How Can We Sing the Lord’s Song in a Foreign Land?

Foreign does not have to pertain to another country. It can just be something unfamiliar.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, it has often felt as though we are living in a foreign land. Things have changed substantially. Our sense of safety has been shaken.

Yet there is one thing that has not changed, and will not change. Emmanuel, our God is with us!  He is, and always will be, “the rock of our salvation”… when we claim that relationship.

In reality, we have always lived in a foreign land. This is a world beset by evil that we seek to tame in the name of Jesus, with His help. It is a world often hostile to those who come in the name of the Lord. Yes, a foreign land. Yet God is sovereign.

Psalm 95, the Venite, proclaims, “O come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the LORD is a great God and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.”

Our song, our joyful noise, comes in our acts of gratitude to our “rock.” As we give of our time, our abilities, and our money, we “enter his courts with thanksgiving.”

Tithing, giving to God’s work the first 10 percent of our income, is the Biblical standard of giving. Consider tithing as your act of faith in response to God’s abiding presence in this foreign land. Consider it as one of the verses you sing in this foreign land.