The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty if we are strong
— Psalm 90:10 (BSB)
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Are You Near Life's End?
There will come a time when I must depart this earthly existence. What weighs on me more is the thought of leaving my wife behind. Yet, in recent months, I have seen God build a wall of protection around her. That assurance came in an unusual way.
At the close of 2023, I underwent a series of medical examinations. On the morning, I was due to receive the results, my wife and I—keeping to our daily practice—randomly read a Psalm. That day it was Psalm 91
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “You are my refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust.”
I turned to my wife and said, “We are going to hear bad news today.” She quietly agreed. Again and again in our lives, the Scriptures had spoken to us in a way that was unmistakably personal, words landing in our laps at precisely the moment needed.
And sure enough, the consultant confirmed that cells in the prostate that had served me faithfully had turned hostile and stirred rebellion in the pancreas, liver, and who knows where else. In other words, I had cancer in three organs.
The doctor looked at me and said, almost surprised, “You are very bravado about this.”
I answered with confidence: “There is a young man inside me who has followed me all my life. His age, I do not know, but he is always there. He comforts me. His presence convinces me that God has eternity in view for me.”
For the truth is this: God has “set eternity in our hearts.”
That evening, we returned home and read the whole of Psalm 91 together. We felt an unshakable comfort, a peace that cannot be explained by human means. I have no sense of what the Germans call Torschlusspanik—the fear that the doors are closing in. Instead, I awaken each morning with a miraculous calm that comes only from the peace of God that excels all thought. And to this day, God has built a wall round my dear wife and will look after her in my absence.