Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You Homesick? | The Writings | Psalm 120

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

Are you homesick? Do you long to dwell in peace? Have you gotten too comfortable in your present life? In today's episode, Jensen shares how Psalm 120 reminds us that, one day, we will be home with God once again. Prepare your heart this Advent with the 2024 TMBT Advent Calendar! Each day, receive a new prompt for Scripture, prayer, and reflection—designed to help you slow down and reflect on the Hope, Love, Peace, and Joy that Jesus offers. Sign up now to receive your free Advent calendar! Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 120

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. When's the last time you felt homesick? It's one of my least favorite feelings to experience. When I'm home, I feel safe, secure, comfortable, and at peace. When I've been away for too long, maybe at a summer camp as a kid, a sleepover, at a new friend's house. A long trip away from my family.

I begin to ache for the lack of those things. I miss my home. I miss its comfort, security, its dependability, and the peace that comes with feeling safe at home. If you've experienced even a piece of homesickness, then you'll know just how strong of a feeling it can be. It's a longing that you quite literally can't ignore. And nothing fixes it until you walk back in through your front door.

Now today, we're going to go through Psalm 120. And it's the first of 15 Psalms of Ascent. Now what does that mean? So the Psalms of Ascent are a group of Psalms that narrate the feeling and emotions of the people of Israel as they make their pilgrimage to Jerusalem for annual festivals. They would sing these songs as they took literal steps towards Jerusalem, where the temple was, where their God dwelt toward home. Now Psalm 120 is the first of 15.

It's our opening Psalm of Ascent. We don't know who the author is, but as we read this psalm, we'll hear him longing for his home, for the safety and security and peace of Jerusalem. Now, he could just be longing to return for the festivals, though some say that this could have been written while in exile, longing to physically return to Jerusalem, to his homeland. Either way, the theme stands. It's a short psalm, and the author changes who he's addressing every few verses.

So let's start with verses 1 and 2, where the author begins by speaking to God. In my distress, I called to the Lord and he answered me. Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. So the author begins by recalling a time when the Lord was faithful. He answered him in distress. And then he shares his request to the Lord of us. He needs deliverance from people around him who are deceitful. So next, he will address his act.

adversaries, verses three and four. What shall be given to you and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? A warrior's sharp arrows with glowing coals of the broom tree. So he's asked the Lord for deliverance and now he speaks to his enemy, telling him of what is to come from God's divine justice. To the imagery of arrows and glowing coals are emblems of God's judgment throughout scripture. So we see him warning his adversary of what is to come from his deceit, God's just divine judgment. And then the last three verses, we see the author lamenting his current situation. Verses five through seven, woe to me that I sojourn in Meshek, that I dwell in the tents of Qadar. Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. I am for peace.

but when I speak, they are for war. So this is where we get to the heart of the matter. The author needs God's deliverance because he is surrounded by his adversaries. He's living in a place that is not his home. He says that he sojourns in Meshek and dwells among the tents of Qadar. Now geographically, those are two locations that are not anywhere near one another. So he physically cannot live in both places. So what's happening here is symbolic.

The author is using two distinct locations to show as it isn't about the specific place that he's living, but in reference to all of God's people wherever they are scattered throughout the world. If you noticed in verses 5 through 7, two words are repeated twice, dwell and peace. Now repetition in the Bible is always a point of emphasis. So here we see the author emphasizing his longing to dwell somewhere, that he can have peace. He longs for it with a deep ache because currently his dwelling is among people who hate peace. And so he sings this song because God's people long to live in a place of peace. They long to live in God's city in Jerusalem.

But they don't. They're scattered across the earth and they live in places where people hate peace, where they lie, where they promote war and violence and chaos. Maybe you can relate. it's not that the city of Jerusalem was free from violence and perfect. We have many instances of violence happening in Jerusalem from Scripture and throughout history. No, Jerusalem was symbolic for God's people. It was where the temple was. It was where God dwelt, where their king was, where the throne that God promised to establish for all of eternity resided. The people were homesick. They longed

for Jerusalem to be at home with their God in a place of peace. It was true for the ancient Israelites, and it has always been true of God's people. All the way back in Genesis 3, we read of Adam and Eve being exiled from the garden. Exiled from Eden, the place where they could walk and talk with God, where sin and corruption didn't exist, where peace reigned, they were cast out and left with the hope that one day God would send someone who would remove the curse that now corrupted God's perfect creation. Adam and Eve, homeless, spent the rest of their lives longing for their true home. In Exodus we read about God's people wandering the wilderness surrounded by enemies lost and longing for the promised land that God said that he would give to them, a home,

flowing with milk and honey a place where they would be safe and protected. Years later, when the Israelites were taken out of that promised land, living in exile surrounded by foreign nations, they longed to return to Jerusalem, to see God put the rightful king back on the throne, to see the Messiah come and establish his kingdom. And in First Peter, we learn that all Christians today are living in exile. He writes his letter to the elect exiles, telling them that though they may suffer trials now, Christ has given them hope and mercy through his resurrection,

to gain an inheritance that no one can take away from them. You see, the theme of longing for a better home is woven throughout Scripture. It is the underlying narrative of God's people. We are not at home. We live in a world plagued by a curse broken and bogged down by sin. Our bodies are broken and bogged down by sin. We are surrounded by violence and chaos. Things are not the way they're supposed to be.

But we are called to be a people of peace, a people who seek after the good of the cities that they live in, who love deeply, who seek after Christ and who day in and day out long for their true home. You and I are in exile. We live in places of chaos. We are not home. You see, you were created to dwell with God, to live with Him. And from the very moment back in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve were disobedient, and our home with God was broken, God has been weaving redemption throughout history. God has promised to give us an inheritance to bring his people into his eternal kingdom, a kingdom with a good king, a kingdom that is full of love, justice, mercy, and peace. The heartbeat of the people of God

is to long to dwell with him once again. We may not go for festivals in Jerusalem every year like the ancient Israelites, but as God's people, we are all on a journey toward home. We can sing this Psalm like the people of God did and remember our true home is coming. We can sing this Psalm to soothe the ache of homesickness and remind our hearts that our God has promised us a home full of comfort, safety, and peace because He dwells there. Until that day comes, we sing. We thank God for his provision and we ask him to sustain us as we live in exile, longing for his kingdom, longing to live in peace once again.