My Soul Longs for the Courts of the Lord

To the choirmaster: according toThe Gittith. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

84 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
² My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.

³ Even 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.
⁴ Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise! Selah

⁵ Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
⁶ As they go through the Valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
⁷ They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion.

⁸ O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
⁹ Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed!

¹⁰ 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.
¹¹ 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.
¹² O Lord of hosts,
blessed is the one who trusts in you!

 

Reflection

• In a way, Ps 78-83 describe the journey through a desert. God’s people were weak and struggling. They were victims of enemies that had drained them and their land of every resource, and left them destitute and dying. It’s no wonder that Asaph cried out again and again, appealing to God to restore the blessings once enjoyed by his people.
• Now suddenly, with Ps 84, another psalmist reminds us that no matter how desperate our situation, any desert God’s people may find themselves in, there is an oasis. In O. T. times, God’s people directed their feet upward. Approaching Jerusalem, buoyed up by the thought that they would soon appear before God in Zion, His people went “from strength to strength”.
• Our days may be filled with troubles, and our hearts may ache, yet we can know the blessedness of those “whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage” (v5, The Voice).  As pressures mount, we can be reminded that “No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (v11).
• The more difficult our days, the more we need to draw strength from God, and experience the blessing that is ours now through trust.

 

Prayer & Journaling:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what he wants to tell me.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in the “Spiritual Journal” book.