Blessed
are those who dwell in Your house…. (Psalm
84:4a)
If the worship of God—privately
and publicly—is not a passion for us, we have reason to question the reality of
our faith. From Genesis to Revelation,
the persistent picture is of God’s people worshipping in personal devotion and
public demonstration. All history is
moving to a day when every knee bows in worship. Eternity will be consumed with worship. If you don’t enjoy worship on earth, how do
you expect to enjoy heaven? At the core
of a genuine encounter with God is the response of worship. That is certainly front and center in Psalm
84.
Three times in this
Psalm, the sons of Korah sing of the blessing of being in the house of
God. In verse 4, it speaks of the blessing
of dwelling there—not a casual occurrence, nor a compulsory obligation, but a
consistent observance. There is passion
in the author’s voice as he extols the beauty of God’s house (v.1). You cannot imagine this writer rising in the morning
and grudgingly saying, “I’ve got to go to the house of God,” but gladly
shouting, “I get to go to the house of God!”
Which characterizes our attitude?
This gives us a spiritual x-ray into the heart (v.2). The true worshipper expresses envy of the
birds he sees nesting in the house of God, lodging near the altar (v.3).
The second blessing of
being in the house of God is given in v.5-9.
It is there that we find strength to face the challenges of life. We need that for we are reminded that the
Christian life is not a picnic, but a pilgrimage (v.5). It wasn’t easy in those days for worshippers
to make their way to the Temple. They had to set their heart steadfastly or
they would never make it—the long and winding road that traversed deserts and
rose sharply upward to Jerusalem.
Despite the effort required, there is no sense that the worshipper saw
this as a burden, but focused on the blessing.
How much modern man “suffers” to ride in a car, down a paved road, in
order to sit on a padded pew, in a room that is air-conditioned in summer and
heated in winter! Those ancient
worshippers traveled through the Valley of Baca to get there. The word means, “sorrow.” Yet, the prospect of worship transformed the
harsh place into a happy place (v.6). I
have seen those who trekked to the house of God through a deep valley of tears,
and saw them radiant and refreshed from an encounter with God in worship. Here we find grace on top of grace
(v.7). These new resources flow to us
each week as we call upon the Lord (v.8-9).
The third blessing is
that of a renewed faith (v.10-12). This man wasn’t giving a grudging hour
occasionally, but was delighting in worship.
He wasn’t fidgeting and gazing at his watch. He had eternity in mind. This man had rather spend a day in worship than
a thousand with the wicked. The sons of
Korah took their task seriously. They were
the greeters and singers. Our goal is to
meet God and experience Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment