In Reagan International Airport, I unexpectedly ran into someone from home. Had we been at home, we would not have greeted each other in the way we did, with excited exclamations and hugs. People nearby smiled. They understood the joy of the familiar amid uncertainty.
Something similar seems to be at work in these words from Psalm 119:54: “Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning” (ESV). Another translation substitutes the word “pilgrimage” for “sojourning.” Still another reads, “Your statutes have been my songs wherever I make my home.”
God’s statutes, the commands he’s given to govern our lives, are songs to bring familiar comfort wherever we make our home. How?
Aren’t our entire lives a traveling toward deeper understanding and following of God and his ways? As we grow as believers, God’s ways provide unshakeable comfort even in strange or frightening stopovers.
Oftentimes God’s statutes don’t seem like songs that bring peace or like a little taste of home. Yes, we often turn away stubbornly from God. But some of us grew up with a picture of a vindictive God with arbitrary rules to catch or shame his creation. Perhaps we’ve never seen God as a loving Father whose guidelines suit our needs.
Sit with the Holy Spirit and ask for new insight, healing, and joy in your relationship with your good Father. What if you start praying that in unfamiliar places, God’s guidelines would be a comfort of home, a welcome and familiar sight, and a favorite song to sing?
