This World Is Not My Home

A pilgrim's confession opens this old gospel standard, as sung by Merle Haggard: "This world is not my home, I'm just a-passin' through." The treasures are "laid up somewhere beyond the blue," and the refrain keeps returning to the angels who "beckon me from heaven's open door" and the admission "I can't feel at home in this world anymore."

The second verse turns to prayer, with a worry stated plainly: "Oh Lord, you know I have no friend like you / if heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do?" The third gives the reason for confidence. "They're all expecting me," he says, and "my Savior pardoned me and now I onward go," trusting that "He'll take me through though I am weak and poor."

The last verse pictures the destination: "over in glory land we'll live eternally," where "the saints on every hand are shouting victory" and songs of praise "drift back from heaven's shore." Hebrews 11:13-16 describes people who see themselves as strangers longing for a better country, Matthew 6:20 speaks of treasure in heaven, Philippians 3:20 names heaven as citizenship, and John 14:2 mentions the prepared place.