Psalms, Psalm 84, and I'm just going to bring out some points from the whole stretch of the psalm.
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts.
Now it's obvious as you read through the psalm that it's one of those pilgrimage psalms.
It's one of those psalms that speaks about a journey to Zion, a journey to the temple,
because as we'll see, he is away from the temple.
The psalmist is lamenting the fact that he's not in God's house or near God's house
and wants to know again of the benefit of being in the Lord's house.
It doesn't tell us where he is or how long he's been away,
but he does obviously have a longing to be back in the courts of the Lord, as he says in verse 2.
And you can see too that three times, at least through the psalm, you have the word blessed.
And in some ways you could say that blessed, as you find in verses 4 and 5 and 12,
the psalm is in a sense a meditation on the meaning of blessed
and how the whole concept of being blessed applies to God's people.
One of the beautiful things about the psalm, and it is such a comforting thought,
is that blessedness is not affected by whatever conditions we may find ourselves in.
Because the psalm takes us through different circumstances and different conditions,
even the fact that he's there and then in a place of longing,
and where he talks to later, as we'll see, to the valley of Baker,
the difficulties of the journey, the challenges of the journey,
and then reaching journey's end, throughout all of these varied experiences,
his blessedness remains in place.
God has blessed him. Nothing can alter that.
And all the way through, he's carrying the blessedness that belongs to him,
of which he speaks through each and all of these circumstances.
It remains intact for the whole of his journey.
And isn't that a comforting and reassuring thought for yourself tonight as a Christian?
That however things change in your experience or in the conditions of your life from day to day,
none of that affects your blessedness.
You are as blessed after God has blessed you.
You are as blessed in times of adversity and temptation and difficulty
as you are in times of comfort and joy.
The blessedness is not conditional upon the outward circumstances.
The blessedness continues right through every instance of life.
And that's, of course, what God demonstrated way back in the Old Testament days there,
further back in the days of Balaam coming to try and curse the Lord's people in the book of Numbers,
chapters 23, 24, as you read through that,
that Balak, the king of Moab, had hired him to come and curse these people of God.
He took him up to a mountain, as you remember, and sought to curse them from there.
And God came and put a word in his mouth.
And instead of uttering curses against the people of God,
he pronounced some of the most beautiful blessings from God upon these people.
And in pronouncing that, one of the things he said more than once was,
how can I curse whom God has not cursed?
And how can I bless whom God has not blessed?
If tonight your life is blessed, and as a Christian your life is blessed,
nothing is going to be able to curse you.
Nothing is going to alter that blessedness that God has actually laid upon you or taken you into.
Now, there are three points, just briefly, that we can divide the psalm into.
First of all, verses 1 to 4, and also verse 10,
you find that there is what you might call the element of pining.
He's pining for the house of the Lord.
He has a longing in his heart.
Secondly, verses 5 to 7 speaks about pilgrimage.
And then, finally, verses 11 to 12 speak about plenty,
the plenteousness that God has for his people,
as the one who is their son and their shield,
bestowing favour and honour.
No good thing does he withhold the plenteousness of goodness,
as God showers them with good things.
So, pining, pilgrimage, and plenty.
And the first verses, 1 to 4, here he is saying,
how lovely is your dwelling place.
He's thinking about the dwelling place of God, the temple of God.
And then he says, my soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord.
And one of the things that strikes you all the way through that,
especially in the beginning, how lovely is your dwelling place.
As he pines for the house of God, his mind is caught up with the beauty of that.
And with the beauty of the house of God, because of God's own beauty.
Because that's what you find right throughout,
where God makes his presence, that makes a place or a person beautiful.
You find that in Psalm 27, for example.
When you think of how the same reference there is to the temple or the house of God,
and the psalmist there in 27,
the Lord is my light and my salvation.
This is David this time, how that gives him encouragement and strength.
But then in verse 4,
one thing I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek after,
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
Why? To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, to inquire in his temple.
See what comes through to us from the word of God.
From the study of the word of God, from our meditation on the word of God.
What comes through to us as God impresses us with his word in our hearts
is the beauty of the Lord.
Every single thing that has beauty about it in this world.
And let's face it, this is still a world that's marred by sin,
waiting for the day of its deliverance at the end of the world
and the reconstitution into the new heavens and the new earth,
where righteousness dwells.
Nevertheless, all around you, you have beauty.
You have beauty in terms of your own human being.
The beauty of your mind.
The beauty in which God has put you together with the different faculties that you have.
Where does that beauty come from?
Where does the beauty of salvation come from?
Where does the beauty of redemption in Christ come from?
Where does the beauty of your adoption come from?
The fact that you've been made and brought into the family of God
and have become a child of God.
The beauty of that position and that relationship with God is from him.
Everything is derived that is beautiful is derived from his beauty.
God places his own beauty.
The beauty of his holiness.
The beauty of his life.
The life that he gives to us.
He impresses us and puts that upon us.
And so you find the same in verse 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.
In other words, he's really saying the least position in the house of God
is of infinitely more beauty than the highest position in the world.
To dwell in the tents of wickedness.
To have that dwelling place instead of the dwelling place
of being in the house of the Lord.
There is no comparison.
Tonight you are in a beautiful situation.
Of course, the temple of the Lord, house of the Lord,
is more than this building.
The concept of God's dwelling place moves as we come into the New Testament.
It being now the church of God, the people of God.
That's where he dwells.
That's where he's placed his name.
That's the place he makes beautiful for his own presence
and by his own presence.
And you know, as we come to another Lord's day
and another Lord's supper, God willing.
One of the things that we ought to seek from God
as we come once again to take communion
is that the Lord would bless his word to us
and by his spirit enable us once again
just to dwell upon the beauty of the Lord.
To dwell upon what these elements of bread and of wine represent.
That this is the beauty of Christ.
Christ's own death, which is such a cursed death.
And the ugliness of death.
And the ugliness of bearing the punishment of God.
And yet, nevertheless, it is, in the other sense,
the most beautiful place in the world.
Because that is where the beauty of righteousness shines.
The beauty of God's love as it penetrates the darkness of Calvary.
And as you look at those things in emblem in the Lord's supper,
it should be for us a conveying of that sense of beauty.
How beautiful is our salvation.
How beautiful is our saviour.
How beautiful is that relationship to him
in which we have communion with God.
How beautiful is the prospect in the hope that he's given us
of eternal life with him in heaven.
Every single aspect of our relationship with God
has beauty in some way attached to it.
And we can say how lovely, how beautiful is your dwelling place, O Lord.
And you know that word lovely, it is beautiful.
It does mean beautiful.
But it also conveys with it a sense of beloved, of being valued.
How beloved is your dwelling place?
How valued is your dwelling place?
How precious to me is the fact that you dwell, Lord, in my heart.
That you've chosen this as your dwelling place.
It's something that I prize, something that I value.
Of course, that carries you into what the Bible many ways presents as,
the lament of God's people when they're not as aware as they once were of being near to God.
When they lament the fact that they have caused perhaps some distance between themselves and God
by disobedience, by something other that they know has caused that God's face has,
to an extent, been hidden from them.
They don't have the same comfort they used to have.
They don't have the same sense of nearness to God.
And they can say with the psalmist, Lord, my soul longs, faints.
I want this back.
I want to have that relationship restored to the way that I enjoyed you as I used to.
But, you know, tonight, if you are in that situation where you say,
I'm not as close to the Lord as I used to be.
I'm not as close to the Lord as I've been recently.
And I lament the fact that that's the case.
And I'd like to have it restored.
If that is the case, don't let that keep you back from the Lord's table.
Don't let it keep you from coming to take communion.
Because, after all, what could be better for you than to use a means of grace like the Lord's Supper,
by which the Lord channels grace into our lives?
What could be better for you than to come and avail yourself once again of it,
asking that the Lord would restore your soul,
would actually bring back to you that sense of his nearness,
if you've lost that to some extent.
So, this is his desire.
The soul is longing.
He's crying out for the courts of the Lord.
And these words in verse 2,
my heart and flesh sing for joy.
I think the old translation in that instance is probably better.
It's crying out to the living God.
And it's not necessarily devoid of joy,
but the prominent element, I think,
in his longing and his pining for the house of God,
he has that pain in his heart.
And he is crying out for the Lord.
This is really serious to him.
This is something he really wants to know,
and God's answer to God answering his prayer and his longing.
My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord.
She is envious at the sparrow and the swallow,
who have found a place to nest at your altars, O Lord of hosts.
He's really saying,
Lord, here I am, and I'm conscious I'm not at your house.
I'm not where I would desire to be.
At the moment, I'm distanced from your altars,
from your temple,
and I envy these very little birds that have a place in your temple.
If only I were as one of them to actually be at your altars,
O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
And so that's the blessed state he speaks of.
Blessed are those, verse 4,
who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise.
Well, is this not our desire tonight?
However much we've known the Lord in the past up to this moment,
whether we've been in this pilgrimage a long time or a short time,
that's not really the issue.
The issue is that tonight we want to see God spiritually with our longing eyes.
We want to come to this communion on the Lord's day,
praying that the Lord would reveal himself to us through his word
and through the elements of the Lord's Supper.
And that once again, we would gaze upon his beauty.
And that he would reinforce to our longing souls
the fact that he is our God,
that we are his people,
that he's taken us as his people,
that we are, in other words, blessed.
Blessed by him.
Because he speaks of him here as,
O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
By that he shows that this Lord, this God, has no rivals.
None can take his place.
None can dethrone him.
More than that,
the Psalms very often are polemic.
That's to say they're directed against idolatry
and against the kind of religions
that Israel had around her at all times.
And so in the Psalms, you'll find so much of an emphasis on God,
their God being the true God,
the only God, the living God,
the creator God, the sovereign God,
the saving God, the covenant God.
All of that is a polemic against
those idols and these idolaters around them.
And really these gods in Psalm 115,
they're dead.
They're made by human hands.
They have certain shapes.
They've even got human form.
They have eyes.
They have ears.
They have mouths, but they can't hear.
They can't speak.
Because they're dead, worthless idols.
But your God is this God.
And as this God is your God,
so you'll love to have that made known
to the world in which you live.
And by coming to once again take communion,
and even by being here tonight,
you have demonstrated and you're demonstrating
that this God is your God,
that you're not living for the gods of this world.
That whatever shape the gods of this world take,
they are varied and they are many.
As we heard in the Lord's Day from Kalmurda,
if I remember rightly,
that the idolatry of our age
is not confined to things that people make with their hands.
There's all kinds of ideologies and philosophies and lifestyles
and many things related to that
that are just idolatrous.
Man worshipping himself and his own mind
and his own so-called ability
and putting God aside.
But this is your God.
Blessed are those whose God is this God.
At your altar, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my God.
And isn't it marvellous
how that little word, my,
just clinches that argument for us, doesn't it?
He's not just God.
He's not just God in terms of being the King
and the Sovereign Lord of the universe.
The psalmist is here saying,
I'm away from where I would long to be,
where I'm longing to be back at.
My soul is longing for the courts of the Lord.
At your altar, my King and my God.
Reminds you, doesn't it,
of the great words you find in John's Gospel
when Jesus came to reveal himself to Thomas?
Thomas not having been there a week before
when he revealed himself
as the risen Christ to the disciples.
And of course, he knew of Thomas' objection
and the words that Thomas had spoken,
even though Jesus wasn't physically present.
We invited Thomas specifically.
And what a marvellous thing that is as well,
that the Lord would make the effort,
if we can put it that way,
and would take such concern
to present himself to that one disciple
who had been missing from the previous gathering,
just to reveal himself to him this time.
And after Thomas had come with conviction
to realise who this was,
that this was the risen Christ,
how did he respond?
My Lord and my God.
What a great confession.
One of the greatest confessions in the Bible,
combining as it did
the personal attachment of Thomas to Jesus
and Jesus to him,
but also Jesus himself being both Lord and God.
So there's pining,
pining for the house of the Lord,
the presence of God,
secondly,
there's pilgrimage from verse five.
Blessed are those whose strength is in you
and whose heart are the highways to Zion.
As they go through the valley of Beka,
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.
Now the journey to Zion,
or back to the temple,
wherever he was situated this time,
was obviously going to be
through difficult terrain,
valley of Beka,
generally is interpreted by commentators
as a place of dryness.
Difficult to be precise,
but the meaning of the word Beka itself,
but certainly it was a desert place,
a place of dryness,
very arid place,
a place for which you needed strength
to actually walk through it
and come out the other side.
And he's saying here
that he requires that strength
so that they will go
and he will go from strength to strength
with those who are traveling.
It involves a tough journey.
It's the journey of life.
It's the journey on which you and I are set
as pilgrims heading towards Zion
because that road takes you,
as you very well know,
through difficult,
challenging territory.
You're going to meet with enemies
that will frighten you.
You're going to meet with failures
on your own part and mine.
You're going to meet with temptations
to some of which you will yield to,
and I too.
There's so much you're going to meet with
that really in themselves
are designed to put you off,
to make you turn back.
You're going to meet with Satan,
especially different forms
and different ways
in which he has access to our lives.
So as to try and intimidate us,
you're going to meet with the ways of the world,
with the hostility of those enemies of Christ.
So many ways in which the path,
the pilgrimage,
is a really testing one,
one of difficulty for which you and I need,
the strength that God gives.
That's why he's saying in verse 5,
blessed are those whose strength is in you.
In other words, he's saying,
blessed are those for whom you are the strength.
You are the one who gives them
the strength for the journey.
And really that's very much in line
with what the apostle wrote.
You remember to the Corinthians
in the second letter to the Corinthians
where he spoke about the difficulties
that he himself was facing.
But then as he came to chapter 12,
as you read it in chapter 12,
the experiences he spoke of there,
the thorn in the flesh that was given him,
to buffet him,
a messenger of Satan,
to harass me,
to keep me from being too elated.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this,
that it should leave me.
But he said to me,
my grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in your weakness.
Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly
of my weaknesses,
so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
For the sake of Christ, then,
I am content with weaknesses,
insults, hardships, persecutions,
and calamities.
For when I am weak,
then I am strong.
He's saying that I am content.
For the sake of Christ,
I'm content with weaknesses,
and so on.
He knew that as he depended upon Christ,
as he depended on the grace of God
that was promised him,
he knew that the strength he needed
was given to him.
The strength to actually meet those challenges
that he speaks of in this chapter,
in these verses.
And the word he uses there for content.
For the sake of Christ,
I am content with weaknesses,
insults.
It's the very same word
that's actually used
for God's,
the Father's words about Jesus.
This is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased.
That word in Greek for well pleased,
content,
is exactly the word
that Paul uses there
in 2 Corinthians chapter 12.
I am well pleased to be like this.
I am content that this is my lot,
that I know whatever circumstances I have,
my blessedness will not run out,
and it will not be taken from me.
My status will not change.
The grace of God will not fail me.
It is sufficient for me.
Whatever we're afraid of,
and we're afraid of many things,
whatever we're afraid of
must never deflect our minds
and our conviction
that the grace of God
is not sufficient for us.
Many people have fears
about coming to meet with the elders,
for example,
to come to take communion
for the first time.
And however much we do try
and emphasize and do again emphasize,
this is not to be seen
as a formidable challenge.
It's not there to prove
how much you don't know
or do know.
It's actually there to be
very much a stepping stone,
very much to do with
an encouraging step
for you to take
in terms of
coming to the Lord's table
for the first time.
In other words,
the challenge of that,
think of it in the words of Paul,
I am therefore content.
I am therefore pleased
that there's such a thing for me
that I can take this step,
even if it's a challenge,
because then the power of Christ
will rest upon me
and the grace that's promised me
will be my experience.
So he has the strength
even in the times of testing,
but notice how he's saying
as they go through
the valley of Beka,
they make it a place of springs.
And I think the imagery
that you've got there
is a very precious one.
He's not saying
as they go through
the valley of Beka,
the rain comes down.
He does mention that
in the end of verse 6,
but the first thing he says here
is they make it.
These pilgrims
make the valley of Beka.
They make it a place of wells.
In other words,
they have to actually use means
by which to dig up
the water for themselves.
The valley of Beka
is arid on top.
It's a desert.
There's nothing to be seen
on the surface,
but when you dig down
deep enough,
you'll come across water
and you can actually
get a refreshing drink.
That's the image
that you've got here.
And that image follows you
into the Christian's experience
as well.
Because there are circumstances
in your life,
and if we can put it
in the language of the psalm,
you have to dig
a blessing out of it.
It takes effort
on our part.
We can't bless ourselves.
We cannot earn
the blessing of God,
but God places us
in situations
of distress,
sometimes of anguish,
sometimes of
whatever difficulties
they may be.
And he's saying to us
from this psalm,
however difficult it is,
whatever kind of difficulty
it is,
you have to dig down.
You have to search through it
and find the hand of God
and find the water
that God has provided
for his people
throughout the journey.
They make it
a place of springs,
a place of a well.
So if you're facing
tonight a specific
difficulty,
even if you find
it's one that
you may feel
nobody else
can actually
help you with
or understand,
maybe different
to what anybody
else may be going
through,
here is the Lord
encouraging you,
dig into it
in such a way
as you pray
to me,
you pray for me,
you pray that
I will actually
make myself
known to you,
that I will bless
this to you,
that you will find
that it is in fact
by my blessing
and coming to see
me in it
a place of wells,
a place of real
blessing to your soul.
And that's why
he's saying here
the early rain
also covers it
with pools,
well that's
in addition to
needing,
to blessing,
to digging
for the blessings,
God graciously
sometimes just comes
with a shout
of blessing
even if you haven't
done much digging
at all
because he's God
and because he's
kind.
He comes with
unexpected blessings.
He showers
down blessings
upon us.
And so
verse 7,
they go
from strength
to strength
each one appears
before God
in Zion.
And you have
something quite
wonderful again
in this.
You've got both
an emphasis on
the company
of God's pilgrims
and each
individual
appearing before
God in Zion.
And what a benefit
it is for us,
friends,
especially when
the testing
comes to us
and the going
is tough
and the pilgrimage
really is through
very difficult territory
spiritually.
What a blessing
it is to know
that you're not
on your own,
that you're part
of a company,
that you belong
to a fellowship,
that you're
traveling together
with others
who are pilgrims
on the same
journey,
who maybe
have been
through similar
circumstances
before and
can help you
through it,
but even not,
if not,
they're there
for your support.
They go from
strength to strength
and as we dig
for blessings,
let's make sure
that we're looking
out for those
that we can help
and let's make sure
that we're willing
to receive
the help we need
whenever others
offer it to us.
We are there
for each other.
We are there
as fellow pilgrims.
We are there
sharing the journey.
We are there
so that in
sharing the journey
we may go
from strength
to strength
step by step,
strengthening each other
until we come
to appear
before God
and sign
until we reach home,
until we reach
the temple above,
the heavenly Zion.
But you notice
how it's changed
from they go
to from strength
to strength
to each one
appears before God
and sign.
None is left out.
Now this life
may for some Christians,
many indeed be
a very lonely journey.
They may find
difficulties
sharing things
with others.
They know they belong
to the company
of God's people.
It doesn't necessarily
mean that it's easy
for them to die
divulge their needs
to others
or their thoughts.
But whatever
experiences we have
and whatever the company
needs to go through,
each one appears.
He's not going to leave you
in the desert.
He's not going to leave you
in the valley of Baca.
He's not going to take away
his strength
for the latter part
of the journey
or for the section
you're going through
just now.
Each one
appears before God
in Zion.
Be thankful tonight
for that emphasis
on individuality
set in the context
of the corporateness
of God's people together.
Because that's what we have
to always hold on to.
I'm not alone.
And even though
I'm part of a crowd,
I'm not lost
in the crowd.
I belong to the company
of those pilgrims
that are traveling home.
Pining,
pilgrimage,
and then plenty.
Because from verse 11,
he speaks here about
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.
So it's really
in these two verses
what God is
and what God does.
He is a sun
and he's a shield.
He gives light
and he gives protection
at the same time.
That's the God
who takes his people
through this pilgrimage
until they appear
in his presence.
To counter
all the fears
that we may have.
Here is God saying,
if you need light,
then I've got light
for you.
If you need strength,
I've got the strength
you need.
If you need protection
as a shield,
I am your shield
and I am your exceeding
great reward,
as he said to Abraham.
I will look after you.
I will protect you.
I will be your defense.
And also,
he gives
favor and honor
the Lord bestows.
And again,
the old translation
has,
he bestows
grace
and glory.
There's nothing wrong
with putting it as
favor and honor,
but somehow,
especially for those of us
of an older disposition,
perhaps we might prefer
these words.
He gives
grace,
which is,
of course,
favor and honor,
which is really
ultimately glory.
Isn't it
whichever translation
we choose,
it really amounts
pretty much to the same thing.
He gives grace
and he gives glory.
He gives you his favor.
He bestows that upon you
and he gives you
his honor.
He honors you.
He gives you glory.
That's really a description
of a Christian.
What am I as a Christian?
What are you as a Christian?
What are we together
as Christians?
We have people
on whom God
has bestowed
grace and glory,
favor and honor.
That's our portion.
And that's why
when every Lord's
supper opportunity
comes around,
we have to respond
to the fact
of what this is saying
to us.
The blessing,
the blessed people,
we have to respond
by saying,
well,
how can I not go
and take communion?
When God
is all of this
to me,
when this is the fact
of what he has done
and is doing,
how can I possibly
think of
anything less
than taking
the cup
and taking the bread
and doing this
in remembrance
of him?
Really similar
isn't it?
Romans chapter 8
and verse 28.
It says there
in verse 12
of the psalm,
O God of hosts,
Lord of hosts,
blessed is the one
who trusts in you.
As Romans 8, 28
puts it,
blessed indeed,
where Romans says
that as Paul saw
the wonder
of being in Christ,
the wonder
of the blessings
of Christ,
that all of the things
that he had mentioned
there actually
in verse 28,
just give me a minute
to look it up,
the surrounding verses
as well,
where he said
that the spirit
helping them
in their infirmities
and the calling
of God,
the justifying
of God,
what shall we then
say to these things?
If God is for us,
who can be against us?
And we know
in verse 28,
we know that
for those
who love God,
all things
work together
for good.
Just like
the psalm has said,
he will give
grace
and glory.
No good thing
will he withhold
because
all things
work together
for good
to the Lord's people.
May he bless
these thoughts
on his word.
Let's
sing in his praise
in Psalm
let's
pinch enrage
for good
Schluss
into
the
truth
after
you
should
tell
he
to
UN
do
the
us
and