I’ll let the text speak for itself today…

Here’s something in Ecclesiastes 6 in NKJV I’d never seen before:

All the labor of man is for his mouth, And yet the soul is not satisfied. (Ecclesiastes 6.7, NKJV)

What will the soul be satisfied with?

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” (Matthew 4.4, NKJV)

I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food. (Job 23.12, NKJV)

Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15.16, NKJV)

Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him. (John 6.27, NKJV)

Amen.

PS This blog is in the spirit of Ecclesiastes 5.2:

God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few.

I’m sharing snippets from Ecclesiastes, words to get our attention and make us think.

Here’s chilling thought from chapter 4, right after the value of partnership that I shared yesterday:

Better a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who will be admonished no more. (Ecclesiastes 4.13, NKJV)

NLT has it:

It is better to be a poor but wise youth than an old and foolish king who refuses all advice.

Don’t get past receiving admonishment! Don’t be the person who “refuses all advice.” Said positively:

The ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise. He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding. (Proverbs 15.31, 32, NKJV)

Back to Ecclesiastes:

He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; Nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. (Ecclesiastes 5.10, NKJV)

A good word. There’s a parallel passage in Proverbs:

Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich. Be wise enough to know when to quit. (Proverbs 23.4, NLT)

The solution?

Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage. As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 5.18, 19, NKJV)

PS If you missed the concert, you can watch it here.

Here’s a gem from Ecclesiastes 4:

Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4.9 – 12, NKJV)

My son Matt selected this text to be read at his wedding on June 29. His wife, Amber, understands the third strand of the threefold cord to be Jesus.

I agree. Amen.

This blog will post at 5:30p, Mountain time, August 24, 2025, and at 7p June and I with our son David will do a piano concert at YMCA of the Rockies as I mentioned last Monday. One of the pieces I will play is “Theme from Exodus,” inspired by the Julliard-trained piano duo Ferrante and Teicher. They came out with it right after the movie back in 1960, and for a while it was #2 on the pop chart. I was a freshman in high school when I worked out my facsimile arrangement. You can hear the real one by clicking the photo:

I got to hear them live when they did a concert at Clemson University a few years later while I was a student. I’ll never forget their introduction. They said something like, “We know that you all want to know, you know, who’s who.” Then they paused, and one of them said:

We are Ferrante and Teicher.

Think about it. At our concert tonight, everyone will know who is Bob, June and David. They can have their favorite pianist. Not at that Ferrante and Teicher concert. Neither could try to upstage the other for his own glory since we didn’t know which was Ferrante and which was Teicher. It was the epitome of Paul’s instruction to the Philippians:

Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. (Philippians 2.1 – 4, NKJV)

PS Here we are in the Estes Park News, August 22 edition, page 34:

PPS The event was livestreamed via FaceBook, and you can see the saved video here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1C2yNS23cE/

The music starts about 2:20 in. You can only see the piano. You can hear our introductions but not see us since we’re across the stage from the piano.

Dayenu means “it would have been enough,” and it’s a new word for me. It comes from a Jewish Passover hymn written in the 9th Century. The Wikipedia entry starts:

Dayenu (Hebrew: דַּיֵּנוּ‎, Dayyēnū) is a song that is part of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The word “dayenu” means approximately “it would have been enough”…This traditional upbeat Passover song is over one thousand years old.

It’s part of The Chosen, Season 5, episode 4. Click the picture to see the scene in its entirety.

The article goes on to summarize the words – the things God did for Israel:

Dayenu has 15 stanzas representing the 15 gifts God bestowed. The first five involve freeing the Jews from slavery, the next describe the miracles He did for them, and the last five for the closeness to God He gave them. Each stanza is followed by dayenu “it would have been enough”, sung repeatedly. The 15 stanzas are as follows:

Five stanzas of leaving slavery

1. If He had brought us out of Egypt
2. If He had executed justice upon the Egyptians
3. If He had executed justice upon their gods
4. If He had slain their first-born
5. If He had given to us their wealth

Five stanzas of miracles

6. If He had split the sea for us
7. If He had led us through on dry land
8. If He had drowned our oppressors
9. If He had provided for our needs in the wilderness for 40 years
10. If He had fed us manna

Five stanzas of being with God

11. If He had given us Shabbat
12. If He had led us to Mount Sinai
13. If He had given us the Torah
14. If He had brought us into the Land of Israel
15. If He built the Temple for us

The Presbyterian Church (USA) wrote a lovely adaptation, which I present without further comment:

Most Holy God, maker of heaven and earth, so bountiful is your steadfast love, that just a little of your glory is more than enough.

• If you had just poured out your love in creation, It would have been enough.
• If you had revealed yourself through creation, but not made covenant with us, It would have been enough.
• If you had made covenant with us and not entered into relationship with us, It would have been enough.
• If you had just been in relationship with us and not fussed over us when we strayed, It would have been enough.
• If you had called us to accountability when we strayed and not delivered us from bondage, Dayenu.
• If you had delivered us from slavery and not led us into a land of freedom, Dayenu.
• If you had led us into a land of freedom and not sent holy men and women to teach us your Way, Dayenu.
• If you had sent us prophets to speak of your love and not sent us a Savior, Dayenu.
• If you had sent us a Savior and not taken humanity unto yourself, It would have been enough.
• If you had taken humanity unto yourself but not given us resurrection victory, It would have been enough.
• If you had conquered the power of sin but not given us the gift of Holy Spirit, It would have been enough.
• If you had conferred Holy Spirit but not called us to participate in your work of redeeming and blessing the world. It would have been enough.

But as it is, most gracious God, you have more than abundantly lavished your goodness upon us. In Christ Jesus you revealed the fullness of your love. His whole life, death, and resurrection testify to the depth of your compassion.

Therefore, we bless you, we thank you, we praise you, for you alone are worthy of our worship. To you and to the Christ and to the Holy Spirit be all glory, honor, and dominion, now and forevermore. Amen.

The Apostle Paul expressed it succinctly:

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! (2 Corinthians 9.15, ESV)

PS There’s another scene in The Chosen where the female disciples of Jesus do their own Dayenu.

In 1984, when we left Montgomery, Alabama, the first time (we also lived there from 2001 – 2006), our adult Sunday School class gave us a clock, which still hangs in a prominent place in our home.

If you look very carefully behind the pendulum, you’ll see a small plaque. It’s inscribed

Ecclesiastes 3.1 – 8

To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:

• A time to be born, and a time to die
• A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted
• A time to kill, and a time to heal
• A time to break down, and a time to build up
• A time to weep, and a time to laugh
• A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
• A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones
• A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing
• A time to gain, and a time to lose
• A time to keep, and a time to throw away
• A time to tear, and a time to sew
• A time to keep silence, and a time to speak
• A time to love, and a time to hate
• A time of war, and a time of peace. (Ecclesiastes 3.1 – 8, NKJV, bulleted for clarity)

“A time for every purpose under heaven.”

Those of us who are getting older realize we’re going to a lot more funerals than weddings, yes? “A time to be born, and a time to die.”

Our downsizing move has been “a time to throw away” (and give away!).

We can pray with respect to Russia and Ukraine that we’re approaching “a time of peace.”

What “time” is it in your life?

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time… (Ephesians 5.15, 16, ESV)

We continue through Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 2 sounds like the Friday Mansion section of Wall Street Journal which continually tells stories with a common theme:

• (Wealthy) people buy a home for $X million.
• They spend $Y million remodeling it to meet their every whim.
• A few years later, they sell it for $Z million because apparently the house didn’t quite meet their needs for very long.

Solomon’s version goes like this:

I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove…Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 2.4 – 6, 10, 11, NKJV)

As I say, the folks in the Wall Street Journal do all that, then sell. I’m still processing the CEO of Waste Management who had one of the best houses in Aspen. I’ve seen that house. Walking distance to the music festival that we try to go to for a couple of days each summer. He only lived in it for about a year back in 2020 before he “upgraded to the 11-bedroom compound at the base of Aspen’s Red Mountain.” He bought it, remodeled it for his family, then sold it because a guy offered him a lot of money. The CEO doesn’t even need the money.

Here’s the opening of the story from “The Waste Management Billionaire Setting Real Estate Records for Fun.”

Waste management billionaire Patrick Dovigi was at his Aspen, Colorado, home when he got an unexpected call from former casino magnate Steve Wynn on New Year’s Day in 2024.

Wynn wanted to buy the house, though it wasn’t on the market. Dovigi paid $72.5 million for the property in 2021, then a record price for the affluent alpine town, and had just finished fixing it up for his young family. “Initially, I said no. I wasn’t interested,” recalled Dovigi.

But Wynn persisted. Four months later, he and financier Thomas Peterffy closed on the 22,000-square-foot house for $108 million—setting a new Aspen record.

Dovigi was in the house about three years. “Fixed it up for his young family.” Then sold it for a profit he didn’t even need. Then he has to move, and I’m acutely aware that moving is hard!

Dovigi insists that he’s building/buying houses to live in:

“He’s always like, ‘This is the place, we’ll never sell it. This is it.’ But then there’s always something else,” Fernanda says. “There’s always other opportunities,” her husband interjects. 

Solomon was right:

And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. (Ecclesiastes 2.11, NKJV)

We start Ecclesiastes in our reading plan:

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. (Ecclesiastes 1.1, NKJV)

These are the “words of the Preacher,” not the words of God. There will be some truth, but not all of it is true. For example:

That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, “See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us. (Ecclesiastes 1.9, 10, NKJV)

I think a lot of today’s technology is new. What people use it for may not be new. E.g., pornography and gambling. Or, more positively, writing letters, doing calculations, and reading books. But a computer you can carry in your pocket and call it a “phone”? That’s certainly new.

Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43.18, NKJV)

We come to Psalm 89, a long end to Psalms, Book III. Tomorrow in the reading plan, we start Ecclesiastes.

Psalm 89: the first 2/3 is about God’s promises to David. The last 1/3: why isn’t it working??

The promise:

I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David: “Your seed I will establish forever, And build up your throne to all generations. ” Selah (Psalm 89.3, 4, NKJV)

Nevertheless My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, Nor allow My faithfulness to fail. My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David: His seed shall endure forever, And his throne as the sun before Me; It shall be established forever like the moon, Even like the faithful witness in the sky.” Selah (Psalm 89.33 – 37, NKJV)

BUT…

But You have cast off and abhorred, You have been furious with Your anointed. You have renounced the covenant of Your servant; You have profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. You have broken down all his hedges; You have brought his strongholds to ruin. All who pass by the way plunder him; He is a reproach to his neighbors. (Psalm 89.38 – 41, NKJV)

An honest prayer. God, look what you’ve done.

A plea:

How long, LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath burn like fire? Remember how short my time is; For what futility have You created all the children of men? (Psalm 89.46, 47, NKJV)

A final prayer:

Lord, where are Your former lovingkindnesses, Which You swore to David in Your truth? Remember, Lord, the reproach of Your servants How I bear in my bosom the reproach of all the many peoples, With which Your enemies have reproached, O LORD, With which they have reproached the footsteps of Your anointed. (Psalm 89.49 – 51, NKJV)

But after all that…and before:

I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever; With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations. (Psalm 89.1, NKJV)

Blessed be the LORD forevermore! Amen and Amen. (Psalm 89.52, NKJV)

End of Psalms, Book III

There’s a song from verse 1. A song of God’s mercy and faithfulness, preface to a psalm in which that mercy and faithfulness seem to have gone away. The psalm starts upbeat, and even ends upbeat…but that last third!

But the psalmist couldn’t know that the promise to King David would be fulfilled in Jesus.

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1.30 – 33, NKJV)

Please excuse a bit of family business…

Moving to a smaller house required switching to a smaller piano. June wrote about the downsizing move, “We went straight to the music store and came out with a Yamaha baby grand which I love.” What to do with our 7-foot Baldwin?

Answer: give it to our youngest son, David, who lives near Atlanta. David posted on FaceBook:

I haven’t shared this news widely until today. But this instrument has now begun its journey from Colorado to Georgia. Those of you out there that have been around my family for a long time know the significance of this piano. When we moved from a rental house to Rockrimmon in 1987, my parents acquired this American made Baldwin. No, they did not purchase it for their 7 year old that had been taking piano lessons for barely a year. Mom and dad are elite pianists and they wanted this piano for their lifetime. Nonetheless, I began practicing on this piano. I remember getting grounded when I touched the strings. I remember many frustrating practice sessions, wondering if I would continue. I remember big Christmas gatherings where my parents and others would take turns leading everyone in our favorite carols. I remember the first Christmas I was good enough to be in that rotation. This piano was my primary instrument from age 7 to age 19 when I left for college. I didn’t track it, but I would imagine I have 4,000-5,000 hours on this piano. And now it is coming here, to my home in Georgia. The stories this piano could tell… I simply cannot express what it means for this instrument to be in my care. Travel safe, old friend.

June’s brother Paul, a fine pianist, wrote:

Awesome piano, with a Renner action, made when Baldwin and Steinway were co-equals. In fact, many artists chose Baldwin over Steinway, including Liberace. It is a very fine instrument. Congratulations. I am so happy that it is going to a place where it will be used and appreciated and will stay in the family. I know your mom and dad feel the same.

June echoed:

Don’t be sad because we are giving away our piano. The time has come that we need a smaller house with NO STEPS! Your dad and I wanted you to have the Baldwin concert grand as it “fits you.”

Before we had even thought about moving, June, David, and I scheduled a concert at YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Sunday, August 24. It won’t be on “that” piano, but maybe in our hearts, it can be in honor of the piano as it makes its way across county (expected delivery is mid-September). Join us if you can! Here’s another of David’s FaceBook posts:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace. (1 Peter 4.10, ESV)