I am a stranger in the earth;
Do not hide Your commandments from me.
Do not hide Your commandments from me.
Psalm 119:19
TAKING IT IN
Mother’s Day was hard for me this year. Now living in Virginia, it was the first time away from my family and I would be lying if I didn’t admit I was a little homesick. My melancholy mood came from a very real longing in my heart for home.
For those of us that love God, there are times we experience moments of sadness and depression that stem from the longing in our hearts for our “real home”. Though we live in this world, we are very much aware that we are “strangers” in it.
In our verse for this week, the word “stranger” is defined as one who is an “alien” or a “guest” or “foreigner”.
We are God’s people, citizens of another country. This world is not our home. We have been chosen out of it. John 15:19 makes this point clear:
If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
MAKING IT MEANINGFUL
Even when the nation of Israel settled in the land of Canaan that God had given them to inherit, they recognized the Promised Land was only temporary.
For we are aliens and pilgrims before You, as were all our fathers; our days on earth are as a shadow, and without hope. 1 Chronicles 29:15
Peter addressed believers in the New Testament much in the same way:
Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul…
We can know our hearts are in the right place when we are homesick for heaven. We should not feel comfortable in this world and always be careful to make sure we are holding on lightly to the things it offers.
Because the psalmist was a stranger in this earth, He asked God not to hide His commandments from him. The Word of God would provide everything he needed to live in a foreign land.
Proverbs 6:22-23 gives great insight here:
When you roam, they will lead you; when you sleep, they will keep you; and when you awake, they will speak with you. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light; reproofs of instruction are the way of life…
George Horne, a commentator that lived in the seventeen hundreds aptly described it this way:
As a sojourner, he hath renounced the world, which is therefore become his enemy; as “a stranger” he is fearful of losing his way; on these accounts he requests that God would compensate the loss of earthly comforts by affording the light of heaven; that he would not “hide his commandments,” but show and teach him those steps, by which he may ascend toward heaven, rejoicing in hope of future glory.
WORKING IT INTO MY HEART
Many of us know missionaries out in the field that are unable to return home. How are they able to withstand their “homesickness”? It is the letters from those they love that keep them going. So too is the Word of God for us. Every time we open it, it refreshes us like a letter from home. It reminds of us what of is really valuable and important and the love of our Father is deeply wrapped within it.
- When we are troubled by our surroundings it provides comfort.
- When we are lonely, it provides fellowship.
- When we are hurting it provides healing.
- When we are hopeless it provides hope.
And when we long for home it challenges us to keep on going because there are those we need to bring home with us, people who still need Jesus and so we continue to live as a stranger but not aimlessly and without purpose.
We live as though who have gone before us:
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 11:13-16
Are you “HOMESICK”?
Count it all joy for it is a perfect symptom of the heart that longs to be revived!
Enjoy this Steven Curtis Chapman song — I can just picture us singing the chorus together –
KEEP ON WE’RE GOING TO MAKE IT!