Sermon Tone Analysis

Every summer we go through a different book in the Psalms—there are five altogether, and this year we’re on book 3 ( to 89).

That’s not going to happen.

We’ll probably pick up the chronology again next week, but this week has been strange for me.

Through a difficult conversation with my wife last weekend, I suddenly began to realize that

I had a difficult conversation early in the week that rocked me to my core.

It wasn’t the intention of the person I was talking to that I be rocked like that; she was speaking about something entirely different.

But as we spoke the lines began to be drawn more and more clearly in my head, and as our conversation progressed I got this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that got bigger and bigger, because I remembered something I’d heard a long time ago from a pastor I trust.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened last week.

But for some reason, this time, the things that didn’t

I was preaching at a wedding last Sunday, and I wasn’t here.

I came home and I asked Loanne how things went, and she told me how things went.

Things went well—the guys who set up worked hard, even though they’d never done it before and had no idea what to do; Paul preached a great message that did me good (listen to the sermon if you haven’t yet); the musicians faithfully led us in worship, as usual.

I asked Loanne how things went, and she told me how things went.

Things went well—the guys who set up worked hard, even though they’d never done it before and had no idea what to do; Paul preached a great message that did me good (listen to the sermon if you haven’t yet); the musicians faithfully led us in worship, as usual.

I was preaching at a wedding last Sunday, and I wasn’t here.

I came home and I asked Loanne how things went, and she told me how things went.

Things went well—the guys who set up worked hard, even though they’d never done it before and had no idea what to do; Paul preached a great message that did me good (listen to the sermon if you haven’t yet); the musicians faithfully led us in worship, as usual.

Even so, as our conversation progressed I got this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

He said that within the first few years of beginning pastoral ministry in a church, what’s wrong with the church is what’s wrong with you.

It’s hyperbole, of course—you guys sin too, and all of that can’t be laid at my feet.

But some of it can, and some of it should.

There are some harmful habits and characteristics that our church has picked up over the last four years, particularly in regards to the way we gather together on Sundays, and as much as it hurts me to say it, some of these habits come from me.

I thought about this realization long after the conversation I had; I was up in the middle of the night burping Zadie after a late-night feeding, and I felt the weight of it so strongly I couldn’t get back to sleep.

I had already read through to 89 a few times preparing for this series, and I knew I would have to come here, to , today, and I knew I would have to say this.

This will make more sense as we go along, so I’ll invite you to go to , and to begin reading with me at verse 1.

The House of My God

84 To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith.

A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

In , the psalmist is writing about the temple in Jerusalem, and his joy at being able to come worship in the temple.

We see in v. 1:

1  How lovely is your dwelling place,

O Lord of hosts!

The temple in Jerusalem was the place where God manifested his presence to the people of Israel; it was the place where his people came to worship together.

And we see the psalmist describe his own feeling about the temple, v. 2:

for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and flesh sing for joy

to the living God.

3  Even the sparrow finds a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may lay her young,

2  My soul longs, yes, faints

at your altars, O Lord of hosts,

my King and my God.

4  Blessed are those who dwell in your house,

ever singing your praise!

Selah

5  Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

6  As they go through the Valley of Baca

for the courts of the Lord;

they make it a place of springs;

the early rain also covers it with pools.

7  They go from strength to strength;

It was, in a very real sense, heaven on earth: God’s presence could dwell there fully, and man could fully know God.

each one appears before God in Zion.

8  O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;

give ear, O God of Jacob!

Selah

my heart and flesh sing for joy

9  Behold our shield, O God;

look on the face of your anointed!

10  For a day in your courts is better

heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day

than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

Then man sinned, and that sin separated him from God—and man has been trying to find God ever since.

So God came to Abraham and promised to make a great nation of his descendants, and that this people would be his people, and he would be their God—they would have the privilege of knowing God.

than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

11  For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

to the living God.

the Lord bestows favor and honor.

Anon, 2016.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

No good thing does he withhold

But they were sinners, and God is a holy God.

So they needed a way for God to manifest his presence to them without simply destroying them.

And the way God provided for that was, firstly, the tabernacle.

from those who walk uprightly.

This is the kind of language we saw in the Song of Songs a couple weeks ago; a lover speaks this way of his beloved.

When I first moved to France I had to leave the country for three months while we waited for our marriage paperwork to go through, and Loanne already had a job so she had to stay here.

This was before Skype or Facetime, and before phone plans where you could call the U.S. for free.

So for three months we didn’t see each other, and we only spoke on the phone very occasionally.

12  O Lord of hosts,

The tabernacle was a big tent they would set up, with all the religious tools God had told them to build.

The people would make sacrifices there, to atone for their sins, and only after going through a long process of rituals could they come int

blessed is the one who trusts in you!

The best way I can describe those three months is to say it was like holding my breath: you know that burning in your lungs, and in your head, when you hold your breath for a long time?

I remembered my wife’s face, and I felt an ache in my heart to see her again.

And when I finally came back to France, and saw her again in the airport, it was like I could finally breathe again.

Anon, 2016.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

This is the feeling the psalmist describes when he is not in the temple, but he wants to be, more than anything.

And then he gives reasons why he feels this way, v. 3:

V. 3:

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.

The house of God is so desirable because here even the most insignificant find a place to rest, and a home.