Untitled Sermon (2)

Rogation Sunday: from the latin to ask.

This is a Sunday about prayer. And for the church both in its Old Testament days and today the Psalms are one of the most important prayer disciplines. When we stop to pray Psalms in the daily offices, and in our communion services we connect to the ancient practice of singing God’sword back to him. So today we are going to explore our Psalm and see how it trains us to pray.

So our Psalm today is Psalm 84.

Psalm of Korah. Often the Psalms are all ascribed to King David, but not all of them are written by David, although we suspect a large number are. This one is written by Korah, and though we dont know much about Korah the best guess is that he was a priest and poet hired by the king.

First Couplet

[1] How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!

In the way ancient people saw the world, they understood that there was a physical realm along side an unseen spiritual realm, and a temple was place where those two met. The temples where the God’s dwelled where spaces of beuty. And the Temple of the Israelites would have been very beautiful, along side being described as having God’s constant presence in it and on it.

Also the Dwelling of God, the space that holds his beauty for us to behold. God is perfectly Holy and wonderful to behold and so his space reflects that part of his character. Heaven is not heaven for any other reason than God is there.

CS Lewis: Those who want Jesus just for heaven get neither.

[2] My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

Not only are we made complete in the presence of God, some part of us understands that we are incomplete apart from God, this seems obvious but its good to remember that there should be restlessness to us. Some part of us should long for more.

The problem is that so many seek the wrong more…money, success, power, leisure, mood-altering substances, romantic partners, academic success, athletic success, and a picture-perfect family…all good things but all should still leave us restless and desiring God.

Second Couplet

[3] Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.

In the Old Testament God’s care for his people is often associated with his care of the birds. Birds are vulnerable creatures, they are delicate, and completely reliant of the geography around them. And even more vulnerable are the babies of the birds. God cares for both and out side of his house.

[4] Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah

So how much more does God care for those who live within his house? They are blessed. And by the way, when you read more in-depth commentaries on the Bible, any description of a blessed person is called a beaditude.

Selah is just a place to take a pause…maybe a place for instrumentals. Its kind of lost to history.

Couplet 3

[5] Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

I don't read much poetry but one thing I am told of the genre is that authors will throw curve balls from time to time, hoping to catch your attention even further. So our current couplet is not 2 but three verses, a triplet.

This triplet looks at the experience of those who make the journey to the temple. Temples where built on high places, so psalms that looked to the experience of those in approach are called Psalms of ascent. Psalms to sing as you approach the temple.

[6] As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.

Valley of Baca, may mean the Valley of Tears, That is that God is caring for these pilgrims as they walk the Valley of Tears.

[7] They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.

The repeated phrase, again poetic language emphasizes the work of God to overwhelm his people with strength in pursuing his presence.

4th Couplet

[8] O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah

Now we go from exaltation to request. The Psalm this far has been a benediction or Good word on the beauty of God’s presence and the care of pilgrims…now a request. That God would hear them.

[9] Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed!

Hear them how? To look at their protector, the anointed one, the king. God has a royal function in the created order and the king is his functionary. So the request to look upon the king remember him, and strengthen him.

Couplet 5

[10] For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

The Psalmist is not saying I want to be with God for the benefit of being with God. If he was in it for the benefits he would stay in the well-appointed tent fo the wicked. He would rather be a nobody in God’s temple to have God. I dont want things I want God!

[11] For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

And by the way the having of God is having everything. Sun and Sheild…think of all the sun gives us, with the protection of God’s shield. And in all this you will get God’s good things.

[12] O LORD of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you! (ESV)

In light of God’s constant protection and provision, the blessed is the one who trusts in God.

So it's Rogation Sunday, a Sunday specifically revolving around prayer. This morning we are looking at this prayer, this Psalm, and hopefully, it is guiding us in our prayer lives. In light of this, how then should we pray?

Our prayers should celebrate God for God’s sake. It is good and right to thank God for things he has done for me…but if he had never done anything for me, we should celebrate God for God’s sake.

It is meet right and our bound and duty. …holy holy holy

We can trust that God cares for us in having watched him care for other. He cares for small birds…they are so vulnerable…he cares for me even though I have capability and strength.

God honors those who desire to be with him. In this Psalm, we see the celebration of God’s caring for the pilgrims, those who are seeking God. We are God’sconstant pilgrims. We are constantly to seek after God and he honors the effort.

Pray for the king! Pray for the means of God in this world. He is using the things of the created order to bring about his will. Pray for those means.

Treasure God. Not the benefits he brings but the having of God himself. We will have eternal life in the world to come because we are connected to Jesus the source of all life. That is what we should desire. Above the having of things.

Well God honors our prayer to be with him. We no longer have to pilgrim to the temple, Jesus pilgrimed to us. THe thing that separates us from God, sin and rebellion was paid for by the pilgriming work of Christ on the cross. And now that he has died and risen again he gives us the Holy Spirit that we can constantly be with him, and the communion table that we can have a physical encounter. Yes this will always be bread and wine, but alongside the spirit of Christ. We get what the Psalmist asked for, God himself.