Introduction
What we should remember when studying the Psalms:
The Psalms are filled with Praise. This is so helpful when we consider our own need to praise God in prayer. This reminds us that we should be willing to praise even when times are difficult and we struggle. What a wonderful sourcebook of songs and prayers.
The Psalms address suffering. The Psalms address the most difficult experiences and struggles of life without glossing over them. The authors of the Psalms face death, adultery, murder, loneliness, fear, and the presence of enemies. They are written by a variety of people facing various difficult circumstances. There are times when the Psalmists look up to God in utter loss and ask if He is even listening. For me, this makes the Psalms a valuable faith resource.
The Psalms are a different type of literature from the rest of the Bible. We typically categorize them as poetry. The language of the Psalms reaches out and touches the heart by expressing the yearnings and struggles experienced in life. This is the power of the Psalms. They recognize that even men and women of faith and strength can crumble into questions and doubts.
The Psalms that express the greatest pain often end with great praise. Just because one is going through struggles and wonders what God is up to doesn’t mean they are giving up on God. This is important because all of us will face pain in our lives.
The Psalms are at home in your Bible. The Psalter is not in a separate space from the rest of Scripture. The Psalms are like a mesh that extends into several other books of the Bible. There are accounts from the history of Israel found in the Psalms. Jesus was familiar with the Psalms, as all good Jewish people in the first century were. There are phrases and thoughts from the Psalms in Apostle Paul’s writings. There are over four hundred quotations or allusions to the Psalms in the New Testament. The early church also used the Psalms to buttress their preaching and to find encouragement in times of persecution.
Singing selected psalms was a part of their worship and should be a part of the church’s worship today. As I see it, this makes the Psalms unique in your Bible. They seem to have connections that bring richness and awareness of God’s work among his people throughout the ages. What a treasure!
The Psalms are basically prayers. The prayers of the people of Israel. They are primarily community prayers… but individual prayer is here as well. Prayer brings us to God. It allows us to think God’s thoughts after God, and it serves, with other spiritual disciplines, to conform us to the image of God’s Son, Jesus. (Dunnam)
We are not studying the Psalms; we are allowing the Psalms to study us and to speak to us the things of God. (Dunnam). Gary Holloway said it this way, “While we read the Bible, it reads us, opening the depths of our being to the overpowering love of God.” McCann affirmed that “the psalms are both as humanity’s words to God and God’s word to humanity.” Wiersbe wrote that primarily, “The psalms are about God and His relationship to His creation, the nations of the world, Israel, and His believing people.” Wiersbe wrote, “The book of Psalms has been and still is the irreplaceable devotional guide, prayer book, and hymnal of the people of God.
We are spending some time with Psalm 84 in this lesson. McCann suggests that “Psalm 84 is perhaps the most expressive and beautiful of all the songs of Zion.”
Often called one of the Pilgrim Psalms. “...A poem which expresses a longing to be worshipping God in his temple, and which opens a sequence of psalms that seem to have been intended for people travelling to Jerusalem for one of the great festivals, most likely the feast of Tabernacles.” (Willcock)
The theme is our longing for God - as contemporary a theme as could be presented.
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Psalm 84
1 How lovely is your dwelling place, 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, Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baka, 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, Lord God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob.
9 Look on 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 Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.
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In these twelve verses we have a description of what it means to want to be close to the Lord.
1. God’s Dwelling Place is Lovely
(1-2 How lovely is your dwelling place, 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.”)
Where is God’s dwelling place? For these pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem, the temple is in mind. The Temple was a grand and beautiful building but what made it special and meaningful is the presence of God. The presence of God in the Holy of Holies was reserved for priests alone. Yet even though they could not enter this interior space, it was a joy to be where God represented himself as living. Wilcock: “The psalmist is in love not so much with the beloved house of God, as with God himself…” The Tabernacle, Temple, Church, and even our own bodies are presented as dwelling places for God in Scripture.
Notice the complete expression of experience here: My soul yearns / faints, My heart and my flesh cry out. This is a totally involved desire to be with God in his dwelling place. Wherever God is, is lovely …a place that moves our hearts.
When the church is gathered and God is present, we are moved with adoration.
When we are alone and calling upon him, we are grateful to know He is near.
2. God’s Dwelling Place is Welcoming
(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, Lord Almighty, my King and my God.)
Alter: “Small birds such as swallows may well have nested in the little crevices of the roughly dressed stones that constituted the Temple facade. The Speaker, yearning for the sacred zone of the Temple, is envious of these small creatures happy in the Temple precincts.”
The Smallest creatures that are most often overlooked are welcome in the presence of God. Not only in the home of the Lord, but near the altar … a place of sacrifice, prayer, worship. Jesus said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29-31).
If the birds of the air can make their homes at the temple, how much more should God’s people? (Erickson) If you ever wondered if God would really care about you … here is a clue … He does.
3. God’s Dwelling Place is a Source of Blessing!
(4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.)
Here are the first two of three Old Testament Beatitudes in this Psalm.
The ones who are blessed are praising God! (4)
The ones who are blessed are finding strength for the journey! (5)
We also receive these blessings or find this kind of inner peace and joy. When we realize how close God really is and how much he loves us, we are ever praising him. Wiersbe wrote, “How easy it is for us to take for granted the privilege of worshiping ‘the living God’ a privilege purchased for us on the cross.” When we realize that our true strength is to be found in God and not in ourselves, we are blessed as we journey towards the eternal Kingdom. Ephesians 6:10 says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.”
4. God’s Presence will Carry us through Difficult Days.
(6 As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.)
Valley of Baka is an unknown location - apparently a dry place, to which the pilgrims bring relief. Baca is a Hebrew word meaning “balsam tree,” and the sap of this tree oozes like tears. The “Valley of Baca” is a name for any difficult and painful place in life where everything seems hopeless and you feel helpless, like “the pit of despair.” (Wiersbe) The people who love God expect to pass through this valley and not remain there. They get a blessing from the experience and leave a blessing behind. (Wiersbe) Willcock: “Even the many for whom this life is a real ‘vale of tears’ may yet find that grace enables them to go from strength to strength till they reach the joy of heaven.”
Wiersbe said that the God described in the book of Psalms is both transcendent and immanent, far above us and yet personally with us in our pilgrim journey. He is “God Most High” and “immanuel—God with us.”
Strength is needed for the journey - both the pilgrimage to the temple - and in the journey of our lives.
5. Praying God’s Presence With the King
(8-10 Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob. Look on our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one.)
The Psalmist calls upon God for protection and favor for the King. “Our shield / anointed one. A reminder to us to pray for those who are in authority over us. “God of Jacob” - always reminds me that God is our God in spite of our many failures and disappointments. Jacob was a deceiver, someone who had few redeeming qualities but with God’s help became the father of the twelve tribes and a person of amazing influence.
6. God’s Presence Becomes the Priority of Life
(11 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.)
When we love God with all of our heart, the priorities of life change. Better than anything else that we can find in this world is to be in the presence of God. This kind of devotion to God reminds us of Matthew 6:33 “ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” In the Magnolia Messenger, Danny Dodd had an article about this verse. He identified the qualities of God’s House that make it better than anywhere else!
Permanency - God’s house is eternal.
Praise-Filled - Eventually a new song of Moses and the Lamb is sung, “Holy Holy Holy”.
Presence - Psalm 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
Purpose - instead of living for the “wicked tents” we get to be “doorkeepers” in the house of God. Your service to God is meaningful and takes priority over everything else!
If only this could be the perspective of God’s people today - but this life lures many away from the most important thing - being in God’s presence.
7. In God’s Presence is Favor and Blessing
(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.)
God is a sun and shield
Sun - warmth, brightness, necessary illumination for the path ahead
Sheild - protects and gives grace and glory.
When our walk is “blameless” - committed to Him - God will walk with us all the way.
Conclusion:
The third beatitude in this Psalm: 12 “Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.” I know that the church building is not the dwelling place of God, but when His Family gathers to worship, the Lord is present and inhabits that place of praise. It is easy to let something we do very often cause us to be bored with it. Sometimes we let the exciting things of life take more of our heart than the faithful, steady presence of a God who loves us. This Psalm reminds us of the value of recognizing the presence of God and regarding that as motive to live and serve and love Him.
Isaac Watts wrote a hymn based on this Psalm. The final stanza:
To spend one day within the place, Where my dear Lord has been,
Is sweeter than ten thousand days, Of earth’s most vaunted sin.
Author: Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Prayer: God, to be with you is the answer to all my heart’s longing. To dwell with you, to be in your courts, to live in your house is the promise I hang on to in the hardest days. I sing your praises and grow more and more grateful that you are the sun lighting my path, the shield protecting me from the Enemy, the One who blessed me more than I can say. If all I could be was a doorkeeper in your house, I would be satisfied forever. I trust you, Lord! Thank you! Amen. (Source: Dobbs, Lord Hear My Prayer)
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Resources
Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible, Volume 3 The Writings. Norton & Company, 2019.
Dobbs, John E.. Lord, Hear My Prayer: Prayers & Prompts From the Psalms. Amazon, 2024.
Dunnam, Maxie. Living the Psalms: A Confidence for All Seasons. Upper Room Books: Nashville, 1990.
Erickson, Nancy L. The NIV Application Commentary on the Bible One Volume Edition. Zondervan Academic, 2024.
Holloway, Gary. Psalms: Hymns of God’s People. Leafwood Publishers: Abilene. 2022.
Mays, James Luther. Interpretation Bible Commentary. Psalms. John Knox Press, 1994.
McCann, J. Clinton Jr. The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary: The Book of Psalms. Abingdon Press, Nashville. 2015.
Waltke, Bruce K. and Fred G. Zapper. 10 Things You Should Know About the Psalms. https://www.crossway.org/articles/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-psalms/
Watts, Isaac. My Soul, How Lovely Is The Place https://metropolitantabernacle.org/worship/my-soul-how-lovely-is-the-place-psalm-84/
Weirsbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: Job—Song of Solomon. David C. Cook, 2004.
Wilcock, Michael. The Bible Speaks Today Series: The Message of Psalms 1-72. InterVarsity Press, 2001.
Wilcock, Michael. The Bible Speaks Today Series: The Message of Psalms 73-150. InterVarsity Press, 2001.
