A Stranger in Foreign Land

I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me. Psa 119:19
For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. 1Co 29:15​

The verses above speak of realities and truths that many will go to great lengths to avoid, and will quickly change the subject. For some people however, they have the ring of truth, that they relate to, because they've felt this sense of being here in the world, but never fitting in with it. Some find them confirming, and make a great deal of sense. I'm among them. I dig deeper, and search into what God wants me to learn from them, as they speak affirmation to my soul. The experiences in my life has proven the truth of these verses to me. The two homes my husband and I built and lived in, are now owned by other's. The work, enjoyment, trials, and conflicts are now memories, and all that's left of the years we put into them.

Nothing is permanent here, and no matter how much gold and riches you may acquire, one day it will be left to somebody else. What is really important, has nothing to do with this worlds goods. Nothing can replace sincere love-without hypocrisy, speaking the truth, and treating people the way you want to be treated, and putting the Lord first and seeking His will in every aspect of life. This is what matters in eternity. The contents below, touch on this.

You may benefit the same, as you read on. A quote from John Wesley begins:
"Strangers - For the land which we possess is thine, not ours; we are not the proprietors but only thy tenants: and as our fathers once were mere strangers in it, even before men, so we at this day are no better before thee, having no absolute right in it, but only to travel through it, and sojourn in it for the short time that we live in the world. None abiding - We only give thee what we must shortly leave, and what we cannot keep to ourselves: and therefore it is a great favor that thou wilt accept such offerings. David's days had as much of substance in them as most men: for he was upon the whole a good man, an useful man, and now an old man. And yet he puts himself in the front of those who must acknowledge, that their days on the earth are as a shadow: which speaks of our life as a vain life, a dark life, a transient life, and a life that will have its period, either in perfect light or perfect darkness."
"​I am not here as in my home, but as a pilgrim travelling homeward in a strange land. God's Commandments - Which are my chief support and guide in my pilgrimage."

A Stranger In the Earth
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
​Treasury of David

​“I am a stranger in the earth.” This is meant for a plea. By divine command men are bound to be kind to strangers, and what God commands in others he will exemplify in himself. The Psalmist was a stranger for God's sake, else had he been as much at home as worldlings are; he was not a stranger to God, but a stranger to the world, a banished man so long as he was out of heaven. Therefore he pleads, “Hide not thy commandments from me.” If these are gone, what have I else? Since nothing around me is mine, what can I do if I lose thy word? Since none around me know or care to know the way to thyself, what shall I do if I fail to see thy commands, by which alone I can guide my steps to the land where thou dwellest? David implies that God's commands were his solace in his exile' they reminded him of home, and they showed him the way thither, and therefore he begged that they might never be hidden from him, by his being unable either to understand them or to obey them. If spiritual light be withdrawn the command is hidden, and this a gracious heart greatly deprecates. What would be the use of opened eyes if the best object of sight were hidden from their view? While we wander here we can endure all the ills of this foreign land with patience if the word of God is applied to our hearts by the Spirit of God; but if the heavenly things which make for our peace were hid from our eyes we should be in an evil case, - in fact, we should be at sea without a compass, in a desert without a guide, in an enemy's country without a friend.
This prayer is a supplement to “open thou mine eyes,” and, as the one prays to see, the other deprecates the negative of seeing, namely, the command being hidden, and so out of sight. We do well to look at both sides of the blessing we are seeking, and plead for it from every point of view. The prayers are appropriate to the characters mentioned' as he is a servant he asks for opened eves that his eyes may ever be towards his Lord, as the eyes of a servant should be; as a stranger he begs that he may not be strange to the way in which he is to walk towards his home. In each case his entire dependence is upon God alone."

A PRAYER FOR UNDERSTANDING

​These verses are full of yearning and unsatisfied desire. The soul breaks for longing, cleaves to the dust, and melts for heaviness. We are reminded of the complaint of a godly man, uttered two centuries and a half ago: “If God had not said, ‘Blessed are those that hunger,’ I know not what could keep weak Christians from sinking into despair. Many times all I can do is to complain that I want Him and wish to recover Him.”
We learn from this psalm to pour out before God such desires. If we can do nothing else, we can complain that we are lacking in relish, in the sense of His nearness, and in the comfort of holy prayer. The expression of desire for God is prayer, which He accepts and will answer. “He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him; He also will hear their cry, and will save them,” Psa_145:19. When the father of the prodigal first saw him, he was a long way off, but love could not wait till the son had traversed that intervening distance. He ran to meet him, and kissed him, while the words of confession were trembling on his lips. So God will draw near to quicken, strengthen, teach, and cause us to understand. Then we shall run where now we limp. F.B. Meyer

The Shadow of Life

The shadow is a fit emblem of human life. From the hour it falls on the dial it moves round the little circle until the sun sinks, when in a moment it is gone. A few hours past, and its work is done. The shadow thrown by the brightest sunshine must vanish when the night comes. Thus it is with life.
I. God does not speak to us through nature without a purpose. We are not to ponder in our hearts on the analogy between human life and nature in its various phases for the pleasure of indulging in sentimental feelings. When Moses mused on the shortness of life, his prayer was, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Life is short, so we must seek for wisdom to make the most of it. No more is required than that every man should do his best with the hours entrusted to his care.
II. The thought of life’s shortness should lead us to value time more highly. Our short life on earth should be a life of work, for we shall have all eternity to rest in. Learn to value time, first, because you have the work your "hand finds" to accomplish, and, secondly, because you have to "work out your own salvation." The great lesson which the frailty and shortness of life should teach us is the importance of preparing for the eternity beyond.  [W. S. Randall, "Literary Churchman" Sermons, 1883, p. 174]

Sojourner's

All men are sojourners on earth. David uses language of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who lived as men without permanent home. All sojourners or pilgrims on earth, because all passing through it to a future beyond it. Stern law compels advance. We live and we must die. Not naturalized, no rights of inheritance, foreigners here; we should seek home, rest, and bliss in heaven.

All men sojourn in shadows on earth. “Our days on earth are as a shadow.”
1. Life itself is a shadow. In swiftness and uncertainty; darkness and perplexing changes. “Shadows in career,” says Geo. Herbert. We flee as a shadow and continue not (Job_14:2).
​2. Men walk in shadows. “Every man walks in a vain show (an image)” (Psa_39:6). “All shadows and pursuing shadows,” says Burke. Deluded by sense, refusing to see the only lasting substance; men live in lies, dream of false pleasure, and find everything fleeting and unsubstantial. After all discussions concerning the supreme good, some pointing to pleasure, some to virtue, and others to apathy, who can give a definite and decisive answer? Life without God is vain, and not worth living. “Who knows what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spends as a shadow” (Heb. “the number of the days of the life of his vanity”) (Ecc_6:12).

Only some men are strangers on earth. Christians are strangers. They feel, dress, and act as such. “Confess that they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” But a large class of men to whom the world is perfectly congenial; who feel nothing strange, nothing unnatural. They are in their element; find their place and satisfaction in its pursuits and enjoyments. They desire no better country, but seem to fix their hearts and homes in this, through which they rapidly pass. What a foolish exchange; shadows for substance; trifles or eternity!
“All on earth is shadow,
All beyond is substance. How solid all
Where change is known no more!” [Young].

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims
​on the earth. Heb 11:13
The Christian Pilgrim

The apostle is here setting forth the excellencies of the grace of faith, by the glorious effects and happy issue of it in the saints of the Old Testament.
1. What these saints confessed of themselves—that they were strangers and pilgrims.
2. The inference drawn by the apostle—they sought another country as their home.
​
I. This life ought to be so spent by us as to be only a journey or pilgrimage towards heaven.--
1. We ought not to rest in the world or in its enjoyments, but should desire heaven.—A traveler passing through pleasant places, flowery meadows, shady groves, only takes a transient view of them as he goes along. His journey’s end is in his mind.
2. We ought to seek heaven by travelling in the way that leads thither. This is a way of holiness, the way of obedience to God’s commands, an ascending way, a Christ-like way.
3. We should travel on in this way in a laborious manner. Many mountains, rocks, and rough plains demand our strength.
4. Our whole lives ought to be spent in travelling this road. We ought to begin early; we ought to travel with assiduity; we ought to persevere.
5. We ought to be continually growing in holiness. Thus we come nearer and nearer to heaven. “As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word,”. “This one thing I do,”.
​6. All other concerns of life ought to be subordinate to this. Business, money, temporal enjoyments, quit if they prove a hindrance.

II. Why the Christian’s life is a journey or pilgrimage.—1. This world is not our abiding-place. Continuance here is short. God never designed that this world should be our home.
2. The future world was designed to be our settled and everlasting abode. The present state is short and transitory, but our state in the other world is everlasting.
3. Heaven is that place alone where our highest end and highest good is to be obtained. God hath made us for Himself. God is the highest good of the reasonable creature. Here we get but scattered beams—God is the sun; but streams—God is the fountain; but drops—God is the ocean.

III. Instruction afforded by this consideration.—1. Moderation in our grief for the loss of friends who have died in Christ. Death is to them a great blessing; gone to Father’s house. “I heard a voice from heaven,” (Rev_14:13).
Rev 14:13  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. 
​2. How ill do they improve their lives that spend them in travelling towards hell! Thus do backbiters, covetous, drunkards.
3. Converted persons do but begin their work, and set out in the way they have to go. They should be earnest and laborious, and should strive for grace.

IV. Exhortations.—1. How worthy is heaven that your life should be wholly spent as a journey towards it! Where can you choose your home better than in heaven?
2. This is the way to have death comfortable to us.
3. It will make retrospect pleasant.
4. In journeying to heaven we may have heaven.
5. If our lives be not a journey towards heaven, they will be a journey to hell.

Conclusion.—A few directions.
1. Labor to get a sense of the vanity of this world.
2. Labor to be much acquainted with heaven.
3. Seek heaven only by Jesus Christ. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
4. Let Christians help one another in going this journey. Go in company, conversing together, assisting one another. Go united. This will ensure a more successful travelling, and a more joyful meeting at the Father’s house in glory.—[ Jonathan Edwards, M.A.]

Corresponding verses:
​Mat 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 
Mat 6:20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 
Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.