Psalm 84
Aching for Home
Today I am writing this devotional with a heavy heart. Yesterday at Abundant Life Christian School in Wisconsin, USA, a 15 year old girl shot dead a fellow student and a teacher before turning the weapon on herself. It was children in the second grade, so ages 7-8, who rang for the police. The shadows of this will weigh greatly on that community for a long time.
In moments like this we ache to be in our true and everlasting home, where sin is cast out, its consequences are healed and God lives with us in harmony and peace.
This Psalm is a prayer of yearning for that day when our Heavenly Father welcomes us home with arms wide open.
For the director of music. According to gittith. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.
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.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.
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, O God;
look with favour 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 favour and honour;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose way of life is blameless.12 LORD Almighty,
blessed is the one who trusts in you.
Nothing surpasses the loveliness of God’s house (1). In Revelation 21, John writes of a heavenly city made of finest gold, walls formed from the purest jasper, gates fashioned with the finest pearls, all built on the foundations of the richest jewels. Yet none of it compares to the splendour of the One who dwells there. No sun or moon is necessary, for the light of God’s presence radiates throughout. All the luminous colour and glory of the eternal city are because the Lord God Almighty resides there.
And so in this Psalm, we join with the Sons of Korah in yearning to be where God is and crying out with all our being for him to draw us into his presence (2). In a world pockmarked by evil, in our bodies wounded by sin’s claws, we cry out for something better. We see how sparrows and swallows have found a home and so we long to rest like them where our God and King is, for what is where true happiness is found (3-4).
As Christians, we are pilgrims taking the straight and narrow path that Jesus has charted for us. True blessing is on that way because it is the way Jesus went. He endured the shame of the cross, knowing there was unstained joy beyond it. These pilgrims walk through the Valley of Baka, which was probably dry and arid. But the blessing is knowing we are being led through it to a place of abundance, to springs of living water (5-7). The world as it is now, scarred by sin, is not our final home. It is just a pit stop before somewhere better than we can ever imagine.
Therefore we pray to God to keep us on the way to our true home (8). The Sons of Torah ask God “look with favour on your anointed one” (9). The ‘anointed one’ is God’s King, his Messiah. They pray for him to have favour, because where he goes, his people will end up. Those who stayed with David in the wilderness were ultimately led by him into the security of Jerusalem (1 Samuel 22.23). Those of us who bind ourselves to Jesus by faith will be led through the wilderness of the world as it is and into the joys of the world as it will be.
The Psalm closes with us considering why we want to walk this pilgrim path (10-12). While the tents of the wicked might promise much, ultimately they do not compare with the glories of the house of God. The commercial hype of this season will give us a sugar high but it will not sustain us in the shadows that weigh heavily. We need a concrete hope that will shine in the darkness and draw us towards the one who is pure light himself.
Therefore, we say one day in the courts of God is superior to a thousand elsewhere. And we are being invited to take up permanent residence with God, so why would we waste time elsewhere?
Therefore, we say being at the door, on the periphery of the house of God, is far superior than being right in the heart of the tents of the wicked. And we are being invited into the centre of the temple, so would we bother with anywhere else?
Anything we might get in the world is fleeting and dangerous to our souls. But God is our radiance in the dark, our defence in danger, and the one who will lavish his goodness on his people without measure!
Therefore, let’s turn away from the empty idols of the world and to the living and true God!
Glory be to God the Father, who is our sun and our shield.
Glory be to God the Son, the anointed one in whom we are lavishly blessed.
Glory be to God the Spirit, who guides us into everlasting joy.
Ever three and ever One.
A wee reminder that Home Groups have finished for the year. But our annual Community Carols are this Friday at 7PM in the Playhouse. We’d love to see you there!
