Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, one of the biggest, perhaps one of the most important things in our earthly life, at least, is that all of us need a home. We need a home. Our home is our sanctuary. It's at home that we can be ourself. Our home is the place where our roots are at. And we have a saying, home is where the heart is. When it comes to our home, we're dealing, of course, much more with the broader sense of things than just a house. Home is about memory. Home is about belonging. Home is about safety. It's a safe place where we can let our guard down. Home should be a safe place because we seek to protect it. probably with our life if we have to. Home is where we find security. And we also take, of course, great offense when somebody breaks into our home. There's this huge sense of violation when that kind of thing happens. Now, not only is home a safe place, but it's also a very dangerous place. Home is where many of our sins happen. Also at home is where people can get hurt. Some people even die at home. And if we are away from home for a very long time, we can get homesick because, after all, we long for home. We're created for home. Home is really part of our DNA, part of our makeup. We need it. We want it. And yet, we also know that our home is never completely permanent. Even if we live in only one place for a very long time, we know that we can't stay there permanently, because someday, you and I, we will all leave our home, even if it is in a box or a hearse. Basically, there's really only one place that deserves the name home, and that's the home of God, the eternal home with the Father. And that's where Psalm 84 wants us to look. And so that's what we're going to do this morning, looking to our permanent, our real home with God. It is the place that we ought to long for with all our heart. Now, most of us have had a time when we have wanted something very, very badly. As a kid, maybe you remember your birthday. You remember Christmas, perhaps. And you'll remember, or if you are a child, then you know this as well, we counted down the days. So many sleeps to go. We could already wait. And then as we get older, perhaps that excitement drops a little bit, but there can still be those moments, can't there? Where we look forward to something. It preoccupies our mind. Maybe we can't sleep because we're that excited about it. So you know the feeling. It's that yearning for time to hurry up because we want something so very bad that we could almost taste it. And that's the mindset of the psalmist when it comes to the house of God. In the Old Testament, of course, the house of God, first of all, was the tabernacle. The people traveled with that in the wilderness for a time in the new country that they came to. It was the place of home, the house of God. And then when Solomon came on the scene, he built God a temple in Jerusalem. It was the place where every Jewish male was supposed to go three times a year. And they would go there to celebrate. They would go there to worship. They would go there to feast, amongst other things. important times of the year and times to look forward to, to go to the house where God dwelt with his people. And it was a beautiful place. Many things in there were made of pure gold or they were covered with it. It was amazing craftsmanship. And as beautiful as it all was there, that wasn't even the main reason for the the psalm singer here, to want to be there. He's not talking about the beauty of the temple. He wants to be there. Why? To cry out to the living God. And do that with his whole being. From deep within himself, there is this longing to the point of him almost fainting. Just to be in that place where he can be near to God. to come into his presence, to be lifted up to him. Think of it like a small child, a toddler, who goes up to his or her dad, and the arms are up, they can't even talk, but the only thing they want right now is for dad to pick them up, to lift them up, to be in his arms. Now they're in the protective care of dad, And when people are in the temple, God raises them up to himself. They're elevated into his presence. They would worship there. They would praise God there. They would hear his word proclaimed in some fashion or another. And they would also see that solemn moment where blood was spilled, blood shed for sin. Very sobering experience. Also a comforting moment, drawing near to God, something a true believer would look forward to with great expectation and with longing. Maybe we can relate to that somewhat, perhaps remembering a time in our life when we had a significant spiritual experience, something that stands out. a time where we felt so close to God, our soul was uplifted in such a way that perhaps we hadn't experienced before, or at least not very often. Perhaps it was a church service, stirring our heart, or maybe we experienced something when we did profession of faith, or you were there when somebody else did profession of faith, and it was a very special moment, and it gave that feeling of such closeness with God, And then it fades away over time. And we wonder to ourselves, how can I get that feeling back? It was so wonderful. If only I could always feel like that. If only I could feel that close to God all the time. Now maybe you get a sense for how this psalmist is learning, yearning, he's pining for that place with God where all is well with my soul. It is well. He says in verse 3, even the sparrow has found a home and a swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young. It seems that birds would nest in the walls of the temple, they would have their little homes there, very close, you could say on top of all that worship going on, right there, with all that activity going on, being there all the time, living there, their home. And they are there to be envied for that privilege. Now think about that, birds like that were insignificant. They're just part of the landscape. Just think about it yourself. How many of you saw any birds out there this morning? They're out there. Did we notice? Insignificant, right? To us, not very important. Jesus asks the question about those kinds of burdens. In Luke chapter 12, he says, are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. See, those little birds were being blessed by God to be nesting in the walls of Zion, the temple of God. Just insignificant birds. And you and I, well, we're insignificant and worthless too because of our sin. And he gives us still that special privilege that we may come and we may be under his shelter, under his roof, in his home. such a special status, to be kept safe and secure by His grace and His mercy. How much more valuable are we to God than a few little birds, a sparrow, a swallow? You see, if you think that you're despised or perhaps forgotten or you feel forsaken, just remember that A small little bird can find a home in God's house. And how much more is there space for you? Jesus says, whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. One commentator on this verse explains it like this. Those sparrows, they're not worth very much, only pennies. Can we say really? Worthless, worthless. And those swallows, well, they're always flitting around, here, there, everywhere, all over the place, constantly flying, restless. You have the worthless, you have the restless. And they have a place with God. Isn't that marvelous? And something else to notice about these birds, they didn't just get there by accident. They found a house there. That means they looked for a place to nest. That's what birds do. Sometimes you have to wonder, don't you? How did those birds find that place for their nest? And you see some swallows and they're nesting up on top of a light somewhere. That's not good for them. Or under a sun deck. Well, they looked, they searched long and hard and they found a spot and then they worked and they worked and they worked as long as it took to build their little home there. It didn't just happen by itself. And similarly, we need to be doing the same thing. See, people don't find salvation if they don't look for it. Jesus says, seek and you will find. It doesn't happen without there being some work that is connected to that yearning. Yes, you will discover afterwards that God was leading you the whole time, but that must never stop you from looking, from seeking. Somebody once told me a while back, he said, I want my life to change. I want some of what you Christians have. I need a God who loves me and whom I can love. Well, you can pine away day and night, but if you don't do something, nothing will happen. People all the time tell themselves they want God, and then they still don't show up in church, or hardly ever. So how does that work? It doesn't work. There's never been a person who sincerely sought after Jesus who did not find him. Seek, look, act on that God-given hunger, and it will drive you to Jesus, to the Lord. And you will find him, or maybe more properly put, he will find you and you will be blessed because you'll discover that the Holy Spirit was leading you all along, all along. The psalmist in verse five calls it a pilgrimage, a journey. As people travel that road of life, as they depend on the Lord for the strength that they receive, they get it as they go along. And it for sure will not be their strength that does the trick. Because Paul says, doesn't he, when I am weak, then I am strong. And the power of God is made perfect in weakness. In other words, the weak will make it, but the strong won't make it, which is the opposite of how we think. Instead of depending on our own power, we need to be depending on God's power. And that's so very, very hard for us to do because we want so badly to be independent. We want to have some hand in our own destiny. We want to have something to show for our own effort. And we need to learn how great a blessing it is to rely completely on God. And then when we do, then so many things of this life that were bothering us before, oppressing us perhaps even, the things that were driving us away from Him, those things, they disappear. And our journey becomes more manageable. It becomes, in fact, more beautiful. And the psalmist uses the valley of baka, the valley of weeping, to make that point. The valley, the low point, will become a place of blessing, a place of growth. Like Psalm 23 says too, and we have those words memorized, don't we? Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. See, the trials of life become blessings in ways that we can't even imagine. The valleys of life, the hardships, the times when we thought we wouldn't make it. These times become good things as God walks with us and as he teaches us. And I ask you, where would you rather be? In a valley with God? or at some other amazing place on earth without him. I know people, you do too, I'm sure, who have had some terrible experiences in their life, perhaps you have. Horrible things. For a long time, they couldn't understand why it had been happening to them. They're asking all the time, how could it be that God would even allow for such terrible things to happen? Sometimes they think terrible things about God because of it. And yet many years later, after many years of walking with God, processing the hurt, the pain, many of them are able to say, I couldn't see it for a long time, but now I'm beginning to see, I know God is good. And now I see that it is good that that and that happened way back when. And so many other good things have happened since because of it. Things that otherwise never would have happened. and God has walked with me, and he saw my pain, and he saw my tears, and through all of that, he's been teaching me, and he's been blessing me and my family in ways that I never would have had otherwise, except that terrible thing that happened. And it's good, it's good. God is good. See, such a person lives from strength to strength. Living with God, teaching them, molding them, giving them fresh strength for today. Strength as they need it for the going up to God's holy hill. Dealing with the trials of life as they come, difficult as they are. We're not minimizing any of that. Difficult as they are, but still looking to God and finding in Him everything that they need, moment by moment, to go on in joy and in grace, going from strength to strength or from victory to victory. And the saints of God, they learn this through the trials of life. Throughout, they keep on depending on their God, and they communicate with Him They lift their prayers to him. And we do that, don't we? We already have, we will again, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we look for him here in the psalm, we see him shining through in this particular psalm. Verse nine, verse nine. Verse nine asks for God to look with favor on your anointed one. Look with favor on your anointed one. Now, the original Hebrew there uses the word your Messiah. Literally, it actually says, look on your Messiah. The psalm is prophetically pointing forward to the anointed one, the one who is promised, the one who's not there yet when this is written. We know who he is, Jesus. And he quotes the prophet Isaiah in this context in Luke 4. He says this, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. See, Jesus claims that anointing. And we know he was anointed at his baptism at the Jordan, wasn't he? When the Holy Spirit descended on him as like a dove. And as the New Testament Christians today, we know that we now, we ourselves, we share in that anointing of the Messiah. By faith, you and I, we are members of Christ. We're called Christians for exactly that reason. That's what it means. Anointed. We share in that anointed, prophet, priest, king, Lord's Day 12. Even though we know our lives are stained with sin, and we know that we don't have any righteousness, we can only be given that righteousness to us from Christ. And isn't it often that we forget that? We forget that God is good to us. We forget that he hears us. All because, all because he looks on his anointed one. He's not good to us. He's not good to you. He's not good to me because of anything we did. There's no merit. Oh, I have to be good to them. They did something wonderful. There's no worthiness. There's no deserving. But the psalmist knows here that he needs an intercessor, he needs a mediator, he needs the anointed one, just like we do. And then sometime a thousand years later, after this is written, a long, long time, the anointed one Jesus Christ comes, the Messiah. From verse nine, he arrives. And instead of looking at him, There's going to come that, and there was that historic moment, that one moment in time when God would not look at him. And the whole world was plunged into darkness. And God turned his face away from his anointed one. Why? So that he would turn his face to us. that terrible and wonderful event where blood was spilled once and for all so that you and I, we could become shareholders, partakers in that anointing. And now we are able to live lives of thankfulness and praise. And for that kind of people, for this kinds of people, the sincere, the true Christian, one day in the house of the Lord is better than a thousand out there, anywhere else. Even if it is doing something trivial, like holding open the door, doing that is still better than being anywhere else. Because that's how we live out our lives of gratitude, our sharing in that anointing. We give out a life of service to the King. I ask you, can we say that that's what we seek and that's what we live for and that's what we do because we mean it? Or are we actually so busy with the other thousand days out there in the world that we really have very little time? Very little time for that one day of service to God. And for some people, it seems that way. They stay away from their spiritual home. They're not interested in drawing near to him, coming into his presence like we are doing right now. being lifted up to the Almighty King, Almighty God, and they have all kinds of excuses as to why they should stay away. Stay away from his church, stay away from his people, so they can be out there doing whatever it is they want to do. So busy with everything else, and they shut out Almighty God, and maybe on the odd occasion, they'll give him a token or two once in a while. But the psalmist puts a higher value on one day in service to God than a thousand days out there. One day with a humble, nothing, I'm a nobody kind of task. It's better than a thousand days of doing who knows what out there. Lord, leave me at the door of your home. Let me be counted with your people. It's better than being anywhere else. And yet there isn't a true that so many of us, we still want it some other way. Wouldn't be the first time we heard somebody say, you have a humble job for me. Well, they wouldn't say it like that, but they would certainly imply it. You have a humble job for me. I don't want it. Give me something important to do. Put me on the board, on the consistory. Give me an office. Let me run something. I have skills, you know, let me use them. But just holding the door? Doing something that nobody would even notice? Being a doorman? A door woman? Well, that's not for me. I have better things to do. And then I ask you, well, then what? What's that better thing? Like spending 1,000 days somewhere else? Hanging out in the tents of wickedness? That's better. How many people of God do you suppose step forward asking if they can be given a low and any kind of job? I love the Lord, let me do something for him. Please use me somewhere for anything. I'm willing, I'm ready. You can check with your church council afterwards. Many church councils rarely meet with those kinds of people. Usually it's not that people will even step forward. They need to be asked. And many people who are asked then are still too busy with their thousand days out there. So I ask you, where is that yearning then? Where is that hunger then? Where is that zeal to be active? The zeal to be in service to the King of King and Lords of Lords? Is there such a thing in your life? Because you see, the Lord watches our walk. He sees what we do. He sees it when holiness is being strived for, and he rewards. He is a sun and shield. He gives light, he gives energy, he gives protection, he blesses, and there is no good thing that he withholds from those whom he protects. So I ask you, do you want good things in life? You might ask, well, what kind of good things are you talking about? Well, how about good things like the gift of knowing that he is God, your Father, Father to us? How about the gift of peace, of heart, comfort? How about the gift of joy and gladness? How about the gift of courage and strength to fight against sin? How about the gift of living in his kingdom? many, many, countless gifts. And they're ours. We yearn for Him, go to Him, serve Him, love Him, and then with Him as your guide, Him in your heart, well then, who is there to fear? And what is there to be afraid of? His light shines on your path, and the darkness, it's turned back. And see, this is the blessed condition of the man, woman, or child who trusts in God. They're anxious for his presence. They look forward with yearning, with longing to be near to God. They go to wherever it can be found. And it's unthinkable for them to even invent excuses to stay away. For the psalmist, it was the temple, the place where God dwelt, to be there. with his people, crying out in praise and in wonder. And today we are here, blessed to be here, gathered with God's people around the world. We may do the same thing. It's here in this place where God reveals himself. This is the workshop of the Holy Spirit. As it were, heaven peels back. and we enter into his presence. It's here where God reveals himself and his word is preached. It's here in this place where God confirms the promises he made. Baptism, last week, Lord's Supper, communion. It's here in this place where real Christians are fed spiritually by the Holy Spirit and his word. And it's here in this place where we are elevated into the very presence of God to be captured by his holiness and his love. and all of it, all of it is a foretaste of something that's still to come, to a time when God's salvation plan is going to be complete, when all the yearning for God's house, it's gonna be over, because His people will always live there. They will be with Him, He with them, home forever. They will be home. That's the call of the gospel, isn't it? Come home. And God's people yearn for it, they long for it, they thirst for it. One of the last, and we close with this, one of the last things in the Bible, one of the last verses says this, Revelation 22. The spirit and the bride say, come. And let him who hears say, come. And whoever is thirsty, let him come. And whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. That's something to yearn for. Let us all be yearning for that. Seek Him, love Him, serve Him with your whole heart. Amen.