Psalm 84 - Pastor David Deutsch

Pastor David Deutsch gives a message on Psalm 84 emphasizing the transformative power of gathering in God's presence, where worship, prayer, and singing allow believers to experience spiritual renewal and strength. It highlights the unique nature of time in worship, where moments in God's courts transcend ordinary time, becoming a foretaste of eternity. Ultimately, it celebrates the incomparable joy and blessing of being in communion with God and His people, declaring that even one day in His presence surpasses a thousand elsewhere.

Transcript

 Good morning, Soli Church. We were about to enter back into Luke 13, but on Friday morning, I called an audible. So, open your Bibles to Psalm 84 this morning. Psalm 84. Lord willing, we will return to Luke 13 next Lord's Day. But let's spend some time letting the psalm wash over us this morning. Psalm 84.

Hear the word of God. For the choir director, according to the Gittith, of the sons of Korah, a psalm. How lovely are your dwelling places, O Yahweh of hosts. I'm using the LSB. My soul has longed and even fainted for the courts of Yahweh. Amen. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the bird has found a home in the swallow, a nest for herself, where she sets her young at your altars.

Oh, Yahweh of hosts, my King and my God, how blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are ever praising you. How blessed is the man whose strength is in you and whose heart Are the highways to Zion passing through the valley of Baca. They make it a spring. The early rain also wraps it up with blessings.

They go from strength to strength. Each one of them appears before God in Zion. Oh, Yahweh, God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, oh God of Jacob. See our shield, oh God. And look upon the face of your anointed for better is a day in your. Courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would choose to stand at the threshold of the house of my God.

Then dwell in the tense of wickedness for Yahweh as a son and shield, Yahweh gives grace and glory. No good thing to see. Withhold from those who walk. Blamelessly. Oh, Yahweh of host. How blessed is the man who trusts in you. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Let us pray. Our God in heaven, we come to your word this morning and ask that you would grant us to hear you.

We need to hear you this morning, but we need to hear you with our hearts. Because according to your word this morning, our heart is where the highway to Zion is. It is our heart that's on pilgrimage to you. And so it is through our ears and with our hearts that we need to hear you this morning. We need the depths of our soul fed with your word.

We need our bodies nourished with your word. We need our whole persons with you in your presence today. Satisfied in your courts. Lead us there, I pray, through this psalm. In Jesus name we pray. As we come to Psalm 84 this morning, just a little bit of context to help us. The whole book of Psalms, the Psalter is composed of five books in the Psalter.

All 150 Psalms are made up of five books and they have a flow to them. The Psalter moves through a flow and it's a descent to an ascent, or we might say a humiliation to an ascent. to an exaltation. Really, the Psalms tell the story of Jesus in advance in poetry through the fall and rise of the Davidic kingship.

And of course, it's told to us through beautiful, formed and structured poetry. And the way these books unfold is the book. One of the Psalms goes from Psalm one to. Psalm 41, and that's the establishment of the Davidic kingship and Zion told in poetry. And in book two, we go from Psalm 42 to Psalm 72, and that's the fall of the Davidic kingship told in poetry.

In book three, we go from Psalm 73 to Psalm 89, and that's the fall of Zion and the temple told and poetic. metaphor and poetry. In book four, we go from Psalm 90 to Psalm 103 and that's the return of the King. And then in book five from Psalm 104 to Psalm 150, it's the establishment of the ideal kingdom and Zion and the true city.

And so we have this move through the Psalter of this fall and rise and this humiliation and this exaltation. And our Psalm, Psalm 84 is found in book three and book three is the book of the fall of Zion. And the fall of the temple and the Psalms that lead up to our Psalm, especially beginning in Psalm 77 are like what we've experienced this last week around us.

They are Psalms of devastation, but when we come to our Psalm, something changes. There's a dramatic change of tone when we get to Psalm 84, a dramatic change of temper when we get to Psalm 84. Life comes into sharp focus in Psalm 84 and what matters most becomes what is desired most. Let me say that again.

When we come to Psalm 84, when everything around is being devastated. Clarity happens. And what matters most Becomes what is desired most. There is a purity of desire here in Psalm 84, a fruitfulness of imagination, a transfiguring of time, a satisfaction in God and an experiential blessedness that the sons of Korah Tell us about, and so I'm actually going to just really do a gloss on this song when you start studying on a Friday at school with snatches and grabs, it's a gloss.

Okay. Um, and so just go with me. Um, this is not what I would normally do, but, but it will still be an exposition, but it's more just kind of a fly over gloss. Look at that. And look at that and look at that. Um, and, but I think there'll be some good stuff for us, uh, in there. Um, so. But let's start with the inscription of a psalm, because those inscriptions are there and they're on purpose.

Um, and so if you look at the inscription, it says for the choir director, so this is a psalm we're supposed to sing. This is a, this is not something that we're just only to preach on. Uh, this, this psalm is to have wings. This psalm is to have glory attached to it. This psalm is, topo is supposed to take up residence.

Within us and be a song in our souls. And we're supposed to lift this song up in praise. It becomes a part of our singing, of course. And, and singing is what we do when we love, right? Only the lover sings. And so, as Augustine said, and so that's what happens here. These sons of Korah are singing this song because that's what you do when you love.

According to the Giddith, ain't nobody know what the Giddith is. Um, so I don't, and you don't, and nobody does, so I just make it up. No, I'm kidding. Um, nobody knows. God put it in there, and maybe 500 years from now, somebody will discover what it is. Um, so, it's according to the Giddith, and you don't know the Giddith, and I don't know the Giddith.

Um, but notice also, of the sons The sons of Korah, and this is important because the sons of Korah, they've, they write different blocks of Psalms back to Psalm 42 and here, and they have some blocks of Psalms that are attributed to them. And it's important to know their story before we look at this Psalm.

The sons of Korah come from the tribe of Levi. So they come from a priestly tribe. And king david takes the sons of korah and he makes them A worship leaders in the temple. He says you're going to be John minx plural. Okay. Um, that's what you're going to be You're going to be you're you are you are going to be the worship leaders When the temple gets built you are going to lead god's people From the very threshold at the door of the temple all the way all the way in you are going to lead god's people In the worship of the living God, but their history is checkered.

This is not the group that you and I would have chosen to lead God's people in worship at the temple. If you know your Bible and you remember the Korah's name is attached to what? Korah's what? Rebellion, right? In the wilderness, Korah and his clan rebel against Moses and Aaron, and in Numbers chapter 16, a devastating judgment comes against Korah and his entire clan.

And Korah's entire clan is whittled down to one surviving son as a result of the rebellion against Moses and Aaron. And this one son survives and he becomes a clan again. And guess what? David chooses this once rebellious now renewed and redeemed clan to be the temple worship leaders in Israel. It's a beautiful redemption story.

And you see, ultimately the temple will give way to Jesus who will come and he will be the true temple. Jesus will be the true priest and the true elder brother who will lead us in worship. And as we are united to Christ, the church becomes the temple We are the temple that we worship at. We are the priesthood that worships and we are the singers in the house of God as the house of God.

We are the fulfillment of the sons of Korah. What we've done this morning is we are the sons of Korah already. And so this, what they have done is they have anticipated us in this psalm in Jesus. And so it's absolutely beautiful. Now, this psalm is structured according to three blessings. Okay, it's, there's three blessings there, and we'll look at that as we go through.

And the rhythm is kept by two Selahs, which we were having some fun with before church started. Nobody knows what Selah means, either really. It probably means restful guitar solo. Where you just pause and listen to somebody play and being played the guitar for a moment, take a breath and then move back in again.

But that's kind of the structure. You have these blessings punctuated by two say laws, but then that, but that structure is a flow that you're supposed to feel when you go through the song. When you get to a say law, you are, you're supposed to pause. And you are supposed to breathe and you are supposed to let what you just experienced sit on you for a bit before you move in.

Okay? Um, because again, you're supposed to sing this. Okay? And so as you're singing this, you're singing this and then you get to the Selah, then you rest a bit before you move on in. And so it's important, uh, that those types of rhythms stay with us because God made us for rhythm in that way. Amen. And so as we come to the psalm itself, uh, let's, let's gloss on it.

One verse at a time and see if we can't let it go through us. Verse one says, the psalmist says, how the sons of Korah say, how lovely are your dwelling places, O Yahweh of hosts. The how lovely there is interesting. He's not actually talking about the loveliness of the place. Um, the Hebrew is not talking about the place itself is lovely, that the courts are lovely or the dwelling places lovely.

The Hebrew is how. Okay. It's, it's how much I love the dwelling place. Not how, when I get there, I find it lovely. He's talking about the intensity of his own devotion, the intensity of his own love. Okay. And whether you have the ESV or whether you have the LSB or whatever, they translate it as lovely, but every commentary you read in every Hebrew grammar, you get, it's the other way around.

It's how much I love. And so from the very beginning, the sons of Korah, they love. The dwelling places of Yahweh, they love the places where the Lord has promised his special and covenantal presence. And you say, well, wait a minute here, isn't God everywhere present and doesn't it match then that we would love all of the places equally because God is equally present everywhere?

No, absolutely not. We cannot confuse the omnipresence of God with the special presence of God. And we cannot confuse the omnipresence of God with the covenant presence of God. God was equally omnipresent when he was specially present in the burning bush. Right? God was omnipresent when he was specially present in the pillar of cloud.

God was omnipresent when he was specially present in the glory cloud in the holy of holies. God has special manifestations. And covenantal presences that are unique manifestations that are different from his general omnipresence. And the Sons of Koran know that, that the ga, that the temple of God is one of those places where that happens.

And so for them, wherever it is, that God is going to manifest his special covenantal, unique presence, they love it. Do you, do you love? The gathering where God has promised to reveal himself in the special way that is different from the other ways. The temple that is the church of the living God. Can you say, Oh, how I love your dwelling places.

Oh, Yahweh of hosts. Not, not, not because of the dwelling place, but because of the one who reveals himself when we gather. because the one who shows himself differently when we're together than he does when we're apart. You see, because of the specialness of that, there's an intensity that's there. And I also want you to know that, that the Psalm, the Sons of Coral, they, they ran sack, the names of God.

And I think this is important for us, okay? There are so many names of God that are revealed to us in the scriptures, and it's important for us to recognize that we can ransack them all. Okay. We don't just have to, we just don't have to give ourselves to one. And so when we find ourselves in certain circumstances, it's good for us to reach out to the different names, the names of God and hang ourselves on different names of God at different times because the comfort that it brings.

And so because we're in book three, okay, um, we're in book three where we're dealing with the fall and devastation of the temple and of, and of Jerusalem, and we're longing for that thing to come back again, in which it's going to come back again, Yahweh of armies is the right way. to address God you see, it fits what faith needs at the moment.

And so even the name that's here, and in fact, if we had time to go back, go back in the Psalms before this, you will see that, as we go back further and further, the name of Yahweh is used less and less than the Psalms before this. And it's just Elohim. It's just the generic name for God and the Psalms before this, um, no Yahweh hardly found at all.

And then as you move closer to this Psalm, then it just explodes with Yahweh. Bye. In this particular song, and it explodes with Yahweh of armies, because that's, that's what they need to see. And that's who it's true who God is. And so who is it that dwells in our midst? It's Yahweh of armies. The God who fights for us.

You see, the God who fights for us is the God who is promises his special presence. In the midst of God's people. And we love it. How I, how we love it. How I love your dwelling places. Oh, Yahweh of hosts. How much do we love it? We love it so much that we long for it. Our whole desires of our lives are oriented towards it.

Towards the gathering of the worship of the Lord. Look at verse two. My soul has longed and even fainted for the courts of Yahweh. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. This is not just a part of him. The whole of the sons of Cora. This is a whole person to hunger, a whole person desire, his heart, the inside, his body, the outside, all of me is all in.

This is a consuming desire that he has not for the place, but for the living God who reveals himself there. He has reached the end. End of his humanity there. You see everything. My soul longed. I fainted for the courts of Yahweh. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. You see, he's reached his end when he's in the presence of the living God.

It's the one who dwells there, the one who has life in himself, the one who gives life to his people. People. And so I've got to be there because this is the answer to my soul. This is the answer to my fainting. This is the answer to my heart. This is the answer to my flesh. The living God is the answer to the totality of my desires and my hunger.

And what I, what I long for is found only in him. And it's interesting the way he brings that to me. The way that he returns that to me is when I sing for joy to him. My soul has long let even fainted for the courts of Yahweh. My heart and my soul, my flesh sing for joy to the living God. You see, that's why the psalmist says in another place that Yahweh sits enthroned.

Upon the praises of Israel. What does that mean? He inhabits our praises. You see, he inhabits them in such a way that it is through our singing that he actually comes to indwell and feed us with himself and satisfies us. That's why we cry out to sing to him and, and, and the deepest parts of us are satisfied.

And we do this together in community. They are the sons of Korah, not a son of Korah. You see, we are a choir together, a priestly choir gathered on the Lord's day so that He might inhabit our praises and satisfy us with Himself. We reach the end of ourselves when we are in the church, priesthood gathered, singing, and God is giving Himself to us.

It is the place where our desires are met, the deepest part of our desires as well as where our imaginations light up as well. Look at verse three. This is in advance of Jesus and talks of birds and sparrows and stuff already in advance. Verse three, even the bird has found a home. And the swallow, a nest for herself, where she sets her young at your altars, O Yahweh of hosts, my King and my God.

What a fruitful imagination the psalmist has with this clarity that he has, this purity of desire that he has for God. This fruitful imagination imagines himself like Jesus will come to say that we're supposed to imagine ourselves as birds nesting, cared for. And here it's It's that there's a home here.

Okay, even the bird has found a home. Okay, a nest, even a place for her young and this is it. Church is home. The gathered saints. When we gather with the saints, we're home. We're home. Church is home, right? And this is an advance on our eternal home. When we gather together as God's people. In the worship of the living God.

This is an advance of home and it is a taste of home and it's the beginning of home. And you'll notice that where this is, right? Look at where it is. I mean, where does this bird find a home for her and her young? It's at the altar. It's at the place of sacrifice. And there were two altars, right? One on the outside of the, of the tent of meeting and one on the outside and then one right on the inside as well.

This is where the blood was put. This is where the sacrifices were made. And so it's here. This is the place that we are at home, the place where the sacrifice is made. What binds us together. Is the blood that is shed here. This is what makes it a home where we are welcome because of the blood of another and not our own, you see, so that because of that blood that is shed, that's not our own blood.

We can say to this God, you are my King and you are my God. There's a covenantal relationship that is established through this blood where we can directly say to this God of armies, you are mine. You're my king and you're my God. And that is true of you. And that is true of me. I can say it of me that you're mine.

I can say it of you that you're my God and that you're my king. You see, and this is absolutely wonderful. And like he cares for the birds. So he cares for us. And this is the place that is the beginning of our home. It's absolutely amazing that our imagination should be there when we come, when we gather on the Lord's day again, you're saying, well, it's not, it's not the aesthetic of this place.

Do you understand that? I hope you do.

It is not the aesthetic of this place that makes it home. It's the aesthetic of this face that makes it this face and those faces. That's the difference. You see, the temple is made up of people. Now we are the temple of the Lord and this, this, this is what is beautiful. This is where it happens. This, this is, this is what makes it what it is.

And so it's absolutely amazing. And if you look at verse 4 then, we're not visitors, we're dwellers. Alright? It's wonderful. How blessed are those who dwell in your house. We don't rush in and rush out. This is where we belong. This is home. We're dwellers here. We're belongers here. Okay. This is home. This is, this is our people.

We're, we're family here. We dwell in this house together. Okay. Um, I want you to notice that word blessed there. This is important. Because there are two Hebrew words for blessed and I want you to track with me for a moment because I think this is This really matters. There's two Hebrew words for blessed one is Rebecca or baraka, right?

Um, which is the blessing that god gives So god gives the barak the baraka blessing and then there is the hebrew word asher And that's what happens to you when god gives you the baraka. So god comes to you and he's baraka. He Blesses you When he does that, you become Asher. You become the blessed. Okay.

That's what happens to you. You become the Asher. Okay. But what, what you need to understand is that this blessed here, all of the word, all three blessings here are Asher in the Hebrew in Psalm 84. It means every time you see this word in Psalm 84, it means you are the one who has received blessing from the Lord.

Okay. Not that the Lord has given it to you. It's already been given. You now are the blessed. You're not being blessed. If you've been blessed, now you are the blessed one. Okay? And that word Asher then is experiential. Okay? You are actually experiencing the blessedness of being the blessed one when you dwell in the house of the Lord.

Okay. And part of that word, I'm sorry to break down all of you super pious people in the room. Part of that word does actually mean happy. I'm sorry if you have a problem with happiness. Oh, well, God doesn't. Jesus doesn't. Okay. There are times in our life in which simply being happy is a good thing. Okay.

Now we don't live for happiness and we don't live from happiness, but God does give us times of happiness. There are times in your life in which it is just right to shake a leg, right? To just jig your leg. All right. And so I, I'm just saying that is, that is the case, right? So, I mean, here, here's the point.

You live off bananas, but sometimes you just want a Twinkie, right? And so the Twinkie makes you happy. All right. A banana makes you joyful because you think you're eating right. All right. And so, and so, but, but, but a Twinkie gives you five seconds of happiness, but man, it's a good five seconds of happiness, man.

When that thing is going down, right? So the salad. I guess it gives you joy because you feel like you're eating right. But man, on that day where you just are craving McDonald's french fries, hot and salty. You know, you know it has 37 ingredients from Area 51. You know that. You know that in advance, but for just that moment, man, just the whole thing is happy.

Um, uh, and it's okay. All right. So if you drive by and you see someone from solely in line at, uh, at McDonald's, just give them a thumbs up. It's just their five minutes of happiness that week. It's okay. They know what they're doing, right? Happiness is a good thing. It's a by product. It comes with being ushered by God.

Okay. Um, it comes with it. And so there are moments in which God gives us, uh, uh, seasons of which it's just things are rolling your way. Things are just a little bit good and a little bit lighter than usual. And it's okay to just enjoy it and laugh and be a little happy. You're just blessed for that particular season.

This is part of what it means to be God's people. God gave us belly laughter for a reason. He gave us the ability to express. for reason. It's not something you live off and it's not something you live for. It's a byproduct of something that God gives you as he gives you deeper things. But, but let's not be the Gnostic no no people who are afraid of, of God's, what he gives to us.

And so, Asher are those who dwell in your house. They are ever praising you. And part of that Asher is to have some happiness every once in a while that God himself gives. And you'll notice that again, the house, the dwellers in the house, what are they doing? They're praising the Lord. They are singing. to the Lord.

They, they, they, they know what they're there to do. They're there because they find that in Yahweh, their deepest satisfaction is answered and he's answering it while they're in the midst of praising him. Selah.

Okay. Verse five. After a little Selah. How blessed is the man whose strength in you in whose heart are the highways to Zion. How blessed, here we go, Asher again, the way we go, Asher, Asher. How blessed is the man whose strength is in you and whose heart are the highways to Zion. This is a beautiful verse.

In Hebrew, it's Asher is the Adam. Asher is the Adam. How blessed is the man whose strength is in you. You in whose heart are the highways to Zion. Now, this is interesting, the way that this verse is constructed is it links to the, to the previous verse and it links to the next verse. Those who are at home in the worship of God find strength in life.

How blessed is a man whose strength is in you. That's found, strength that's found in God. Okay. So strength is found for life by dwelling in worship, by not rushing through worship, by, by lingering in worship as the house of God, finding your desires met there. And the strength is found in the God who reveals himself to you.

And so strength for the pilgrimage comes in worship from worship unto worship and leads back to worship because it's in God, where God himself gives himself to you in the gathered worship and singing. And the reason why that's the case is because of this beautiful line. Your heart has a highway in it.

In whose heart is the, are the highways. This is an incredible phrase in English. And it's incredible in Hebrew. It's, it would be incredible in any language that the way God has made your redeemed heart. Is that your redeemed heart has a highway on it. It is a highway and it's actually oriented to Zion.

It's actually oriented to God. That, that's the direction that it heads. And so that, that's the direction that your heart is going. leads your heart as a highway that goes directly to God, directly to Zion, where God is. It needs God. It cannot be satisfied apart from God. It can only be satisfied if your heart That is the highway to Zion actually makes it to Zion.

It has to make it there. Okay. Um, that, that's the whole thing. Your heart, your heart leads there. It must get to Zion where it will be satisfied with the God who is there. And that's where your strength is. Okay. But guess what? You got to go through a valley to get there. Verse six. Passing through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring.

The early rain also wraps it up with blessings. And so on the way, as your heart moves towards Zion, you have to go through a valley. This passing through the valley of Baca. And guess what? No one knows what that means either. Baca is similar to the Hebrew word for weeping, But not similar enough to make the jump.

Similar to the word for balsam tree.

There we go. That's all we know. But here's the thing. Here's what we do know. The context makes it very clear that wherever the valley of Baca is, it's a place without water. And the one thing we do know about balsam trees is that they grow in areas without water. They grow in arid areas. So this valley is without water.

That's important. Okay. So how, so here's where you're, you're passing through an area on your, on your way to your heart's on its way to Zion. You have to take your whole person throughout the week through the Valley of Baca between, between gatherings with the people of God, between Sundays, right? You have to go through the Valley, You got to go through arid places.

Okay. You have to pass through those, which means that worship as we gather doesn't insulate us from trouble in life. We still have to pass through those. Okay. So when you, when you leave here and go out into the week, You're going to go through some valleys and there's going to be some dry places that you're going to go into.

Your heart has found God here today. You've landed on him. He's revealed himself to you. He's given himself to you. Um, he satisfies the deepest parts of you. You sing to him. He sits in. All of this is happening right as we gather here today. All this is taking place, but you got to go out there again. Okay.

Um, and you got to go through that valley and you got to go through that arid place. That's absolutely true. But then something transformative happens. And I want you guys to know that I didn't start studying this until Friday, but I want you to see this because we might have to rethink about how we commission.

I'm just saying. And so go on a program. I mean, go with me here. We'll do this study together. We'll do a Bible study together right here. Just go with me. Um, but look at what happens. The Valley of Baca, as you go through it, yeah. You, you affect it more than it affects you, according to this verse. Passing through the Valley of Bacca, they make it a spring.

See that? You guys see that? Do you all see that? Yes or no? Okay. And then it says the early rain also wraps it, the Valley of Bacca up with blessings or pools. So instead of the Valley of Bacca draining you, you water it. With the water you got when you were here on Sunday. Okay. Um, and so that's interesting.

So there's two ways to take that. One would be somehow you make it a spring, like both the LSB and the ESV say they make it a spring. They make it a place of springs. So somehow you dig blessing out of that hardship as a Christian. Somehow you're able to do that. Um, that's what this says. Okay. They make it a spring.

Um, and then God sends this early autumn rain that wraps it up with pools or blessings just as autumn rain breaks the summer drought. So God sends this transformative rain into the valley and brings pools of water where there was this aridness. In connection with you going out after you have been with him in worship, getting all of the blessing that is him when you go out and go through, because your heart is highway to him already.

And you're going back to him on the other side of that. But notice what verse seven says this. I mean, I'm just, you got to go with me here because I'm going with the Psalm here. Then it says as they're going through the Valley, they come out on the other side, you're heading back to the next Sunday, getting back to that worship again.

It doesn't say necessarily that we're always coming in here dragging. It says they go from strength to strength. Each one of them appears before God in Zion. It's interesting, right? It's almost, it's all, listen, it's almost as if your heart is a highway set on God. And as you're propelled out of here on a Sunday and commissioned to go, you're sent into valley places.

What you gain here on a Sunday you take with you that becomes transformative wherever you go because you Your presence and the things that happen here that you take with you that you plant and give and offer there Makes that place better than it was because you were there And then all of a sudden you get to that place and the Sunday, the future Sunday Starts to pull you into what's coming and gives you more strength than you would have had And so the next Sunday pulls you into itself In advance it comes in other words as if a hand reaches from the future and starts to pull you Into it they go from strength to strength and then they appear before god in zion.

That's amazing So then you're going to appear before him again on the other side. And you went from strength to strength. You didn't get all your strength drained out. And so it's, it's, it's, it's really kind of interesting to think about that. So somehow Sunday, the gathering of God's people propels us out.

We take a transformative influence with us. And instead of losing strength, this future worship reaches out and starts to pull us in and gives us strength so that we move from strength to strength. Not that we necessarily always have to lose all of our strength because then we appear, verse seven, before God in Zion, which is a coming back together as God's people on Mount Zion before him again.

And we don't always come in together. Necessarily having to drag, we might even actually come in with some strength because it's pulled us in with what's Anticipated that we're going to be given in advance. It's almost as if the mystery of future worship works backwards and pulls strength forward It's kind of interesting.

I'll just leave it there. Verse 8 then says what happens when we come back before God? Well, you pray right? So verse 8 we pray We not only sing, we pray. Oh, verse eight, Oh, Yahweh, God of hosts, hear my prayer, give ear, Oh God of Jacob. And so we're a praising people, but we're also a praying people. And you'll notice that in the prayer here, there's a ransacking even of more of the names of God.

It's not Oh Yahweh of hosts, it's Oh Yahweh, God of hosts. Let's bring all the names in. Right. Let, let, let, let, let, let's, let's appeal to all of his name and let's, and let's, let's ask him to hear us twice. Okay. So it's two names of God and it's two askings for hearings. And so the praying is really important.

It's really a passionate seeking of the Lord. We really go before God and we really plead with him. It's actually three names. Oh God of Jacob, a third name, right? I mean, so you're appealing to who God is. You're appealing to what he has done and you're really asking him to hear. And so we are really pleading with the Lord in our praying as God's people.

And so pastor Jeremy was right when he's up here praying, we are praying, you are praying too. We are all praying as the sons of Korah together. And we're asking God to hear what it is that we are saying, but what is the most important thing that we can pray? Verse nine. Look at that. What are we asking God to do?

Verse nine is, it's just amazing. Look at what it says. Look closely at verse nine. You wouldn't, if you didn't read it a hundred times, you wouldn't miss this. Okay. It's asking God, watch this. He's not asking God to be our shield. It's asking God to see the shield. Look at this. See Our shield, O God, and look upon the face of your anointed.

The first prayer out of the sons of Korah's mouth is don't look at us. Look at him. Don't look at us. Look at our shield instead. Look at the thing covering us first. Look into the face of your son before you look at us. Look with your favor on your son, the one who is shielding and protecting us, before you look at us.

So goes the king. So goes the people. Isn't that, isn't that beautiful? See our shield. Look, look. Upon the face of your anointed. Don't look at us. Look at him. Look at the king. You see that? That's incredible. I have literally never seen that before. We would say it right now. We would say to the father, look, right.

Look, right. Look at, look at who's at your right hand, right? Look, right. Or we would do this before the throne of God above. I have a strong and perfect plea of great high priest whose name is love, whoever lives and pleads for me. My name is graven on his hands. My name is written on his heart. I know that while in heaven he stands.

No tongue can bid me thence depart. When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see him there who made an end of all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied. To what? To look on him and pardon me, right?

That's what the sons of Cora are saying. Look there first before you look anywhere. That's just amazing. That's just incredible. Um, and all of that to sum up, right? And I'm close. I'm not preaching this. I'm finishing at 10 a, um, all of, because I didn't finish, right? I couldn't have time. Um, uh, so I was restarting on Friday.

Um, so all of that then pushes us to, To this, if all of this is true, if all of this is happening as we gather as God's people, the praying, the singing, the strength that we're being given, the satisfaction of our souls and our deepest desires being answered in our humanity. I mean, if it all comes together here, then can you not say this?

Better is one day. in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. Can you say that? Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. By the way, the word elsewhere is not in Hebrew. It just reads this better as a day in your court than a thousand. There's a day in your court than a thousand. Now roll with me for a minute on one level.

Huh. This is just simply saying it's staying. In the presence of God is a wonder and it's wonderful and a deep joy comes from being at home in the house of God, right? Better is one day in your courts. On another level, this is where we might take it. It's saying one day in God's presence is better than a thousand days of the same kind, but doing something else, right?

I'd rather be here doing this right now than anywhere else doing anything else right now. And that should be true. And that is partly what this is saying. I would rather be here with God's people, Worshiping, receiving the word, praying, singing, receiving the table than being anywhere else in the universe, doing anything else at all at this time.

And if all these things are true, then that should always be the case with us. And that is true. But there's actually something more going on here. For better is a day in your courts than a thousand. There's something deeper going on here. Because when we gather together as God's people on the Lord's day, when we gather together to worship, time changes in the presence of the Lord, or it should change.

If we would really enter into what's happening here on the Lord's day, if we were really attuned to it and not so distracted, time changes when we gather here on Sundays. It moves from Kronos to Kairos. This is a thin place, a meeting of heaven and earth and a meeting of time and eternity. Malcolm Guy put it this way in his poem on Psalm 84, for in his courts time is transfigured.

It's opened out and ample. It touches on eternity. I stay a while. I linger here because this is where time and eternity come together. This is where time opens up and out and new possibilities take place. This is where heaven and earth meet. This is, this is where God's people come face to face together and when, and gather with those who've gone before this us, the saints on high, the true Catholicity happens here.

Christopher Ashe, in his commentary on the Psalms, said, It's not simply that one day in God's presence is better than a thousand days of the same kind, but rather that a day in God's presence is a different kind of day. Right? This is a different kind of time that we're keeping Here when we gather for the time that we're here time is kept differently In the hour and 20 minutes that we gather together as a church It just goes differently That's why when you guys come to the table on the lord's day and you're lingering during the the passing of the peace, right?

It's like we're We could, we could just go on and on and on. And it's like, we, we, we, we, we, as, as pastors, we almost feel like guilty. Keep calling the time. Why? Because we're all in heaven for the moment. We're all, we're all transacting. in the presence of the Lord as we pass the peace with one another. I don't want to say time stands still because that's a rush song.

Um, uh, um, or, or go Jimmy V on it. Freezing baby. Um, I don't want to do that either, but, but time is, is, it's all, It changes. It's transfigured, right? Augustine said it this way. What use are a thousands of days to us? We are traveling from thousands of days toward the one eternal day. You see, when we gather on Sundays, a thinness occurs between that eternal day and this day.

It slips in. And we get a taste. And that's why a good Lord's day is the best of days. Right? Sometimes you leave church on a Sunday and yeah, and that, and there's just something so good about it. Something so right about somebody so healthy and rich and full and satisfying, something so Asher, something so blessed.

You can feel it in your soul and it carries you. Well, what is it? Well, it's this mysterious thing. Better is one day than a thousand. And we're just about to experience. So this is what God's doing when we gather together on Sundays. He's doing Psalm 84, right? So let's be a church that treasures Psalm 84 in 2025.

Amen. Amen. Lord Jesus, seal your word unto us and give us all that this psalm has for us this year in our gatherings and in our fellowship together. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.