Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3234
“For I am a stranger with You, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.” Psalm 39:12.
IF you read the whole verse, you will see that David used these words as an argument in prayer—“Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not Your peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with You, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.” It is a grand thing to be able to argue with God in prayer! Faith grips the Angel of the Covenant, but it is by well-grounded arguments that we will wrestle with Him until we prevail. Expectancy puts in the wedge, but it is solid argument that drives it home. When we want to obtain any mercy from the Lord, we must support our plea by reasons drawn from His Nature, His promises and the experiences of His children as recorded in His Word. Martin Luther was a great master of this holy art of arguing with God in prayer, as was the Apostle Paul and, therefore, their supplications were not presented in vain. Let it be so with you, also, Beloved—besiege the Throne of Grace with the most powerful arguments you can find in the heavenly armory! Lay hold upon the arm of Omnipotence and say to the Lord, as wrestling Jacob did, “I will not let You go, unless You bless me.”
I. It is, however, the argument that David used, rather than the prayer that he presented, upon which I want to talk to you at this time. So first, I ask you to notice that DAVID WAS A STRANGER AND A SOJOURNER, AS ALL HIS FATHERS HAD BEEN BEFORE HIM. A stranger is a person who is away from his home. And a sojourner is one who only stays in a certain place for a short time and then must be up and away. Such is a true Christian. In what respects is he a stranger?
First, he is a stranger in his position. He is not in his native land—he is a freeman of the New Jerusalem. He sings—
“Im but a stranger here, Heaven is my home! Earth is a desert dreary, Heaven is my home! Dangers and sorrows stand Round me on every hand— Heaven is my fatherland, Heaven is my home!”
While we are here in the body, we are absent from our nearest and dearest relatives. You know how Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Our Father, who are in Heaven.” Our Elder Brother has gone Home before us to prepare the many mansions in His Father’s house for our eternal abiding place. Many of our Brothers and Sisters in Christ have already joined the general assembly and Church of the First-Born which are written in Heaven. ‘Tis true that we have many very dear relatives here, but they, also, are strangers here even as we are—pilgrims to the Celestial City that lies beyond the river! Our true possessions are not here. We own no property in this world. We have had certain things lent to us for use while we are here, and we have to give an account of how we use them, but we must leave them all behind us when we go Home. We brought nothing into this world and we can carry nothing out of it. Our inheritance is above—an inheritance which is undefiled, and that fades not away—which we are to share with Christ, for we are joint-heirs of it with Him! Our treasure is where our heart is and both are now before the Throne of God on high in the keeping of Christ—unto whom we have committed them until that day when we shall be with Him where He is and shall behold His Glory! “Here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.”I know that there are tender associations connected with our earthly homes and loved ones, yet how often are the ashes of our family hearth quenched by the tears of grief while the
black pall of mourning hangs over those who have been taken from us? Ah, no, this is not our home! Our native land, our true country is in the heavenly highlands where Jesus dwells! And we long for the time when He shall say to us, “Come up here.” Then, but not till then, shall we be at Home with the Lord!
Next, we are strangers, not only in position, but in character. When an Englishman crosses over to France, he is quickly recognized as a stranger and a foreigner. And a true Christian is not in any place long before it is discovered that he is of a different nationality from them by whom he is surrounded! His pedigree is not the same as that of worldlings— they are of their father, the devil, and they do his works—but he has been “born-again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives and abides forever.” God is now his Father, for He has “begotten him again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” His manners, too, as well as his pedigree, are not like those of worldlings. If an Englishman goes to the Continent and tries to pass himself off as a German or a Frenchman, he is soon detected. And, in a similar fashion, a true Christian reveals the fact that he is an alien in this world— his ways and manners and customs are not those of the men of the world who have their portion in this life. He has obeyed that great Apostolic command, “Be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind.” There is also something in a Christian’s speech which shows that he is a stranger in this world. He has a peculiar accent which the worldling cannot imitate. Even when a Christian speaks wrongly, he is speedily detected. Peter denied with an oath that he even knewJesus of Nazareth, but those that stood by were not deceived by his swearing, for they said to him, “Surely you, also, are one of them, for your speech betrays you.”