From filthy rags to a golden crown

Since the fall, man has been in dire search for health and happiness. The divine judgment pronounced, “Thou shalt surely die”, was accompanied with a series of curses stating all labors and pains that man must endure all the days of his vain life. In search for an antidote that would relieve him from the painful curse and alleviate him to a better state of mind, man has resorted to every single means possible over the ages. While others cling to power, others still hold onto money and fame. But even worse, man would even dare take the lives of others whom he regards as a barrier to his health and happiness. The holocaust, the Rwandan genocide and the currently prevailing suicide attacks are but a few we can name.

King Solomon, whom we know to have had it all, conclusively denounces all our efforts to seek for joy and life. Throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, he repeatedly labels such efforts as futile, calling them “vanity of vanities”. Perhaps, Solomon and most of us should have paid closer attention to his father’s (David) words. In Psalms 16:11, the old King explicitly states that in the presence of God, “there’s fullness of joy” and “pleasures forevermore”. The path of life is, therefore, found only in the presence of its source, the Almighty God. In Ps. 84:10,11 David writes, “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

It’s a lovely thought, isn’t it? - That in God’s presence there is joy, pleasures everlasting and all these good things but only for “those who walk uprightly”!!? I guess that last part of 84:11 didn’t come out so pleasantly for most of us, did it? Only the upright or righteous qualify for these goodies we spend so much of our time and effort chasing after. The problem is that none of us, in our sinful state, can even survive the presence of God. Next, we will look at God’s plan to restore us to His presence. What a wonderful God we serve!