You can turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 84. Psalm 84. If you're looking in the Pew Bibles, it's found on page 916. We'll read this Psalm in its entirety, and then we will consider it together. Psalm 84, this is God's word. To the chief musician on an instrument of gath, a psalm of the sons of Korah. How lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even your altars, O Lord God of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house. They will still be praising you, Selah. Blessed is the man whose strength is in you, whose heart is set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the valley of Baka, they make it a spring. The rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength. Each one appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob, Selah. O God, behold our shield, and look upon the face of your anointed. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in you. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever. Well, as you know, it's the first Lord's Day of the month and we're returning to our pattern of a new Psalm for the month. We're taking a break from the book of Genesis today to consider this new Psalm 84. And I think it's especially good for us, seeing that we believe so strongly in singing the Psalms, to preach from them from time to time anyways, in order to better understand what it is we are singing, and to better value the Psalms that we get to sing. And to help us to understand even the kind of songs that God would have us sing unto Him. Psalm 84 is a wonderful Psalm. It's a very powerful psalm, a psalm that really does focus our attention on the worship of God. In our Christian culture today, we definitely have those particular songs, whether sung in church or heard on Christian radio, that we would call or that we consider worship songs. And I trust you know what I'm talking about. We hear it being sung and we would say that that is a worship song. Well, I believe that Psalm 84 has much of that kind of flavor. It is definitely a worship song. It is the kind of song that we, more naturally, would want to sing in worship of our God. It is a song that it would be good for us to know well. to memorize, to hide in our hearts, a psalm that should be used, that should be employed to inform our minds and to shape our emotions as we come before the Lord in worship. It's a psalm that sets before us a very intense longing for God himself. And just think about the first couple of verses. How lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out, cry out for the living God. How powerful. are those words. How many of our modern worship songs get that intense? How much of our modern hymnody cries out to God with such zeal and passion and ardency? Something else that is unique about this psalm is that from beginning to end, it is a psalm that has no imprecations in it. Now, congregation, I know we should love imprecations in the Psalms, but sometimes we're put off by them a little bit, and we think to ourselves, well, I'm enjoying worshiping God, and now all of a sudden I need to curse the enemies of God. And that's good, and that's appropriate. But this is a Psalm that doesn't mention anything about God cursing his enemies. In fact, the word enemy is not ever used, nor God's enemies in view at all. It does mention the tense of wickedness, but it is not a psalm that implores God's judgment and wrath upon the wicked. And that's actually a rare thing to see in the Psalter. Most of the 150 psalms have imprecations in them. But be that as it may, this psalm does not. And if you want a psalm that focuses on worshiping God without imprecations in it, then this is a psalm for you to sing and for you to remember. Now before we get into the content of this psalm, let's say a word about the authorship of it, or at least the superscription that comes before it. The inspired superscription at the beginning of the psalm says, which indicates that it was intended for the public worship of God. And that's what sets the Psalter apart and unique, even from the other songs we have in Scripture, is that there's that sense we have given at the beginning of them, many of them, which sets it apart as it's a use, its use is for the public worship of God. It's the manual of praise. Then it says on the instrument of Gath, In Hebrew, it is literally gitteth. And that word could either refer to a Gittite harp, a style of harp that was made for the worship of God, most likely by David, but in that old covenant era when instruments were to be employed. Or it could refer to a Gittite tune or style of music. And it's most likely related to the city of Gath, which was a Philistine city. But one thing that's worth noting about this is that I think what we're being taught here is that the tune, where the tune comes from, is not as important as the words that we sing. The focus when we're singing the Psalms is not the tune. We want to find tunes that seem to be appropriate for the words. But the tune is not inspired. Many times throughout history, in the early church and in biblical times, the songs were chanted and they did not have tunes like we have. But just because we borrow tunes, even from the world, is irrelevant when compared to the content of the songs that we sing. But then it says next, a psalm of the sons of Korah. It could also be translated by the sons of Korah or for the sons of Korah. And so this could mean that one of the sons of Korah wrote this psalm, which is a likely possibility. Or it could also mean that someone else besides the sons of Korah wrote it. but it was written with the sons of Korah in mind, and it was written for them. And that makes sense because they were of the tribe of Levi, and as such were at least partly in charge of the public worship of God at the tabernacle and at the temple. Having read and studied a fair amount about this. It's my opinion that I think it's most likely that it was either written by one of the sons of Korah or that David wrote this psalm. Many commentators are of that opinion, with perhaps the greater majority thinking that this psalm was written by David. But I want you to understand that there was a close association with David and the sons of Korah. We see that in various places in scripture. One of those is in 1 Chronicles 12, we are told that five men of the Korahites joined David in Ziklag when he was on the run from Saul. And so there we see already an association with the sons of Korah and David. And then later, after David is installed as king, we see a close association again between David and the sons of Korah at the tabernacle, where David actually stations the Korahites and assigns to them their role in the tabernacle, no doubt under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. But the reason that all of this is so significant and worth mentioning is that we actually see how the role of the sons of Korah in the public worship of God at the tabernacle aids our understanding and enhances the meaning of the psalm as we go through it. Let me just briefly remind you about the sons of Korah. We read earlier in the service about Korah and his rebellion against God in the wilderness, number 16, well, he was obviously the father of the sons of Korah. And though he was of the tribe of Levi and was blessed and gifted with the privilege of serving God at the tabernacle, as were all the Levites in assisting the priests, yet he rebelled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And he and those in company with him were swallowed up by the earth. But Numbers 26 verse 11 states that though Korah and his company died, yet nevertheless, it says, the sons of Korah did not die. And that's a difference between what we read about Dathan and Abiram. It says that Dathan and Abiram and their children were with them. But it doesn't say that. of Korah, and it says that the sons did not die with their father. They were preserved. And you get this sense in scripture that the sons of Korah always appreciated the fact that they were not cut off with their father. These sons became a godly group of men who gratefully, gladly, and willingly served and worshiped God at the tabernacle and in the temple. 11 of the 150 Psalms are attributed to the sons of Korah, or associated with the sons of Korah, and our psalm today is one of them. But what is interesting is that one of the primary roles of the sons of Korah was that they were gatekeepers of the tabernacle and the temple. They were door holders, as it were. They were, in many ways, kind of like our modern day ushers. They assisted in other ways as well, but they were the ones who actually opened the doors, so to speak, of the tabernacle and temple in the morning, and they helped to get things ready for the public worship of God. Listen to what it says about the sons of Korah in 1 Chronicles 9. I'm just going to read parts of verse 19 and following. This is what it says. 1 Chronicles 9, beginning at verse 19. The Korahites were in charge of the work of the service, gatekeepers of the tabernacle. Zechariah mentions one of them, the son of Meshulamaiah, was keeper of the door of the tabernacle of meeting. All those chosen as gatekeepers were 212, 212 of the Korahites. were the gatekeepers. David and Samuel, you remember Samuel, the last judge who anointed David as king, and were friends. David and Samuel, the seer, had appointed them to their trusted office. So they and their children were in charge of the gates of the house of the Lord, the house of the tabernacle, by assignment. The gatekeepers were assigned to the four directions, the east, the west, the north, and the south, namely of the tabernacle or later the temple. For in this trusted office were four chief gatekeepers, and they were of the Levites. And they had charge over the chambers and treasuries of the house of God. And they lodged all around the house of God because they had this responsibility, and they were in charge of opening it every morning. One other comment a little bit later in this same chapter in verse 31 highlights another work of the Korahites. Mattathiah of the Levites, the firstborn of Shalom the Korahite, had the trusted office over the things that were baked in pans. This gives us a little bit of insight into the sons of Korah and to their work associated with the tabernacle and the temple, and this helps to give us some context because what do we see in verse 10 of our psalm? I would rather be a doorkeeper. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. You see, this is where the historical context is so important. One of the things I teach the children, the students at Redeemer, is there's three main contexts you wanna look at, right? The theological context, where you compare themes of scripture and you develop doctrines consistently. Then there's the literary context, right? Where you look at the grammar and so forth, and figures of speech. But then there is the historical context. Those three contexts, when you study your Bibles, are what you need. The theological, the literary, and the historical. And this is where the historical context enhances our understanding of the psalm. And so whether this was David thinking about the role of the sons of Korah at the tabernacle, or whether this was one of the sons of Korah writing this psalm, we can see how appropriate such a statement is as we read in verse 10 in this particular psalm. Now, with those introductory comments in mind, let's take a closer look at the content of this psalm itself. The main thrust or message or theme of this psalm is really longing for the house of God. And that's what I've titled my sermon for today. Longing for the house of God. This is a psalm that emphasizes the importance of public worship, the public worship of God in the life of God's people, and it informs us as to what our attitude should be toward the public worship of God throughout all of our days. Longing for the public worship of God, what our attitude should be. Listen again to how the psalmist begins the psalm. How lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Here we see the psalmist longing to be at God's dwelling place on earth. He longs to be with God, to know and experience God's presence. As we know, God's dwelling place in the Old Testament was the tabernacle, God's home. That was God's tent, at least for a time. And then it was later the temple. It's worth noting that the word tabernacle in verse 1 could also be translated simply as dwelling place. And in fact, the English Standard Version does that. It just mentions the dwelling place. But seeing here that there is a reference to the courts of the Lord and Mount Zion, the most obvious reference here is to the idea of the tabernacle or the temple. But since it could be translated simply as dwelling place, we must realize that this has a broader application. The tabernacle was a public dwelling place, right, where God was known to dwell. The temple. But we could also apply this to the various places where God's people would worship on every weekly Sabbath day. Leviticus 23 verse 3 mentions the seventh day as a day of solemn rest, a holy convocation where the people would gather and meet together weekly. And that was not always at the tabernacle or the temple, but there were places, meeting houses, and they gradually developed into the synagogues of Jesus' day. For example, in Acts 15.21, Peter says this, For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city being read in the synagogues every Sabbath. The synagogues, as they were developed in Jesus's day, didn't come till later, but the idea of the meeting house and public acts of worship being done in them were already established from the time of Moses. Now, the reason why the psalmist is so desirous of being able to go to the tabernacle or the temple is because, for one reason, is because he cannot get there. We don't know for sure why this was the case at the time when the psalm was originally written. But the psalmist is hindered from coming to the place of God's worship. Some think that this was written when David was on the run either from Saul or from Absalom. if that was the case, more likely from Absalom. Others think that this could have been written at the time when Sennacherib was blocking off entrance to the city of Zion for a while. Others think that this was written by one of the sons of Korah at the time of the Babylonian captivity, when the temple had been destroyed and God's people had been carted off to Babylon, and they were not able to worship God in that public place. But in any case, we can see why this psalm is located in the third book of the Psalter. Why, in the inspired organization of the Psalter, this psalm is placed here. Because of the theme of the third book that we have been developing for you, as we have seen, is one of crisis among God's people. It's a time of darkness and confusion, when God's people have been exiled from the promised land. And this exile creates within the psalmist, creates within the people of God, a longing to go back to that place of public worship, to return to their homeland. But we actually begin to see a little bit of a change here in this third book. We begin to see a little bit of a glimmer of hope of returning to the land. Because what do we notice at the beginning of the next Psalm, Psalm 85? We have these words, Lord, you have been favorable to your land. You have brought back the captivity of Jacob. And so we see a little bit of a turning point here in the Psalter. We're anticipating the fourth book, right, where there's going to be an upward swing of returning back to the place of God's worship. And in the previous psalm, what did we notice? The conspiracy of the nations to wipe out God's people entirely in any hope of worshiping God. And far from that happening, God is saying, you're going to get a chance. Not just a chance, I'm going to cause you to come back and you will worship me once again in that holy place. But there's this longing to be able to go to the place of God's worship. And there's an intense longing, isn't there? Verse two, again. My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. That word faint is a word that's related to becoming pale, right? Sick. And so longing that you're fainting. My heart and my flesh cry out. The whole person is involved, body and soul. There's a heart cry. from the psalmist. And this is the cry of a true believer. This is not the cry of those unique super saints who have just gotten so close to the Lord. Congregation, this is the heart cry of a Christian. This is not a super Christian. This is not an amazing Christian. This is any true believer. There is a longing for God. There is a longing with every fiber of one's being. And I would ask your congregation, do you long for God? Do you long for God himself? Do you long to be with God? Now we don't always long to be with God like this. That is to be admitted and we don't want to assume that we're always going to have this kind of attitude. But this is the mark of a true believer. It is the eventual and inevitable experience of the one who belongs to Christ that is to be with Christ. You know, it's very common for covenant children, and my children do this from time to time, asking me, how can I know that I am a Christian? What a common question that covenant children will often raise. Well, this is one of the ways you know. Do you long for God? Do you want to be with God? And God gives us a song to help shape our attitude and our emotions that if we are in a rut, and if we don't have this attitude, we pray to the Lord as we sing it, Lord, help me to actually be this way. I'm not longing for you now as I ought to, but I know I have in the past, and I know I can. Help me, oh Lord, to long for you as I ought to long for you. And notice that this isn't just a longing to go to the temple or the tabernacle just for the sake of those buildings, just to go through the religious motions, just to see the beauty and the ornateness of those places. The tabernacle and the temple were beautiful. They were amazing. They were filled with beautiful articles made of gold. It would be easy to be enamored with the ornateness of these structures. Even in Jesus' day, the second temple was impressive. And you remember what the disciples said to Jesus in Matthew 24. Jesus was departing from the temple and it says, his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. And the whole point of that passage is the disciples are taken up with the beauty of the building And Jesus says, don't you get it? That building's not gonna be anymore. There's not gonna be one stone left that's not gonna be thrown down. It's not about the building itself. And so we have to be very careful that we as a church in the New Covenant context are not enamored with a building or the way things that can look outwardly to our senses. I remember one time years ago, I lived in Georgia, and I was visiting Savannah, Georgia. And one of the people I read in my literature class was Flannery O'Connor. Maybe some of you have read some of the writings of Flannery O'Connor, some of her short stories, and they have Christian themes. She was a great writer. You can visit her home. She's a well-known writer, well enough to know that she has a home, her childhood home, which is kind of like a little museum. You can go in and you can see her childhood home there in Savannah. And then you can go to her church. You can see the cathedral of St. John the Baptist, this great, big Roman Catholic church, this huge cathedral. And I remember going in there and I was just like, wow, I mean, this is amazing. And it was just huge and just beautiful and awe-inspiring. But there's nothing there. There's nothing there of God. Christ now is all in all. And the ordinances are simple and far more powerful. We are not to be enamored with what a building looks like or what is in it. The psalmist here is not so caught up with the ornateness of the tabernacle or temple, but rather it is his intense desire to be with God that causes him to long for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God, he says. This serves to remind us of something very important. And that is that God does meet with his people in a special and unique way in the public worship in which he does not meet with his people in private or family worship. God is present in the public worship of God on the Lord's Day. in a way that he is not present with his people on an individual or day-to-day basis. God calls upon us to meet him in corporate worship. And we should greatly desire to be in the Lord's house. especially on the Lord's day. Psalm 87, verse 2, the psalmist says, The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. In other words, more than all the other dwelling places, the individual homes throughout the land of Israel, God loves the gates of Zion more. God loves the public worship of him more than he loves your private crying out to the Lord. More than family worship throughout the week. God loves the public worship the most! How important is that for the church to understand today, you see? Now, we know that the corporate worship of the church is no longer confined to a particular building like the tabernacle or the temple was. Ephesians chapter 2 gives us a better picture now of the corporate worship of the church where the people gather together. It says, quote, in whom the whole building, that is the entire church which is made up of people, being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also, you Ephesian believers, at your Ephesian churches, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. And so now, in the new covenant era, wherever God's people are gathered, whether it's in an apartment somewhere, or in an established church building, makes no difference whatsoever. As long as they are gathering together in Christ's name, and they are called to worship the Lord, and there are the means of grace being dispensed, it does not matter. Every one is a place for God to dwell in by His Spirit. Wherever God's people gather together, the Lord is with them in their midst. But it is especially when God calls his people to gather on his day by the elders to do so at the appointed time of worship, that God is worshiped unlike any other time. And that's why it says in Hebrews 10, 25, that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some. That word assembling is epi-synagogue. You hear the word synagogue in there? It's a word that means the corporate public assembly of the church. It's not just a few believers gathering together to have a prayer meeting or a Bible study. Epi-synagogue. We are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. And when we gather together in the public worship of God, what is it that takes place? Who is there? Not just us. Listen to what it says in Hebrews 12, starting at verse 22. and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. Congregation, that doesn't happen in your home. That doesn't happen in family worship. That doesn't happen in your prayer closet. It only happens at the public worship of God. The presence of God is with His people in a unique way when you are present in the courts of the Lord, in public worship on the Lord's Day. And if you are a believer, then you should long to be there. You should long to be here. This is a non-negotiable for a child of God. God lives in the church, and if you want to be with God, and if you want to meet God, then you must be at church to do so. This is what this psalm is teaching us. And now there are times, for sure, when we can't make it to church. When we're sick, we're out of town. And those are all legitimate reasons. I'm not browbeating anybody. I mean, I've been away, you know, at times for things like this. We should always, when we're away, seek to find a place to worship. But always, too, there should be this sense of emptiness when you're not able to come to worship. This sense of sadness or longing or perhaps even shame, depending on the reason for missing church, the reason for your absence. I remember one time, Missing Church, and it was for a firearms training course. I mean, it was not a good enough reason, but at least it was something cool to do, right? It was a weekend-long firearm training course to get my concealed carry permit, and it lasted from Friday night into Saturday all day and into Sunday morning. And I really wanted to get my concealed carry permit. This was down in Florida where they were really big into guns and had some great firearm training classes. But I remember going through that, and although I enjoyed learning how to shoot better and get my license and all that, I still just felt this sadness. I just felt myself sinking, that I forsook the public worship of God, even to do something as enjoyable as go shooting. Now the psalmist, interestingly, goes on to compare himself, or we could say contrast himself, with a sparrow or a swallow in verse three. Look at what he says next. Even the sparrow has found a home, and to swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young. Even your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Now when you see this, talk about the birds, and then you're going over to the altars, it could be little bit confusing as to what is being meant here, but I believe the psalmist is referring to the fact that God provides a home, a nest, for even tiny little seemingly insignificant birds. Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount mentioned that God cares for the sparrow The word for swallow, the bird swallow, not swallowing with your throat, the word for swallow comes from a root that means freedom or liberty. And so the idea here is that these birds, the swallow is free to fly about. They are able to build their nests where they would like. They are able to go to their home whenever they want to. Some commentators point out that small birds would likely have built their homes, their nests, around the precincts of the tabernacle and the temple, maybe among the beams or the rafters. Swallows in particular are very social birds and they like to build their nests around people. Thus, that they would build their nests around the tabernacle or temple, quite possibly within sight of what was going on with the worship of God and within sight of the altar, in particular the altar of burnt offering that was in the outer court. And so here the psalmist is saying that though the little birds are able to be there, I am not. He's also emphasizing the fact that God's dwelling place, the tabernacle, the temple, was for him his real home. He wanted to dwell there. He wants to be there. And he was prevented from doing so. But he says, in essence, I wish I could fly like a bird and be able to go to the tabernacle. Again, and there witnessed the priests offering up the animals in sacrifice, taking their censers and putting the coals from the altar and taking the blood from the sacrifice and going into the holy place and witnessing the worship of God taking place at the altar. Oh, to be in the courts of the Lord, he's saying to himself, both King David and the Sons of Korah would have been allowed to enter into the outer court of the tabernacle, but they would not have been able to go into the Holy Place or the Holy of Holies. Only the priests could go in there. Although the Sons of Korah would have been very much involved perhaps in even setting up those places, and assisting the priests in various ways. But the point is that there was a desire to be at the courts of the Lord. And notice how the psalmist emphasizes the altars. There were two altars. The altar of burnt offering made of bronze, and the outer court And then the altar of incense in the holy place was much smaller and was made of gold. Both of those altars picture the atoning work of Christ in providing satisfaction for sins and in Christ's intercession on behalf of his people on the basis of his sacrifice. And how important is that for us to keep in mind in the worship of God? It forms the basis of our acceptance with God. The psalmist understands how central is the altar to our worship. But you see how the psalmist would want to just dwell there all the time. And congregation, how I hope and I wish and I pray for myself and for you that we would have that kind of longing. that we would desire to be with the Lord, to be in the public worship of God, to be in His house as much as possible. Verse 4 says, Blessed are those who dwell in your house, they will still be praising you. We have to remember that the sons of Korah would have dwelt around the tabernacle. Their tents, their homes, their precincts were right next to the tabernacle or later the temple. And they were close by for the service of the tabernacle. They were always around it, working there, worshiping there, assisting the priests. Numbers chapter 1, verses 52 and 53 says this. The children of Israel shall pitch their tents, everyone by his own camp, everyone by his own standard. according to their armies. But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the children of Israel. And the Levites shall keep charge of the tabernacle of the testimony." And if this psalm was written by one of the sons of Korah, he was missing that. He was missing being around God's house, always being involved with the worship God. But it's a psalm that encourages us to desire to be among God's people as much as possible, and to be in public worship as much as possible, and to be where there is the means of grace being dispensed, to be at conferences and to be at retreats. And we have a retreat going on right now that the young people are, that we have encouraged them to go to. These things are so important and they should be the center of our lives. I remember when I was a part of the Charismatic Church, one of the things that I liked, it was a very big church and it was a lot of people there, it was an assembly of God church, but one of the things I liked is that there were always people there, gathered, they were praying, they were studying God's word together, and the doors were always open. And I could go in at night, any day of the week, nine o'clock. I can go into the meeting place, what they would call the sanctuary, and there would be people praying, walking up and down the aisles. And I love to be at the house of God, and to be among God's people, and meet new people and pray with them. And I think that we should think of Samuel in this instance. Samuel. He was the last judge of Israel, and he was the most godly one of all. And could it be that he was such because he was in the house of God all the time? Hannes says, I've loaned him to the Lord. And he was just there at the tabernacle, in God's presence, always. He was the godliest judge in Israel because he was in God's house all the time. And what is likely to be the case of those who love to be in God's house and are seeking for every opportunity to worship God? Verse four tells us, blessed are those who dwell in your house, they will still be praising you. They will continually praise the Lord and they will be praising him throughout all of eternity. In other words, they will be sure to be in heaven, singing praise to God and worshiping the Lord forever. And you see at the end of that verse that silah, which is meant to focus our attention. It's a word that means to rest and to pause and to reflect on this. Blessed are those who dwell in your house. They will be continually praising you. And the psalmist is saying, think about this. Dwell on this. Examine yourself with regard to this. Have you thought about those that love to be in God's house, will be in God's house forevermore in heaven. And you know, throughout my life, what I found not always to be the case, But a lot of times, those who are more spiritually weak or have more spiritual struggles, who backslide a lot and just aren't stable in their Christian walk, there's a pattern there that I've seen over and over again. They're not consistent at church. They're not consistently going to the worship of God week after week after week after week. John Calvin said this. Hence we learn that those are sadly deficient in understanding, who carelessly neglect God's instituted worship, as if they were able to mount up to heaven by their own unaided efforts. Verse five states, blessed is the man whose strength is in you, whose heart is set on pilgrimage, What the psalmist has in mind here are the pilgrimages of the people of Israel that they would make to the tabernacle or temple three times in the year. At Passover, at Pentecost, and at the Feast of Tabernacles. And these pilgrimages were not always easy, depending on where you lived. They could be very difficult and arduous. For some who lived further away, it could be a three or four or five day journey to get to the place of worship. And after the time of exile, when even more Jews had been scattered, it became even longer. But there were particular paths or roads that people took that they were known as those main roads of travel to the tabernacle, for example, or the temple, which would later be in the city of Jerusalem or Zion. And this word for pilgrimage could also be translated as road or path or highway. The ESV translates verse 5 this way, blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. But notice that their heart was set on this pilgrimage, these highways. They wanted to be journeying to God's place of worship. And so the people would travel on these well-worn paths, and then they would gather others with them as they went along the way. Those that were further out, had further to go, would walk in, and they would know that there were others who would wanna join them, and those who were closer to the place of worship would then join them on their way. And that's why it says at the beginning of Psalm 122, which we began our service of worship with, I was glad when they came to my door, knocked on it, and said, let us go to the house of the Lord. You see, there are more gathering together and the crowd becomes bigger and bigger. But they were very mindful of the path. They were mindful of the journey. And they made it a joy even to go on these paths because they knew where they were going. And I can think back. Our paths are so easy, right? We just hop in the car. We drive 5, 10 minutes, maybe an hour. But it's still a lot easier than what they did back then. But I was thinking back to all the congregations that I've been a part of or where I've been a member. And I think it's about nine, right? But what's interesting is I could tell you and I could map out for you the journey there from my house. Every single one of them, I can remember the roads we took. And I can even remember as a child, I wouldn't know a lot of where the city was. The city of Rockford was big. But I could have told my parents where to turn, where to go to get to church. It was that well-worn path. and it was a joy to be on it because I knew that I was going to be with God's people and I was going to worship the Lord. And I would ask you children, is it a joy? Is it a joy to think about going to church? Or is it a burden? Do you think you'd rather do something else? But for the Israelites at this time, the journey was difficult. There were places where for miles and miles, there would be a desert wasteland. Verse 6 describes this for us. As they pass through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring. The rain also covers it with pools. Now at first glance, it's not the easiest verse to interpret. And there are a couple of meanings that are given to it. But most are agreed that it refers to the fact that traveling to Jerusalem was not always easy. The word baka can refer to weeping, which could be its original root meaning. This is what some commentators think. And thus, if that's the case, the idea is that the people would often weep or want to weep because of the difficulty of the children. I mean, excuse me, because of the difficulty of the journey, but especially with children, right? I mean, you can just imagine, you're traveling for days, and it's barren, and it's desert, and you've got children with you, and you can just imagine, you know, the children, are we there yet? Are we gonna ever make it? It would take them days to get to church, right? In the desert, walking, you know? And so the word baka could be referred to the weeping, okay? Or the word baka could also refer to a type of shrub, I know that's very different, called the baka shrub, which some say was like a mulberry bush, which one could actually drink the juices from, as it had a tasty fluid that came out of it, that one could drink to refresh oneself and would be very invigorating and very refreshing in this dry and desert wilderness. But this verse also makes reference to the fact that because the people would routinely walk on these roads, they would create places where pools of water would collect from the rain and where they could utilize that water. They would dig wells and utilize them also. John Gill says this. that in these desert valleys there were fountains made of wells and pools in a place where there was no water. Pools or ditches were dug in the ground and built of stone to catch rainwater for the supply of the travelers. And so because the people were used to year after year traveling these same paths with not very much there, is they would dig wells, they would make a place for the water to collect where they could drink water or utilize water for people traveling through. But the point of the whole matter is this, that although coming to church was difficult, they made a way to make it. They loved to come to the public worship of God so much that they made it a way. They made it a joy to come. Though it was a desert, a scorched and dry land, where no one would have any water ordinarily, and where people would be prone to want to weep, they made it a spring. And the rain also covered it and made pools of water. But they did whatever they could to be at those festivals, to be at the tabernacle or the temple, because God was there. And if you wanted to see God, and if you wanted to be in God's presence, and if you wanted to be blessed by God, then you had to be at church. You had to be at church. That is the biblical view of the worship of God and of the presence of God. And in our day, we have lost sight of the importance of the Sabbath day and of the visible corporate public worship of God and how central that is to the Christian life. How much does the church today and do Christians today need to hear this and be reminded of this? We have such a low view of the public worship of God. And you can think about how so many people will just come up with any excuse they can to not Come. to church, even though it's not arduous and it's not difficult, but they'll find a way not to be there. I remember a previous pastor of a previous church talking to me about how he had to confront a member of the congregation who was not coming to church week after week after week, and there was no legitimate reason whatsoever. They weren't sick. It wasn't because they had to work. It wasn't because they were out of town. They just weren't coming to church. And he finally comes to the door at the person's house, knocks on it, and says, You better be in church this Lord's Day or we're going to have to begin to discipline you. And it's sad that that's sometimes what people in the church need. There shouldn't be a member of the church who doesn't want to go and delight and call it a joy to come to church, to be with God's people in God's presence. Notice what happens when God's people make the commitment and are faithful members of the church and they consistently attend. They go from one degree of strength to another. From one worship service to another. Look at verse 7. They go from strength to strength. Each one appears before God and Zion. God blesses their faithful commitment to him, to worship him week after week, month after month, year after year, Sabbath day after Sabbath day. And as I mentioned last week, the Sabbath day is especially the day of sanctification, that God comes to his people in a unique way on the Lord's day in corporate worship, where we fellowship with the living God. You know, if you have not read our directory for the public worship of God, you should read this. It's in our constitution, but I want to read a little section of this to you. This is talking about the public worship of God. Listen to what it says. In the public worship of the church, the people of God, redeemed by Christ, glorify and enjoy the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as He reveals Himself in His Word. Don't you love that? They glorify and enjoy. The Triune God. The main purpose of worship is to bring glory to the Triune God, particularly for his work of redemption through Jesus Christ. However, God in his benevolence also invites and commands his people to draw near to him to experience all the benefits of their redemption, to declare their dependence on him, to enjoy his appointed means of grace, to encourage one another, to celebrate their union with Jesus Christ, and to be transformed more and more into His image. Do you love that? At the end of this paragraph, all of this is going on. What's the purpose? For us to be transformed more and more into His image. And can you not say, dear believer, especially for those of you who are older and more mature, that it's because you have consistently come to church that you've been strengthened in your faith and in your walk with the Lord? Now, it also says this. Worship involves intimate communion between God and His redeemed people. In worship, God initiates a covenantal dialogue. Now listen, because this is explaining why we do what we do in worship. In worship, God initiates a covenantal dialogue with his people, in which he calls them to worship, that is the elders coming and say, God's now calling you to worship through his word, okay? declares to them his great acts of creation and redemption, that is to the reading and the preaching of the word of God, assures them of the efficacy of his promises, and seals his promises to them by means of sacraments. In response to God's initiative, the people of God offer prayers of confession, petition, and thanksgiving, sing psalms with grace in their hearts, and receive God's word as it is both read and preached. These are the elements of worship that we employ, and the whole purpose is a dialogue between God and His people. God speaks to us through the reading of the Scriptures and the preaching of the Scriptures, and we speak to Him in prayer and in praise, and we go back and forth. It's a covenantal dialogue that we have with our God, you see. just as you and I might meet in a room somewhere and talk back and forth and have a dialogue and have fellowship. That's what takes place in the corporate public worship of God. And that's why we go back and forth. And that's why I say, let's respond now to what God has said to us and let's us sing praise to him or let us pray to him. It's a covenantal dialogue and We ought to pray that God would help us to love every part of the worship, to be engaged in it, and to be zealous for all of these parts of worship. To pray beforehand on the Lord's Day that God would bless and meet with us and to prepare our hearts to meet with God. This is what happens when we appear before God in Zion. And we have to understand that although the old covenant arrangement was more ornate and had more outward splendor and glory, the administration of the new covenant worship has greater efficacy and power. This is what the Westminster Confession of Faith says about the difference between worship in the Old Covenant and the New. This covenant of grace was differently administered in the time of the law, that is the Old Testament, than in the time of the Gospel. Under the law, it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the Paschal Lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all for signifying Christ to come. which were for that time sufficient and efficacious through the operation of the Spirit to instruct and build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah, by whom they in the Old Testament had full remission of sins and eternal salvation, and is called the Old Testament. But under the gospel, when Christ the substance was exhibited, the ordinances in which this covenant is dispensed are the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, which though fewer in number and administered more simplistically with less outward glory, yet in them it is held forth in more fullness, evidence, and spiritual efficacy. And the question for us congregation is are we content with the ordinances that Christ has given to us? Or do we think that we need something more? Do we think that there's something more that should be going on that we should have that should be able to help us? We need to go to this Word of God and take confidence in what Christ has accomplished for us. And we need to read the book of Hebrews. A lot of churches need to read the book of Hebrews over again. We don't need the incense, or the candles, or the special vestments, or the priestly garb, or the other festival days, or images of Christ, or of Mary, or of the saints. We don't need any icons. We don't need a genuflect. We don't need other sacraments. We don't need a band, or a piano, or a choir, or other songs. We just need Christ and the means that he has appointed and promised to bless. And are we content with the ordinances that Christ has given to us, or do we think we need something more? Do we think we need something else? And I would challenge you, congregation, before you're tempted to go to something else or to embrace something else, ask yourself if you've truly embraced these ordinances. if you've truly sought the Lord in prayer, if you've really studied and loved the Psalms and sang them throughout the week. You see, use and employ what Christ has given, which Christ has promised to bless. He hasn't promised to bless anything else than what He has given to us in His Word that is to be used in the worship of God. It is in verses 8 and 9 that we see how central the role of Christ is to all of our worship. This was true of the Old and New Covenant. This is where we see the psalmist not only acknowledging but praying and pleading and crying out to God that all of his worship would be accepted because of the Lord's anointed on the basis of the person and work of the Messiah. Mashiach in Hebrew or Christos in Greek. And as I've mentioned to you before, the early New Testament believers would have been singing Christ's name from the Psalms because Christos would have been their Greek translation of the Psalter. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob, Selah. O God, behold our shield, and look upon the face of your anointed. Here we see Christ as our only mediator between God and men. Without Christ, no worship is worth anything. It's not worship at all. Again, our Directory of Public Worship, a couple sentences on this, says this, Jesus Christ is the sole mediator of the covenant of grace, the only mediator between God and man. Therefore, the worship of God's people is acceptable to God only. as it is offered in Christ's name and through humble reliance on his priestly intercession and service, only by Christ leading us in worship and blessing the means of grace. is it truly worship instead of any use? Without Christ, we just go through the motions. Matthew Henry said, ordinances are empty things if we meet not with God in the ordinances. And our way to God and the worship of God is through Christ. And then we come to that verse which was mentioned earlier with regard to the sons of Korah, who were doorkeepers, gatekeepers in the house of God. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. The meaning of that first part of the verse is, for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere, or anywhere else. The psalmist thus is saying, there's no place he would rather be. There's nothing else he would rather be doing. This was the priority of his life. That which was most important to him was drawing near to God in public worship. Congregation, this might seem intense or extreme, but this is the first commandment, to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Think of all that the angels can do, all their powers to fly and traverse the world and the universe. They're unhindered by food or sleep, and what would they choose to do above all else, but to be in God's immediate presence. and beholding His face, and singing praise unto Him. For the unbeliever out in the world, this is unthinkable. This is a psalm that makes no sense to him whatsoever. This is not what he delights in. He may delight in his work, or his possessions, or his friends, or his family, or his vacations, or his hobbies, and certainly his sin. These are the delights of his heart and his life. Now, many of those things are not bad in themselves or to take delight in. But for the one who is outside of Christ, these are sufficient. With these, he is content. He will have his fill of sin and of the world. And if he could have his way, he would live hundreds and thousands and millions of years without so much as having to think. about Christ or God, certainly not longing for Him. Whatever he can get out of this life, he is comfortable with that. He is content with his sin. It's an odd thing to him that a person would long for communion with God. But what the psalmist says here is that he would rather be a janitor at church. He would rather be confined to the hallway, and from there witness the worship of God from a distance, and from there be able to hear the word of God, than to even own and be lord over a great palace of wickedness, a great house of wickedness. He would rather be hardly anything, just at the threshold. And then the psalm concludes, verses 11 and 12. For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Oh, Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in you. We're almost done, congregation. Listen to what John Gill said about the Lord being our sun and shield. This is excellent. This is what he says. Christ is the son of righteousness, and it is in the house of God that he arises upon his people with healing in his wings. He is like the sun, the great light, the fountain of light, the light of the world that dispels the darkness and makes day and gives light to all celestial bodies, moon and stars. church and ministers. He is a sun to enlighten his people with the light of grace, to warm them with the beams of his love, to cheer and refresh their souls with the light of his countenance, and to make them fruitful and flourishing. And he is a shield to protect them from all their enemies. He is the shield of faith. of which faith makes use of, against the temptations of Satan. He is the shield of salvation, and his salvation is a shield which shelters from divine justice and secures us from the wrath to come." Oh, what a son and shield our Lord is. It is by means of the public worship of God, that He gives us His grace and we experience His glory. Do you notice how those two words go together in that last verse? He will, as it says, and we sing it, He will grace and glory give. Grace in this life connected to glory in the next. If you're given grace, you will receive the glory, you see. He will grace and glory give. Now just a couple concluding thoughts. How much does this point forward to Christ? What does the psalmist long for? The tabernacle. Christ is the tabernacle. He longs to be with Christ. And how did Christ pour out his soul to God with vehement cries and tears, longing and fainting to be in the public worship of God? None was so zealous for the public worship of God as was the Lord Jesus. zeal for God's house had eaten him up, and the disciples saw that, and they realized that. And how did he long to return to that heavenly Zion from which he came? How did he enjoy going on those pilgrimages to the temple year after year. When he was a youth, where was he when his parents were worried about him? He was at the temple and he was talking to the religious leaders and the teachers. And he said to his mother, don't you know, I must be about my father's business, which is here in the house of God to dwell here. And after he was anointed, To preach to the people and declare he was the anointed one. Christ has gone before us in this psalm. He made his pilgrimage in this life and he has come to the heavenly Zion. And that's where our pilgrimage will lead us if we will worship the Lord publicly week after week and go from strength to strength. But congregation, as we sing this psalm, we have to have our eyes fixed upon Christ and that heavenly tabernacle. Listen to what it says in Hebrews 9, 23 and 24. Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens, it means the tabernacle on earth, was a copy of the heavenly one. It was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true. but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. And so, congregation, as we sing this psalm, let's have our eyes fixed upon Christ. Let us realize that we're singing about our heavenly home and our pilgrimage is to Zion, the Zion that is in heaven. And may this psalm shape our emotions and our attitudes, inform our thinking, and give us the desires that God would have us. to have as we worship him together. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this psalm that you've given to us. What a wonderful psalm. Oh, how much you have opened it to us and helped us to understand it. Oh Lord, help us to live according to it. Help us to delight in the songs that you have given. Help us to delight in the ordinances that you have established, that we indeed might one day enter into glory having been given grace throughout our lives as we worship you publicly week after week. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.