Citizens in Hope
Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry…. For I am a sojourner with You, a guest, like all my fathers.
PSALM 39:12
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Citizens in Hope
To those who believe and have God's promise, this life is a wandering in which they are sustained by the hope of a future and better life. And it seems that David took those words of the psalm, "like all my fathers," from the words of Jacob: “And they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning" [Genesis 47:9]. Accordingly, before God we are all citizens in hope; but before the world we are sojourners in fact. The godly should carefully remember these things and order their life according to this method. For those who consider this are few; but most people pursue the advantages and pleasures of the world, which they regard as Paradise and their kingdom and heaven. They cast aside the expectation of the other life.
From Lectures on Genesis (Luther's Works 8:115)
June 1
PSALM 39:12
+
Citizens in Hope
To those who believe and have God's promise, this life is a wandering in which they are sustained by the hope of a future and better life. And it seems that David took those words of the psalm, "like all my fathers," from the words of Jacob: “And they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning" [Genesis 47:9]. Accordingly, before God we are all citizens in hope; but before the world we are sojourners in fact. The godly should carefully remember these things and order their life according to this method. For those who consider this are few; but most people pursue the advantages and pleasures of the world, which they regard as Paradise and their kingdom and heaven. They cast aside the expectation of the other life.
From Lectures on Genesis (Luther's Works 8:115)
June 1
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