Your Dwelling Place



Psalm 84 
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.
1How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
2My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
3Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
4Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah
5Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.
7They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.
8O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
9Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed!
10For 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.
11For 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.
12O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!

If you’ve spent any time at all inside of a Christian church in the last 8 years, the words of this Psalm will be instantly recalled from the song “Better Is One Day” by Matt Redman. Many songwriters over the millennia have borrowed from the psalms for worship lyrics and rightfully so! Psalm 84 has been a favorite from which to lift song ideas for it goes to the heart of what it means to be a worshiper of God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PdXmvMTyx0

Apparently, this psalmist was being kept from the Temple in Jerusalem for some reason. We can only speculate what that reason might have been, but his heart soars with just the idea of getting to be in God’s house for that is his favorite place to be in all the world. For this psalmist the memory of time in the Temple bring him joy and the need to return is great. The picture of moving through a dry and barren place into a verdant green valley depicts the journey into God’s house most poignantly. When one enters the house of the Lord, one’s very soul is refreshed.

How many of us can say the same thing today; we long to be in the house of God? Do we enter God’s house with a sense of anticipation of that amazing worship experience? Do our hearts leap with joy over the idea of going to church? For me, the sadly honest answer to that question is – sometimes. When I’m living wisely and intentionally, I ask God to send His Spirit into my worship time and ignite a passionate worship within me. For me to conjure that up on my own is never going to happen. But God is faithful and when I am intentional about my worship life, my heart too leaps with joy over being in His house.

I can only assume we all have our favorite part of the worship experience. For me it is the reading of the Word followed by the music (and I’m good with whatever kind of music is available if it’s done well). I know people whose hearts soar with the recitation of the liturgy or hearing the sermon. For others, it is that time of corporate prayer or communion. I think we all have our moments. Whatever your moments are, embrace them. Look forward to all of them. Go into worship with these words on your lips; 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.

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