The Sojourner and the Word

Be seated.

Well, we'd like to invite you to open up your your Bible to the Old Testament, to the book of Psalms.

And if you don't have a Bible with you, you should find one on the pew in front of you or underneath the seat if you're on one of the front rows.

Our scripture reading for today is found in Psalm 119.

Psalm 119, and we're going to read two sections, one beginning in verse 17, and one beginning in verse 49.

Psalm 119, beginning in verse 17.

Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word.

Open my eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of your law.

I am a sojourner on the earth.

Hide not your commandments from me.

My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.

You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones who wander from your commandments.

Take away from me scorn and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies.

Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.

Your testimonies are my delight.

They are my counselors.

Then beginning in verse 49.

Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope.

This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.

The insulin utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law.

When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort, O Lord.

Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked who forsake your law.

Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning.

I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law.

This blessing has fallen on me that I have kept your precepts.

Here ends the reading of God's word.

With this summer, we are looking at different psalms each week.

And we've called it the Summer in the Psalms.

And because most of the Psalms are really written prayers, this is a very important book to spend time in.

It helps us learn how our Creator and our Heavenly Father wants us to relate to him.

But the Psalms are also important because our praying and our relating with God at that level puts a face on what real faith and what real allegiance look like on the inside at the heart level.

Now just think about that for a moment.

If we could really hear your heart level prayers to the Lord, what would it tell us?

What would it tell us about your allegiance and your faith in the Lord?

There's something revealed in that exchange of prayer.

Well, this morning we are going to start a three-week series on one of the mountaintop prayers in the book of Psalms.

And this is Psalm 119.

The entire psalm, the entire psalm contains a passion-filled, heartfelt prayer to the Lord.

And as such, I think it stands as one of the great beacons in Scripture to invite us to learn more about how to relate to our Father and how to grow our allegiance and faith walk with him.

Now, one of the things that the pastors always struggle with is how much technical information do we have to give in our sermon?

Because there's so many important things we want to say, and yet sometimes there are things that you have to know ahead of time if you're going to track well with us.

Psalm 119 has a lot of important things you need to know about it to really track well with this psalm.

And so one of the things I decided to do is not spend a lot of time here in these hours dispelling that, but I'm going to put the technical information on the city or have it available next week as a handout for those of you who would like to dig further in that.

However, there are a few things, there's a few background things that kind of set the stage that I think we have to know if we're going to engage with this psalm.

Number one, this psalm is a unique psalm.

It really is.

If you've spent time in the Psalms and you've come to Psalm 119, you know it is unique.

It's unique in a variety of ways.

Number one, it's the longest psalm.

I once heard that there was a Christian who was being martyred, and he was allowed to have one verse, or I'm sorry, one chapter of scripture read to him.

And he chose Psalm 119.

It has 176 verses.

The structure of this psalm is really unusual.

In fact, if you just look at your Bible for a moment, you know, it begins, look at verse 1.

There's a word there in the Hebrew, Olaf.

And if you skim down a little bit more, you'll see the word bait, B-E-T-H, and then gimel, after before verse 17, and so forth.

And this psalm is divided up into 22 sections.

And these are actually the Hebrew words for the Hebrew alphabet.

So it's like it has A, B, C, and all the way down through the alphabet.

And under each one of these sections, you will find eight verses.

It's balanced.

It's a very tight structure on this psalm.

And eight verses within these eight verses, that there are eight different words used for the word of God.

And the psalmist isn't just trying to be creative here and trying to, you know, use synonyms because it's not good to repeat a word.

The psalmist gives different perspectives, different aspects of the word of God by using the different words that Scripture has for God's word to us.

So you'll find things if you just look down here, you'll see, for example, uh in the verses that we read in beginning in chapter verse 17, it says, Deal bountifully with your servant that I may live and keep your word.

That's one word for the word.

Open my eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of your law.

That's the second word.

And so it goes, and it it has eight different words that it revolves around.

One other thing that's unique about this psalm is that every single verse of this psalm focuses on the word of God.

There's no other psalm that's like that.

Every single word focuses on the word of God.

Every verse is a prayer to God about his word.

Now, having said that, the reason I bring this out, and the reason I think you need to know this is because the kind of structure that the psalmist put this psalm in, it affects how we interpret this psalm.

It affects how we think about it.

This is not a psalm of a continuous thought that develops, like, for example, Psalm 1.

That was one of the psalms we looked at straight away in this series.

You know, blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the path of the wicked and stand in the way of sinners and so forth.

And, you know, he will be like a tree planted by streams of water, not so the wicked, and it goes on and it develops a thought through the whole psalm.

This psalm, because the author have chosen to put it in this kind of structure, he's limited his thought.

And he's limited his uh his flow, and it ends up being closer to what I would call the book of Proverbs, where you have one or two verses that have very independent thoughts.

And it goes on to another verse that has another very independent thought.

So at the end of the day, what this means is this isn't uh a psalm that you sit down necessarily and plow your way through it and follow the train of thought.

This is a psalm that's meant to be chewed on slowly.

It's meant to be read like the book of Proverbs.

It's meant to be read one verse at a time and let it sink in.

Let it sink in and settle.

Well, I'd like to navigate our material this morning by raising two questions.

The first question is this what is a sojourner?

And why does the psalmist call himself that?

If you look in our verses, it's it's this word shows up in verse 19.

I am a sojourner on the earth, he says, and in verse 54 that we read, he talks about that he lives in the house of sojourning.

What is a sojourner?

Well, this isn't a common term that we use, but a sojourner is an exile.

It's an alien who lives in one place, but whose home is in another place.

This is not the same as necessarily a nomad or someone who's homeless.

Those kind of people are really trying to survive.

They don't really have another home.

They're just looking for where open space is, an available space.

But a sojourner in Scripture is a man or woman or young person on a journey.

It's someone on a journey, on a journey to their ultimate home.

Now, one of the things that I think it's important to know to answer this question is do you know that from the earliest times, God's people have always been at odds with their cultures?

They have.

They've always been at odds with their cultures.

There's a sense in which they're at home in their culture, but there's another sense in which they are at odds because the word of God puts us at odds with our home culture, whatever it is.

And God's people from the earliest times have always been seeking a true homeland, a city, a country, where the word of God and the rule of God and the reign of God and the presence of God are real and are there and are present.

I'd like to read a couple of passages from both the New and the Old Testament relating to this.

In Hebrews 11, we are told about the saints of old and about what faith looked like to them.

And I want you to listen to how the author puts this.

By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

If they'd been thinking of the land from which they'd gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

This is a description that you hear over and over in scripture.

In Psalm 39, the psalmist says to the Lord, he says, Lord, I dwell with you as a foreigner, as a stranger, as a sojourner, as all my ancestors were.

And listen to the New Testament witness.

The writer of Hebrews later encourages Christians.

Let us therefore go to Jesus outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured, for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

Listen as well to the book of Philippians.

Paul says that there are many whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, who glory in their shame, whose minds are set on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.

And finally, in 1 Peter, Peter exhorts his Christian readers.

He says, Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.

Since you call on a Father who judges each person's work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.

And so in Scripture, the people of God have always lived at one level as foreigners and as strangers who were looking forward to a city to come.

In fact, even Jesus, even Jesus, God become flesh, lived as an alien and a stranger in this world.

At one time he said foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests.

But the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

He is the author and perfecter of faith who went before us as a pioneer and lived by faith, looking forward to what was to come.

Well, our author in this psalm, one of the ways to understand this psalm and to get your minds around it, our author is giving us a mature heart-level picture of what it looks like to be a real sojourner in this world, to be a resident alien who are looking forward to another world.

So that brings me to a second question.

What will strengthen our resolve to live as a sojourner in this life?

We see it in the pages of Scripture.

We're called to be sojourners, we're called to be resident aliens.

But there's a lot of mix in our hearts.

There's a lot that pulls us down here and it keeps us connected to this world.

And so what is it that will strengthen our resolve to live as sojourners in this life?

You know, if you know any, if you know any Ford students, I think this will be of some help to you.

Or maybe you know some of the new Americans who have come from from other countries and have been here.

They are aliens here.

They are resident aliens.

And one of the things that's important that you see when you're around them is how important it is for them to have a connection to their home.

They need that connection, it's vital to them.

They need the connection of language, they need the connection of food, they need the connection of friendship.

And how many of you, this time of year, you're sending your sons and daughters off to camp?

How important are those letters that you send to them after they've been gone a week, which may seem like a long time to a youngster, but those letters are very important.

When I was around 20 years old, I was in the service and I was stationed overseas for a little while.

Um I can't tell you how important those letters were that I got.

Those packages that said that you're not forgotten.

That we love you, that we know you're there.

And so there's this there's this connection to our real home that is vital if we're going to have a strong resolve to live as sojourners in this word world.

Our writer directs us to this connection.

This connection is none other than the word of God.

The word of God.

The word of God is his lifeline, it's his air hose.

Think of a deep sea diver.

It's his food and nourishment.

For 176 verses, this author explains that the word of God is his everything.

And it's not because he worships the word per se.

It's because God has chosen in this world to mediate his presence through the word.

He shows up in the word, he reveals himself in the word.

It's in the word that we meet God.

It's in the word that we meet God.

You can meet God in nature for sure, but you won't meet him like you'll meet him in the word.

And it's in the word that we need.

So verse 19 says, I am a sojourner on the earth.

Hide not your commandments from me.

Hide them not from me.

Father, I've given you my allegiance.

You have my trust.

I need that word from you.

I need that compass, that true north from you.

The word of God is the owner's manual of our universe.

It's the owner's manual of your soul and my soul.

We need it to be nourished and to meet God day to day.

So it's the word that will strengthen our resolve to live as a sojourner in this life.

Interestingly enough, it's not just the written word.

In the day of the psalmist, he loved and celebrated the written word.

But do you know that the whole Old Testament points forward to a coming living word, to a time when the word was going to take on flesh and dwell amongst us.

The Messiah, Jesus, the Savior.

And so, as New Testament believers, we not only have the Word of God, but we have the Word that points us to the living Word, our Savior.

Well, there's another thing that will strengthen our resolve to live as sojourners.

And you find this coming, uh reoccurring in this Psalm.

It's suffering.

It's suffering.

We need the word of God, but you know we need suffering as well.

I'd like you to turn with me and look in verses 67.

Before I was afflicted, I went astray.

But now I keep your word.

Verse 71.

It was good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

Verse 75.

I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

Life is very heavy.

It's very heavy.

How many of you wake up in the morning with a great burden on your shoulders?

Some of you do this before you go to bed at night.

You have a hard time getting to sleep because you have a great burden on your shoulders of all kinds.

Financial, relational, political, health, parental.

Life is very, very heavy.

And it's designed that way.

It's designed that way to have a loosening effect on this world.

Because going astray, no matter how you cut it, going astray from God is becoming more attached to this world in one way or another.

And God afflicts us that we might loosen that grip.

One of the things that strikes me is that if you put these two things together, the Word of God and suffering together, you have a very powerful force that helps us have a stronger resolve to live as sojourners in this life.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with a number of our prime timers, our elderly saints.

And it was wonderful to hear from them.

These are men and women who have been Christians for decades, whose bodies have been unraveling, some of them for decades, some of them who are very close to leaving this world.

And the same kind of verse kept coming up in talking with them, how the word of God became more and more precious, and how this world, in all of its attractions, became less and less attractive.

And there's a reason for that.

And so one of the things we we learn about being a sojourner is it's a process.

It's not an all-or-nothing kind of thing.

If you trust in God, you're a sojourner already.

But that's going to grow.

And don't expect that if you've been a Christian for three years or five years, that you're going to have the same looseness of grip as someone, your grandmother, who's been a Christian for decades and is in her 70s or 80s.

Well, finally, I want to bring this to a conclusion.

This psalm is really meant to allure us.

It's not meant to be put out there to say, hey, this guy was a sojourner.

You go out and figure out a way to be a sojourner.

It's meant to allure us.

It's meant to raise questions in us.

It's meant to invite us to a sojourning journey of our own with the Lord.

A journey of hope and life.

Not in the frail cities of this world.

What are the things that keep us strongly attached to this world?

What are those things that keep us so attached and that make our growth in this area so slow?

I wonder how much fear plays a part in this.

Do you fear that you're going to miss out on life?

Were you to be more of a sojourner?

Were you to have longings of a sojourner like this?

Do you fear that you would miss out on the good in life?

Satan always has tempted in this vein.

Sometimes in the worst kinds of ways.

He tempted Christ.

All this world and its glories I'll give to you if you bow down and worship me.

There is an allurement to darkness.

It promises life, but it will fail you.

And if you've been on that road for very long, you will know that it's true.

It's hollow and it will leave you empty and enslaved and in chains.

But you don't have to be following that kind of darkness.

We could just be afraid of missing out on good things and then make good things that God has given us as the ultimate things.

Things of family and things of nature and enjoying.

There's a lot of things that are good that we're meant to enjoy, but we can make them ultimate things, and it becomes idolatry.

I wonder how many of us have the fear of shame and guilt that keep us from pursuing this kind of sojourning spirit.

Maybe we think, why would God ever have me?

He knows what I've done.

He knows the scoundrel that I've been.

I've been a Christian for 20 years.

And I'm just in at one level, I'm no better than I ever was.

My heart is so deeply broken.

My longings are so out of kilter.

I hardly relate it all at times to the sentiment and the heart cries of this psalmist in verse in Psalm 119.

But God's given us the gospel.

That's why the word is there to strengthen us.

That's why it's a lifeline.

That's why suffering is there to teach us to not stay away from God and wander from him and feel like he doesn't want to hear from us.

And we come in his righteousness.

And our Father wants us to walk with him and to grow.

Maybe it's hardness and apathy.

Maybe a question that this psalm is asking you is Am I even a sojourner at all?

Or is this really my city?

Is this really my treasure in this world?

Whatever it is that keeps us clinging to this world, the road to changing our longings is the same.

And that's really what we need.

We don't just need some behavior change, we need some change in our longings.

And it's the same.

It's owning, it's owning how far they are from where God calls us.

It's confessing them to the Lord.

It's trusting Him and opening ourselves up to Him and asking Him to bless us and to lead us and to give us His righteousness, to shepherd us and to give us this kind of spirit in deeper and deeper measure.

You can trust the Lord.

You can trust Him.

Our Father, we as many of us as know you, Lord, there is a deep yearning in our hearts for home.

And yet at the same time, there's a great conflict to be here and to grab hold of and to put our deep roots down in this world.

Father, change our longings.

We confess them.

We confess their shallowness.

We ask that you would give us new longings.

That your word would become more precious to us.

That we would be students of the suffering that you send our way.

And Lord, that you would teach us.

We ask it in Christ's name.

Amen.