Blessed Are Those In Your House

The Psalms – The Language of Our Faith

Psalm 84 - Blessed Are Those in Your House

April 15, 2018

Psalms 84:1-4 NIV

“How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young — a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.”

Place gathers us.

Place matters. Home is where our family gathers. Our home is sacred because of the people who gather there.

Place protects us.

One of the great tragedies and pains of homelessness is the loss of place.

Place gives us shared identity.

“Try to be together as much as possible.” St Ignatius of Antioch

There are no Christians in the NT who are not members of a community called a church.

All the stories we get about Jesus are from churches!

The church will always be a community of imperfect people

• Church – “Assembly” or “the gathering of frail human beings”

• The first stories in Scripture are God forming a group of people who will be completely devoted to Him and live in a sacred community ultimately becoming a light for the Gentiles.

Acts 2:44-47 NIV

“All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

• Church is not just hanging out with our friends or the people we choose.

We need people we have not yet met and people we have not met need us. Church chooses us.

• Sure, it would be easier to isolate myself among a tribe of homogenous people, but church does not give us that luxury.

Church gives us the privilege of loving people unlike ourselves.

Jesus is the head of the church

Ephesians 1:22-23 NIV

“And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

The Holy Spirit was sent to the church to form us in the image of Jesus.

We cannot be fully mature followers of Christ without the community of the church.