Psalm 119:54

Psalm 119:54

Wherever I lodge

“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.”

So says the opening verse of an old song made popular by Jim Reeves, many years ago. There is a Biblical truth hidden here, in Hebrew 13:14-15 we read, “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.” Paul refers to us as “strangers here on earth” and in Philippians 3:20 we read, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

The psalmist follows a similar train of thought although he lived long before the promise of a heavenly reunion with Christ. He was a wanderer or “a stranger on earth” (see verse 19) and thus he was not at home in any of the kingdoms of this world. He was just a lodger. Despite being an Israelite with an earthly inheritance, he felt the pull of a greater home, of a hope that exceeded the allurements of the world. In that sense he was able to write today’s verse, “Your decrees are the theme of my song wherever I lodge.” In other words, he sang the praises of God’s Word wherever he went, for he sensed in them the glory of God and so he yearned for a better place and a better home than was being offered by all the kingdoms of this world. In Hebrews 11:13-16 we find a long list of those Old Testament saints who felt the same way, men and women who lived by faith and who looked for a better country – a heavenly one.

A piece of music, a painting, a flashback to a past event often evokes an emotion within us, we talk about the past calling us. I wonder if, in fact, it is the future calling us instead?  We have this presence with us that beckons, like the angels from heaven’s open door!