Sermon Tone Analysis

Reflections on the Psalms: Blessed Before God [Psalm 84]

Stand for the reading of the word of God [Psalm 84]

Okay, there are so many different ways to try to approach this psalm, but here’s what I want to do based on something that’s utterly unique about this psalm.

So out of 150 psalms, this is the only psalm that uses this word, “blessed,” three times like this psalm does.

You might circle it in your Bible every time you see it.

Verse four, the psalmist says, “Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise!”

So that’s number one.

Then verse five: “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” That’s number two.

And then last, verse 12: “O LORD of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!”

So three times the psalmist talks about how blessed different people are.

I want to use these three acknowledgments of blessing for the outline of how we walk through this text.

This psalm is all about blessing, and the blessing revolves around being in the presence of God.

So let’s start with what the psalmist was saying then.

Our goal whenever we start in the Bible is always to start by stepping into the shoes of the original writer, the original readers, to discern what God was saying in His Word—what God’s Word meant then—because that’s going to drive and determine how we understand what God is saying in His Word, what God means for us to hear from Him today.

For the Psalmist then...

It was a blessing to work in the temple

We’ll start with what the psalmist was saying then about blessing.

There are three things I think he was saying.

One, the psalmist was saying it is a blessing to work in the temple.

So this is the first thing.

It was a blessing to work in the temple to the psalmist then.

You will notice, and in order to get this you’ve got to look, even before verse one, at the ascription next to the number 84 in your Bible, where it says, “To the chief musician: on an instrument of Gath.

A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.”

That last part, “A Psalm of the Sons of Korah,” is critical to understanding the 12 verses that follow in this psalm.

If this psalm was written by them or sung by them, then we need to know who they are.

So this is where I want you to hold your place real quickly here in Psalm 84, and then turn with me back to 1 Chronicles 9.

So you’re going to take a left back—just a few different books—you’ll come to 1 Chronicles 9 because I want to give you a little context for Psalm 84 …

This psalm is talking about being in the presence of God.

And so throughout the history of God’s people in the Old Testament, God had set up a physical place in the middle of his people that would symbolize His presence among them.

It started with the Ark of the Covenant that was placed in the tabernacle, which was basically a tent that moved as the people of God moved and symbolized God’s presence among His people.

It served as the place where the people would gather together to offer sacrifices and sing praises to God.

Then when King David came to Jerusalem on Mt.

Zion, he brought the ark into the city, and the tabernacle was set up there.

Later, under King David’s son, King Solomon, this was where the temple was built.

So it was a more established placed that signified God’s presence among His people.

Now, when it came to the tabernacle, or the temple, God appointed different people from different families who would be responsible for all the work that would go on in or around the tabernacle and the temple, including: its construction, its maintenance, its operation in the worship life of Israel.

So different people from different families had different assignments: some priests, some Levites, some others doing different duties.

This is where the sons of Korah come in.

So look at 1 Chronicles 9 at this list of names and families.

If you look real quickly at verse 10 it’s talking about the priests.

Verse 14 is talking about the Levites.

Then you get to verse 17.

Read what it says there.

The gatekeepers were Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman, and their kinsmen (Shallum was the chief); until then they were in the king’s gate on the east side as the gatekeepers of the camps of the Levites.

Shallum the son of Kore, son of Ebiasaph, son of Korah, and his kinsmen of his fathers’ house, the Korahites, were in charge of the work of the service, keepers of the thresholds of the tent, as their fathers had been in charge of the camp of the LORD, keepers of the entrance.

Did you hear that?

The Korahites, the sons of Korah, “were in charge of the work of the service, keepers of the thresholds of the tent.”

So this was the designated responsibility of the sons of Korah.

They were gatekeepers, who stood at the threshold of the tabernacle.

And that’s where they worked.

They worked as doorkeepers of the place that God had symbolized as God’s presence in the middle of His people.

Now, understanding that, turn back to Psalm 84, and doesn’t that just shed all kinds of light on what we just read?

You know, you almost hear these words from a whole new perspective.

How lovely is your dwelling place,

O LORD of hosts!

My soul longs, yes, faints

for the courts of the LORD …

Even the sparrow finds a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself …

Blessed are those who dwell in your house …

Which is what they did!

When he says, “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness,” at the end of verse 10, this is not a hypothetical; this is reality.

He loves what he does.

So this is different from other psalms, like Psalm 42 and 43, that expresses a psalmist’s longing for the presence of God when he’s away from the tabernacle or away from the temple.

There’s a reference to that later in this psalm, as the sons of Korah sing about those who don’t have the privilege of dwelling in the tabernacle that they do.

So we’ll get to that, but, first and foremost, this psalm’s a celebration of people who dwell in the very place that symbolizes God’s presence.

And they love what they do.

They are not bored.

They can’t get enough of what they do.

Verse 10, “A day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.”

So the psalmist here, representing the sons of Korah, is singing about how he loved to be in God’s presence, how much he loved the dwelling place of God, so much so that he longed, yes faints, to be there.

And this from a guy who’s always there! He’s talking about the tabernacle with language of love poetry.

There’s an appetite for God here that is insatiable.

He wants more and more and more of God.

And notice—this is key—it’s not the place that he longs for as much as the Person whose presence dwells in that place.

Now, we’ve got to be careful—just a side note here—when we think about the tabernacle or the temple that symbolized the presence of God—not to think that God was only present there.

That’s not what the Old Testament teaches.

Even Solomon, when he was dedicated in the temple, said, “Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!”

Then he goes on to pray (this is from 1 Kings 8):

… that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place.

And listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place.

And listen in heaven your dwelling place …

So catch this: the Bible talks about how God dwells in heaven.

At the same time, the Old Testament talks about God’s dwelling on earth in the tabernacle and the temple.

And, at the same time, the Bible talks about God being omnipresent, dwelling everywhere on earth and in heaven.

So when you think tabernacle or temple, don’t think the only place where God dwells.

Instead, think the place that God shows in the Old Testament to dwell in a particular, powerful way among His people.

And if that’s the case, this psalmist wanted to be there.

He longed for communion with God in the courts of the tabernacle or the temple.

He loved that place, because he longed for God’s presence.

He even looks up into the structure of this place, and he sees sparrows and swallows that have set up nests there.

And he says, “That is best of all.”

It’s great imagery—the presence of God as the place where the humble find a home.

The sparrow used throughout Scripture to describe a humble, lowly, common, seemingly worthless bird.

Jesus pointed out in Matthew 10 how two of them are sold for a penny, yet this simple bird finds majestic meaning by having a house in the presence of God.

It’s really a great description, when you think about it, of the people of God: humble, lowly, common people who find majestic meaning in gathering before God.

The presence of God is a place where the humble find a home.

And where the restless find a refuge, a swallow, a fast-moving bird through the air, back and forth in different directions, wearing out anybody who tries to watch its movements.

And yet, here in the presence of God, that same bird, a swallow, builds a nest and settles down to rest with her young.

It’s a great illustration of what Augustine, a church father, said: “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.”