“Now I know that the Lord rescues his anointed king. He will answer him from his holy heaven and rescue him by his great power. Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God. Those nations will fall down and collapse, but we will rise up and stand firm. Give victory to our king, O Lord! Answer our cry for help.”
Psalm 20:6-9 NLT
David wrote that the boasting nations will “fall down and collapse”, in spite of all “their chariots and horses”. And as we look back through history we find that is indeed the case. But there was a man in the Old Testament who had some remarkable visions and in one of them, “… four huge beasts came up out of the water, each different from the others” (Daniel 7:3). There was a lion with eagles’ wings, a bear, a leopard, and then one with ten horns. Daniel then recorded, “As I was looking at the horns, suddenly another small horn appeared among them. Three of the first horns were torn out by the roots to make room for it. This little horn had eyes like human eyes and a mouth that was boasting arrogantly” (Daniel 7:8). Notice the “boasting” bit. Daniel asked an angel for an explanation. Daniel wrote, “I, Daniel, was troubled by all I had seen, and my visions terrified me. So I approached one of those standing beside the throne and asked him what it all meant. He explained it to me like this: “These four huge beasts represent four kingdoms that will arise from the earth. But in the end, the holy people of the Most High will be given the kingdom, and they will rule forever and ever”” (Daniel 7:15-18).
David wrote that nations that rely on their own strength will ultimately fail and there is only one kingdom that will ever succeed. We pilgrims know that the only successful kingdom is the Kingdom of God, and its King is Jesus. There will come a time when all the earthly kingdoms and nations will finally collapse, as they have in the past. Where today is the “Third Reich”? The Roman Empire? The Persian and the Babylonian empires? All gone. And today the efforts of deluded men waging war and creating mayhem in the 21st Century will ultimately fail. If only they would read the Bible, learn from it, and history, and accept that their kingdoms will fall.
Jesus told His disciples about His return one day. Matthew 24:30, “And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” We pick up the account in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever“. Finally, we read about the thousand year reign of Christ in Revelation 20, followed by the establishment of a new Heaven and a new earth in Revelation 21. We pilgrims know what will happen one day. We might still be here on earth when it happens, or we might not, but happen it will. In the meantime we will do what David did – “rise up and stand firm”.
We do not need to fear the world events. They are just a transient phenomenon when viewed from the perspective of eternity. Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). We pilgrims are people who look after our souls, feeding them and caring for them, because they will live for ever. We feed them, not with physical food, but with the Word of God and prayer to our wonderful Heavenly Father. He cares for us we know (1 Peter 5:7). 1 John 3:1, “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him“. Let us reach out to Father today and feel the love. And the grace. And the mercy. And it will all be there tomorrow as well. We praise and worship the Father today.
Father God. What can we say? Our only response is one of deep gratitude and worship. We give You all the glory. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 