I’m Home: Reflections on a Beautiful Song

Today we sang a new song, and it was immediately a favourite. In so many ways, I found the lyrics to be an echo of what is in my own heart. So here, I thought I would share my reflections on some of the lyrics.

I’m Home by Shane & Shane is based on Psalm 84.

A. It begins with these words:

How lovely are Your dwelling places…
Oh, how I love to sing Your praises
One day with You would be enough

Psalm 84 puts it like this:

How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God (Psalm 84:1–2).

And isn’t that the heart-cry of every believer? How lovely the place where He is! How wonderful to be with Him. Hymn writers have spoken of the sweet hour of prayer and the wonders of ten thousand times ten thousand years in heaven. What are they referring to? They’re speaking of the unspeakable joy of being in the presence of the One who is the fairest among ten thousand (Song of Solomon 5:10). They are referring to the wonder of time spent with Jesus.

The promise of heaven is that there will be no sin to mar our fellowship and no sin to grieve our lovely Saviour (Revelation 21:4, 27). Instead of walking by faith and seeing through a glass darkly, we shall behold Him face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12), touch Him with our own hands, and embrace Him with our own arms. That’s the promise. That is why we say with Paul, to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).

And yet, there is something else here. We find it in the church; we find it where two or three are gathered in His name (Matthew 18:20); we find it in the prayer closet (Matthew 6:6); we find it on the sickbed (Psalm 41:3); and indeed, because He is with us always (Matthew 28:20), we may find it anywhere at all. What is it? Access to the throne of grace and communion with God (Hebrews 4:16).

I have often thought that one of the greatest wonders of the Christian life is that we can meet with Jesus anywhere. Not only that He is with us, but that wherever we are - whether a field, a warehouse, a school, a hospital, or a prison - we may pause and tell Him our troubles (Psalm 62:8), whisper to Him our love (Song of Solomon 2:16), sing His praises (Psalm 34:1), and ask kisses from His mouth (Song of Solomon 1:2).

And Christian, doesn’t your heart leap within you as you say, “O how I love to sing your praises!?”  Many of us use the word “love” a bit too loosely.  In truth, there are few things I really truly love.  One of them is singing praises to my Saviour.  When I “stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned unclean,” I love to extol Him, to glorify Him, to honour Him, and to love Him in song.

B. The chorus begins as follows:

When I bow down before You
I am richer than all kings

To the non-Christian, these lyrics must seem absurd. But to the ear of the born-again Christian, these words have the echo of the truth of the ages. As I sing them, I don’t just resonate with what I’m saying - my heart overflows.

Think, Christian! When we bow down before Jesus, what is happening? Because of God’s grace - because He first loved me (1 John 4:19) - I am, with heart and soul, acknowledging who He is: my King, my God, my Saviour, my Beloved and my Friend (John 15:15). My posture is one of surrender, humility, awe, and delight. Because here, in this moment, I am at the feet of Jesus - the crown of all my delights, finer than silver and gold (Psalm 19:10), more than all other beloveds, and altogether lovely (Song of Solomon 5:16).

And so, no wonder we can say, “I am richer than all kings.” It doesn’t matter that I’m not actually rich. It doesn’t matter if I’m very poor. It doesn’t matter if I’m sick or weak. What matters is that I have Jesus - and having Him, I am hundreds and thousands of times richer than the richest of kings. In fact, if there were a scale, there would be no way to compare the two. One is finite, imperfect, and fleeting. The other is infinite, perfect, and unending (Matthew 6:19–21; Philippians 3:8). I might say that one is a drop in a bucket while the other is a vast ocean - but the truth is, even one drop of God’s love is vastly greater and more glorious than an entire ocean of the world’s pleasures (Psalm 63:3; Philippians 3:8; 1 John 2:17).

C. And so the chorus continues:

When I stand in Your presence
I am free
When I sit at Your table
I am right where I belong
In the doorway of my Father's house
I'm home

When I first sang those words, I thought of the freedom we have in Christ - freedom from sin, and death, and condemnation. Then I thought of the Lord’s Supper and what it symbolizes - when the minister, in Jesus’ name, shares the bread and the cup, representing His broken body and shed blood, offered freely to each of us (Luke 22:19–20; 1 Corinthians 11:23–26).  But then my mind turned to Psalm 23: “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever (Psalm 23:5–6)."

I remembered that a day is coming when we shall gather at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9). But for now we may sit at His table. For though we are not yet home, we are already citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20), already members of His household (Ephesians 2:19), already part of the family of God. And one day, we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psalm 23:6).

But you see - already we are seated in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). Already the Head is risen (Ephesians 1:20–22). Already we have eternal life (John 5:24). And whenever we break bread together, we do so in the presence of the One who loved us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20). We do so at His invitation, and with His blessing - all as if before His face - for He says, “Lo, I am with you alway (Matthew 28:20)." 

Again, Psalm 84 says, “For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness (Psalm 84:10)."

You see, even a doorkeeper is home. And for those who believe, this is an awesome truth - that whatever our place in the kingdom, whether we are woodcutters and water carriers or kings and queens, we are home. Why? Because we have Christ in us, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

D. The authors continue:

If all this world was for the taking
And every treasure known was mine
Not one of them would ever sway me
I'd choose my Savior every time

And then,

…Wherever I go I’m home.

Isn’t it amazing that God has made us able to say such things - and mean them? What is this, if not a miracle of grace? I know there are some in our churches who couldn’t say or mean such words… but I also know that every born-again believer - young or old, rich or poor, healthy or sick, whatever their ethnicity, culture, or background - can say with heart and soul, “Not one of them - not one of these treasures, not even a world full of treasures - would ever sway me. I’d choose my Saviour every time (Matthew 13:44–46; Psalm 73:25–26)."

Why? Because we have tasted and seen that He is good (Psalm 34:8). He knows us, and we know Him (John 10:14). And our knowledge isn’t merely head knowledge - it is experiential. Yes, we have read of Him and heard of Him… but we have also met with Him. In fact, in our better seasons, we daily sit at His feet (Luke 10:39). By faith, we behold Him and are changed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). And we know - with a knowledge that heaven and earth cannot shake - that He is better. He is sufficient. He is wonderful (Isaiah 9:6).

As William Plumer put it:

“No marvel that the virgins love him, and the saints praise him, and the martyrs die for him, and the confessors are not ashamed of him, and the sorrowing sigh for him, and the penitential lie at his cross and pour out their tears before him, and the humble trust in him, and the believing lay fast hold of him and will not let him go.”

O Christian, He is yours. He gave Himself for you (Galatians 2:20). And nothing - nothing - can separate you from His love (Romans 8:38–39). And so you may sing with full assurance, “Wherever I go, I’m home.”

I just want to testify that the Lord has been so good to me.  When I look back, I see a life written over with God’s love and stamped with His faithfulness.  He has always been there. He has always been good.  And His way is better.  Whatever comes, I choose my Saviour every time.

Let us thank Him. Let us praise Him. Let us adore Him. Let us speak of Him. And let us, by our lives and our witness, get Him His reward.