“This World Is Not My Home” is a Southern gospel song with roots in the older revival-and-quartet tradition. The standard version is generally credited to Albert E. Brumley, the prolific Oklahoma-born gospel songwriter responsible for “I’ll Fly Away,” “Turn Your Radio On,” and a long catalogue of mid-20th-century gospel standards. Brumley’s version dates to the 1930s, though the underlying lyric draws on older sentiments common to revival-era hymnody.
The lyric works the central conviction that the singer is a stranger in this world, just passing through, with the heavenly home as the true destination. The conceit places the song in the broader heaven-bound family alongside “In the Sweet By and By” and “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.” The harmonic shape is open and three-chord, the tempo sits in the moderate-up range, and the song works comfortably as a quartet feature.
A notable recording is Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys’ 1964 reading. Jim McReynolds’s high baritone lead, Jesse’s signature crosspicked mandolin, and the Virginia Boys’ tight backing turn the song into a brisk gospel-quartet piece. It works as an up-tempo vocal feature with a strong four-part harmony slot on the chorus refrain. It remains a frequent call in traditional bluegrass gospel sets.
