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So we are continuing in our series
of Psalms. Not sure, again, how far we'll
go with this. We might go to Psalm 89. That
would be the end of Book 3. But for now, we find ourselves
in Psalm 84. That should be on page 583, I
think, of your Pew Bibles. And I would urge you to use those
or your own copy of the scriptures in order to follow along and
keep those in front of you as we work through it this morning.
If you're able, would you stand with me as I read all 12 verses
of this 84th Psalm as the text for our sermon this morning? How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for
the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home
and to swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young at
your altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God. Blessed are
those who dwell in your house ever singing your praise, Selah. Blessed are those whose strength
is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they
go through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs. The early 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. Behold our shield, O God. Look
on the face of your anointed. For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere. 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 bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, Blessed is the
one who trusts in you. This is the word of God. May
he bless it to our hearts this morning. Please be seated. So this week we are to be instructed
from Psalm 84. Last week we concluded the Psalms
of Asaph. We finished those and today we
begin, you might think of it as a cluster of Psalms that are
attributed to the sons of Korah. You might wonder who this Korah
is that these people are identified as the sons of. The best we can
tell is that Korah seems to be the Levite who, back in Numbers
chapter 16, rebelled against the authority of Moses, challenged
him, does God only lead and speak through you? And as a result
of that, God caused him to be, and those with him, to be swallowed
up by the earth itself to quell the rebellion. Because you see,
the rebellion wasn't against Moses, it was against the Lord
who had appointed Moses as the leader of his people. However,
it seems that not all of his family joined him in this wicked
rebellion and that God graciously allowed many of his descendants
to continue to serve him faithfully in the tabernacle and later in
the temple. These Psalms of the sons of Korah,
even though they are still part of book three of the Psalter,
which that book again, reminding you, is just a book that in general
is focused on the oppression of God's people and even the
desolation that's being caused to them by foreign enemies. Even
though these Psalms are part of that book three, You will
hear, I believe, as we've read through and worked through this,
that these Psalms by the sons of Korah tend to have a bit more
of a positive perspective on their approach to God and these
things. But don't ever forget that that
situation of oppression and desolation is still in the background of
the Psalms. Now the word blessed appears
three times in this Psalm. That word means those who are
fortunate, those who are happy, those who are receiving good
fortune from God. It occurs three times in his
psalm, and I intend to use those three occurrences to mark out
three separate themes I believe the psalmist has focused on in
this psalm for our instruction. In verses one to four, we're
going to look at a blessed longing to dwell with God. In verses
5 through 8, we're going to consider a blessed journey into his presence. And finally, in verses 9 through
12, we will consider a blessed fulfillment by faith. So first of all, a blessed longing
to dwell with God. In verse 1, and actually I say
in verse 1, but actually it is throughout the entire psalm,
from beginning literally, first verse to end, twelfth verse,
and also you find in verses 3 and 8 in between, that the psalmist
directs his praise and his prayer to, you won't see it in your
text this way, but Yahweh Sabaoth, to the Lord of hosts. Yahweh,
again, is that covenant name of God. It is his personal name
that he gave to Moses to tell the people who it was that was
sending him to deliver them. The phrase there, the Lord of
Hosts, though, is more than just a mere title for God. It is what
we might consider today a loaded phrase. You see, the word host
here is generally translated in some
ways as armies. It's the idea of someone who
is the one who commands great and huge forces for conquering
and for being in control and power. In terms of God, it is
used to speak of him as the one who is in command and charge
of not just human armies, although that is often and always true,
but also the angelic hosts, numberless. are the hosts that he is the
Lord of. You see, this phrase declares
that Yahweh has all sovereign power over all creation, that
he is Almighty God, the Lord of hosts. Hermann Bavink said
that the Lord of hosts is, quote, king in the fullness of his glory,
who's surrounded by regimented hosts of angels, governs the
whole world, as the Almighty, and in his temple, receives the
honor and acclamation of his creatures. That's who the psalmist
is crying out to all throughout this psalm. And again, the Lord
of Hosts, the one in complete control, but don't forget the
context of Book 3. Even while his people are facing
opposition, oppression, and even destruction and desolation, he
is the Lord of Hosts. Notice that the psalmist begins
this psalm by crying out, how lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts. Now the word lovely there is
maybe not the best exact translation. The idea here isn't so much that
it is a dwelling place that is beautiful to look at, although
that would have been in their day true of both the tabernacle
and the temple. The word that's translated lovely
here by the ESV actually tends to mean more directly, and particularly
in this context, greatly loved, beloved. How dear to me, how
beloved to me is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts, is what
the writer of this psalm is actually declaring in this first verse. My soul, he says, and by that
he means my entire being deeply longs for it, craves it, it strongly
desires, and yes, in my deep longing for it, my soul, my being,
even begins to feel weak and faint for the courts of the Lord. Kibner and other commentators,
when they look at this language in this verse, Make note of the
fact that this is the language of love. This is poetic love
language, like you would find in the Song of Solomon, for instance.
This is strong, intense, passionate language the psalmist is using
to describe, again, that when it says this longing, it's a
craving that he is describing, not in a negative sense, but
in a positive sense. What is provoking in him such
a strong passion, desire, longing, and love? Is it simply the building
and the beauty of the tabernacle or temple that he is planning
to visit and come to? No, it isn't that at all. If
you really look at verse one, he gives us a hint of what it
is that he's really focused on, even in that verse, where we
notice he didn't say that God's temple was beloved of him. Even
though it is and was, he called the temple or tabernacle God's
dwelling place. See, it's greatly loved. Why? Because God dwells there. Because that's where he is going
to find and meet with Lord of hosts. He gets really explicit about
that in verse 2 when he says, my heart and my flesh, in other
words, my whole entire being, the ESV translates it, sing for
joy. It probably is more like cries
out to and for the living God. Notice, not just Lord of hosts,
not just God, but he is the living God. He isn't just a mere concept
or idea that helps the psalmist feel better. He also isn't one
of those stone, metal, or wood idols that people make themselves
and then bow down in front of and treat them as if they're
gods. He is the living God, not just the Almighty, but he's alive. He is the living God, and he
longs, he desires, he loves to be in God's presence. Now as he stresses this great
desire of his to be with God in his house, The psalmist, and
remember, the psalmist is the son of Korah. As a son of Korah,
he's one of the Levites whose role, responsibilities, would
have been to serve in some capacity within the tabernacle or temple.
Some were gatekeepers, some were singers and musicians. They had
different roles, but he would have been one who, at least at
particular times, would have had an opportunity to serve in
the temple itself. And as he's expressing this great
desire of his to be with God in his house, he seems to remember
how as he was in the temple courts, he noticed that there were just
these little birds that were flitting around, sparrows, swallows,
flying back and forth within the open courtyards of the temple. And he also recalls that they
weren't just flitting around and then leaving. Those birds
had actually built nests in the ease of the overhanging architecture
of the temple, and they were raising their young right in
the vicinity and locale of God's sacred altars. In other words, the birds were
finding refuge in God's house just as he desired to. Notice
as he speaks about this, as his soul is crying out, the Lord
of hosts is now not just the Lord of hosts, but he is my king
and my God. You see, he belongs to God and
God belongs to him. They belong together. And in verse four, he seems to
not only remember the birds that lived in the house of the Lord,
but he also seems now to be thinking about his fellow Levites and
priests who served the Lord in the temple. This is the first
use in this psalm of that word blessed. Fortunate, happy are
those who do what? Who dwell in your house. Doing what? Ever singing your
praise. Just like those birds would have
been singing as they flitted around and sat on their nests,
so the people who had the privilege and joy of always being in the
temple and serving God, and doing that often by singing their praises,
the psalmist looks at them and says, wow, those are the people
who are really blessed. Always in the Lord's house, always
singing his praise. And he again applies that word,
that word Selah here, that idea to pause here for a significant
reflection on just how important that is to him and to us as we
hear it from him. And so as we reflect on that,
we should be thinking, do these verses in any way describe your
and our hearts as we prepare to come before God and worship
on a morning like this? Are we looking forward with anticipation
and delight to coming before our God and coming to meet with
Him? Will our hearts be internally and externally singing praises
to Him and delighting in that? See, the psalm isn't just history
for Israel. It's calling for a response from
our hearts as well. And this brings us then to the
next section of verses where we're going to look at the blessed
journey into God's presence. He's talked about how much he
desires to be there. And understand that in Old Testament
Israel, God's house, his dwelling place, the temple, as the final
most concrete expression of that, was in his city of Jerusalem
on his Mount Zion. According to God's requirement,
it wasn't enough for the average Israelite living wherever he
did in that nation of Israel to just decide to go and sit
in his house or sit out in his field or out in the forest and
to think positive worshipful thoughts about God, like so many
think is okay to do today. No, actually God commanded them
to come into his direct presence where he dwelt. He commanded
them, for wherever they were, to come to Jerusalem for at least
three of the major feasts in order to present themselves before
him and offer their worship directly to and before him. And understand
that just as they were coming from every far-flung place all
around that nation of Israel, There would have been paths,
roads, highways, as we think of them, that they would have
necessarily taken in order to reach Jerusalem. Those roads
or highways were referred to sometimes as the highways to
Zion. Now surely as these people were
preparing to take one of these pilgrimages to the temple from
wherever they were in Israel, they would have reminded themselves
about those highways and which highways they had to take. Much
as we do when we're going to take a very important vacation
and we don't just get in the car and take off, but we sit
down to look at the map and think about which roads we have to
go on. We don't want to make a wrong turn and end up somewhere completely
different and be lost. These people certainly would
have been focused on that. But knowing what people are like
in general, and especially, particularly knowing what the Old Testament
Israelites were, for the most part, like toward God. Do you
remember how God complains against them often? You honor me with
your lips, but your hearts are far from me. Why are you not
reverencing me? Why are you stiff-necked? Why
are you worshiping other gods? Knowing that those kind of things
are true, it is possible that some, if not many, made these
journeys on the highways to Zion grudgingly, out of a sense of
necessity, out of a sense of obligation. Well, God said, I
have to do it. I can't not do it because everybody else is
going to look at me like I'm kind of a Gentile or pagan or something.
So you've got to do what you've got to do. You see, their hearts
wouldn't have really been in it. Perhaps they resented the
time it required of them to be away from their homes, away from
their work where they could make money for themselves and their
family, away from their sources of entertainment. Perhaps they
also resented some of the very difficult parts of the trip,
which the song gets into in the middle of it, and maybe even
resented the risk and danger it might present at times. And
in fact, For some, perhaps many of them, they couldn't really
wait for it to be over so they could be back home and focusing
on what they thought was really important. See, if you look at
the book of Amos, chapter 8, verses 5 and 6, those are exactly
the kind of people God is describing to the prophet Amos when he is
announcing through Amos that I'm going to bring judgment on
this people. Why? Because they can't wait to get
the Sabbath done with and get my worship behind them so they
can go back to making money. doing the things they really
want to do. Think about the comparison with that attitude and put it
alongside of the attitude of the writer of this psalm who
craves and longs and desires to be in God's courts and to
dwell there forever. See this is where the psalmist
uses that word blessed, fortunate, happy again. Blessed are those
who remember and rejoice that the God that they are going to
meet with is the Almighty God, the Lord of hosts. Blessed are
those who find their strength in his strength. And notice what
he says, in whose hearts are the roads or highways to Zion. What does he mean by that? I
thought the roads were physical things out there that they walked
on or rode on in order to get to Jerusalem. Well, that's true.
But that's not what should be leading them to Jerusalem. The
physical road shouldn't be. It should be the desire for God
that the psalmist has that is the spiritual road to Zion in
his heart. You see, the idea here is that
going to meet with God in his house is something that his true
people will love and they will look forward to. It won't be
a burden to them. It will be a blessing to them. Once again, Kidner says that
the way to God should be a way that is well used in our hearts.
It shouldn't be one we have to get out the Rand McNally Road
Atlas and look up how to find him. We should have that path
so well worn that we fall onto it just by habit. In fact, those who have the roads
to Zion in their hearts, as the psalmist says, are in fact already
well on the highway to Zion before they ever set their foot, or
for us, our cars, on the road to worship and meeting with God. Now he talks here about the Valley
of Baca. Again, this is an interesting reference because nobody has
any idea of exactly what or where the Valley of Baca was. They
don't have any place that went by that specific name. In fact,
not entirely clear about what the word Baca means. One word
very close to that means weeping. Another word seems to point to
trees that might thrive in a drier climate. And so there's a little
bit of uncertainty about where this would have been. But it
seems like in the psalmist's intent in this psalm, he isn't
trying to tell us necessarily about, you know, that valley
north of wherever and west of this place that we all have to
walk through, there's such an awful place. He seems to be using the
Valley of Baca as a reference to a place when you're on this
journey to meet with God, that it isn't always ease and joy
and rest, an area of difficulty, of adversity. The context in
the Psalms suggests that this valley is perhaps a valley of
great dryness. Notice how these ones who go
through the valley of Baca, who are trusting in the Lord and
their hearts are directed toward him, the road to Zion is in their
hearts, they make this place a place of springs. It apparently
needs water. And as these people travel through
it, they make it a place of springs. Notice they aren't digging wells
as they go through this valley. That's not what he means. What
he means is, even though this is a dry place that is difficult
for them, because it's part of the path that takes them to God,
when they go through that valley, they go through it with joy that
they're getting closer to him. And because of that, they don't
see it as a dry valley. They see it as a place that is
bringing springs of God's blessing to them in one way or another.
God helps them through the dry places and the adverse times.
They rely on his strength. They go from strength to strength,
not their own, but the strength of the almighty Lord of hosts. And also in the sense of blessing
and favor from God, notice how it points to the future. As they
persist in their perseverance in going to meet with God, they
look forward to the future promise of God's further blessings, the
early rains that would come and create pools in this dry place,
pools that would provide water for irrigation to allow growth
and crops and life to continue. You see, they have confidence
because they are showing faithfulness to the God who is faithful to
them, that they will receive his blessings. And again, this
is another place where this psalm speaks directly to us. We get
in our valleys of Baca, those places where we either find it
to be places of weeping or places of dryness, and we get there
and we get upset with God. Why is God failing me? Why isn't
God taking care of me? Why doesn't God look at me and
see where I'm at? Why is he sending all these hard
things to me instead of looking at it saying, here I am in a
place that I would rather not be and yet God is with me and
he's carrying me through it and he is providing what I need and
I am glad that this place is going to be part of what takes
me to him. You see, it should be our response
to adverse circumstances on our journey to be with God as well. I mentioned this idea of going
from strength to strength. As they are going in these difficulties
and through these difficulties and this journey as a whole,
they're drawing nearer to God. Rather than fainting and giving
up when they hit these dry places, These pilgrims on their journey
instead draw encouragement and go from strength to strength.
They realize it may be a tough place, but when I get through
this, I'm that much closer to being in his house. You see, this psalm is obviously
about a person, maybe even about a people who have great love
for God, Yahweh, the Lord of hosts, who have great trust in
Him. Even that trust, that faith they
have, it's not as explicitly stated in the Old Testament,
but in the New Testament we see clearly that even that faith
is a gift from God. It's not something we have in
and of ourselves. And because of that faith, they
are carried through those difficult times that look like they might
have to give up. And they even in those places
recognize God's faithfulness to them, which is what is implicated
by that making springs in a dry place. They draw their strength
from the Lord of hosts, and as a result, the psalmist says,
they all eventually end up appearing before God at Mount Zion and
In that word that is used there, it also implies that as they
appear before God, God also appears to them in the worship. God presents
himself to them. Now we see that this middle section
is ended by the psalmist with an earnest plea. Notice it's
not only to the Lord God of hosts, a very full title now, But he
also adds another title to that. Not just the all-powerful Lord
God of hosts, but he is also the God of Jacob. Again, Jacob
doesn't mean the man. Jacob means the descendants of
Jacob. Israel, God's people. You're
not just the almighty Lord of hosts, but you're also the God
of your people as we come to you and come before you. Hear
and respond to our cry, O God. And so that brings us now to
looking at the blessed fulfillment by faith, the final verses. What
is this prayer, this cry, that the psalmist so desires Almighty
God, the God of his people, to hear and respond to? Well, if
you look at verse 9, verse 9 seems to be a prayer for the king of
the people of Israel. The word used first is a shield. A shield is a symbol of defense,
right? It's what you use to block the
blows of the enemy and keep him from hurting you. The king is
described here as their shield. And it's a good description because
one of the main purposes for which God gave them a king was
so that he would protect them from their enemies, from those
that would harm them. And so in that sense, he is their
shield. He also calls him the Anointed
One. And again, in the Old Testament,
kings, priests, and prophets all were anointed as they were
installed into their respective offices. And that anointing was
a way to symbolize God's calling upon them to that office, but
also to symbolize God's blessing upon them as he called them and
placed them into those specific responsibilities. calling them
for service to him and service to his people. And so the psalmist
here now calls on God, notice, to behold, take note of, pay
attention to the king. And then he asked him to look
upon, not just behold, but look upon your anointed. That phrase to look upon means
not just to see, but to look upon him with favor, sort of
like the Aaronic blessing that we use so often at the end of
our services. Let your face shine upon us and be gracious to us.
Here's the king. Take note of him. He's our shield.
He's your anointed. Look on him with your favor. Perhaps the king was taking a
prominent role in leading the people into the worship. And
that's what leads the psalmist at this point to say, behold
the king, our shield, look with favor on him. It's also true
though that the Old Testament, God is very clear throughout
it that there is a phrase that generally applies, a proverbial
kind of phrase, that as goes the king, so go the people. And the kings of Israel, for
the most part, were wicked kings who led the people into wickedness.
And very occasionally, when a righteous king would come along, he would
lead them into reforms and into casting off wickedness and faithfulness
and obedience to God. And that's why the psalmist is
crying out, God, look with favor on him. Keep him faithful to
you for our sake. Let him be our shield. As goes
the king, so go the people. Now, clearly, even when we reach
this place where there's this talk about the king, the psalmist's
focus, his longing, his craving, his desire is still to be blessed
by being in God's presence, in God's house. Notice the for,
which means because, that begins verse 10. Pay special attention, show favor
to the king for, A single day, just one day, in your courts
is better than a thousand days anywhere else. Anywhere else. And then he goes on to talk about,
I would rather be, again, ESV translate this as a doorkeeper.
There was an office, in fact, some of the Levites held this,
of being a doorkeeper or gatekeeper who let people in or kept people
out. That doesn't really seem to be
the meaning, though, that the psalmist really has here. It
really seems to be that what he is saying is, even if I can
only, when I get to your house, even if I can only just stand
in the doorway, if I can just stand on the threshold of the
door, that's all the further I can get, I would rather be
there than to, notice what he says, than to dwell in the tents
of wickedness. What was the first verse focused
on? The place where God dwells. What's the intent of the psalmist
in the meantime? It's really blessed to be able
to want to be one of those who dwell with God in his house.
And now what he says is, if I can even, I don't have to be right
up by your altars like those birds are, Lord. If I can just
stand in the doorway, on the threshold, I would rather be
there than dwell in the tents of wickedness. See, he says that the reason
for that, the reason he feels that way, the reason he's so
confident that that's the right way to feel is because Yahweh
God, the Lord God, is a son. This is the only time in the
Old Testament, by the way, as far as I know, that God is called
a son, S-U-N. But what does the sun represent,
especially to this people who live in such an agrarian culture? The sun represents life. It represents
provision. Without the sun, there would
be no crops, there would be no food, there would be no warmth.
The sun represents provision and life, and God also, notice
now, is a shield, just like their king. And again, shield is protection. It is better for me to just stand
in the doorway than to dwell in those tents of wickedness
because God is the one who provides and protects his people. And
if I dwell out there, guess what? They don't provide or protect
at all. See, the wicked and the wickedness of the world have
no true favor or honor, no true grace or glory to offer to anyone. The psalmist is recognizing that.
Only Yahweh, the covenant God, bestows favor and honor or grace
and glory. There are no good things that
God's people need that they need to go and look for in the tents
of wickedness. Do you understand that's what
the psalmist is saying? There's nothing I need out there.
Everything I need is in your house. That's why I'd rather
just stand at the door than dwell over there. I don't have to go
look for anything I need there. And why do I not need to do that?
Notice what he says, because God does not withhold any good
thing from those that walk uprightly. from those who trust in him and
devote themselves to him. God doesn't withhold any good
thing from those people. Now, don't misunderstand that.
God does withhold things from his people. He doesn't withhold
any good thing from his people. And I can know there are people
right now in this congregation who are saying, well, I would
beg to differ with that. As I prepared this sermon, I'm
saying that in my own heart. Because we certainly found things
not given to us that we thought would have been wonderfully good. But you see, the point here is
God's perspective and not ours. For whatever reason, God knows
what is good for us. And even though it hurts like
mad sometimes, he will not withhold. any good thing from his children,
and something that you might think is going to be good for
you that seems like it would have to be good for you, he will
determine is not, and he will withhold it because you're his
child. Do you know what helps us with that? The only thing
that helps us with that? One of the themes of this psalm,
trust, faith in God. We have to know who he is, and
we have to believe that what he says about him here is true.
He will not withhold any good thing from you. And so we have to trust that
if we don't get something that seems good, it's because that
thing at that point in our lives somehow would not have been. At any rate, The psalmist here
cries out, O Lord of hosts, and this is the last use of that
word blessed, O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who does what? Trusts in you. Happy, fortunate is the one who
trusts in you. Once again, I think we should
pause here. We should be stopping here and reflecting on this and
trying to think, does this describe us? Are we people who trust God
enough that even in those places where we feel like that may not
be true, that we can still cling to him and say, blessed is the
one who trusts in you, fortunate, happy. Do we eagerly anticipate
worship as a means of meeting with God? Remember, in the Old
Testament, the tabernacle and temple were the place where God's
people went to meet with God. It was where God dwelled here
on earth. What is the place where God dwells
here on earth now? It's us. We're the temple. That's what Peter and Paul tell
us in the New Testament. We are living stones being built
up into a spiritual temple, a place where sacrifices will be made
to God and praises will be lifted to him for all eternity. We're the temple because who
is the temple? Jesus Christ is the true temple.
He's the place where God really dwells among us, right? He is
Emmanuel, God with us. And because we're found in Him
and united to Him, we are part of that temple now. We're actually
part of God's house where He dwells. You see, as the end of this psalm
makes clear to us, although this psalm talks a lot about a journey,
a pilgrimage to dwell in God's house with Him, it isn't most
truly, and a lot of commentators recognize this, not most truly
a psalm of pilgrimage. It's most truly a psalm of trust
and faith in God. A trust and faith in Him that
is fueled by an earnest and passionate love for God, with our whole
being crying out to be in His blessed presence. Again, go back
to those small birds the psalm focuses on near the beginning
of this psalm. Those small birds, insignificant
creatures that they are, They have enough sense, if you will,
to trust God and live in his house and to raise their young
there. Why is it that we, the creatures
that were made in his image, are so little inclined to follow
their example and want to be near God and dwell in his house
and raise our young in him and with him? You see, Jesus also made a very
similar point about devoting ourselves to God, trusting in
him for everything that we need. Back in Matthew chapter six,
verse 26, and Matthew chapter 10, verses 29 to 33, when he
talked about God provides for the sparrows and the birds, they
don't go out and grow crops. They don't go out and worry about
spinning things. God takes care of them. Are you
not more valuable to him than they are? Jesus says. You see the Bible is a unity. It tells the same message beginning
to end, and here's the psalmist giving the same message in a
sermon that Jesus is going to give later on as he walks this
earth. See for us today this psalm is
very useful for real Christians, and by that I mean not people
who just say they're Christian, but people who really have trusted
in Christ. It's useful for us to remind
us that our love for the God who saved us and who is our provider
and protector cannot be half-hearted and fickle. We owe God a strong, a passionate
love with all of our being. Isn't that what the first great
commandment requires of us? You shall love the Lord with
all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Now, I'm honest with you, that
is not where my heart is a lot of the time. We should repent
of that. We should pray that God will
drive and fuel that love in us more and more every day. This
psalm also, though, helps to remind us and to remember that
what it is we were created for and what we are being recreated
into. Remember that in the Garden of
Eden, Adam dwelled in God's house. Eden was a sanctuary. It was
essentially a temple where God came and walked with man and
talked with him. Fellowship. And God didn't withhold any good
thing from Adam. The problem is that when Satan
came into the garden, he talked to Adam and he convinced him
through his wife that God actually had withhold something good from
you. There is something good. That tree right over there is
good for you, and God won't let you have it just because he's
spiteful. It's good, and he won't let you have it. And at that
point, Adam allowed Satan to convince him that God was stingy. And he went, instead of dwelling
in the house of the Lord, he went to dwell in the tents of
wickedness and took us all with him. You see, even after that, even
after that, by the guy who was in the most perfect place ever
to obey God, you know what God's response was to that? He went
on to prove that he would not withhold any good thing from
us. He promised a gift that he would give in Genesis 3.15, and
then he went on in the Gospels to literally bring that gift,
and that gift would be his own son. We spoke about it in our assurance
of salvation and forgiveness this morning. For God so loved
the world that he gave his only son. That son was also his king and
his anointed one, right? That's what Psalm 2 tells us.
My son, the king I've set on Mount Zion, my anointed one, it is Jesus Christ. the one who
was given to save us and to bring us back to God, to reconcile
us to him. Paul rejoiced in this truth,
actually, in Romans chapter eight, verse 32. He who did not spare
his own son, but gave him up for us all, Paul said, how will
he not also with him, in him, through him, graciously give
us what? All things. He won't withhold
any good. from his people. And you see
our only way and hope to be saved was that God would fulfill the
prayer of verse 9 in this psalm. That when that son and king and
shield came and offered himself for our sin in our place that
God would behold him and would look on him with favor. And that's
what the resurrection is. God looking on his son with favor
and blessing. And so he atoned for our sins
and he restored us once again into God's gracious presence.
You see, Jesus is leading us on our journey, our pilgrimage
from sin and despair to the blessedness of living forever in God's presence. Pay attention to this. He walks
with us, not just in the Valley of Baca. Tears or dryness. What does Psalm 23 tell us? Even
if I walk in the valley of the shadow of death itself, you're
with me. Your rod and your staff, they
comfort me. And in fact, he is God's goodness
and mercy that pursues us all the days of our lives so that
we can do what? Dwell in the house of the Lord forever. In John 14, the first three verses,
when he is preparing his disciples for his departing from this world
and returning to his Father in heaven, he called on them and
us to trust God, trust the Father, and trust in me. In my Father's
house there are what? Many rooms or mansions. There's
lots of place. I wouldn't have told you I'm
going to prepare a place for you in my Father's house if I
weren't doing it. And I will come back and take
you to be with me so you can be where I am in my Father's
house. Forever. So when and how does that get
fulfilled? Well, I've included in your bulletin
two passages from Revelation, 21, 1-4, and 22, 1-5. This is the culmination of our
journey to dwell in God's house. Then I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed
away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from
the throne saying, what? Behold, the dwelling place of
God is with man. He will dwell with them, and
they will be his people, and God himself will be with them
as their God. He will wipe away every tear
from their eyes. Death will be no more. Neither
shall be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former
things have passed away." You can read the second one from
chapter 22. I'll just focus on the fourth verse. Notice what
it says in that fourth verse, and they will see his face, and
his name will be on their foreheads. They'll belong to him. They will
meet with him in worship as he dwells with them in his house
forever. That will be us as we walk faithfully
with him. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your goodness and mercy that have pursued us all the days
of our lives in your son, Christ Jesus. Thank you for the salvation
that is ours in him. Thank you for the privilege of
being able to know that we will dwell in your house forever.
Forgive us for not cherishing and craving that. Fire up that desire in our hearts.
Make it the focus of our whole being as it was for the psalmist
in this psalm. We pray these things in Christ's
name and for His sake, Amen.
Longing to Be Where God Is
Series Psalms
| Sermon ID | 68251657572621 |
| Duration | 47:48 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Psalm 84 |
| Language | English |
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