Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
//Here is one of the most well-known verses in the Bible, certainly a
favorite for funerals. We find great comfort in this idea of dwelling
forever in the house of the Lord, once this life ends.
The
meaning of "forever," however, was not at all then what it means to us
today. The first half of the verse lends the context we need to better
fit this verse into an ancient Hebrew worldview, which simply did not
extend into the afterlife. No such expectation existed at that time for
everlasting, eternal life up in heaven.
Instead,
a more accurate translation might be "And I shall dwell in the house of
the Lord to the end of my days." But who wants to hear that at a
funeral?
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