Weds 1st February - Psalm 84
Psalm 84
1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
Lord Almighty!
2 My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.
3 Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you.c]">[c]
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.d]">[d]
7 They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.
8 Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty;
listen to me, God of Jacob.
9 Look on our shield,e]">[e] O God;
look with favor on your anointed one.
10 Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.
12 Lord Almighty,
blessed is the one who trusts in you.
- - -
Here is a psalm about the ‘house of the LORD’
In today’s language, this would be ‘the church’.
Within the title there is reference to ‘the sons of Korah.’ This refers to the Levitical choir to which the descendants of Korah belong. They were appointed by David to serve in the temple liturgy. The Korahites represented the Levitical family of Kohath, the son of Levi. There were a number of choirs that David set up – the choir of the Gershonites, led by Asaph and the choir of the Merarites, led by Jeduthun. These are recorded in 1 Chronicles 6:31-47.
The focus of this psalm is the worship of God in the house of God. Bring this up to today and his psalm speaks of the purpose of the church being the worship of God.
Come back to Psalm 42 and read about the longing of the psalmist to be in the presence of God.
‘My soul pants for you, my God.’
‘My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.’
And he reminds us of his long-standing commitment – ‘how I used to go to the house of God, under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise.’
Now, here in Psalm 84 we have the psalmist describing the house of God, the courts of the LORD and his longing for the presence of the living God.
There is a hint of jealousy as the psalmist thinks about the sparrow who has found a home and the swallow who has found a nesting place ‘near your altar’. These birds have unhindered access to the temple and the altar.
This reminds me of the peregrine falcons who have a nest on the spire of Chichester Cathedral.
The psalmist talks about the pilgrims who travel long distances to be in the house of the LORD.
They pass through the ‘Valley of Baka’. ‘Baka’ means either ‘weeping’ or ‘balsam trees’ which were common in the valleys. Some of the pilgrim routes to the temple were dry but were turned into ‘a place of springs’. And the pilgrims gathered strength as they journeyed on to the temple. The pilgrim journey may have been long and hard but the God who had journeyed with them was there in Zion to greet them and bless them.
The psalmist includes a prayer, recognising who he is praying to…
‘LORD God Almighty’
‘God of Jacob’. This is a synonym for Israel. Read Genesis 32:28 where the man who wrestled with him says, “your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” According to biblical scholars, the name Isarel means ‘he struggles with God.’ We know from the Genesis stories that is what happened in the many struggles they had.
His prayer is for ‘our shield’ – ‘our sovereign’.
His prayer is for ‘our anointed one.’
There is safety and security in a strong and committed leader who is leading the people to the temple.
Michael Wilcock has a lovely sentence around these verses. He writes: ‘Better standing room only in this theatre than a seat in the stalls at that one!’
The psalmist reminds us again of who God is – ‘a sun and a shield’ and He ‘bestows favour and honour’ and no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.’ Refer to Genesis 17:1 where the LORD said to Abraham, walk before me faithfully and be blameless.’
The focus of this psalm is for those of us who trust in the LORD to respond in serving Him so that others will be drawn to Him.
Quoting Michael Wilcock again, he summarises this psalm in a way that is a challenge and an encouragement to us. He divides the psalm into three stanzas.
Stanza 1: ’in love with the house of the LORD. He is totally taken up with it…He loves the house because of the one whose house it is.’
Stanza 2: ‘En route the pilgrims do not have an easy journey but God gives strength to the feeble, refreshment to the thirsty, blessings (pools) on the way and the promise of meeting Him at the end.’
Stanza 3: ‘at home in the house, they find every imaginable good.’
The psalmist includes a prayer, recognising who he is praying to…
‘LORD God Almighty’
‘God of Jacob’. This is a synonym for Israel. Read Genesis 32:28 where the man who wrestled with him says, “your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” According to biblical scholars, the name Isarel means ‘he struggles with God.’ Referring to Psalm 42 again, the psalmist is sad because he cannot get to the temple, to the place of worship.
In Psalm 84, as we have seen above, the psalmist longs to be in the temple, in the place of worship.
I came across an anonymous poem which said:
Some go to church to see and be seen to, Some go there to say they have been, Some go there to sleep and to nod, But few go there to worship God.’
That’s a challenge for each of us, especially since the pandemic.
We need to remember that being in church is not the only place where we worship God. As John Stott says, ‘worship is corporate – i.e. as a church, as a community of the people of God, as members of God’s family.’ Our worship of God leads us to be involved in the service for God which also takes us out into our communities.
There are two main words for worship - ‘bowing down’ and ‘serving’.
As the chorus says, ’Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, Here I am to say that you’re my God. You’re altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me.’
Our primary focus is that worship in church is for God.
The church is for Christians – to be together in unity, for encouragement, for serving, for prayer, for strengthening, for the exercise of gifts – all of which are for the glory of God.
The church is also for non-Christians to hear the good news of salvation and to come into the family of God; to join fellow pilgrims on their journey to the promised land, having that assurance that they belong to Jesus.
Lord, give me a passion for your Church.
New International Version - UK (NIVUK)
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash