Lovely Nests in God’s Courtyard
Notes
Transcript
Lovely Nests in God’s Courtyard
Lovely Nests in God’s Courtyard
Bear with me as I read a Psalm.
I ask you to listen to the description the Psalmist makes.
Let your mind draw the picture of this location:
What does it look like
What sounds are there
What scents does your nose catch
Who do you see there
For the choir director: A psalm of the descendants of Korah, to be accompanied by a stringed instrument.
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God!
What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises. Interlude
What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord, who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.
They will continue to grow stronger, and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.
O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, hear my prayer. Listen, O God of Jacob. Interlude
O God, look with favor upon the king, our shield! Show favor to the one you have anointed.
A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.
For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.
O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, what joy for those who trust in you.
The Psalmist has an exalted view of the dwelling place of God…
Likely the psalmist lived while the temple or tabernacle stood.
Or perhaps it is a late Psalm and they only heard about it.
The Psalm is dedicated to the descendants of Korah
The Korahites were charged to carry the holy and most holy objects of the tabernacle.
Meaning, once the furniture was prepared for travel, they carried it
They must be careful
They must be precise
It is a dangerous job
It must be placed in its exact position
Then the priest would uncover it and put the tabernacle back into use.
Paul picks up on this thought and makes a striking application:
Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
Or
Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,
Even Peter gets in on the concept…
And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.
Now, I want you to repeat the same process, but knowing that people individually and collectively form the earthly temple of God.
What does it look like
What sounds are there
What scents does your nose catch
Who do you see there
Let’s read that Psalm again
For the choir director: A psalm of the descendants of Korah, to be accompanied by a stringed instrument. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies. I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young at a place near your altar, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God! What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises. Interlude What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord, who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings. They will continue to grow stronger, and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem. O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, hear my prayer. Listen, O God of Jacob. Interlude O God, look with favor upon the king, our shield! Show favor to the one you have anointed. A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked. For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right. O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, what joy for those who trust in you.
Is this your view of the Body of Christ? The temple of the Holy Spirit?
Do you see this when you look around you?
I am beginning the last bit of seminary coursework and the last unit causes you to focus on a project of sorts.
My project is focused on leveraging DiscoveringME’s material to reach a broader audience and impact church leadership.
It will be an uphill battle.
I am noticing, because I must be sensitive to it, that many churches are suffering from a plague of evil leaders, false teachers, and ambivalent members and parents.
It seems it is possible to set the salvation of one above the abuse of some
It seems it is possible to set proper doctrine above proper disposition
It seems it is possible to set the pastor above his perversion
It seems it is possible to set the pennies above the people
How many of you are aware of the controversy of the opening ceremonies at the olympics?
How many of you are aware of these stories that occured during the same time period:
Pastor in N. Texas charged with sexual assault
Orlando Pastor found guilty of wife’s murder
Morris resigns from church (sex abuse)
Florida pastor faces death penalty over child abuse allegations
Pastor arrested for abusing his 14-year-old foster daughter
Pastor arrested for selling a 2-month old baby
I did a search for ‘Pastor charged with crime’ between Jan 1 and Aug 3, hide duplicates, and Google found 81,400 articles on the news tab.
I know for certain there are duplicates, but I simply ran out of time trying to count the unique stories
I stopped when I reached 500
In May of this year…I still had April, March, February, and January to go.
The ones passing through the Valley of Weeping make it a spring, yet spring rains make blessed pools. Bravery upon bravery, they will be seen by God.
Why, are we concentrating on the evil of the world when it seems evil has infiltrated so many of our churches?
And why is it that, of the stories I looked at, the majority of churches are the ‘conservative’ bible believing ones?
We would expect this in the ‘liberal’ churches, but it is not so common there.
Perhaps it is time we face some tough truths.
Lovely Nests in God’s Courtyard
Lovely Nests in God’s Courtyard
