One day, when the slideshow of your life flickers across the screen at your memorial service, you won’t be there to see the moments chosen. If you plan ahead you might get a say in the clips used or the stories told, but you won’t control how people remember you.

If those who know you best were asked to describe your life today, what would they say? What would be the single thread pulling together the fabric of your life? Would they say your family? Your church? Your grandchildren?

Maybe this is a weird question for me to be asking at age thirty-four, but it’s been on my mind since beloved Bible teacher Kay Arthur went home to be with Jesus a few months ago. After her passing, a two-minute tribute video was released, and I’ve watched it more times than I could even mention.

The video opens with a much younger Kay standing before a crowd in a teal blazer, looking the audience in the eye as she says, “I want you to know: my type of ministry—I’ll never be popular.” She smiles gently at their laughter. “I never will be. You know, I’ll never hit the big-time Christian stardom—and I’m so thankful—but I won’t . . . not if I’m going to be true to what God has called me to do.” 

The video shifts forward a few decades. Kay, much older now, sits beside an interviewer, her well-worn Bible resting in her lap. He asks her, “What do you hope your legacy will be?” 

Without missing a beat, Kay lifts her Bible and simply says: “I hope that He’ll say that this was my life.”

Naming the Dust 

Pause for a moment. Put down your phone or place your hands flat on whatever’s in front of you—the edge of the table, your laptop, or the handle of your grocery cart. Notice what’s happening around you. Take a deep breath. Then consider what you’d tell me if I asked, “What’s life like today?”

Your answer likely falls into one of two categories.

  • What’s filling your calendar: meetings, appointments, practices, playdates, dinner prep, workouts, and church responsibilities. 
  • What’s filling your heart: the people you love, the burdens you carry, and all the emotions in between. 

When you pause and look at the life you’re actually living—not the one you hope to have someday or the one you’re trying to curate for others, but this real moment, unfolding now—how would you honestly fill in this blank? 

“Today life is ________.” 

The words that come to my mind today come with tears. Maybe that’s why it’s comforting to find that the author of Psalm 119 filled in the blank this way: 

“My life is down in the dust.” (v. 25) 

Psalm 119 isn’t a psalm of lament. It’s a collection of meditations and celebrations about the Word of God. And yet, in its midst you see the psalmist laid low. It’s a quick snapshot in the montage of his life, but in the moment he’s so full of sorrow, he feels powerless to rise above his grief. The ESV translation of verse 25 describes his soul as clinging to the dust—a painful, seemingly hopeless place. 

The second part of the verse isn’t a question, which is surprising when you think of the other similar verses within the book of Psalms, especially those written from places of pain, doubt, or longing:

  • “How long, LORD?” (Psalm 13:1)
  • “Why do you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 88:14)
  • “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Psalm 22:1) 

Instead, the psalmist prayed: “Give me life through your word” (Psalm 119:25). Charles Spurgeon found it interesting that the psalmist didn’t ask for relief: 

One would have thought that he would have asked for comfort or upraising, but he knew that these would come out of increased life, and therefore he sought that blessing which is the root of the rest. When a person is depressed in spirit, weak, and bent towards the ground, the main thing is to increase his stamina and put more life into him; then his spirit revives.1 (Spurgeon)

He didn’t say: “Lord, change my circumstances.” “Clear this issue.” “Make me feel better today.” Instead he asked for life, and specifically life through the Word of God. Why? Because he believed that only the Word could revive what was dead in him. 

A Daily Return to What Revives You

Think back to the blank you filled in earlier. No matter what you added, consider the tools you’ve used to cope in the midst of “how life is.” We tend to reach for distraction. Comfort. Control. Community. Affirmation. Productivity.How often do you try to lift yourself out of the dust by leaning on almost everything but the Word? 

None of these are inherently wrong—but they aren’t what our souls need most. The psalmist knew only one thing gives life. So he asked for it. What if you were to do the same and make his cry in Psalm 119:25 a pattern for your prayers—not just in crisis, but in the middle of your everyday life?

  • My life is breaking under the weight of a diagnosis. 
    Give me life through your Word. 
     
  • My life is unraveling faster than I can hold it together. 
    Give me life through your Word. 
     
  • My life is so busy, and underneath it all, I’m weary. 
    Give me life through your Word. 
     
  • My life looks fine from the outside, but internally, I’m really struggling.
    Give me life through your Word. 
     
  • My life is filled with so many good things, I don’t feel a need for Scripture.
    Give me life through your Word. 

We don’t know who wrote Psalm 119 or even how much Scripture he had. But it’s easy to think of the psalmist and well-respected Bible teachers like Kay Arthur and think they had some special relationship with the Lord that is unattainable for the rest of us. Or that they studied the Bible and knew Scripture in ways that we never could. Or that they overcame difficulties by supernatural power the rest don’t get to tap into.

But I think much of the psalmist’s walk with God is captured in this earnest prayer in verse 26: 

I told you about my life, 
and you answered me. (v. 26)

That can be your experience as well.

It could be as simple as grabbing your Bible, sitting before the Lord, and simply beginning: “Today life is ________.” Then watch how He meets you in the pages of Scripture. 

As His Word revives your heart and lifts your head, you’ll seek Him more for understanding, strengthening, and keeping. You’ll keep choosing the way of truth (v. 30). Clinging to His decrees (v. 31). And pursuing the way of His commands (v. 32).You’ll run back to His Word day in and day out, less pattern than a lifestyle, because you’ve found the only place that gives life to dust. 

Let This Be Your Life 

In the final seconds of the Kay Arthur tribute video, Kay stands on a stage in a brown leather jacket and asks the crowd in front of her, “Why do you prefer the words and the intellect and the teachings of men—above you sitting at His feet and listening to what [God] has to say?” 

“Just remember this,” she says and pauses, holding out her Bible once again.

“This is our life.”

1 C. H. Spurgeon, “Psalm 119 Verses 25-32 by C. H. Spurgeon,” Blue Letter Bible, December 5, 2016, https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/tod/ps119_025-032.cfm.

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