Psalms 39:12

"Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, and give ear unto my cry;

Hold not thy peace at my tears:

For I am a stranger with thee,

A sojourner, as all my fathers were."

"Hold not thy peace at my tears" (Psalms 39:12). God is ever concerned with human tears. Our Lord said to the widow of Nain, "Weep not"! and to Mary Magdalene, "Woman, why weepest thou? .... If a man can scarcely ignore a person's tears, how much less can God? God numbers the tears of believers (Psalms 56); and the ultimate purpose of the Father is to 'Wipe away all tears from human eyes' (Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 7:17; 21:4)."[22]

"A sojourner, as all my fathers were" (Psalms 39:12). Men are tempted to treat this world as a permanent residence, but it is not so.

"We are here today, and gone tomorrow;

Yes I know, that is so."

- From Gilbert and Sullivan's H. M. S. Pinafore.

The word "pilgrim" is often used as a synonym for "sojourner," and it is extremely appropriate. A "pilgrim," is literally, "one who crosses the field." The word came from the period of the Crusades, when lonely persons attempting to make their way to the Holy Land, could often be seen "crossing the fields" of homesteaders; and, of course, they appeared briefly only once and then vanished forever. That is the way it is with all of us pilgrims and sojourners.