Once I was invited to speak in a house-warming ceremony. As I scratched my brain to find an appropriate passage from the Bible to share on that auspicious occasion, Psalm 30 bubbled up to the surface. “Great,” I thought— “The song at the dedication of the house of David!” I wanted to meditate on the Psalm. As I sat down with the Bible plunked open at the psalm on my lap—my heart sank. I squirmed, I scratched my nose, I sighed. Beside me a forgotten cup of coffee grew cold. I could not find anything about the house in the song of house-warming. If we are to sing in such a function what will our song be? “God bless this house…. God bless the owners...” Nothing like that was written in all the twelve verses. If someone were to sing Psalm 30 today in a similar celebration, the crowd will think, “Can’t this fellow sing something appropriate for this good day?” What effect did the rhapsodic recitation of Psalm 30 had on the congregation that long ago day, I wondered!
Yet, when David composed this song for the occasion of the dedication of his house, he forgot all about his house. I bit my finger nails. Then, as if a nut had conked me on the head, I understood. Another verse swam into focus and thoughts tumbled through my head, “Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage” writes David (Psa 119:54). Then I understood the reason why. For David, his newly built mansion was just a temporary abode, not his permanent residence and he didn’t think it worth mentioning in his song of dedication to God.
I used to imagine how David’s house would have been. A house as big as mine might have been a palace 4000 years ago. Or, was it an edifice? Last year I had the privilege of walking through the Tower of David, one of his houses in Jerusalem. It was beyond my imagination. It stood majestically three floors high, covering an area, may be about an acre. Think of it! After having built such a citadel, his heart was not in it, because he considered himself a pilgrim on this earth, living in a temporary house like a gypsy, a transit passenger on this earth! “I am a stranger on this earth” was his constant cry (Psa 119:19).
Wherefrom did he imbibe this idea? It was handed over from his forefathers. Read the patriarch Jacob’s answer to Pharaoh’s question, “How old are you?” “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage” (Gen 47:9). Destiny had spared him by a hair breadth and crowned him a prince, but he counted himself a pilgrim (Gen 32:28).
How did Jacob develop the pilgrim mentality about his earthly life? His father and grandfather had a similar attitude. The same was passed on to the progeny by word of mouth, from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob. Then through the writings of Moses, David toed in. Abraham who lived in a terraced house became a paragon of pilgrim attitude when he took to tents and his descendants caught his spirit. “You are a stranger in Canaan” said Isaac to Jacob (Gen 28:4). Later on, though they occupied terraced homes or mansions or even palaces, their gypsy attitude remained the same. Do you see how we need to feed this milk to our children?
See Exodus 6 and verse 4: “I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers.” They traversed the land as foreigners. After more than 400 years, God gave them the land to own. Did they then relax and settle down as sons of the soil? Physically yes. But as we see in the Psalm of David, their inner spirit was crying for another place. It was still a land of pilgrimage.
Thousands of years later, writing to the Hebrew Christians, the author radiantly describes their spirit: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (11:13). When Abraham was a foreigner in Canaan, wandering across deserts, God promised to give him the entire country. Let’s say you are working in Switzerland. How will you feel if God tells you that the entire country will be yours in the foreseeable future? It was exactly like that. He believed what God said and died believing the promises. He did not see the fulfilment of it. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob saw it coming through in the horizon and were certain of it. How? They visualized the beginning of it all in the birth of Isaac out of a barren womb.
They did not claim to be strangers and pilgrims in Canaan but “on the earth.” They were fully assured of the Homeland to come and the eternal life they were going to enjoy. “By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.” Why? Was he looking forward to own Canaan? Absolutely no. “For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb 11:9,10). His tent had no foundation since he was bouncing from one place to another. Whatever he planned was as per tent life. It was not Canaan he was hoping and waiting for but the heavenly Jerusalem.
Having said, that they confessed that they were strangers and travellers on the earth, the writer of Hebrews switches over to the present tense and the present generation. “For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland” (Heb 11:13,14). This is concerning us. If we honestly confess that we are foreigners on this earth and lead a life in keeping with it, then we proclaim openly to the whole world that our heart is not here but we are looking forward to our native country.
The following verses reveal the mind of the Patriarchs: “Truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (Heb 11:15,16).
Egypt was an ideal place to live in. Provisions were plenty and the civilization was excellent. If they wanted to go back, nothing hindered them. But they dismissed the idea of returning, for they had set their heart on a far better country, a heavenly country. It was not Canaan they were pining for. Canaan was only a transit station. They were longing for something better than Egypt, better than Canaan.
This world is a good place to live in. We are living in the best of times. Snazzy cars, palatial homes, eat-outs in every street corner—you name it, you have it. But what is it compared to heaven? Many are xenophobic at the thought of heaven because they think of it as a place of continual worship. Rather, think of it as a titillating wedding feast with the One who gave His life for us and the One who sent His one and only Son to die for us. It is a place of ethereal laughter where we have no worries, nothing to weep for, all the stuff fairy tales are made of. Tell me something you will enjoy in heaven... No, you are absolutely wrong. No one can even imagine the happiness that fills heaven. Man has not even thought about it. Thought of heaven gives me goose bumps. It’s fantastic! It’s fabulous! It’s marvellous! It’s irresistible! I can’t wait to get there. The top of our life will spin slower and slower and finally come to a grinding halt. Then the golden gates of heaven will swing open.
It is intriguing, even perplexing to watch young firebrands live as if they are going to live on this planet forever. They are a whirlwind of activity, spending a good chunk of their life hunting for fortune, jetting around the globe. How can anybody be such bumbling fools? To whom will your fortunes go, if today you are diagnosed for a fatal illness? It takes a deadly disease to put some, eye to eye with the truth. But it is a truth anyone can learn. “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your future plans” says Woody Allen.
Life is a vapour. Set your heart and mind on things above, not on things on earth. If this earth is your goddess, remember, it has feet of clay. There are plenty of opportunities to take root on this planet. But we must restructure our lives to keep our minds off all things which we cannot carry into eternal life. “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things” says David (Psa 119:37a). How long will we vacillate like reeds? Pilgrim’s life is a deliberate choice like Abraham chose. Then God will not be ashamed to be called our God. Why? For He has got a city ready for us in the hope that we are looking forward to it. He is ashamed of earthly Christians. What did Jesus leave behind when He died? There was no need for Him to write a will. His one dream was His Father and His Kingdom.
Those who are liable to have a heart attack on reading about the global economic crisis or on hearing about their bank collapse are those whose souls are clinging to the dust of the earth. But we have to survive on this earth. So let’s have our feet on the ground but our heads up.
Did the gypsy spirit wane away by the end of the Old Testament era? What about the New Testament Christians? Peter blankets all believers under the category of “sojourners and pilgrims.”
His letter was written to pilgrims (1 Pet 1:1). Today the equivalent words may be strangers and aliens or foreigners and gypsies. “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, having your conduct honourable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation (1 Pet 2:11,12; 1:17).
The Gentile sons of Heth said of Abraham, “You are a mighty prince among us.” Peter is begging us to not let our Christian distinctness become blurred, but to lead a flawless, spotless life so that the unbelievers around us will “honour” us and glorify God; or, in other words, become believers in the Living God. It is a war of souls. Either we lose our souls to the lusts that bamboozle us or win the souls that war against us. It’s kill or be killed. The choice is ours. Those of any religion who go on a pilgrimage to their holy city ritually purify themselves. How much more we the pilgrims here, going on to embark on our cosmic journey cleanse ourselves!
Since time immemorial believers of the Jehovah God have led a pilgrim’s life. 4000 years ago the Patriarchs lived as pilgrims. 3000 years ago king David patterned his life as a sojourner. 2000 years ago the New Testament Christians were aliens on this earth. In the twentieth century, Jim Reeves sang:
This world is not my home
I’m just a passin’ through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue;
The angels beckon me
From Heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home
In this world anymore.
Jesus rightly said we cannot serve God and Mammon. We say it proverbially, “If we chase two hares we will catch neither.” We who are tumbling towards the end of our lives, can join Jim to sing the song, before we end up in the obituary page.
Dr. Lilian Stanley
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91 9843511943
lilianstanley@gmail.com
Blessing Youth Mission
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91-416-2242943, +91-416-2248943
hq@bymonline.org
www.bymonline.org
Click here for more options
To buy books written by Dr. Lilian Stanley, kindly reach to us in the follwing address
Blessing Literature Centre
21/11 West Coovam River Road,
Chintadripet,
Chennai 600 002, India.
+91-44-28450411, 8806270699
blc@bymonline.org
Once I was invited to speak in a house-warming ceremony. As I scratched my brain to find an appropriate passage from the Bible to share on that auspicious occasion, Psalm 30 bubbled up to the surface. “Great,” I thought— “The song at the dedication of the house of David!” I wanted to meditate on the Psalm. As I sat down with the Bible plunked open at the psalm on my lap—my heart sank. I squirmed, I scratched my nose, I sighed. Beside me a forgotten cup of coffee grew cold. I could not find anything about the house in the song of house-warming. If we are to sing in such a function what will our song be? “God bless this house…. God bless the owners...” Nothing like that was written in all the twelve verses. If someone were to sing Psalm 30 today in a similar celebration, the crowd will think, “Can’t this fellow sing something appropriate for this good day?” What effect did the rhapsodic recitation of Psalm 30 had on the congregation that long ago day, I wondered!
Yet, when David composed this song for the occasion of the dedication of his house, he forgot all about his house. I bit my finger nails. Then, as if a nut had conked me on the head, I understood. Another verse swam into focus and thoughts tumbled through my head, “Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage” writes David (Psa 119:54). Then I understood the reason why. For David, his newly built mansion was just a temporary abode, not his permanent residence and he didn’t think it worth mentioning in his song of dedication to God.
I used to imagine how David’s house would have been. A house as big as mine might have been a palace 4000 years ago. Or, was it an edifice? Last year I had the privilege of walking through the Tower of David, one of his houses in Jerusalem. It was beyond my imagination. It stood majestically three floors high, covering an area, may be about an acre. Think of it! After having built such a citadel, his heart was not in it, because he considered himself a pilgrim on this earth, living in a temporary house like a gypsy, a transit passenger on this earth! “I am a stranger on this earth” was his constant cry (Psa 119:19).
Wherefrom did he imbibe this idea? It was handed over from his forefathers. Read the patriarch Jacob’s answer to Pharaoh’s question, “How old are you?” “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage” (Gen 47:9). Destiny had spared him by a hair breadth and crowned him a prince, but he counted himself a pilgrim (Gen 32:28).
How did Jacob develop the pilgrim mentality about his earthly life? His father and grandfather had a similar attitude. The same was passed on to the progeny by word of mouth, from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob. Then through the writings of Moses, David toed in. Abraham who lived in a terraced house became a paragon of pilgrim attitude when he took to tents and his descendants caught his spirit. “You are a stranger in Canaan” said Isaac to Jacob (Gen 28:4). Later on, though they occupied terraced homes or mansions or even palaces, their gypsy attitude remained the same. Do you see how we need to feed this milk to our children?
See Exodus 6 and verse 4: “I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers.” They traversed the land as foreigners. After more than 400 years, God gave them the land to own. Did they then relax and settle down as sons of the soil? Physically yes. But as we see in the Psalm of David, their inner spirit was crying for another place. It was still a land of pilgrimage.
Thousands of years later, writing to the Hebrew Christians, the author radiantly describes their spirit: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (11:13). When Abraham was a foreigner in Canaan, wandering across deserts, God promised to give him the entire country. Let’s say you are working in Switzerland. How will you feel if God tells you that the entire country will be yours in the foreseeable future? It was exactly like that. He believed what God said and died believing the promises. He did not see the fulfilment of it. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob saw it coming through in the horizon and were certain of it. How? They visualized the beginning of it all in the birth of Isaac out of a barren womb.
They did not claim to be strangers and pilgrims in Canaan but “on the earth.” They were fully assured of the Homeland to come and the eternal life they were going to enjoy. “By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.” Why? Was he looking forward to own Canaan? Absolutely no. “For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb 11:9,10). His tent had no foundation since he was bouncing from one place to another. Whatever he planned was as per tent life. It was not Canaan he was hoping and waiting for but the heavenly Jerusalem.
Having said, that they confessed that they were strangers and travellers on the earth, the writer of Hebrews switches over to the present tense and the present generation. “For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland” (Heb 11:13,14). This is concerning us. If we honestly confess that we are foreigners on this earth and lead a life in keeping with it, then we proclaim openly to the whole world that our heart is not here but we are looking forward to our native country.
The following verses reveal the mind of the Patriarchs: “Truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (Heb 11:15,16).
Egypt was an ideal place to live in. Provisions were plenty and the civilization was excellent. If they wanted to go back, nothing hindered them. But they dismissed the idea of returning, for they had set their heart on a far better country, a heavenly country. It was not Canaan they were pining for. Canaan was only a transit station. They were longing for something better than Egypt, better than Canaan.
This world is a good place to live in. We are living in the best of times. Snazzy cars, palatial homes, eat-outs in every street corner—you name it, you have it. But what is it compared to heaven? Many are xenophobic at the thought of heaven because they think of it as a place of continual worship. Rather, think of it as a titillating wedding feast with the One who gave His life for us and the One who sent His one and only Son to die for us. It is a place of ethereal laughter where we have no worries, nothing to weep for, all the stuff fairy tales are made of. Tell me something you will enjoy in heaven... No, you are absolutely wrong. No one can even imagine the happiness that fills heaven. Man has not even thought about it. Thought of heaven gives me goose bumps. It’s fantastic! It’s fabulous! It’s marvellous! It’s irresistible! I can’t wait to get there. The top of our life will spin slower and slower and finally come to a grinding halt. Then the golden gates of heaven will swing open.
It is intriguing, even perplexing to watch young firebrands live as if they are going to live on this planet forever. They are a whirlwind of activity, spending a good chunk of their life hunting for fortune, jetting around the globe. How can anybody be such bumbling fools? To whom will your fortunes go, if today you are diagnosed for a fatal illness? It takes a deadly disease to put some, eye to eye with the truth. But it is a truth anyone can learn. “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your future plans” says Woody Allen.
Life is a vapour. Set your heart and mind on things above, not on things on earth. If this earth is your goddess, remember, it has feet of clay. There are plenty of opportunities to take root on this planet. But we must restructure our lives to keep our minds off all things which we cannot carry into eternal life. “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things” says David (Psa 119:37a). How long will we vacillate like reeds? Pilgrim’s life is a deliberate choice like Abraham chose. Then God will not be ashamed to be called our God. Why? For He has got a city ready for us in the hope that we are looking forward to it. He is ashamed of earthly Christians. What did Jesus leave behind when He died? There was no need for Him to write a will. His one dream was His Father and His Kingdom.
Those who are liable to have a heart attack on reading about the global economic crisis or on hearing about their bank collapse are those whose souls are clinging to the dust of the earth. But we have to survive on this earth. So let’s have our feet on the ground but our heads up.
Did the gypsy spirit wane away by the end of the Old Testament era? What about the New Testament Christians? Peter blankets all believers under the category of “sojourners and pilgrims.”
His letter was written to pilgrims (1 Pet 1:1). Today the equivalent words may be strangers and aliens or foreigners and gypsies. “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, having your conduct honourable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation (1 Pet 2:11,12; 1:17).
The Gentile sons of Heth said of Abraham, “You are a mighty prince among us.” Peter is begging us to not let our Christian distinctness become blurred, but to lead a flawless, spotless life so that the unbelievers around us will “honour” us and glorify God; or, in other words, become believers in the Living God. It is a war of souls. Either we lose our souls to the lusts that bamboozle us or win the souls that war against us. It’s kill or be killed. The choice is ours. Those of any religion who go on a pilgrimage to their holy city ritually purify themselves. How much more we the pilgrims here, going on to embark on our cosmic journey cleanse ourselves!
Since time immemorial believers of the Jehovah God have led a pilgrim’s life. 4000 years ago the Patriarchs lived as pilgrims. 3000 years ago king David patterned his life as a sojourner. 2000 years ago the New Testament Christians were aliens on this earth. In the twentieth century, Jim Reeves sang:
This world is not my home
I’m just a passin’ through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue;
The angels beckon me
From Heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home
In this world anymore.
Jesus rightly said we cannot serve God and Mammon. We say it proverbially, “If we chase two hares we will catch neither.” We who are tumbling towards the end of our lives, can join Jim to sing the song, before we end up in the obituary page.
Dr. Lilian Stanley
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91 9843511943
lilianstanley@gmail.com
Blessing Youth Mission
13 Church Colony
Vellore 632006, India
+91-416-2242943, +91-416-2248943
hq@bymonline.org
www.bymonline.org
Click here for more options
To buy books written by Dr. Lilian Stanley, kindly reach to us in the follwing address
Blessing Literature Centre
21/11 West Coovam River Road,
Chintadripet,
Chennai 600 002, India.
+91-44-28450411, Mob:8806270699
blc@bymonline.org
