May 30 Daily Devotional

My Life a Pilgrimage

the Rev. Henry Huenemann

The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage (Genesis 47:9).

Bible Reading

Psalm 39:

¹I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
²I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.
³My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,
⁴LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.
⁵Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
⁶Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
⁷And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.
⁸Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.
⁹I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.
¹⁰Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.
¹¹When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.
¹²Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
¹³O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

Devotional

How hard it is for us to realize that we are but strangers and sojourners in the earth! This world is not our home. Our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven. Here we have no abiding place, no continuing city. The psalmist prays, "Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am." Moses prays, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." The saints of old "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Thus David exclaims, "We are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our Fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding." Peter beseeches his readers as strangers and pilgrims.

My life is but a pilgrimage,
I travel to my heritage,
To the Jerusalem up yonder,
Where an eternal resting place
God granted me by his free grace.
For aye to praise him for this wonder.
My life is but a pilgrimage.
I travel to my heritage.

Since our life is so short and fleeting, let us seek the things which are above, and set our affections on them, not on things on the earth.

Prayer

Gracious God and Father, we are so earth-bound, and our minds are occupied so much with things of this world. Help us to remember that the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. May the unseen things be more real to us, and more precious than anything the world can offer. For Jesus' sake we ask it. Amen.

Scripture in Devotional: Phil. 3:20; Heb 15:40; Ps. 39:15; 90:12; Heb. 11:13; 1 Chron. 29:15; 1 Pet 2-11; Col. 3:12.

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