"ARE YOU HOMESICK?"

Sermon by Pastor John Hollis

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Text (Psalm 61)

The present holiday season, Thanksgiving and Christmas, is a time when many people are homesick and want to go home. The 61^st Psalm is about an exiled king who was homesick and wanted to go home.

This Psalm is the cry of David, who had been selected to replace Saul on the throne in Jerusalem. Saul was aware of this fact and was seeking the death of David. David had to flee from home and for all practical purposes was in exile. He was heir to a kingdom that was in turmoil. Everything seemed to be going in the wrong direction.

David was ready to turn toward home. He was far from home living in caves and in cities of some who had been enemies of Israel. He had had the opportunity to kill Saul, but because Saul was God's anointed, David refused to take advantage of the opportunity to remove Saul from the throne. But David was homesick and wanted to go home to Zion.

Have you ever been homesick? I have a very vivid remembrance of a time when I was really homesick. I was sworn into the Marine Corps on January 22, 1952. I was in boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. All of us were homesick. The DI's would get right up in our face and say, "You would like to leave this place wouldn't you? Well there are only two ways out of this place: out the main gate, but there are MP's waiting to bring you back. You can swim across the bay to mainland, but the bay is full of sharks and alligators. You are welcome to try it." Of course, this helped our homesickness a lot. But we were powerless to do anything about it.

Listen to David in verse one: "Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer." David was powerless in his own strength to return home. And we are powerless in our own strength to try to recover humanity's hope of going home. There is a home to which we can go, but we must depend not upon our own strength but upon the power of God to solve our homesickness.

How far from home are you? The old saying: You cannot go home again" is only partly true. We can go home, but not on our own power.

Consider world situations: political leaders; religious leaders; religion in general. The world is in turmoil. It appears that we are a long way from home, and we cry out, "Hear my prayer, O God." I sometimes feel like introducing myself and saying, "Hello, I'm John Hollis, I'm recovering from the turmoil of the world." I'm reminded of Jeremiah's words when God's people were in exile: "Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land; 'Is not the Lord in Zion? Is her King not within her?' . . . 'Harvest is past, summer is ended, and we are not saved.' . . . 'Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?'" (Jer. 8:18-22). This is the cry of a world, a society, a church in exile.

How did David handle this longing to go home? What can we learn from him? Listen to verse two of this Psalm: "From the end of the earth I call to Thee, when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I." This call of David was a cry of hope, was his cry to be found by God, his cry to come back to Zion. When Jesus was preparing his disciples to go out into a world of turmoil and bring the wayward ones home, he said, "Ask, and it shall be give to you; seek and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you." (Matt. 7:7). This was not just any prayer: it was a longing and pleading from the very depths of their hearts for God to be with them. They would be sent far from home in their work of spreading the good news, and Jesus said they would need to ask, seek and knock with the deep longing of their hearts. This was what David was doing.

David recognized the fact that he needed something higher and more steadfast in his life than his own strength. He needed the "Rock of salvation." "Lead me to the rock that is higher than I" was his plea. This would ultimately be found in the coming Messiah. Jesus quoted from Psalm 118: "The stone which the builders rejected, This became the chief corner stone." (Matt. 21:42). And Peter wrote: "And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. . . . 'Behold I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, . . .'" (1 Pet. 2:4-7). This house being formed out of living stones would become our home.

Would God hear David's prayer, his cry? Will he hear our cry for home? There was a time when David was not so sure. "To Thee, O Lord, I call; My rock, do not be deaf to me, Lest, if Thou be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit." (Psalm 28:1) And perhaps we sometimes feel as did David; is God hearing our prayers? or is he deaf to us? But David finds assurance that God will hear. "In Thee, O Lord, I have taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; In Thy righteousness deliver me. Incline Thine ear to me, rescue me quickly; Be Thou to me a rock of strength, A stronghold to save me. For Thou art my rock and my fortress; For thy name's sake Thou wilt lead me and guide me. Thou wilt pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me; For Thou art my strength." (Psalm 31:1-4). There is security in that rock.

We need to realize with David that God is our refuge. Listen to verses 3-4: "For Thou hast been a refuge for me, A tower of strength against the enemy. Let me dwell in Thy tent forever; Let me take refuge in the shelter of Thy wings." Here is where we find the cure for homesickness; here we find the comfort and peace that our hearts long for. To know when the storms of life are raging around us there is shelter under his wing; there is where we find our hiding place. When we see people struggling with the worries of life, we can hold their hand and pray to God, O Lord, give them peace and comfort - lead them to the higher rock of thy hiding place.

There are times when we feel rejected when in reality we haven't been. We are like Charlie Brown. He had received a rejection letter from the publishers. Linus says to him, don't take it so hard, many writers receive rejection slips. Charlie Brown says, "But you don't understand, I didn't send in a manuscript." It is times like these, when we feel rejected, that we need to cry to God, "Let us dwell in your tent forever."

What is that tent in which we long to dwell? David describes it in part as a stronghold. Listen to his words from Psalm 62:1-2, 5-8, "My soul waits for silence from God only; From Him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken. . . . My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold, I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us." This great house of God is our stronghold. It is the tent in which we can dwell for ever. It is the place to which we can come when we long for comfort and rest.

It had been in the mind of David that He would build a house for God. "Remember, O Lord, on David's behalf, All his afflictions; How he swore to the Lord, And vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, Surely I will not enter my house, Nor lie on my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes, Or slumber to my eyelids; Until I find a place for the Lord, A dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob." But God would not allow David to build a dwelling place for him. God would select the place and Solomon would build the house. "For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His habitation. This is My resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it." (Psalm 132:1-5,13-14). This Zion, or Jerusalem, became the type of the new Zion or new Jerusalem. Here God would dwell with his people forevermore.

It was this Zion to which David longed to return. And God would allow David to return home; and God would call his people from exile in Babylon to return to this home. But This would not be the Zion to which we are called. Christ would build a new house to which God's people would come. This would be their home. This new house would be our tower of strength. Our enemies would not be the same as the enemies of David. David's enemies were the armies of Saul and the armies of the nations around Israel. But just as the house Jesus would build would not be the same as the house Solomon would build, so the enemies would be different.

Our enemies would be discouragement, disappointment, depression and things which cannot be defended against with the sword and spear like David used. As the apostle Paul said, our warfare would not be carnal. It would be a warfare against the thoughts and imaginations of the world.

Jesus could see the need for something with which we can defend against the enemies we face in a world of turmoil and tragedy. As he was nearing the cross, he could see that his disciples were dealing with discouragement, disappointment, and depression. Jesus spoke to them and said, "Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world." (John 16:32-33). "Lead us to the rock higher that we are." That rock is the Christ who is our peace. He is the everlasting way to the Father's house. What are you holding to? Do you know the peace that Christ gives? Are you homesick? Then come home

Paul wrote of this house in 2 Corinthians 5:1-4. "For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven; in as much as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." I know that most interpret this as being something that will be ours in the future. But it seems that God would not let us go through our earthly life naked, spiritually speaking. Hasn't God clothed us with righteousness? Doesn't he now live in the same tent (tabernacle) with us?

Listen to Paul's words from 2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1. "Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, 'I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore come out from their midst and be separate,' says the Lord. 'And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you, And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' Says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." Are we God's temple? Are we God's dwelling place? Are we God's house? Is this house from heaven? Are we spiritually naked outside this house?

It is outside this house that the groaning takes place. David said, "Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer. . . . Let me dwell in Thy tent forever." I don't believe that we are spiritually naked today. I believe that we are clothed with God's righteousness. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21) That righteousness is God's dwelling place, his house. This is where our home is.

In this house of God there is an intimacy and a closeness of our relationship with God. Listen again to the words of David in Psalm 61: 4: "Let me dwell in Thy tent forever; Let me take refuge in the shelter of Thy wings." Jesus looked at the home to which David longed to return and said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!" (Matt. 23:37-38). Jesus wanted his people to be safely in God's tent and under his wing; but they chose to remain naked. They did not wish to be clothed with the provisions of God.

David spoke of this closeness to God, this intimacy with God, in the 23^rd Psalm. The shepherd that leads to the green pastures, by the still waters, and through the valley of death, also prepares a table at which one dines in the presence of one's enemies. These enemies of discouragement, disappointment, and depression are overwhelmed by the bountiful feast of love, grace, mercy, forgiveness and the intimate leading of the shepherd.

Then David says, "Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Here we are, completely surrounded by the shepherd in front and goodness and lovingkindness behind, and we are at home in God's house.

In Psalm 61, David goes on to speak of his inheritance and how he would keep his vows that he had made to God. Time will not allow remarks about these, even though they are important.

Are we homesick today? Let us turn our hearts toward God. He has made all the preparations for us to come home. We should be home in his house and under the protection of his wings. Let us turn our hearts toward God.

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