Observation: the psalmist is weary of living in a foreign land, where honesty and peace are not valued.
Application: My heart can't help but go to politics again today: tomorrow, the election will be over, but the dishonesty, the division, the "war" will go on unabated: maybe even intensified. People will continue to spread half-truths and outright lies about the "other side", and treat our civil discourse like a fight to the death. As a person of faith, I feel those words, "Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace; I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war." To be totally honest, to be a person of faith, and a "person of peace" today, one increasingly may have to feel like a foreigner in our culture. But rather than roll back the clock (which is impossible anyway), my suggestion is, Okay, then let's be foreigners again. For "our citizenship is in heaven," and so our ways may be foreign to most. But let's own it. Let's be people of honesty, of reconciliation, of peace.
Prayer: God, you have given us the desire to be your people. Now give us the nerve. Amen.
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