"Thy Word is Truth," Part 1

I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind. Ecclesiastes 2:17


Living "Under the Sun"
At the end of what has been, for most of the U.S., one of the coldest winters on record, the birds are now announcing their return and the coming of spring. My oldest son and his wife are expecting their second child in a few days. My second son and his wife are doing well in their marriage, loving one another and working together to create a good life for themselves. My third son is completing preparations for a June wedding to a Christian woman who loves him dearly. He plans to go into medical school through the Navy or Air Force so he won’t have any debt. This will allow him to serve in North Africa as a medical missionary (he’s very good at French and has just started to study Arabic). My only daughter is a senior in high school, getting ready for her prom, for graduation, and for college. As I write this, my youngest son is in Costa Rica working among some of the poorest children in that country in a program that presents the gospel of Christ through activities designed to help them stay in school. He thinks God may be calling him to a life of youth missions.

All of my children are followers of Christ. Those who are married have spouses who follow Christ. My wife is a good and godly woman. She is the best friend I’ve ever had and she’s a good friend to many others, too. She is a faithful servant of Christ. In our 29 years of marriage, I have watched her teach Bible studies, mentor younger women, pour her life into her students (she teaches fourth grade)—serving Christ in places where she receives little notice from anyone but a Father who will someday say to her, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” It is a privilege to live with her.

I have so much to be thankful for and so many reasons to be happy. “But as for me,” as Asaph wrote in Psalm 73, “my feet had nearly slipped.” I woke up at 5:30 on this Saturday morning, feeling like I can’t go on. The singing birds seem to be mocking me. In this trial that is continuing into its fourth year, God is providing my daily bread. But I find myself wanting more than enough to make it through another dread-filled, tedious day.

This is where my limited powers of observation, the skewed perspective of a fallen world, and the lies, threats, and accusations of Satan have brought me. It is a dark, unhappy place. There is much to enjoy, but the trial that is pressing upon me seems to be squeezing out all the joy of life, imposing itself upon me in a way that makes it hard to see or think about anything else.

This is the perspective of the writer of Ecclesiastes, the perspective of the merely natural man living “under the sun.” From this perspective, life feels wearisome, more boring than words can express, and as senseless as chasing the wind. It seems like “nothing on earth is worth the trouble,” and that the earth is filled with violence and trouble. The dead seem better off than the living, but those who have never been born seem better off than anyone else.

The unknown writer of Ecclesiastes says you can work your whole lifetime and, in one bad business deal, lose everything and have nothing to leave to your children. He's right.

Those who seem to have everything they want can’t enjoy it; at mealtime, they are troubled, sick, and bitter. It seems like there’s no real advantage to being righteous because the same things happen to the good and the evil, to those who honor God and those who don’t, to those who keep their promises and those who break them. All go to the grave naked and are soon forgotten.

This is what the world looks like to those who live “under the sun.” This phrase is used more than twenty times in the short book of Ecclesiastes. The point is this: viewed from a purely natural perspective, life is, on the whole, really bad. This is the perspective of the Seventeen Century philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, who concluded that the life of man is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

When I started writing two hours ago, my emotional state was in almost perfect alignment with Hobbes' view of life. But this view of life is wrong. A man living “under the sun” sees only part of the truth, with that little bit that he sees aligned with the gravity of a world spinning off-center and the whole thing tainted by the lies, threats, and accusations of our enemy.

Living Before God
The Christian is not bound to live out, under the sun, a life that is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Instead, we live our whole life before God himself, whose son came that we could have life that is fuller, richer, and more abundant than the one described in Ecclesiastes. We find a hint of this blessing tucked away in the first commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Living under the sun, I feel hopeless in this time of trial, alone with my broken heart, like a man abandoned in prison.

Living before God, I am comforted by his word that says he is a helper in times of trial, that he’s near to the brokenhearted, that he’s a deliverer of the captive, and that he is, in all things, faithful and true.

Living before God, I am filled with his Holy Spirit who teaches me that God is MY helper, that he’s near to ME when I’m brokenhearted, that he’ll deliver ME, and that, in all things, he will be faithful and true TO ME.

The truth of God that comes through the Bible and the Holy Spirit changes the way we understand our surroundings. When you’re walking in a dark place, you’re likely to trip on things you don’t see, fall down, and end up covered in dirt or mud, bits of leaves and little sticks stuck in your hair and burrs stuck to your socks. In a dark place, it’s easy to be frightened by shapes that appear ominous when, in fact, they're only little bushes or a shadow.

God’s word is a light for our path, shining even into dark Saturday mornings like this one to help us see things clearly and correctly.

Through the light of scripture and the instruction of the Holy Spirit, we can find sure footing that makes it possible to walk “undefiled in the way” (Psalm 119:1).

What that means for me right now is this: if I don’t get a firm grasp of the truth that comes from God, I’ll miss some of the best times of my life. This rest of this chapter will focus on getting the truth found in the Bible. In the next chapter, I’ll focus on the truth that is taught by the Holy Spirit.