Psalm 119:19

Psalm 119:19

Strangers on the earth

Yesterday we indulged ourselves with a little diversion into the world of hymns and songs of yesteryear. Today is no different! How many remember these words?

 

“This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through, 

My treasure’s all laid up, somewhere beyond the blue.

The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door,

And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

 

The Apostle Paul puts it like this in Ephesians 2:19-22; “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” 

There is certainly no question that the further we progress in our walk with the Lord, the more we embrace His Word, and the closer we grow to Him, the more estranged we become from the ways of the world. I must confess that I had not associated this way of thinking with Psalm 119! Clearly, the author is enjoying an intimate relationship with the Lord God, he has recognised his place in the kingdom of God and so he feels increasingly out-of-place in the kingdoms of the world. I suspect that the Israelites commonly felt this way throughout their history, and particularly in their relationships with the surrounding nations. The same alienation is felt by the Jewish people today. It is an estrangement that grows in intensity for all of us who walk with the Lord, His commands and His truth clash with the values of the world. His ways are the very opposite of the ways of the world. If we feel uncomfortable, socially or with our worldly acquaintances, if we cannot embrace the culture around us, if we grow angry at the foolishness and blindness of our leaders, and if we find ourselves increasingly isolated from society but comforted by God’s Word, then we will know how the psalmist felt!

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