Psalm 84
1
How lovely
is your dwelling place Lord Almighty!
2
My soul
yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.
3
Even the
sparrow has found a home and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have
her young … a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
4
Blessed are
those who dwell in your house; they are always praising you.
5
Blessed are
those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
6
As they pass
through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains
also cover it with pools.
7
They go from
strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.
8
Hear my
prayer, Lord God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob.
9
Look on our
shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one.
10
Better is
one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a
doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
11
For the Lord
God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does
he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
12
Lord
Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.
Life is better with God. He
is the source of love, protection, peace and all good things. God withholds
nothing from those who walk uprightly.
What does it mean to walk
uprightly?
To walk uprightly is to make
our home with God, with God’s people, with God’s church. That is where we will
be shaped and transformed into the kind of people that matter in the world. People
who will even turn a dry valley “into a place of springs” (verse 6). According
to the Hebrew translation of the psalm, God’s people are active makers of
“springs,” of a new world. God’s people are like rain. A rain that provides
life and joy to other people and the creation itself.
Is it possible for us to do that?
The psalm is inviting us to
tend and care for the creation itself, leaving it better than we found it,
rather than contributing to its barrenness. Spiritually and poetically we are invited
to “rain” wherever there is need and drought.
Is this the image of God’s people held by the world today?
“Righteousness” is a
relational term in the Old Testament, not something that we earn or control. We
are righteous or blameless or have clean hands because we receive it from Jesus but then we renew it in worship and community and use it in the service of God
and others. As God cleanses us and makes us righteous, we should not back away
from acting the part that God assigns to us.
Are people happy and glad to see us coming?
The “temple” translates
better for us as the community of God’s people in and with whom God is present.
We might know God’s people best in the church building but we will recognize
them wherever people and the creation are being nourished, wherever they are
providing “rain” for the earth. What a happy place to be, says the psalm.
Wouldn't you rather ‘hang out’ with God than anywhere else?