A Word in Season: The Guided Pilgrim (Psalm 119:19)

The Stranger in the Earth and the Believer’s Pilgrimage

Psalm 119 and verse 19 contains what may be one of the keynote declarations of the whole psalm. I am a stranger in the earth, do not hide your commandments from me. It's the cry of somebody who knows where they are and who knows who or what they are.

Where they are is this world. They're a stranger in the earth. They are walking through this life. This is the realm in which they presently have their existence. It is a fallen world. It is in some ways an alien world, a distressing world, even a hostile world.

The Christian whose heart is set upon heaven doesn't have the same appetites and attitudes and doesn't live by the same rule as those who do not know their God. And so sometimes we are exposed, sometimes we are distressed, sometimes we are outright persecuted, if not often disdained and despised.

We are in a world that is not our home. It is a place of our pilgrimage. It's the place of our sojourn. It's the sort of idea that the Apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Philippians that we are citizens in heaven but that we are currently pilgrims upon earth.

And therefore we feel ourselves to be strangers. That's who or what we are. There's a sort of a disjunction. There's a gap. We know that we're not going in the same direction. We know that we're not floating on the same current but rather swimming against it.

There are things that we see around us. There are even things that sometimes sinful appetites that bubble up from within us. And we know that these don't belong in us and we don't want to be a part of what is going on around us.

The Believer’s Distress Over Sin and Lawlessness

It's distressing to us. It is distasteful to us. Not in a sneering way as if we look down our noses at people but it's the language that's used later in the psalm. Rivers of water run down from my eyes because men do not keep your law.

So if that's what or who we are and where we are, strangers in the earth, what is the cry of the believer's heart? Do not hide your commandments from me. If we're to make our way as godly men and women through this world then we need God to teach us.

He's made his will known. He's revealed those laws, those statutes, those testimonies. He's told us what pleases him. He's shown us the way of righteousness. And we're pleading then in this psalm with the believer of so many years ago that God will show us the way in which we should go.

Seeking God’s Word and Spirit for Guidance

That by his word he will instruct us, by his spirit he will open our eyes. That's where we should turn, to the word of God, independence upon the spirit of God, asking the Lord not to hide his commandments from us.

Sometimes we're confused, sometimes we're distressed, sometimes we're under pressure. What do we do? We need to go to God and we need to ask him to teach us his way, to show us the way in which we should go, to direct us in his paths.

And again the psalm is full of appetite both to know and to do the will of the Lord. This then needs to be our prayer, especially in days like the ones we're living through. Not because we feel at odds with our neighbours in a sinful way, but because we know that this is not where we finally belong and this is not where we're putting down our roots.

Heaven as the Christian’s Home

In the language of the old hymn, earth is our lodge but heaven our home and we want to be guided there by the God of heaven. We want to make sure that every step of our way is properly regulated by his holy perfect will.

We want to know what it is and so we cry out to him, do not hide your commandments from me, teach me, show me, lead me, guide me. It's a confession that we have not wisdom of our own but that we desire and expect that the God of heaven will give us the direction that we need as strangers in the earth to walk in his ways safe, holy and happy all the way to heaven.