Psalms

This is classified as a Psalm of ascent.  The Psalm speaks of the longing to traveling up to Jerusalem and then up to the temple on a pilgrimage to seek the Lord.  The Psalmist must have been a Jewish man who could not make the journey to one of the 3 feasts.  While the Jews lived in the Promised Land, these feasts served to remind them that they were still pilgrims.  They were passing through this Promised Land on their way to another Promised Land.  The feasts were part of the Pilgrimage of the Jews.  This was meeting God, seeking direction, worshiping Him and being obedient as they made their way.  Pilgrims are on their way home. 

As Children of God, we are also Pilgrims.  We are on our way home.  We are passing through this world for a time.  None of us know how long that time will be.  In our pilgrimage (maybe we should read this adventure) we make the same proclamations as this Jewish man did in this Psalm. 

·       He declared his delight, or joy in the Lord.

·       He declared his strength and power was in the Lord.

·       And He declared that all his trust was in the Lord.

While we can feel the presence of the Lord at any time because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in us, this man didn't have that.  We can go boldly before the throne of Grace at any time or place.  Jesus gave us that access.  We can make our declarations of joy, strength and trust.  This man had a great anticipation of a long awaited meeting with the Lord.  I wonder if we've allowed our instant access to diminish our own anticipation of coming before Him. 

To the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

 ¹ How lovely is Your tabernacle,
         O LORD of hosts!
 ² My soul longs, yes, even faints     
         For the courts of the LORD;
         My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
The tabernacle in the wilderness was made of wood, gold, silver; precious stones were used along with curtains and animal skins.  The temple was made of stone and wood, gold and silver.  These things seem lovely and appealing to men.  But the tabernacle was lovely because God was there.  The presence of the Lord is what made it special and what made it special for men to enter into His presence.  It is in the heart of every man to find counsel with his maker.  Our soul longs for that.  Eternity is written on our heart.  We are eternal creatures and long for things eternal.  This is the inconsolable longing that is in the heart of every man.  In this life, our craving for God eternal is met when we come into the presence of eternal things; God, The Holy Spirit, the Word of God.  Every heart beat is a gift from the Lord.  Do we spend our lives seeking Him?  Our flesh is dying away.  Our days in this life are numbered by the Lord.  Our heart and flesh cry out for the Living God....for eternal things, for salvation and for eternity in paradise with our maker.

         
 ³ Even the sparrow has found a home,
         And the swallow a nest for herself,
         Where she may lay her young-
         Even Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
         My King and my God.
 ⁴ Blessed are those who dwell in Your house;
         They will still be praising You.  Selah  
From the sparrow that made its nest in the temple to the Levitical priests who dwell in the house of the Lord, they will be blessed and praising God.  Today, we have the luxury of having the Holy Spirit live in us.  We live in the presence of the Lord continually.  Unfortunately, we sometimes ignore that presence and seek our own way.  Can we do any better than to spend our life seeking to live in His presence continually?  What are some ways we declare our Joy in the Lord?

         
 ⁵ Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,
         Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.

We are all on a great adventure.  Our pilgrimage is to find our strength in Him to take that next step.  We set our heart on the pilgrimage.  It's the path that leads to Him.  Sometimes that path is long and painful, sometimes confusing and befuddling, but we are to set our heart on our Pilgrimage to him.  Even when we seek God with all our heart, we sometimes lose sight of Him in our pilgrimage.

 ⁶ As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
         They make it a spring;
         The 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  

The Valley of Baca was an arid and dry place that you passed through on the way to Jerusalem.  The man whose heart was set on the Pilgrimage even made the dry, lifeless valley like a spring.  Those on the pilgrimage go from strength to strength.  In those times of strength we find renewal and rest in the Lord.  As the pilgrimage continues we will face dark valley's and hard times.  But those are just part of our adventure as we make our way from strength to strength.  Isn't the antithesis of 'strength to strength' going to be going from 'weakness to weakness'?   Is 'strength to strength' the provision of the Lord?

 ⁹ O God, behold our shield,
         And look upon the face of Your anointed.
As the pilgrim made his way to the temple and the presence of the Lord he was likely to see the king there.  The king was known as the shield and the anointed.  He was the man appointed by God as the shepherd to God's people.  Jesus is our shield and anointed King of Kings.  It is by His completed work that we find our way into the presence of the God.

         
 ¹⁰ For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.
         I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
         Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
Nothing compares.  There is no other place the Psalmist would rather be, even if he was but a lowly doorkeeper.  Even the doorkeeper was near the Lord physically, that's all this man longed for.

 ¹¹ For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
         The LORD will give grace and glory;
         No good thing will He withhold
         From those who walk uprightly.
This conveys the overall provision of the Lord for His people.  Both sun for warmth and growth but also shade for cool and protection.  He gives grace, which is an underserved gift to an undeserving soul.  And He gives glory, raising us to glory in the resurrection.  We celebrate that when we can't even fully comprehend what it means.  God doesn't hold any good thing from us.  We might argue with that statement but many times the good thing is not the preferred thing.  Our Father gives His children what is good for them, not what they want.

         
 ¹² O LORD of hosts,
         Blessed is the man who trusts in You!

Do we trust Him?  Do we trust Him wholly and completely with every circumstance of our pilgrimage?  Our pilgrimage is one of walking in this world while having our citizenship in the next.  It's living this life with the values of an invisible, yet eternal and holy God.  How do we find our way regularly into His presence?

Hebrews 4:16

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 10:19-22

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, ²¹ and having a High Priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us declare our delight and joy in the Lord.  Let us declare our strength and power in the Lord.  And let us declare that all our trust is in the Lord.