Going Home
I am a stranger in the earth; Do not hide Your commandments from me. Psalm 119:19 NASB
Stranger – What is required for a stranger to become a welcomed member of the community? You might find yourself in that situation if you travel outside your native land. You want to establish connection, create new bonds, become part of your new environment. How do you do that? The simplest answer is to follow the motto: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Get involved in the culture where you are. Take on the habits and patterns of the population. Fit in.
But how do you accomplish this if you are a stranger on earth? How do you fit in if the whole world is a strange place?
David provides the answer. Adapting your life to the commandments of the Lord is the way to fit in to the true structure of the world’s design. I have often argued that adopting the commandments is the way to become human. Now David amplifies that idea by suggesting that the commandments are also built into the real structure of the world itself. If you want to be home, you need to live according to God’s instructions. Otherwise you will continue to be a stranger on the earth.
The Hebrew word David chooses is ger. It essentially means someone who lives among people who are not blood-relatives. In the ancient near-Eastern cultures, this implied dependence on hospitality. Without the protection of the locals, such a person would soon starve. This theme is emphasized again and again in the narratives about Israel. The fact that Israel itself was often a “sojourner” in a foreign land only serves to demonstrate how important “home” is in this culture. From Abraham to Joseph, Israel’s great men of faith often found themselves at the mercy of indigenous cultures. They learned that being home meant serving YHWH no matter where they were physically located. YHWH is the God of all the earth. Following Him makes one a citizen of His Kingdom, the Kingdom of heaven and earth.
Peter’s letter expresses the same relationship. We are alien residents in a strange land, serving the King while stationed in rebel territory. That means we have a choice: Follow the instructions of the King who will one day rule the entire earth, or make do with the temporary cultural mores where we happen to be. David makes it quite clear that the mitzvot of YHWH are the patterns that will prevail over all the earth. They are the same patterns of behavior that cause us to be human and to be at home. Why would we choose otherwise?
“Do not hide Your commandments” implies that it is possible not to see the true way home. Pray that God will open your eyes to His ways.
Topical Index: stranger, ger, sojourner, Psalm 119:19
Love these TWs about Psalm 119!
I second Rein’s comment. These thoughts on Psalm 119 are wonderful.
So many of the commandments that we have studied in Torah come across to me as simply the revealing of a pattern THAT IS. I no longer see it as a question of whether or not I will obey OT laws. Those laws (patterns) themselves, seem to me to be obeying the voice of the Creator. We know that we will be following them in the distant future, so why wouldn’t we want to begin now?
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Even pagans have a word for this law. Karma.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Even pagans have a word for this law. Karma.
Hi Gayle,
Actually, I think Karma is more like the Biblical “You reap what you sow”
Or the scientific “cause and effect”
BTW
Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein
It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood
After being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians.
The novel explores his interaction with—and eventual transformation of—terrestrial culture.
The title is an allusion to the phrase in Exodus 2:22.
According to Heinlein, the novel’s working title was The Heretic.
Later editions of the book have promoted it as
“The most famous Science Fiction Novel ever written”.
Heinlein got the idea for the novel when he and his wife had some brainstorming one evening
In 1948
And she suggested a new version of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book
Where a human child is raised by Martians instead of wolves
BTW
I was born in 1948 and have always felt a little like a Stranger In a Strange Land 🙂
And one of my favorite songs is by Jim Morrison and the The Doors
People are Strange
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3CHi_9sxj0
Michael,
I have not read “A Stranger in a Strange Land,” but I can see why it influenced you. I don’t know how many years it has been since I have heard “People Are Strange.” I might have thought the words were true, “back in the day” but now, I have come to appreciate “strange” (in my mind, non-conforming to current culture) people. 🙂
At the risk of being chastised for misapplication of Scripture, I often think of the way the NT teachers used the Tanakh, and restated the principles in language their audience could understand. I connect the ‘Golden Rule’ also to Obadiah 1:15, “For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.”
So we are strangers to this world, aliens, when we do not seek after and follow His commandments. The stranger to God’s creation is the one who is NOT following after Torah.
Wow — talk about turning the (church) world upside down. Sort of messes up traditional rapture theology.
Yes, it certainly does!
I just spent the last several months reading through the book Jaspher and the way the people of Sodom treated strangers and sojourners was another one of the abdominal ways they were evil before the eyes of Yaweh. Another reason we are told to be hospitable.
It’s seems God’s people spent a great deal of their history being strangers. From Abraham through to Paul, perhaps a PRECURSOR to following God’s ways is to at least consider ourselves strangers within the culture.
I keep looking for a “new start”, to somehow begin following God’s ways more fully. I imagine moving away, and meeting new people and new friends as a person who already follows the Torah. It seems easier than explaining big changes to my current family and friends. Is this part of being “…transformed by the renewing of your mind…”? I can see where truly following God would seem as different to my family and friends as if I had changed nationalities.
If this is the case,… I hope I seem more exotic instead of traitorous. 🙂