10 - CPR (Metamorphosis)

Text: “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.” (Ps 84:1-4, NASB)

Theme: Psalm 84 shows us the pathway to a renewed heart and strength.

Intro: When I was about eighteen years old, my church was offering an infant CPR course. I was so active in church life that whatever the program, I signed up for it. At the time, I had no kids. And there were no infants in my family. But for some reason, I took the course. About seven years later, what I learned on that day helped save Gideon’s life. He was about one year old, and he began to choke. Immediately, I put into practice the techniques I learned. Quickly the blockage of food was unlodged, and he began to breathe again. And since that time, I’ve had to use the first aid techniques several times with our other children.

Today, we will meditate on Psalm 84. It’s a Psalm that has three distinct portions. First, there is the ‘C’ portion––communion. Second, the ‘P’ portion––pressing. And third, the ‘R’ portion––rejoicing. Our hearts are revived and strengthened by these three things: 1) Communing with God, 2) Pressing on in our pilgrimage, and 3) Rejoicing in the Lord.

1) Crave communion with God (Ps 84:1-4)

In the first portion of this Psalm, the Psalmist craves for communion with God.

He’s consumed with being where God dwells.

Observe how the Psalm begins: “How lovely are Your dwelling places, Yahweh Ts’vaot” (Ps 84:1).

The original begins with the Hebrew word MAH מה, which means ‘what’ or ‘how’.

Here it’s an exclamation: ‘What loveliness!” or “How beloved!”

It’s a statement of wonder, praise and amazement.

Today, the churches that welcome Jesus are the Lord’s dwelling places.

This is always the vision and purpose of our church.

It’s this Psalm (Psalm 84) and Psalm 23, which summarise who we are and what we are doing.”

Our purpose is to be a dwelling place for God.

And as we host God’s presence, God does the work and moving, restoring and making people how.

And I’m jealous that the Lord feels at home here and that we host him.

Sadly, we live in a generation where we’ve lost our all-consuming passion and yearning for Yahweh’s courts and house.

We’ve become casual about the Lord’s courts, hosting his presence and craving communion with him.

Not everybody but a large portion of God’s people have lost a burning desire for Yahweh’s courts.

Our goal is to pioneer a new way––to be a Davidic people.

The sons of Korah were a Davidic people. They followed in the footsteps of their spiritual father, David (Beloved).

There’s so much we can learn from David. He was someone that longed for God’s manifest glory to dwell where he lived (Ps 132:1-5; 2 Sam. 6:1-23).

“How blessed are those who dwell [יָשַׁב yashav] in Your house! They are ever praising you” (Ps 84:5).

אַ֭שְׁרֵי יוֹשְׁבֵ֣י בֵיתֶ֑ךָ ע֝֗וֹד יְֽהַלְל֥וּךָ סֶּֽלָה׃

Yashav is the Hebrew equivalent of meno: abide.

There are a few Hebrew words that are associated with meno, abide. But its yashav – to dwell, sit to remain – that is the closest equivalent to Jesus’ exhortation in John 15.

It’s out of this abiding, dwelling and resting in God that all fruitfulness flows.

It’s communion with God that revives and restores us.

It’s the first part of spiritual CPR.

It’s learning Psalm 131.

See www.brisbanefire.com Psalm 131 infographic.

2) Press on in your pilgrimage with Jesus (Ps 84:5-8).

Psalm 84 is a pilgrimage Psalm, and the Jews probably sang it when they journeyed to Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles.

The pilgrimages that Israel took were a small picture of our lives journey.

It takes God’s strength to go on a pilgrimage (v. 5).

Why? Because on a pilgrimage, there’s ups and downs. There are dry and barren places. There’s beautiful views but also traps and pitfalls.

But here is the good news: Jesus is with us on the journey.

Jesus is both our Shepherd and our Goal.

This is what I saw in the vision the Lord gave me last week.

The pilgrimage is also a core part of who we are in Church on the Park and Holy Fire Fellowship.

And you don’t want to trade this great spiritual heritage for the instant gratification of a pot of stew, like Esau.

As believers, we should constantly be growing, learning and challenging ourselves.

This is what our church and Bible School are about. They are to equip and challenge you on your journey.

Listen to Paul in Philippians 3:7-16.

When I was in the vision last week, the Lord spoke to me something. But it was challenging, and last week I felt not to share it.

Here’s the conversation I had with God as he showed me the happy people dancing and singing. And at that time, he also showed me the pilgrimage and himself as the goal.

The Lord said to me: “People are misunderstanding you.”

And I replied, “Why, Lord?”

“Because they are hearing and seeing your word through their own filters and lenses.”

“How can I keep them from misunderstanding?”

“Tell them to take off their filters and lenses. The world is seen much better through my eyes.”

The Lord went on to say, “That’s why Isaiah said, ‘The whole earth is filled with the glory of the LORD’ when he quoted the Seraphim.”

“The whole earth is full of my glory.”

Then the Lord said, “My people need to see with my eyes––and they will see with faith, hope and love––not fear, dread and anger.”

“The world wants to make you fearful of my shakings. But my shakings are good––it teaches the world righteousness.

Then the Lord said, “By not spending time with me, my people are missing out on so much of what I want to show them and give to them. Take a little time to be with me, to rest in my presence. Let me be you shepherd.”

This leads us to the last portion of Psalm 84.

3) Rejoice in the Lord always (Ps 84:9-12).

The joy of the Lord––our continual celebration of who he is, his house and all he has done––is our strength on this journey (Neh. 8:10).

And how? By the power of the Holy Spirit within.

In every situation and circumstance, the Lord is doing something good.

Yes, we recognise the devil is trying to do something too. But if you focus on the devil, you will become proud, bitter, angry and resentful, just like he is.

There is always a reason to rejoice in the Lord.

Three times this Psalm features the Hebrew word: ashrey אשרי

It’s the word ashrey that starts both the Psalms and Psalm 119.

Ashrey means happy, blessed, filled with joy, satisfied and fulfilled.

It encapsulates the effervescent joy of the one who dwells in God’s house, finds strength in God and trusts in the Lord.

One of the other unique features about this Psalm is that four times it refers to God as Yahweh Ts’vaot יהוה צבאות or Yahweh Elohim Ts’vaot יהוה אלהים צבאות.

This means that God is the Lord of the armies.

And it refers to three specific things: 1) He’s Lord of the heavenly armies: the angels, 2) He’s Lord of his army of earth: his people, 3) And lastly, he is Lord of every created thing: the host of the heavens and earth.

Here we see that on our pilgrimage Yahweh of the armies is with us.

In other words, he sends his angelic army as our entourage.

So we are not journeying alone. Jesus is with us and his angelic army is going before us.

As we talked about a few months ago, we belong to two camps. And these two camps: the earthy and the heavenly intersect one another.

In the humility of our earthly camp, the Lord’s Kingdom breaks out with signs, wonders and miracles; with angelic visitations; with visions and dreams; with supernatural strength and provision.

Conclusion: Let’s remember these three things everyday of our lives. It’s the CPR that will save you from ordinary living. 1) Crave communion with God, 2) Press on in your pilgrimage with Jesus, and 3) Rejoice in the Lord always by the Holy Spirit’s power.

ENDNOTES

“In whose hearts are the highways” (Ps 84:5, NASB)

The meaning of מסלות בלבבם is the subject of some debate, but the meaning “pilgrimage” seems to be strongly supported by LXX and the context. LXX’s ἀναβάσεις, “a going up,” could be equal to תעלות, “ascent,” but this is equal to “pilgrimage” (so Kirkpatrick, 507), and it is probable that the LXX translators were reading חסלות, “roads/highways.” In the context the “roads” are the pilgrimage roads of ascent to the temple (one always goes “up” to a temple). RSV and NRSV have, “in whose heart are the highways (to Zion).” NEB has, “whose hearts are set on pilgrim ways”; Weiser (565): “when he meditates in his heart on pilgrimages”; NJV: “whose mind is on the [pilgrim] highways.” Dahood (II, 281) opts for the metaphorical sense of סלל, “think highly of/exalt” (cf. Prov 4:8) and reads as “extolments”: “from whose heart are your extolments.” It is true that this parallels nicely with v 5b: “How blest … / who continually praise you // How blest … / from whose heart are your extolments.” But it seems better to read v 6 with vv 7–8 (dwelling in the temple in v 5 does not correlate too well with “extolments in the heart” in v 6). V 6 may very well have a double entendre (in a good sense) on the “ways”: the “ways” of pilgrimage and the “ways” of God in a metaphysical sense. They are both in the heart of the pilgrim.