Introducing Psalm 84
I wanted to start out with a visual, but I quickly realized
that I, in my limited artistic ability, could not create such a visual. So I
need you to create your own visual using your imagination. Close your eyes. I
want you to go to your happy place. Have you ever been told to go to your happy
place? It’s some kind stress reliever to help with anxiety, depression or other
kinds of stress. Now that you’re in your happy place, where are you? For some
of you, I imagine that you’re in a log cabin, or a ski lodge that looks like a log
cabin. You look at window and see the glistening snow softly drop on the
snow-capped mountains and hills. You can’t feel the cold, though, because
you’re sitting in front of the fireplace, wearing your favorite sweatshirt,
wrapped in your favorite blanket, drink coffee, tea, hot cocoa, or whatever
your choice hot beverage is. For others, it’s the complete opposite. You’re
sitting on the beach of a Caribbean island. You’re reclining in a beach chair,
toes buried in the sand. You’re overlooking the sea, so blue that you swear God
created with 3,000 Flushes. The warm sun beats down on you, but’s it’s not too
hot or too humid. Your beach umbrella gives you shade. A soft, gentle breeze
provides cool relief every now and then. And you’re sipping on your cold beverage
of choice, and that might just be an iced coffee or iced tea. Perhaps for some
of you, your happy place is in the middle of the forest. The only man-made
structure you see is the tent you just pitched. You’re sitting on a log,
roasting a hot dog or marshmallow over the campfire. Besides the crackling of
the campfire, the only sounds you can here are from nature. You look up at the
night time sky, and the stars are the brightest you’ve ever seen them. For
others, maybe your happy place is quite the opposite. You’re sitting on a park
bench in the middle of the city park. You watch the elderly feed the birds and
squirrels, you watch the children play on the playground, and you watch the
cars just drive on by. On a similar note, when I told you to go to your happy
place, you might have found yourself in the food plaza of the mall. You are
people watching. Not the judgmental kind, but you’re awestruck and amazed at
all the kinds of people God made. They come in all shapes, sizes, colors,
characteristics, personalities and traits. And still yet for others, you might
be on a boat out in the middle of one of Great Lakes. You recline in your boat,
waiting for a fish to tug at your reel.
But let’s get honest and be sincere. When I told you to go
your happy place, who find themselves in their church on Sunday morning,
worshipping the Lord God? I don’t mean to guilt you, and yet I do. If I would
have asked the poet who penned Psalm 84 to go to his happy place, that’s
exactly where he would go in his mind. He would be in his place of worship,
worshipping.
Explaining Psalm 84
84:0. Most Bibles
will some kind of heading before diving into the poetic words. It would seem
that the heading provided more information for the original audience, more
specifically for the choirmaster or director, but for the modern-day audience
it feels like it provides less information and more confusion. The heading
says, “According to the gitteth.” The scholar’s best bet is that the gitteth is
some kind of tune or instrument, but that’s all we know. Some commentators have
suggested the word come from root meaning “winepress,” hinting that the tune
might be one familiar around the fall harvest, but that’s more of a guess and
less of a hypothesis. The heading also states that this psalm is “of the sons
of Korah.” The “of” here more likely means “belonging to” or “performed by,”
and less likely means “wrote by.” Even if it did mean that, no one could
pinpoint a certain Korahite that wrote. Therefore, the author is unknown, and
this commentary will refer to the author as “the psalmist.” On a similar note,
no one knows the date the psalm was written. As you imagine, this heavily
affects the interpretation. If you believe this psalm was written in the time
of David or earlier, the dwelling place refers to the tabernacle. If you
believe this psalm was written in the time of Solomon or after, the dwelling
place is the temple. Each side has its own reasons, but we really can’t be
sure. Both the tabernacle and temple had courtyards. Yes, Psalm 84 does later
on use the word Zion, but we have to remember we are dealing with a psalm,
which loves using figures of speech. “Zion” could simply be a figure of speech
for meeting God. After all, Abraham met with God on Zion. In this commentary, I
will simply refer to it as “the dwelling place.”
84:2. Awestruck
by the beauty of Yahweh’s dwelling place, the psalmist expresses that his whole
self, both the material and immaterial, desires to dwell with Yahweh in his
dwelling place. Both the verbs “long” and “faints” demonstrate an intense
desire, even to the point the soul exhausts itself to fainting. The phrase
“cries out” (one word in Hebrew) better translates into “sing for joy,” as most
literal translations do translate it. When coupled with the word “faint,”
however, the phrase adds a layer of sorrow. Together, they paint a picture of a
worshipper, so overjoyed about dwelling in the presence of the Lord, and when
the worshipper does not stand in the Lord’s presence, he or she suffers in
pain. Rob Lacey depicts in perfectly in his paraphrased version of the Bible, The Word on the Street, where he writes,
“Your place is best, God; I’m gasping for it, almost collapsing for it, God; My
skin, my soul, the whole of me screams for more of you, vibrant one.” The
synonymous parallelism in verse 2 demonstrates that at the heart of the
psalmist longing for the Lord’s dwelling space is the longing for the Lord
Himself. Whereas most Psalms, like Psalm 138, focus on the building itself,
Psalm 84 focuses on the worshipper meeting God in that place. What the psalmist
finds most amazing, awesome and beautiful about God’s dwelling place is that
God dwells in it.
84:3. The
psalmist then appeals to nature, in the form of a synonymous parallelism, as
proof to justify his feelings. Both the sparrow and swallows are birds found
aplenty in Israel. Here, “altar” is a metonym for Yahweh’s dwelling place. I
can imagine that, as the psalmist wrote Psalm 84, he noticed a bird, like a
sparrow or swallow make its nest nearby (or even on!) the temple. He must have
thought to himself, “Hmm, even that bird knows how important it is to be close
to the Lord. Should I not be the same way?” For whatever reason that bird put
its nest there, the human can learn a lot from it. Perhaps the bird built its
home because it felt safe there. If so, the human can learn he or she lives
safely in the presence of the Lord. Maybe the bird nested there because the
bird knew all it needed was nearby. In the same way, the human can learn that
he or she will have all that he or she needs in the presence of the Lord. The
author of Psalm 84 closes out verse 3 by calling Yahweh his king and his God.
The audience should not take this as a redundancy. By calling Yahweh King, the
author submits to Yahweh’s reign. By calling Yahweh God, the author
acknowledges only Yahweh is worthy of worship.
84:4. The
psalmist closes out his first stanza with a synthetic parallelism. He concludes
that those who stand in the dwelling place of God receive a special blessing by
just being there just because God is there. The psalmist goes on to explain
that that the natural reaction of such emotions would cause the person standing
in the presence of God to praise and worship him. The worshipper praises the
Lord because he or she realizes how much privilege he or she has for standing
in the presence of the Lord. The people the psalmist refers to in Psalm 84:4
most likely refer specifically to the priests and Levites, but it in general
encourages the reader to seek to live in the presence of God just as much as
the priests and Levites.
84:5. Now the
psalmist has expressed his love for Yahweh’s dwelling place, the psalmist moves
to describe a pilgrim’s journey getting there. In the second stanza, the
psalmist wants to make it clear to his audience that blessing does not solely
come from dwelling with Yahweh, but blessing can also come from the journey to
Yahweh’s dwelling. Therefore, in the second stanza of Psalm 84, the psalmist
describes a pilgrim on a pilgrimage to dwell in Yahweh’s dwelling place. The
psalmist opens the stanza with a synthetic parallelism, granting pilgrims a
blessing of strength. That blessing of strength cannot come from anyone or
anywhere buy the Lord. Only those who had their hearts set on worshipping the
Lord in his dwelling place would solely rely and trust on the Lord’s strength
and power to get them there.
84:6. The Valley
of Baka may have been a place all pilgrims would have taken to the tabernacle
or temple. The context clues in verse 6 alone already hint that the Valley of
Baca is a dry and arid desert. In Psalm 84:6, the psalmist paints a picture
that as the pilgrim marches through the Valley of Baca, springs of water come
forth, as well as pools, as a result of early rains, which, in the Hebrew
seasons, is early autumn. The psalmist depicts a place going from a dry and
arid desert to an oasis full of vegetation. Once again, the psalmist
illustrates to the readers that the pilgrim receives such blessings because the
Lord is with the pilgrim. Once again, the psalmist makes it abundantly clear
that the Lord and his blessings do not have to stay confined to his dwelling
place. God can dwell with his people anywhere and bless them, even in places
where it may seem blessing cannot happen.
84:7. The first
cola of Psalm 84:7 has caused some confusion, as the phrase “go from strength
to strength” only appears here in the entire Old Testament. Some commentators
have proposed it means they get stronger as time goes by, while other scholars
suggest it means they travel from refuge to refuge. The latter seems to make
more sense in context, especially in light of Psalm 84:6. Psalm 84:7 explicitly
explains what the psalmist is trying to illustrate in Psalm 84:6. The pilgrim
relies on bits and pieces of Yahweh’s strength from place to place, until the
pilgrim reaches his final destination. Not a single worshipper will fall out of
God’s sight or man. The Lord will make sure each and every worshipper appears
before God in Zion.
84:8. The
psalmist closes out his second stanza, using a synonymous parallelism. The
psalmist petitions Yahweh that what he described in Psalm 84:5-8 may be so,
that the pilgrim will be rewarded with blessings of provision and safety as he
makes his way to Yahweh’ dwelling. The psalmist may also feel led to pray that,
now that he or she has made such a journey to worship, God will indeed receive
the worship as an acceptable offering.
84:10. Second, in
verse 10, the psalmist re-iterates his love for the Lord’s dwelling. The
psalmist states that a day in the courts of Yahweh is better than a thousand
elsewhere. Interesting enough, the Hebrew text does not have the word
“elsewhere.” Honestly, most English translations add the word “elsewhere,” with
the exception of the King James Version, which leaves it out. Most scholars
deem the addition necessary, for without the addition, it would sound like the
psalmist says that one day in the Lord’s courts is better than one thousand
days in God’s house. Some commentators, however, have suggested the psalmist
might have attempted to convey another truth. If given the choice of a one-day
life in the Lord’s courts or a thousand-day life outside God’s house, the
psalmist would choose the one-day life, knowing he spent it in the presence of
Yahweh. Either way, the second bicolon in verse 10 reaffirm the psalmist’s love
for the Lord’s dwelling. If given the choice, the worshipper would rather sit
at the threshold, or door, at Yahweh’s house than dwell among the tents of the
wicked. Being close to the presence of God is better than no presence at all.
Being the most humbled at the house of God is better than being the exalted
among the wicked. While the wicked may have possessions, God is the source of
all those possessions, as so much more. The singers, the Korahites, would have
understood this metaphor the best. Their ancestor, Korah dwelled in the house
of wicked men, as seen in Numbers 16:26. The Lord truly redeemed them. He
pulled them out of that situation and gave them the role of serving as the
doorkeeper to the temple (see 1 Chron. 9:19; 26:12–19)
84:11,12. Third,
the psalmist assures himself that God has heard and answered his prayer, that God
will bless those who make a pilgrimage to God’s dwelling place. The psalmist
remembers that the Lord, in his very nature, wants to protect and provide.
Therefore, the psalmist calls the Lord both a sun and a shield, adding to the
title given in verse 9. In fact, this is the only time in the Bible the Lord is
directly called a sun. Then the psalmist reminds himself that God delights in
giving good things to those who done good things. If in the goodness of a
person’s heart that person desires to worship God in his dwelling place, then
God will bless that person with what the person needs to get there.
Illustrating Psalm 84
After reading Psalm
84, only 1 question, consisting of 2 simple words, comes to mind: "What
happened?" How did we go from Psalm 84, about a person who loves the
dwelling place of God so much that when he is away from it, his body and soul
are hurting, to today? If you were to ask a lot of pastors today what the
biggest sign is that society is becoming more secular and less friendly to Christians
is, it's not something that's happening in the government, it's not something
that's happening in politics, it would be that more and more children sports
games are happening on Sunday mornings. And the worst part is that it's
sneaking into the church. Parents will take their children to their sports
games, not even blinking an eye, not even pausing to think if skipping church
for the sports game is wrong or what the right decision is. It's so bad that
pastors can't even feel like they can bring this concern up to their
congregation. They're afraid they'll be tagged as judgmental or selfishly
greedy about the tithe money or their popularity if they try to convict their
congregation that is wrong to skip church for sports games. How did we get to this
point?
I've studied church history and I've studied ecclesiology
(that is, theology of the church) and through the study of both, I've noticed
there's a lot of what I like to call "pendulum swings" in church
history and church movements. The importance and significance of church is one
of them. Earlier in modern church history, believe it or not, we did believe
that going to church was necessary for salvation. Our thinking went somewhere
along the lines of this: Real, true, good Christians go to church every Sunday.
Therefore, if you do not go to church every Sunday, you're not a real
Christian, you're not a true Christian, you're not a good Christian. One of the
strengths of this view is that, by golly, it got people to show up for church.
Your life depended on it. As you can imagine, though, it also quickly led to
some very negative drawbacks. People literally thought that because they were
sitting in the church pew for an hour a week, they were born again Christians,
saved from hell, on the road to heaven. Heck, you even had non-Christians
showing up once a week for an hour of church, just so they could tell their
Christian parents that they were going to church, and their Christian parents
could believe that they were good, real, true Christians, just because they
were attending church. Made it a little less tense at the next family get
together. Even if some people did not literally think in their minds that going
to church saved you, some people would still subconsciously act like it did. In
the season finale of season 3 of the hit sitcom Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper meets his girlfriend Amy Farrah
Fowler for the first time. Their first conversation consists of this bit of
dialogue-
Amy Farrah Fowler: In any case, I'm here because my mother
and I have agreed that I will date at least once a year.
Sheldon Cooper: Interesting. My mother and I have the same
agreement about church. Amy Farrah Fowler: I don't object to the concept of a deity, but I'm baffled by the notion of one that takes attendance.
Sheldon Cooper: Well then, you might want to avoid East Texas.
Well, Amy Farrah Fowler, I, too, am baffled by the notion of
a God that takes attendance. But when you believe that going to church is a
part of your salvation, you also believe God takes attendance. Then, you start
acting like it, some more literally than others. When I was studying my
undergrad at Lancaster Bible College, I was required to attend chapel three
times a week. To prove that I was actually there in chapel, I had to scan my school
ID badge before entering. I had another friend who went to a different Bible
college. They too had mandatory chapel three days a week, but unlike Lancaster
Bible College, they didn't have the technology to scan in, so they literally
had to sign in for chapel. Yeah, obviously church is not like this. I don't
have to scan in or sign into church, yet we still sometimes act like it. It's
like we expect one day for Jesus to return in bodily form at our church, and
the first thing he's going to do is start taking roll call. It's like we expect
that when we appear before God, whether that be before the great white throne
or the bema seat, we expect God to bring up our church attendance. We fear he
may say something along the lines of, "You only came to church about 67%
of the time? Geez, you know that 67% is a failing grade in some places. This is
really going to hurt your participation points." Once again, this is all a
side effect of believing that your salvation is affected by your attendance at
church. And it wouldn't surprise me if some Christians today still think or act
this way.
So a lot of pastors got the message out that going to church
did not make you a born-again Christian, and it did not save you from the fires
of hell. They emphasize that each and every person must make a personal
committed relationship with Jesus Christ. That's what saved you from your sin,
death and hell, and that's what put you on the path to heaven. After salvation,
they emphasized a personal devotion time with God, consisting of private Bible
reading and private prayer, to live out salvation. This all cause the church
pendulum to swing in the opposite direction. The evangelical church has a
theological term for this: reductionism. What is reductionism? If you haven't
caught on yet, you'll notice what I just described emphasizes individualism:
individual salvation, individual relationship with God, individual Bible
reading and individual prayer. Reductionism is when the Christian faith is
reduced down to these three concepts: individualize salvation through an
individual relationship with Jesus, individualized Bible reading and
individualized prayer.
Now, believe it or
not, reductionism does have its strengths. As crazy as this sounds, earlier in
church history, you would've been told that you cannot have a meaningful
spiritual experience with God outside of church. Reductionism reminded us that
you can indeed have a meaningful spiritual experience with God, even if you are
alone, even if you're by yourself, even if you're out in the middle of nowhere.
We go doubt that Moses had meaningful spiritual experiences with God on Mount
Sinai (or Elijah for that matter in 1 Kings 19), nor do we doubt Jesus had
meaningful spiritual experiences with God when he went alone to pray to his Father.
But as you can imagine, this has some negative drawbacks as well. Think about
it. If you individualize everything about the faith, good luck convincing
anyone to do anything corporate. Therefore, the evangelical church is having
the hardest time convincing people to come to church. If everything about the
faith of individualized, and salvation is not dependent on church, then why
bother to go? The best thing the evangelical church can do to get people into
church is to convince them that the church is a service, not for God, but for
you. The church is there to make sure you are spiritually healthy and
spiritually fit. Just like you go to the doctor when you're sick, or you go to
the mechanic to get your car fixed, the church is there to serve you, so when
you get spiritually unhealthy, the church can make you spiritually healthy again,
and when you're spiritually broken, the church can spiritually fix you. This
view can only do so much. Let's stick with our metaphor of the doctor and the
auto mechanic. You've probably been in this position before. You went to your
doctor to get in your annual physical. The doctor does some tests. At the end,
the doctor says, "Yeah, you're healthy. That'll be $25” (and that's
assuming you have good health insurance). Similarly, you didn't do your auto
mechanic to get the car inspected. Your mechanic runs a few tests. At the end,
the car mechanic reports to you, "Your car is running just fine. That will
be $88." In both instances, you're thinking to yourself, "Gee, I
could have told them that for cheaper than what they are charging!" Well,
that's how a lot of people feel about the church. If they feel like they're
spiritually healthy, they see no need to go to a place that will either verify
that they are spiritually healthy or disagree with them, telling them their
spiritually unhealthy, and all at a price of a 10% tithe!
To sum up reductionism, I would like to quote D.G. Hart, a
leader in the evangelical church, who is struggling alongside the evangelical
church to decide the importance and significance of the church. D.G. Hart is
quoting saying, "If, as the evangelicals believe, the most important
aspect of Christianity is a personal friendship with God through private Bible
reading and prayer, then who needs the ministry of the church?" And that's
exactly what reductionism has done to the church. It’s left everyone
questioning, “Why do I need the church?” and it has no answers.
Applying Psalm 84
At this point, I imagine you too have some questions you
want answered. You might be wondering, “How can we avoid this pendulum swing?
How can we get the pendulum to stop right in the middle, a balance between public,
corporate church and private, individualized church, a balance between needing
church for salvation and church being an optional, only desired when wanting a
spiritual tune-up? What can we do?” Would I sound blasphemous or heretical if I
suggested that there is nothing that we can do?
I italicized do
because I want to do draw emphasis to that word. When we say we want to do something, we mean we want to act,
but I think acting and doing in this case can actually be a roadblock. I assume
that many of you reading this have been born again Christians for years. You
know what to do. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you're already doing them.
Even if you don't know what to do or how to act, there are tons of books and websites
out there that will exhaustively list all the spiritual disciplines you can
practice and how to practice them. They would do a better job than I could here
and now, so anything I attempted would be redundant. Doing and acting also can
be a roadblock because not all applications have to involve activity. Application
can be passive, just simply be. Of course, the natural question to follow is, “How
do you passively just be?” and then my temptation would be to give you a list of
dos, which would be counterproductive. Trust me, I know there’s a very thin
line between doing and being.
One of my pet peeves is when people start categorizing Bible
verses into doctrine verses and application verses. I actually believe all the
Bible is application. It's just a matter of how to apply it. That falls into 3
categories. The first category you're most familiar with as application. It is
known by the theological term of orthopraxis. This theological term comes from
the Greek language. The Greek prefix ortho
most literally means “straight,” “upright,” “right,” or “correct,” but it also
carries a connotation of “sameness,” “like-minded,” “agreement” and
“consensus.” Don’t get me wrong. This does not mean “This is the right truth
because we all agree on it.” Rather, it means quite the opposite. It means, “We
all need to come a like-minded consensus on this truth because it is the right
truth.” Once again, we already see that true Biblical application is just as
much about community as it is about truth. The Greek verb praxis means “to do” or “to act” (this is where we get the English
word “practice”). Therefore, the goal of orthopraxis is to get everyone to act
correctly that is, acting in a godly, Christ-like manner. This is what we think
of most often when we think of application, but it’s not the only application.
Another application you might think of is orthodoxy. The doxy orthodoxy means
“thinking.” Therefore, the goal of orthodoxy is to get everyone to think
correctly, that is, thinking in a godly, Christ-like manner. I sometime call
this “checking off on your doctrinal statement.” Again, a common application,
but there’s still one more. The last application is orthopathy. The goal of
orthopathy is to get everyone to feel correctly, that is, feeling in a godly,
Christ-like manner. I believe that’s where Psalm 84 falls.
Psalm 84 isn't commanding you to do anything or act in a
certain way. As stated above, you're probably already doing enough, and if not,
there's plenty of other Bible verses that can teach you what to do. Psalm 84
isn't instructing you to think a certain. Psalm 84 states the truths
matter-of-factly, like it's common sense. The purpose of Psalm 84 is to get you
to honestly and sincerely ask yourself, “Do I have a heart to dwell in the
presence of God just as psalmist in Psalm 84?” If not, then Psalm 84 motivates you
to make your heart match the heart of the psalmist in Psalm 84. So does your
heart match the psalmist in Psalm 84? Do you have a heart to dwell in the
presence of God? Do you desire the presence of God in your life above
everything else, so much so that it hurts to be apart from God’s presence? Would
you go any distance just to be in God’s dwelling place? I hate to be this
blunt, but if you answered no to any of those rhetorical questions, there's
something wrong with you.
I know the 2 most common objections that will come up right now,
and to be honest, you could target right back at me. The first and foremost
object has you thinking along the lines of, “But Graham, some people just have
to work on Sunday mornings to stay alive and provide a living for their family.
Heck, weren’t you even working a Sunday morning job at one point?” Indeed, I
was at one point in my life working every other Sunday just so I could move out
of my parents’ home and move closer to my then-fiancée now-wife Carrie. (But to
be fair to me, in my defense, my boss told me at my interview that Sunday
mornings were voluntary. He failed to inform me that if no one volunteered, I have
to work every other Sunday. If I would have known that, I probably wouldn't
have taken the job.) So yes, I do understand that some people just have to work
on Sunday mornings to stay alive and support their family, I get it. Heck, I
would even go as far as to say that if a person worked 10 hours a day, 6 days a
week, and that person slept in on Sunday mornings because it is their only day
to sleep in, I understand that, too. After all, the Sabbath is to be a day of
rest. I could easily accuse those who work of Sunday morning of not having
enough faith to trust God to provide a job that doesn't interfere with Sunday
morning worship, but a feel that’s a cop-out. What if the Lord did provide that
job, in order that the person may in turn provide for his family? What if that
person’s act of worship is providing a godly, Christ-like work ethic to his
boss (I can relate to that)? Furthermore, I don't like that accusation because
I once again feel like that's focusing too much on the do. Psalm 84 brings up
questions of feeling. How do you feel about working on Sunday? For me, I hated
and dreaded it! I wanted to be at church, not at work. Once the boss dismissed
me, I would race to church (I will not mention how much over the speed limit I
was going) hoping to catch some church, even if it was the benediction. When I
no longer had to work on Sundays, I felt a joy swell up in my heart, not
because I had full weekend off now, but because I could now go to church every
Sunday morning to worship my Lord and King. If don’t go to church out of
necessity, but your heart hates or dislikes it, then your heart is in the right
place.
If you don’t go to church out of necessity, but your heart
doesn’t mind it, likes it or enjoys it, I might question your heart. I will
wonder and be worried that you might end up like one of Bible quizzing friends.
When I was a Bible quizzer, I quizzed with this one quizzing girl. This certain
girl I came to know as a sister in Christ who was really seeking God. She
wanted to know all the spiritual disciplines, and she wanted to practice each
and every one of them. She knew all different ways to read the Bible, and she
knew all types of prayers. She practiced everything from evangelism and discipline
to fasting and retreats of silence and solitude. So many Christians looked up
to her for spiritual discernment. Shortly after graduating high school, she started
seeking work, so she could move out of her parents’ home. The first job she
found was for the local grocery store. They wanted her to work Saturday and
Sunday mornings. At first, she was appalled. She had grown up going to church
every Sunday as a child. Soon, though, she quickly justified skipping church
work, using the extreme sides of the pendulum swing I just mentioned. She told
herself that going to church doesn’t bring about salvation, so she was still a
born again Christian, even though she did not attend church. She told herself
that she could individually practice her faith, through private Bible reading
and private prayer. Just before she took this job, we talked about it over
Facebook chat. I tried to remind her of the pros and cons, but she seemed set
on taking this job. I offered her my prayers, and that’s where the conversation
ended. We pretty much stopped communicating after that (which might be just
coincidence), but Facebook kept me updated on her, and I started noticing
changes. She started smoking. She started drinking. She started cursing. She
got a tattoo. Now, she’s a single mother. Now, although she no longer has that
Sunday morning job, she no longer attends any church because she doesn’t like
any church.
I know we could debate on whether those things I just listed
are sins or not, and I’d be more than glad to have a conversation about the
purpose of God giving people laws and commands (that’s for another time). What
I’m trying to illustrate is that I noticed a girl go from very godly, very
spiritual and very counter-cultural, to a girl who is very cultural and very
worldly. I don’t want to oversimplify it, but I can only see one common
denominator: she ceased going to church. Christians can no longer fool
themselves into thinking they can practice the faith alone. We turn into the
people around us, in one way or another. I’ll admit that one of the reasons I
avoid sin is because I know that if I sin, you might stop listening to me for
Biblical insight, and you might be the least judgmental person in the world! As
a church, we equip, edify and encourage one another to live out godly,
Christian lives. This alone is a good reason why Christians should develop hearts
that desire church.
The second objection goes something along the lines of this:
“But Graham, the Sabbath isn’t meant solely for worship. It’s also meant to be
a day of rest. You yourself even admitted earlier that you understand if a
person working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week would want to sleep in on a Sunday
morning. Heck, I’ve seen you on Sunday mornings during the fall. You dart out
of the church, so you can make the 1 o’clock kickoff of the football game!”
Indeed, I did say that I understand a person working 10 hours a day, 6 days a
week wanting to sleep in on Sunday mornings. But once again, I ask you, “Where
is your heart?” If you are sleeping in on a Sunday morning to get the rest you
to be a godly witness to your boss, supervisor and co-workers for the rest of
the week, I get it. But if you sleep on Sunday mornings for church, but you get
up early on Sunday mornings to leave for your week-long beach vacation or to
grab your coffee at Starbucks before you go on a morning, then there’s a heart
issue. That’s what Psalm 84 is asking us to do. Psalm 84 encourages us to
honestly and sincerely ask ourselves, “Where is my heart?” and to fix it if it
needs fixing.
So yes, I will confess that I do want to make the 1 o’clock
football kickoff, but I know where my heart is. One time, my wife Carrie
offered to buy me tickets to a 1 o’clock Philadelphia Eagles football game. I
looked at her sadly and said, “But then I’ll miss church.” One time, my wife
Carrie and I were planning to attend Philadelphia Eagles training camp. When I
found out the only days left were Sunday mornings, I immediately cancelled
those plans because I did not want to miss church. Once, Carrie and I went down
to Virginia Beach for the weekend. She asked me what the one thing I wanted to
do was. Of course, I told her I wanted to go to church! I can look deep inside
my heart and honestly answer that I put church before football. Can you look
into your heart and sincerely say that you put church before everything else?
In the commentary Opening
Up the Psalms, pastor Roger Ellsworth tells this story: “One of my
fellow-pastors had a church member who refused to attend church because he
claimed to be unable to sit on a pew for any length of time. But one day this
pastor passed by the pool hall and noticed this gentleman sitting there. Three
hours later the pastor went by the pool hall again and noticed the man sitting
in the same place. The pastor, thinking the pool hall must have had some very
comfortable seats, went inside. The only seats he found were old, unpadded
church pews!”
I’ve heard it once said, “There is no such thing as ‘busy.’
There are only priorities.” Think about it. When you say, “I’m busy,” you’re
really saying, “There is something else of higher priority I must do instead,
which will not allow me to do what you just asked.” We should never be busy for
God or his dwelling in our lives. God and his dwelling place should be our
highest priority.
Concluding Psalm 84
I get. Sometimes the struggle to desire God and his dwelling
place is because we don’t have a God that we can visually see or audibly hear.
That’s why we can spends hours with family or friends, yet a half hour, even a
quarter hour, with God can seem like a struggle. If you do struggle with that,
read the book of Revelation. To borrow the words of the Apostle Paul, right
now, when we dwell in the presence of God, it is looking into a poor reflection
of a dimly lit mirror. One day, though, we will dwell with God, face-to-face.
Remember practicing the presence of God is just that. It’s practice for the day
when we will walk with God and talk with God side-by-side, right to his face.
May that thought fuel the fire of desiring God’s presence in your place of
worship.
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