Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Longing for Home

Psalms 137:2 KJV
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
This whole Psalm speaks of Israel and their experience in the captivity of Babylon. The circumstances were the will of God. And God used those circumstances for
The good of Israel
The good of Babylon and
The good of future generations, through the prophecies that were written during that time and of that time


I see in this Psalm and in Israel's captivity a type of being Christian in our world today.

This world can mock our relationship with ChristThey "require of us a song." They don't believe in the God of the Bible, and they mock that we believe.

Sometimes we don't feel like singing the Lord's songs. But we have to remember that God gave them to us to help us through these times of captivity in this world. The world may mock our song, but we would do best to sing them even when the heart is so heavy we do not believe we can sing them.

We must fight forgetting our true home.
The Jews were tempted and indeed some of the Jews did forget that Jerusalem was their true home. When the decree went forth and they were allowed to return, many of them did not want to go. They had made their homes in the strange land.
What a tragedy when a Christian or a Christian's children forget our heavenly heritage. May God help us to have our hearts so set on heaven that it never escapes our thoughts and our lips speak so sweetly of it that our children learn to long for it as well.

This world will have its day of justice
Sometimes we, who are strangers and pilgrims, are so mistreated. This world can be a very cruel place for the children of the king. But there is coming a day when the Lord will pour out his wrath on this world. Ours is not to gloat over that day but to remember that if it had not been for God's saving grace we would be facing that day and so - by the grace of God - do all we can to spread God's grace through this world.

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