Final thoughts on Psalm 39:12
“Hear my prayer, O LORD, And give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner, as all my fathers were. NKJV
As a believer, I am a stranger with the Lord, but not a stranger to the Lord. All my sinful alienation from God, His grace in Christ has effectively removed, and now I walk in fellowship with God through this wicked world as a pilgrim in a foreign country (Heb. 11:9-10). The Lord is a stranger in His own world. Mankind forgets Him, dishonors Him, rebels against Him, and doesn’t know Him. The Lord Jesus Christ was in the world, and though the world was made by Him, the world did not recognize Him (Jn. 1:10). It is no surprise then, if I who live for Jesus, should be unknown and a hated stranger here below (Jn. 15:18-20); nor would I wish to be a citizen where Jesus was an alien. His pierced hands have loosened the cords which once bound my soul to earth, and now I find myself a stranger in the world. My speech seems an outlandish tongue to the heathen among whom I dwell, my lifestyle is unusual, and my actions are strange to them. A prince would be more at home in a slum that I could ever be in the haunts of the wicked. But here is the sweetness of my situation: I am a stranger with the Lord. He is my co-sufferer, my fellow sojourner. Oh, what joy to wander in such blessed company! My heart leaps with delight when He speaks with me along the journey. I am far more blessed that those who sit on thrones, and far more at home with Jesus than those who dwell under the roofs of their houses.
“To me remains nor place, nor time:
My country is in every clime;
I can be calm and free from care
On any shore, since God is there.
While place we seek, or place we shun,
The soul finds happiness in none:
But with a God to guide our way,
`Tis equal joy to go or stay.”
C. H. Spurgeon
Bethel Bible Church Hawaii 