i am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me! [psalm 119:19]
sojourner – a traveling stranger. this is an identity you have in Christ.
in Christ, you are not a traveling stranger to God. he knows you, he sees you. he is with you. but, you are traveling stranger to this world. you are an exile, a foreigner. and, … you will never quite be satisfied in this world. never.
you can find some happiness in this world. you can find some love. you can find some peace, some life, some elements of home. but … you will never quite be satisfied with the happiness, the love the peace, the life, the home you find in this world, because this is not where any of those things live in the full for you and i. only in the full presence of God will you and i know and be satisfied. everything here, in its best and most godly form, is but an echo, a taste of what you will know in Christ – there.
hide not your commandments – today beg the Lord to reveal himself thru this word. it is the main way you know about your true home. it is the main way you know about the source of your true happiness, love peace, and life. it is the main way you and i can enjoy the One who alone is the embodiment of all these things.
in his word, you can hear and know the real presence of the Lord. this is what we beg for today – him. hide not yourself from me o Lord! hide not yourself! please Lord, show me more of you!
[13] 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. [14] for people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. [15] if they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. [16] 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 for them a city. [hebrews 11:13-16]
~ john ryan