In the days before screens told our culture its stories, the spoken word was the teller’s tool. Radio stations featured hour-long programs; families gathered in the living room to listen to an old familiar voice and be lulled to sleep by their soothing, lyrical tales. Paul Harvey was a beloved member of the radio storyteller generation, concluding his monologues with the dramatic sign off: “And now you know . . . the rest . . . of the story.” A tale told from beginning to end, a clear resolution, and a warm goodbye—these were the necessary parts of Harvey’s talks; indeed, they were the necessary parts of most good stories in those days, and they were good days. To tell a tale whose ending is not known is to unnerve or agitate, which is why so many ghost stories are told around a fire in the woods. What, then, do we do when an inspired author of Scripture leaves the final chapter of a story unclear or seemingly unfinished?

Faith in Exile: Psalm 119 and the Christian Life, the latest work of Dr. David VanDrunen, addresses precisely this tension that new covenant Christians feel, living as both citizens of the new heavens and new earth yet sojourners and exiles in this world. As a collection of sermons, the work seeks to help readers understand their reality as both abiding within the flock of the Lord yet wandering in the wilderness of a foreign land filled with trials and afflictions. Rather than monolithically seeking a concrete answer to why God sees fit to govern his creation as he does, VanDrunen’s teaching through the long psalm shows the Christian that while it is not ours to know the mind of the Lord, we can see his purposes evident in our sojourning, and it is the calling of all Christians to cling to his promise that the end of the story is already written.

The book follows the natural flow of Psalm 119 and, as such, commences not with a central controlling thesis statement but by showing the reader the single governing concept of the psalm: the law of God. The law, in the mind of the anonymous writer, is not simply reduced to those texts traditionally identified as law (e.g., the Ten Commandments) but includes the breadth of the Pentateuch— its commandments, promises, and stories of God’s faithfulness. It is the word of God that captures the thoughts, emotions, and affections of the psalmist and demands total and absolute obedience from the heart. Blessedness awaits those who would devote themselves to lawfulness and, indeed, to the Lord toward whom the law directs us. Looking inwardly, the psalmist sees dissonance almost immediately: However mightily he may try, however his heart may yearn for the precepts of the Lord, total obedience is beyond his grasp and judgment awaits him.

This dilemma in mind, the book then illustrates that the temporal judgment the psalmist fears is the reality of his present circumstance. The progression is striking: Disobedience means being cast out of the land of promise from the presence of the Lord; and, as a sinner, the psalmist thus finds himself far from home. New covenant Christians see in this psalm a reflection of themselves. We are not exiled from Canaan and conquered by a foreign power, but we are far from home nonetheless. VanDrunen steadily reminds the reader that though exile may be the lot of all men because of their sin, God’s people will not be called sojourners forever. The psalmist did not have the advantage of seeing the Messiah born of a virgin or the fruition of the many future promises in the Pentateuch; he saw through a glass darkly, as it were, but he did see. He knew that “God is not a man . . . that he should change his mind” (Num 23:19), and so with faith, this child of God held fast to the one who promises restoration.

Therefore, despite the often dark tones of abandonment in the psalm, VanDrunen helps us to see that it was this clinging to God’s law that strengthened the psalmist’s weak knees and caused him to lift his arms in praise. In fact, he argues, it is not in spite of his circumstances but because of them that Psalm 119 is so often full of heartfelt worship. The stripping away of temporal blessings is a severe mercy, for the pains that afflict the believer cause him to see his own neediness and look in faith to Christ in eager expectation of the day when we will take leave of this earth, which is passing away. This truth is illustrated as we hear the psalmist increasingly plead for confirmation of the promises of the Lord rather than for relief from his temporal afflictions.

The book then traces the uneasy shifting from great encouragement and deep sorrow that the psalm illustrates, in which new covenant Christians see their own emotional story. When the sun sets and darkness lays heavy on us, joy and peace flee, fear and doubt seize us, and we are tempted to imagine that the Lord has forgotten his word. As children require one more hug before bedtime—and yet another and another—Christians need to hear God’s promises over and over again, to hear the story of our redemption yet another time, not because God may forget but because we will. The psalmist rehearses God’s promises in the night of his soul, praying and meditating on what the Lord has said, that his soul may be as a weaned child within him (Ps 131:2).

VanDrunen returns to the theme of affliction in the fifth chapter, covering verses 65–72, which he concludes are the key to the whole. The answer to the question of suffering is here at least cornered, though perfect resolution may yet elude us. Ultimately, the work argues that the afflictions God’s people endure serve their ultimate good. This is why in the teth¹ stanza, the word tov begins five of the eight verses: Truly goodness is in the purview of affliction. Rather than being given over to sin and allowed to continue wandering from God, the believer is afflicted out of the love of God designed to bring him to repentance. Here VanDrunen’s thought is most insightful, as he demonstrates that the portion of providence we are given to see reveals a loving restorative purpose to the trials that besiege us. He goes further still, suggesting that without the affliction, he never could have perceived the goodness of the law of God. Calvin, it seems, began his Institutes with this reality in mind.² But is it simply because of the mercy promised to miserable sinners therein that the word of the Lord is so good?

Among the chief reasons VanDrunen illustrates for the goodness of the word is its fixed nature. The book makes this a high point of argument, for what value would a word bear, however good, if it were mutable or temporary? As the psalmist recognizes, the word of the Lord is even more secure than the celestial bodies, surer than the created order itself, for it is the word of the Lord that gave these birth. It is this attribute of God’s word the believer is called to rest in when our sins overwhelm us and our faith is faint, this quality that stands firm when all around our souls give way: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matt 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33).

The book concludes its examination of Psalm 119 with a brief look at the sorts of spiritual fruits that are borne by the believer living faithfully in the midst of exile. Among these, renewed affections, greater dependence on the Lord in prayer, sorrow for sin, and zeal for the law are highlighted. As before, VanDrunen makes the connection between affliction and growth in grace explicit, helping the reader to see that our trials are not meaningless, but by experiencing them, we are being made into the likeness of Christ in increasing measure. What greater blessing could there be than this?

There is no shortage of sorrow in the world. We read news headlines every day that shock the conscience; it is clear that things are not the way they should be. But there will come a day when the wicked will be held to account, when the salvation of God’s people will no longer be an already and not yet. This does not mean that our afflictions are light, that we should not weep over evil in the world and in our own lives. What it does mean is that this is not the rest of the story.

VanDrunen sketches the broad scheme of the psalm in the final chapter, where he writes that from the outset, the psalm teaches us that we Christians are every bit as guilty of disobeying the law as any nonbeliever. This is why the psalmist initially expresses anxiety at being cast off, forsaken. And in the midst of his temporal exile, he realizes that he is being afflicted mercifully, so that he may return. He is then given the gift of repentance, to his joy and the delight of his fellow sojourners, but still, he remains an exile. He experiences vast swings in emotion, vacillating between delight in the law and lament over his inability to keep it. Indeed, the psalm ends on a somber note, a reminder that he is still a sojourner; he is not home. This is the steady drumbeat of Psalm 119, hence the title of VanDrunen’s work.

The psalmist knew the story was not over, that God would act for his people. What he did not know was how Dr. VanDrunen’s conversion of sermons into a book serves the purpose of repeating this redemptive message chapter after chapter. We may yet be exiled and awaiting arrival into glory, but we are citizens of a better country, and our flights have been booked. What the psalmist pleaded with God to do, God has done, acting for our redemption in Christ, who obeyed God’s law wholly in our place. This beautiful gospel saturates the pages of Faith in Exile. It fills us with life as we seek to imitate Christ in obedience, it brings us joy as we are molded into the image of our Savior, and it covers us in hope in the time of our sojourning.

Notes

1. Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem; that is, each of its twenty-two stanzas corresponds with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Thus, in the first stanza, every verse begins with aleph, the second stanza’s verses begin with beth, and so on.
2. Calvin, Institutes,  1.1. “In particular, the miserable ruin into which the revolt of the first man has plunged us, compels us to turn our eyes upwards; not only that while hungry and famishing we may thence ask what we want, but being aroused by fear may learn humility.” 

©Seth Adams. All Rights Reserved.

David VanDrunen, Faith in Exile: Psalm 119 and the Christian Life (Christian Focus, 2025).

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Post authored by:

• Seth Adams

  

  Seth Adams is a graduate of Westminster Seminary California, an honorably discharged naval officer, and now, the Associate Campus Minister of Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. His wife and three young children enjoy sanctifying one another, cheering when we all sit still during family worship, and looking for pheasants along the road during car rides.

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