Prayer of the Consumer

Psalm 39:4-7

Lord, reveal to me the end of my life
and the number of my days.
Let me know how short-lived I am.
You, indeed, have made my days
short in length,
and my life span as nothing in Your sight. 

Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor.

Selah

Certainly, man walks about
like a mere shadow.
Indeed, they frantically rush around in vain,
gathering possessions without knowing who will get them.
Now, Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in You.

...............

Materialism. 

According to this passage, the root cause of materialism is that we think we are eternal.

We typically do not number our days. We think we are permanent, destined to live on and on, never having to say goodbye to the things and accomplishments we have accumulated. We make plans and dream dreams, assuming that tomorrow is guaranteed to us. We create hopes for doing, buying, building, traveling, saving, spending, and on and on.

We are practical materialists, even against our knowing better. If you asked a stranger to examine our lives from the outside, what would they see? Do we show by our choices and our budget line items that we believe only in the visible material world? That we have bought into the promises that this world so readily makes to us? That the next house or car or vacation or job opportunity will finally fulfill us? That we are one purchase away from knowing true peace?

Before I create any unnecessary guilt trips, it is important to note that the Bible does not endorse poverty over riches per se. In several places, Paul exhorts the rich to beware being proud and to be sure to be generous, but he never condemns the riches themselves. In the most quotable of these places, notice that money is not the root of evil, but rather the love of money:

But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root  of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith  and pierced themselves with many pains. (1 Tim 6:9-10)

It is the want of riches and the love of money that leads our impressionable hearts into many other vices. We crave what we don't have and that craving ends up justifying our discontent, anger, and resentment of others who happen to have it better than us. Notice also that this heart condition could apply to the rich and poor alike. You could have very little and still be enslaved by the empty promises of riches, thinking if only I had this or that, then I could finally be happy.

Paul continues in the same passage to give a positive alternative to this craving:

Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God,  who richly provides us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good reserve for the age to come, so that they may take hold of life that is real. (1 Tim 6:17-19)

In this positive way forward, riches do not have to be a pathway to evil. They can, in fact, lead to enormous opportunities for good and glory for God. Riches can become, like in the parable of the talents, a test of our faithfulness to God and an investment that pays off for the good of others and ends in a warm welcome in heaven, where our true treasure-house grows with every act of faithfulness.

Taken together with Psalm 39, Paul's words and all of Scripture present us with a challenge, whether we are rich or poor. The challenge is to:

- examine our hearts

- number our days 

- realize the impermanence of this material world

- make God himself our greatest hope and treasure

- realize our responsibility before God who owns all things

- and start using our resources to invest in real treasure - the growing kingdom of God and its many faceted blessings. 

I am reminded of another of Paul's challenges which sums all of this up rather nicely:

Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you  to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2)