Longing for the House of God

WELCOME:

If your not coming on Wednesdays, your missing out! We have the absolute best food, fellowship and Bible study. It really is an enjoyable time. This week we will be in Rom 6:15-23

Next Sunday evening at 6:00 we will host a Missions Celebration here for the association. Please make plans to attend. There will be four speakers and light refreshments afterwards.

SCRIPTURE READING:

Psalm 66:1–7 “Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; Sing the glory of His name; Make His praise glorious. Say to God, “How awesome are Your works! Because of the greatness of Your power Your enemies will give feigned obedience to You. “All the earth will worship You, And will sing praises to You; They will sing praises to Your name.” Selah. Come and see the works of God, Who is awesome in His deeds toward the sons of men. He turned the sea into dry land; They passed through the river on foot; There let us rejoice in Him! He rules by His might forever; His eyes keep watch on the nations; Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.”

LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!

“The Goodness of God”

Words and Music by Hillsong’

PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS

Lord, thank you for your constancy. For never turning Your back on us, for never getting frustrated with us, for forgiving our sins, for allowing us to be part of Your plan. We ask that You would look down upon this gathering of people and fill our hearts with great joy today as we focus on You. Amen!

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS

Lord, give us ears to hear Your voice and eyes to see Your glory. Would you this morning illuminate Your Word and make it known to us? Help us no to make application to others peoples’ lives, but to apply every Word to our own lives. Amen

SERMON

INTRODUCTION:

Psalm 84 is a Psalm believed to have been sung by God’s people on their way to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. This Psalm was written by the sons of Korah and is broken up into three sections each one recording a different part of the journey to the temple. Worship in Israel was different than it is for us today. Today we have places of worship all over the land that we gather to every week, but in Israel there was only one place that people had to come to. There was only one place where sacrifices were made, one place where the priests ministered and only one place where the ark of the Covennat dwelled and that was the temple in Jerusalem. So, at least 3 times a year worshipers from near and far would make the trip to Jerusalem to worship the living God.

What you will notice as we make a way through this psalm is that this reads like a love story of one who cherished the presence of God more than anything else.

The longing in his heart to go and be at the Lord’s house (v 1-4)

The dependency upon God required for those who make the journey (v 5-8),

The satisfaction had in his relationship with God (v 10-12).

And it’s nearly impossible to not hold this Psalm up next to our hearts through each stanza, through each break and say is this me? Is this my heart? Do I love the Lord like this? Have I ever loved the Lord like this?

The longing to go and be in the presence of God (v 1-4)

Psalm 84:1–4 NASB95

How lovely are Your dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. The bird also has found a house, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts, My King and my God. How blessed are those who dwell in Your house! They are ever praising You. Selah.

Explanation:

(v 1-2) “How lovely are Your dwelling places, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord”

“Dwelling places” and “courts of the Lord” is again a reference to the temple. There was one place where God could be found in the Old Covenant and that was the temple. The Psalmist longed or yearned to be at the temple, because he longed to worship the Lord.

Let’s not make the mistake of thinking about the temple like the disciples did in Matthew chapter 24, who admired the structure of the temple buildings.

There are many beautiful churches today and places of worship that can attract us, but they are nothing more than brick and mortar!

Its not the building that the made this Psalmist yearn to be there. It was the fact that God dwelled there! It was nearness to God that he desired! It was to be in God’s presence, around God’s people, at the place that was dedicated wholly to the living God.

Bridge:

Again, things are different for us today after the resurrection. God does not dwell in a temple in Jerusalem. Now we have access to God everywhere because the NT says our bodies are the temples, the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and we have access to God through Jesus Christ who is our Great High Priest.

But, that doesn’t mean we can just throw this Psalm out the window because it does not apply to us. Because the principle of God’s people gathering together to worship the Lord is still very much a part of our Christian lives!

The NT also says that Matt chapter 18 which is specifically teaching about church discipline, that “where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” (Matt 18:20)

When we come together to gather, to worship and sing, to serve one another through our spiritual gifts, and to carry out church discipline, all the marks of a NT church, Jesus says I am there in your midst.

In other words, Jesus is present with us today in this place as we gather together in His name.

Application:

Worship services should be arranged around an encounter with the living God.

This is why we open the service with Scripture. We open with God’s Word often about His greatness, His grandeur, His holiness, to get our minds thinking about who God is.

And then we move into singing, because that is our response to what we just read. How lovely you are God, How mighty you are God, How good are you God, let’s sing with joy about these things that we know to be true because we believe them! (v 2) “my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God”

Then we move into the sermon where God speaks to us with authority from His Word. And we listen, we should open our hearts to receive anything that God may have to say to us. AND we should come with hearts saying, what do you have for me today God! Oh what would you have for me to hear from you today!? Not what do you have for that person over there! What do you have for me! Or what do you have for the church as a whole.

And then we have a time of response. An invitation. Where we get to respond to what God has just said.

Church is not about how good the programs are!

Church is not about if my child gets all the applesauce packs in they want!

Church is not about if we like or dislike the building that we meet in or the if they sing the kind of music we like!

It’s about coming to have an encounter with God. Any expectation outside of that is going to miss out on what worship is all about!

(v 3-4) “The bird also has found a house, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts, My King and my God. How blessed are those who dwell in Your house! They are ever praising You. Selah”

This last line is a beatitude, the first of three in this Psalm. “How blessed are those who dwell in Your house”.

A Beatitude states what is true about someone who has that virtue. In this beatitude, those who dwell at the house of God are blessed! FORTUNATE! FAVORED! HAPPY! LUCKY! BLESSED!

Even here he is envious of the birds because they get to make their nests in the alters of God’s temple and live there!

Those who long for an encounter with God are BLESSED! Those who long for Sunday because they greatly desire to experience God in a real and tangible way are fortunate people.

How about you?

How about me?

I think church has become so routine, so self focused, so number driven, so business minded that meeting with God is rarely even a thought anymore.

The dependency upon God required to make the journey (v 5-8)

Psalm 84:5–8 NASB95

How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, In whose heart are the highways to Zion! Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring; The early rain also covers it with blessings. They go from strength to strength, Every one of them appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; Give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah.

Explanation:

After the Selah, the Psalmist is no longer yearning to go to the house of God, but he is on his way there. And the subject changes from how lovely the House of God is to the long journey there.

And I just want to remind you, that for some people who made this journey in Israel, is was quite a journey. EXAMPLE: The distance from Bethlehem to Jerusalem was about 90 miles and would take about a week to make that trip in those days.

So it was not nearly as easy as hopping in our heated vehicles and driving 15 minutes down the road to the local church. THERE WERE RISKS INVOLVED. MANY WOULD LEAVE THEIR HOMES, FLOCKS, AND SERVANTS BEHIND TRUSTING IN GOD THAT HE WOULD WORK EVERYTHING OUT WHILE THEY WERE GONE TO WORSHIP THE LORD.

That is why this section begins with: “how blessed is the man whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion!”.

What does it mean for someone’s strength to be in the Lord?

Example:

Let’s go back to man who is traveling from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Three times a year (during Pentecost, the feast of weeks, and the feast of booths) all able bodied Israelite men had to go up to Jerusalem to the temple for worship. And lets say our example here had to spend a week traveling there, about a week there, and then a week traveling back home.

Now someone who has their strength in themselves would say: “I cant go up to Jerusalem this time. I have a barley harvest coming in, I have three sick sheep, I have plants to get in the ground, I cannot give up three weeks of work this fall to travel all the way to Jerusalem. And besides it is dangerous, I may not even make it back to my family! How will they ever survive without me?!

I’m sorry but God will understand. I cant leave everything behind! I have to stay here and take care of my own…

His strength was in himself, what he had to do to take care of himself because he did not trust that God would take care it for him.

Now lets think about someone whose strength in in the Lord

He has the same responsibilities as the former man, and the same risks involved with his harvest and he is traveling from the same town.

But he is not dependent upon himself. He is knows that if he makes the Lord his priority everything else will work out! He knows that God has the ability to take care of his animals, to make his harvest work out, to protect his household while he is gone. His strength is in the Lord, not himself. So he makes the journey with the highways of Zion in his heart.

(v 7) “They go from strength to strength, Every one of them appears before God in Zion”

This initial strength in the Lord has now increased!

It’s not what he had at the beginning. Maybe there was some initial fear or difficulty leaving everything behind in God’s hands as they made this pilgrimage, but now that strength has increased! Their trust has increased!

You ever look at these missionaries, and even read the biblical stories of people who do amazing things for the Lord? I mean how could someone pack up their family and move to India for years to live as a full-time missionary and leave everything behind?

Or how could those early disciples hear the call to follow Jesus and at the blink of an eye drop their nets and leave their boats and their fathers and go and follow Jesus?

I would every movement toward God is going to require our strength to be in God and every movement away from God will happen every time we put our strength in ourselves.

And that step towards God causes our strength in God to increase. And the movement away from God causes our strength to decrease.

This should causes us to ask, where do I put my strength?

Is it in me? Do I secretly think inside that if I don’t take care of myself, I will be in trouble.

Or Do we live by this principle: Psalm 28:7 “The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped”

The satisfaction had in his relationship with God (9-12)

Psalm 84:9–12 NASB95

Behold our shield, O God, And look upon the face of Your anointed. For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, How blessed is the man who trusts in You!

Explanation:

(v 9) “Behold our shield, O God, And look upon the face of Your anointed. For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”

Now we change scenes again. No longer is he on the road, traveling to the temple. He has made it and now he stands there in the sanctuary, in the very presence of God.

And all the anticipation and yearning in his heart to be in the presence of God is exactly what he hoped it would be, and he says, A day here is better than a thousand days anywhere else.

He would rather be there than home. He would rather be there than a vacation to Rome. He would rather be there than in the marketplace shopping. In fact it is a thousand times better in God’s courts than it is ANYWHERE else in the world.

And we may say, well if he had to do what I had to do, then he might now say that. If he had to come here and watch these children, or if he had to spend two days preparing a sermon, or if he had to come here and clean the toilets then I bet he would rather be at home on the couch.

But he goes on to say, “I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”

Some translations say, “I would rather be a door keeper” and that is because that is what is in mind here. The sons of Korah were the doorkeepers of the temple.

So what he is saying I would rather be there and be serving as the gatekeeper of God’s house than dwelling in the tents of wickedness.

I would rather be here without heat, and without all the comforts this life has to offer, than sitting somewhere else that makes life so easy but has nothing to do with God.

(v 11) “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

I love this verse. NO good thing does God withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Let’s just think about these words. :“No good thing does He withhold”

Not one!

EVERY SINGLE GOOD THING that can possibly come into the life of the upright will come.

Now here’s the rebuttal: Well I wanted to get that job or that house and I prayed and I prayed and it never came to pass. So maybe this verse really isn’t true. Or maybe its not true for me.

But what is true is everything that may seem good to us is not good because what is good is also right!

And there is a difference in good according to what we think and good according to our specifc lives.

There are good things that God does not give us because if He gave them to us it would ruin us spiritually.

But everything that will do us good, God gives to us.

But this is not true for all people….It is true for those who “walk up rightly”.

That mean those who are complete or sound!

Often when a teacher or preacher is evaluated for a position in a church, one of the things he is evaluated for is whether or not he is theologically sound. The worst thing that could happen to a church is to bring in false teaching.

A sound person is one who does what is right! Not what is good, not what seems best, not what everyone else has done…BUT what is right by God’s standards!

To those people: God will withhold nothing good from you! Everything good that could possibly come into your life, it will come because GOD WILL CAUSE IT TO FALL RIGHT INTO YOUR LAP

(v 12) “O Lord of hosts, How blessed is the man who trusts in You!”

Now notice this is also a beatitude like before. And what does this beatitude say? “how blessed is the man who trusts in you”

I think this is the structure that holds the whole Psalm together:

One doesn’t anticipate going to the place of worship to have an encounter with God unless he truly trusts in God.

One doesn’t rely upon the Lord for his source of strength unless he truly trusts in Him.

One doesn’t believe that the highest good a human being could have is being in the very presence of God, as close to God as he could possibly be.

THIS IS THE WAY TO LIVE!

A life that does not trust God with his life, is no way of life at all!

The person whose strength is in themselves is no way to live, that is misery!

God has so created us, He has created you to trust in Him! To depend upon Him! To yearn for Him! To search for Him! To listen to Him! To be with Him!

And that is the person whose strength is truly happy. That is the person who is truly fortunate.

What is it that makes your heart beat? If it’s not the Lord, you’re settling for second or third or fourth best in your life

We do not have a temple today with the ark of the Covenant.

But we do have a Great High Priest who can bring us in communion with God.

He is the bridge, He is way, He is the mediator between God and man and no man may come to the father except through Him.

If He is not Your Lord, come to Jesus today.

~PRAYER~