thinking? It is positive thoughts ignoring all negative sides or events in your life. Where there is life, they say there is hope. Without hope for a brighter tomorrow, we have no reason to continue this miserable life.
Without transformation in your walk, it is meaningless! meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. The Psalmist had every reason like you and I to feel dejected but did not. He rather chose to praise his maker in whose his power and direction he entrusted his life and future into. In the song of ascents, the Psalmist also asked the same; from where does my help come from?And he provides the answer subsequently. I lift up my eyes to the mountains. My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. The usage of the mountains is mere symbolism reflecting the omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence of the Almighty God. The so-called 'Songs of Degrees are usually attributed to the times of the Exile. we get an appropriate background and setting for the expressions and emotions of this psalm. We see the exile, wearied with the monotony of the long-stretching, flat plains of Babylonia, summoning up before his mind the distant hills where his home was. We see him wondering how he will be able ever to reach that place where his desires are set; and we see him settling down, in hopeful assurance that his effort is not in vain, since his help comes from the Lord. 'I will lift up my eyes unto the hills'; away out yonder westwards, across the sands, lie the lofty summits of my fatherland that draws me to itself. Then comes a turn of thought, most natural to a mind passionately yearning after a great hope, the very greatness of which makes it hard to keep constant.
It is in such situation that the wise teacher pours out his frustrations in life. What do people gain from all their labours at which they toil under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.
According to some experts, the book evokes a time when the traditional answers to the great questions about the meaning of life have lost their relevance. It introduces a methodology and inductive reasoning.Although the writer never disputes the existence of a God who grants significance to his creation, the writer is determined to discover it through his own experience and observation, in a way that he himself can verify it and pass it on to his disciples. While this approach seems more fulfilling to man as we take the praise for the outcome of our efforts, it is better to lean on the creator who has programmed your satisfaction just like your DNA code but allows the exercise of your free will. God knows all your needs and wants but He expects you to ask Him as a sign of your faith, trust and reliance in his ability to provide for all your needs.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, Stand in His strength alone;
The arm of flesh will fail you, Ye dare not trust your own.
Put on the gospel armour, Each piece put on with prayer;
Where duty calls or danger, Be never wanting there.
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, Stand in His strength alone;
The arm of flesh will fail you, Ye dare not trust your own.
Put on the gospel armour, Each piece put on with prayer;
Where duty calls or danger, Be never wanting there.
