“Let the rich of the earth feast and worship. Bow before him, all who are mortal, all whose lives will end as dust. Our children will also serve him. Future generations will hear about the wonders of the Lord. His righteous acts will be told to those not yet born. They will hear about everything he has done.”
Psalm 22:29-31 NLT
Why did David write, “all whose lives will end as dust” rather than “those who will die”? Both phrases mean the same thing, both referring to a human being’s mortality, but of course we know that. About Adam we read in Genesis 3:19, “By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return“. Adam was originally made from dust, as we read in Genesis 2:7, “Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person“. But were human beings originally intended to be immortal, because it was only after the Fall that Adam was informed about his ultimate demise and destination. In Genesis 1:27 we read, “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them”. We know that God is immortal, so if human beings were made “in His image”, would that have included immortality? God intended a very different world to what we have today, with the first inhabitants living a very long time, even after sin had entered Planet Earth.
Most people are unable to contemplate the end to their earthly lives. When we were young, such a subject was never given much thought because the prevailing attitude was that we would live forever. People generally know that they have to face death one day but it is something they can’t control and therefore don’t think about it. A friend of mine once said, “I don’t fear death, but I just don’t want to be involved”. But death can and does happen to all ages and the wise amongst us make suitable preparations. I don’t mean getting affairs in order, planning a funeral service or starting a funeral plan with the local undertakers. I mean ensuring that the bits of us that are immortal, our souls and spirits, go to live in the right place. That is something we do have control over, through the grace of God.
People of all ages and regardless of sex all have bodies that one day “will end as dust”. Increasing years will introduce aches and pains and even serious health challenges reducing qualities of life, and Western countries in particular are facing into the problem of having a large and health-demanding elderly population. A human being is made up of many chemicals and a large amount of water (about 60% of an average adult’s body apparently) but it will all one day break down into its constituent parts, parts that David defined as “dust”. A depressing thought for most people, but for us pilgrims it will be just the beginning of an adventure we can only marvel at and look forward to.
Paul wrote quite a bit about the process of dying but he followed it with the facts about resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15:42b Paul wrote, “ … Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever.” He continues in verse 44, “They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies“. In our current human lives, we have a glimpse of what it means to live in the Kingdom of God, but we will never experience the fulness of such a life until we have a body that is appropriate for God’s Kingdom. And then comes the crescendo of the final experience, “For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies” (1 Corinthians 15:53).
But we must read 1 Corinthians 15:47-49, “Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man”. We must meditate on this and chew over the wonder of it all. One day we will have a body like Jesus’ resurrected body. Read that sentence again, and again. Jesus was about 33 when He was so brutally put to death. Do we ever want to be 33 again? In a body that will never die. In a body which will never experience death, or pain, or sickness? Is that a resounding “YES” that I can hear?
I suppose we must think for a moment on the fate of all those who don’t believe in Jesus. They too will be resurrected but will find themselves standing before a Great White Throne. Revelation 20:12, 15, “I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. … And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire“. Has anyone thought why people have to be “thrown” into their final destination? Purely because they don’t want to go there. Hell will not be a place that anyone will walk into by choice. Jesus said, “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41-42).
But we won’t dwell on the fate of the wicked, because we do our best to tell them about what is ahead. Not to frighten them into the Kingdom, as preachers of old used to do, preaching sermons in which they dangled their audience over the flames of hell. William Booth was reported to have said, “Most Christians would like to send their recruits to Bible college for five years. I would like to send them to hell for five minutes. That would do more than anything else to prepare them for a lifetime of compassionate ministry. I am not waiting for a move of God, I am a move of God!” But we tell our friends and families and anyone we meet about our testimonies of God’s grace. How God has done so much for us, saving us from the finality of a horrible existence beyond the grave, that will ultimately be full of their dust.
Father God. We thank You for Your grace and favour, so liberally poured out on mankind, grace manifested by Your free gift of salvation. Please help us to tell all who we meet about You . In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 