HOW BELOVED IS YOUR DWELLING PLACE (PSALMS 84)
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In Hong Kong this year 2015 the most famous celebrity I have seen up-close is Yang Qian Hua near the Ferris Wheel park near the Central Piers in the summer. She was on a stage doing promotion for a social cause.
Who is the most famous person you’ve ever met? The most famous person I’ve ever met was Muhammad Ali in 1975 in Kuala Lumpur for the world heavyweight title with Joe Bugner. It was the biggest international event held in Malaysia at that time and a year after Ali won the heavyweight division for the second time. I was a teenager at that time and the Hilton Hotel was less than fifteen minutes walking from my home. All I could remember was the big man, his manager, hotel, the reporters, the entourage, the fans and the ladies around him. Six years later he retired, and another three years later he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. He was one of the greatest boxers of all time and was also known for his four marriages and other extramarital affairs.
Who is the most person you want to meet? What is he or she like? What kind of attitude do we need to have when we worship God, come into His presence? How is meeting God different from meeting celebrity? What would you hope to hear, say or do? How would your life be changed or blessed?
The passage has three blessed, one at the top, one in the middle, and one to end it.
Call for Calm
1 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. Selah (Ps 84:1-4)
The psalm begins with awe, adoration and acknowledgement. The psalms begin with a interrogative “how,” which is translated in the Psalms negatively as a “Why?” (Ps 2:1) or a “What?” (Ps 8:4) when it is the first word of a sentence, but this time it serves as an instruction and an inspiration rather than an interrogation and an injustice; an exclamation rather than a lamentation.
The adjective “lovely” is a rare translation; it is usually translated as “beloved” (Deut 33:12, Ps 60:5, 108:6, 127:2) or wellbeloved (Isa 5:1). Lovely is to describe the pleasure and dwelling, but beloved is the precious and delight, how beloved it is to the person rather than how beautiful the place is in itself. The “dwelling place” (v 1) is plural in Hebrew, so are “lovely” and “Almighty.” The phrase “Lord Almighty” appears more in this psalm than any psalm in the Bible. Up till now in verse one, we have the passion (how lovely), the place (dwelling place) and the person (Lord Almighty).
Three are three couplets and triplets up to verse 4. Dwelling place, courts and house (v 4) is one set, supposedly for the Lord’s place and residence. Lord Almighty, living God (v 2) and my King and My God (v 3) is His power and rule over us. My soul, my heart, my flesh is one, supposedly for the person and the relationship with us.
Dwelling place (v 1), courts (v 2) and house (v 4)
Lord Almighty (v 1), living God (v 2) and my King and My God (v 3)
My soul, my heart, my flesh (v 2)
The Lord’s place and residence in us. His power and rule over us. His person and relationship with us
The three verbs that begin in verse 2 are for praise. The first word and verb “yearn” in the verse is translated as longeth (Ps 84:2), desire (Job 14:15), greedy (Ps 17:12), but the next verb “faints” is translated as “spent” (Ps 31:10), consume (Ps 37:20), or finish (Gen 2:1) and end (Gen 2:2) in its first occurrences in the Bible. The next verb “cry out” is positive rather than negative, as it is translated as shout (Lev 9:24), rejoice (Deut 32:43), sing out (1 Chron 16:33), shout for joy (Ps 5:11), sing aloud (Ps 51:14), triumph (Ps 92:4). One is sighing, next is succeeding, the third is singing. One is to start, stop and savor. One is to enter, exit, enjoy. One is the depth, the second is the duration, and the last is the display.
The psalmist declares his inferiority, incompetency, intensity and impulse in the presence of God. To yearn is the passion, to faint is the progress, to cry out is to praise.
Verse 3 has two couplets, sparrow and swallow, house and nest. The couplet “sparrow” and “swallow” are plainly translated as bird (Gen 7:14) or fowl (Neh 5:18, except for two verses in Psalms (Ps 102:7). The house and nest is different in that the house is the residence and the nest is the room (Gen 6:14). The emphasis on “have/lay” her young limits the durations the young can stay at her nest. The more frequent translation of “put” (Gen 3:15) or “set” (Gen 41:33) her young gives more room for the young to stay longer at the nest till they are ready to fly away. Birds take two weeks to hatch their eggs and two weeks for the young to fly. It is constant, permanent, protracted, “the priests and Levites - the ministers of religion - who had their permanent abode near the tabernacle and the temple, and who were wholly devoted to the sacred duties of religion”(Barnes) The altars (v 3) is singular in NIV, but plural in Hebrew, which is unusual in Psalms. The word “altar” is more singular than plural in the Old Testament, outnumbering plural seven to one. Plural suggest there is lots of room.
Birds migrate annually, often north and south, for food, habitat, or weather, flying long-distance (14,000 km or 8,700 mi) and short-distance, from mountain to moor and from the cold to the coast. Small song birds tire easily and need rest. Agile birds need more energy flying.
This is the most “blessed” (vv 4, 5, 10) chapter in the psalms. The first of three blessedness is in our praise (v 4). The verb “praise” occurs the most in Psalms, 94 times in Psalms verse 13 times in Jeremiah and a paltry 11 times in Proverbs, and verse 4 is in intensive piel stem, meaning surely, praise thee. We can praise Him for His glorious name (1 Chron 29:13), the beauty of His holiness (2 Chron 20:21), His righteous judgments (Ps 119:164) and excellent greatness (Ps 150:2). The word “ever” means again (Gen 4:25), yet (Gen 7:4) and more (Gen 32:28). The unique contribution to praise in this psalm comes with the word “ever” or further, forever, from now on.
Chart the Course
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. 6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. 8 Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob. Selah (Ps 84:5-8)
What is strength to you? Is it physical? The first blessing is in the comfort, but the second is in the courage.
The second blessing belongs to those whose strength is in God (v 5). The example this time is a traveler instead of birds. The noun “strength” occurs three times in English (vv 5, 7 twice), but the words differ in Hebrew. The first word (v 5) translates as “strength” (60x), “strong” (17x) and power (11x), but both the second (v 7) as “army” (56x), “man of valour” (37x) and “host” (29x). One is abstract and mental, the other is actual and material. The first is in the power, but the second in the perseverance or pluck. Strength could be physical, quantifiable, numerical or moral in the Bible. For physical the translation is wealth (Gen 34:29), activity (Gen 47:6), army (Ex 14:9), able (Ex 18:21); for moral it is valiantly (Num 24:18), goods (Num 31:9),
Host (Num 31:14), war (Deut 3:18), substance (Deut 33:11), valour (Josh 1:14), virtuous (Ruth 3:11), power (1 Sam 9:1), a band of men (1 Sam 10:26), train (1 Kings 10:2), company (2 Chron 9:1), forces (2 Chron 17:2), might (Zech 4:6). The first is external, but the second is internal, like men t ladies.
The metaphors of valley and well versus and autumn rains (v 5) are a contrast of poverty versus plenty, singular versus plural (rains), danger versus downpour. The autumn rains is also translated as the former rain
(Joel 2:23), or the early rains from October to November after a six-month drought. The valley of Baca is “a low valley, through the weakness of grace; a rough one, through affliction; and a dark one, through desertion and temptation; and a valley of weeping and tears, on account both of outward and inward trials.” (John Gill)
The word for “pilgrimage” (v 5), which is never translated as such in the Bible, is high way (Num 20:19), courses (Judg 5:20), causeway (1 Chron 26:16) and path (Joel 2:8). It might as well be an obstacle course. It might as well be an obstacle course, but when they dig a well, the rain fills it. The setting is from gloom and gravity to glee and growth. The travelers are not short of obstacles or opportunities, hardship or help, danger and deliverance but they have the strength of the Lord to dig wells, find water, not give up. The point is they walk from strength to strength, not stumble, stray or surrender. The Lord is our shelter, spring and stronghold.
Choose Your Company
9 Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one. 10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. 12 O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you. (Ps 84:9-12)
The last three weeks of August 2015 were rather sad, somber and shocking for me because of my wife’s second cancer recurrence. The cancer was discovered in 2010, and then two years ago in 2013. Two months after her two years oral chemotherapy ended in May 2015, she felt pain in her left rib, shoulder and abdomen. I had a clearer understanding and deeper appreciation of the meaning of a hymn we often sang that came into my mind when I was first told she had to undergo targeted therapy:
I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold,
I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lad,
Yes, I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand.
The verb “rather” (v 10) has less bite than the regular 150x the word with the word “choose” in it: choose (77x), chosen (77x), choice (6x), choose...out (5x). It does not mean calculating, contemplating or considering, but choosing, claiming and continuing. It is not debating and discussing, but deciding and declaring. It is not assessing, but acting. It is not just your penchant or preference, but your pick and possession. The first blessedness is in the comfort, the second is in the courage, and the third is in our commitment, the blessedness of trusting in God (v 12) rather than in men.
It’s been said, “To choose means to say yes to one thing by saying no to another.” Choosing God means having, owning and loving God, and disowning and leaving the gold and goods and the goals of the world. The “tents of the wicked” (v 10) is contrasted with your courts and the house of my God (v 10), and by extension with your “dwelling place/tabernacles” (v 1) and altar (v 3). It is about whom you lie with, live with and liaison with. It is your camp or company and confidence; your rest or residence or reliance.
There are three Gs altogether – two wished upon the worshipper (grace, glory ) and one not withheld - goodness (v 11). In contrast to the second section the last section is what the Lord gives for those who trust in Him – favor and honor, or grace and glory in KJV (v 11). Grace is the elegance, glory is the eminence, and goodness is the excellence. The verb “withhold” (v 11) is translated as hinder (Num 22:16), kept back (Num 24:11), deny (1 Kings 20:7) and refrain (Prov 1:15).
Conclusion: There is no more blessedness in the Bible than abiding in Christ, being in His presence and getting to know Him. Do you long for His presence,
lean on His person and learn in His presence? Seek for His presence
Suffice in His Supply
Surrender to His Service
Blessed are those who dwell in your house
Blessed are those whose strength is in you
Blessed is the man who trusts in you
