Living for Jesus means living with Jesus. Living with Jesus means that we have heaven as our goal. this earth is a means to an end.

1 The wicked flees though no one pursues [because they are afraid of losing their life’s work, and even their life], but the righteous are as bold as a lion [because we know that our treasures are laid up in heaven, not here on earth].

A song worm is a suggestion of a song that gets stuck in our brains and we can’t stop hearing it, humming it, or singing it. Many commercials are designed to be song worms, such as Kentucky Fried Chicken: We do chicken right, Burger King: Have it your way at Burger King. McDonald’s used a rhythm and rhyme technique: Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. I have remembered them from my childhood. Think advertising doesn’t work?! [let me know if you remember these jingles]

I believe Asaph used the song worm idea in psalm 73:25, which says,

²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

In this psalm, he just got through singing to us that we are always with the LORD, He holds us by our dominant hand, He guides us with His counsel, and will one day take us into glory (Psalm 73:23-24). He then goes into praise that includes heaven and earth. In the one, he states that no one in heaven holds a candle to the LORD. I can’t help but think of “I Bowed on My Knees and Cried Holy,” when in the second verse, it says,

I said Timothy, I want to see Jesus,
For He’s the One who died for me!

When we get to “earth has nothing I desire besides you,” I am amazed at the insight of Asaph, who lives hundreds of years before Christ came, yet had a clarity of his relationship with the heavenly Father that rivals any of ours today. Would that we all had this attitude. What would happen if all Christians lived our lives with nothing on this earth being as desirous as our relationship with our heavenly Father?

• Money wouldn’t matter.
• Clothing wouldn’t matter.
• Material goods wouldn’t matter.
• Food wouldn’t matter.
• Persecution wouldn’t matter.
• Longevity of life wouldn’t matter.
• We would consider death more than a mercy; it would be a victory!
• Dying for Jesus would be the highest and greatest honor bestowed on us.

Wait! Jesus already addressed this question:

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well [until it’s time to come home]. Matthew 6:25-33

Let’s allow Asaph’s song worm to get into our minds today and tell the Lord, “This earth has nothing I desire besides You.” Our relationship with Him is All-Important. Work on it; develop it; strive for it. There’s no greater work we do this side of heaven.

Abba, I pray that I would work on my relationship with You every day, all day. I pledge to strive every minute to develop You in me. I want to be like You, and then, when it’s time, I want to go be with You. I trust You will take care of all the details between now and then. Amen.