FBC Morning Light – October 20, 2022

Psalm 119:54 and the Song of God’s Word in Pilgrimage

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. I want to focus today on one verse in our reading in Psalm 119. We had 16 verses scheduled in that passage today. I want to zero in on one verse, but I want to connect it to a couple of other passages in the Scriptures.

All right, here's the verse. Psalm 119, verse 54 says, your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. All right, so the statutes refers to God's Word. Your Word, your statutes, have been my songs.

It's what I sing about. They've been the joy of my heart that has led me to burst forth in song. Your Word has been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. Now, I want to connect that verse to a passage in 1 Peter.

Christians as Pilgrims and Sojourners

1 Peter, you remember, we've been reading 1 Peter in our Scripture reading, and it's in our text for today as well. But Peter is addressing people who he calls pilgrims and strangers in this world. So in chapter 2, verse 11, in the first verse of our New Testament reading today, Peter says, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.

And earlier in Peter, Peter writes to the New Testament Christian, he says, you are strangers and pilgrims. You are pilgrims and sojourners in this world. All right, so the point, of course, here is that as believers in Christ, we are pilgrims in this world.

We're visitors here. We're strangers and sojourners. Now, the writer of Psalm 119 says that your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. So you and I can apply that in this way, that okay, we're pilgrims and sojourners in this world, then God's Word should be the joy of my heart, it should be that which breaks out in song from my lips, and I find great joy in God's Word and expressing the songs of Scripture, of God's Word.

Singing the Songs of Zion in a Foreign Land

But then when I read that, I was reminded of another passage in the Psalms, Psalm 137, where the writer of the Psalms here, this Psalm, is in the Babylonian captivity. At the end of Judah's history, in 586 BC, the Babylonians came to Jerusalem, destroyed the city, destroyed the temple, took a bunch of people captive, took them back to Babylon.

The captives certainly didn't belong in Babylon, that wasn't their home. Their home was Judah, their home was Jerusalem. Here they are, they're in a strange land, and they don't belong there, feel like they belong in Judah, in Jerusalem.

Here's how they handled that new life in Babylon. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst of it, for there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, and those who plundered us requested mirth.

They wanted us to sing, saying to us, sing one of the songs of Zion. But here's their response, how shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? How can we do that? How do you put those two things together?

Here in Psalm 137, the psalmist says, they want us to sing one of the songs of Zion, and how can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? How do you put that together with Psalm 119 .54, your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage?

I think there's a way to look at this that answers the question. In Psalm 137, the people are having a hard time singing the songs of Zion, not because they are pilgrims, but because they are exiles. They have been taken captive out of their land, and are captives in a foreign land where they don't belong.

The idea of captivity there and exiles is the dominant theme, the dominant idea of those by the rivers of Babylon who can't sing the songs of Zion. In other words, they are there in Babylon, first of all, because of their sin.

Why did the Babylonian captivity happen? It was judgment against Israel and Judah for their sin, and their turning away from the Lord. They are not there because God has led them to a place waiting for the promised land.

That's the difference. The house of one's pilgrimage, and us as pilgrims and sojourners, we're not pilgrims and strangers or sojourners in this world because we have been taken captive by the world, and taken out of the kingdom of God, if you will, and brought into the kingdom of darkness, and are therefore captives.

That's not the case. We are here by God's design, and his design to leave us in this world, that we might shine as lights in this world. Our pilgrimage is different from an exile. We're not exiles who've been taken captive by the enemy forces.

We are pilgrims who are visiting in a foreign land that's not our own, that's not our destiny. As visitors in this land, what we want to do is we want to shine forth as lights. We want to sing the songs of Zion.

We want to have the testimonies of God's Word being the songs of our heart, and the song on our lips that we might be the shining lights in this world that we ought to be. Your statutes have been my song in the house of my pilgrimage.

Light-Bearing Pilgrims Who Sing the Songs of Zion

I trust that that is your testimony, that God's Word is the song of your heart, and it's on your lips, and that you shine forth as wonderful testimony to Christ in this land of our pilgrimage. Heavenly Father, help us to be light-bearing pilgrims in this land, singing the songs of Zion, the songs of your Word, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Have a good rest of your Thursday, and I trust God will bless you as you walk as a pilgrim in this foreign land. God bless.