THE JOY OF WORSHIP
Study Scripture: Psalm 84
Background Scripture: Psalm
Lesson 8 October 23, 2021
Key Verse
Blessed are those who dwell in Your house! They are ever praising You.
Psalm 84:4
INTRODUCTION
Our Study today confronts us with several questions. It makes us think about our feelings when we go to church, whether we look forward and are thrilled with attending church. Is attending and serving in church a highlight of your week?
Are you for example anxious to attend the Communion Service, a service where you are instructed to attend for you are to remember the Lord’s death until He comes?
What is your attitude? Are you going to church because of your position in church and you are expected to be there and people will miss you and comment on that absence? Are you there but you really don’t want to be there for you have other things to do.
But the psalmist puts his finger on this problem when he says, “How amiable (lovely) is Thy tabernacle, O Lord of hosts”.
If the courts of God are not amiable could it be you have lost your first love and are therefore faced whether you know it or not with disastrous consequences?
Note that the title for God used is “LORD of the Armies”. This title used for the name of God makes us aware of the type of God who is watching us and who expects certain things from us.
So is the church or the Tabernacle a place that you are supposed to be excited to attend for you expect great things to happen there? Are you excited about fellowshipping with other like-minded souls, hearing the word of God which is supposed to resonate powerfully with your soul, and where you will get a little foretaste of what Heaven will be like since you are meeting God along with the rest of the congregation?
Are you content to show up to church with a few fake smiles, and as one writer says, halfheartedly singing a few songs, and then suffer through a long-winded sermon?
If that is how you approach worshipping with the saints you are really telling people that they are right not wanting to do anything with the church nor with the “good news” that you’re telling them about.
It must be pointed out at the start that Psalm 84 is really speaking about the Temple which is the place where Old Testament saints went to worship God. So when we bring the teaching or the lessons of the Psalm into our modern life we are talking about worshipping God in our church congregation.
The psalmist knew that God, Yahweh, the Lord of hosts, wanted His people to worship at a particular place and Jesus affirmed that idea for He reminded the Gentile Samaritan woman that Salvation is of the Jews, so we know that true worship was to be carried out in Jerusalem as far as God was concerned, until the time when Jesus died on the Cross.
Now we know from the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles that we are to worship God in spirit and in truth for the Holy Spirit indwells us giving us the ability and the incredibly great incentives to worship the Lord God and being really joyful and happy to be in God’s presence, hearing the reading of the Word of God and having it minister to us, giving us a real spiritual increase in our spiritual lives.
In addition, we do know that Scriptures tell us that we are never to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Scripture therefore points out the very same lessons that the psalmist is pointing out to the Old Testament saints.
We are therefore looking at the heart of worship in this Psalm 84 for it is essentially a Psalm of longing, longing for fellowship with God, and longing for fellowship with the other saints who also seek to worship God in Spirit and in truth. The question therefore is, Are you longing to be in the presence of God and in the presence of the saints?
Do you have a yearning to be in God’s house, where God is with all the other saints meeting together?Is that where you want to be? Do you want to on a regular basis have intense joy when you are worshipping together with all the saints, helping them, blessing them, and having them bless you?
It is very interesting to note why this service to God and being in the presence of God, learning from Him is so very important. Note who wrote this Psalm and their experiences.
This Psalm was a Psalm written by the sons of Korah, a Levite who led a rebellion against Moses recorded in Numbers chapter 16. He thought contrary to what God had previously expressed, that Moses was taking on too much authority onto himself and that he Korah should have more authority. God told Moses to tell Korah and his followers to meet at the Tent of Meeting, right at the door of the Sanctuary, to settle the dispute. When they assembled before the Tent of Meeting God decided the issue by opening up the ground and swallowing up Korah and his followers. They went down into the pit. Fire also destroyed another 250 men that had supported Korah.
But quite interestingly God did not destroy the children of Korah and these children did not die but some would lead the Music in Temple Worship, some would become warriors in the service of God (1 Chronicles 12:6), others became gatekeepers in the Temple (1 Chronicles 26:1, 19), while others as one writer points out, “contributed to victory in battle by standing and praising the Lord”. (2 Chronicles 20: 19).
When they saw what happened to their rebellious father the children and their generations did not turn away from God but joyfully, fervently, and loyally served God and the Korathites, for their names appeared in superscriptions to two groups of Psalms, namely, Psalms 42- 43, 44- 49, 84- 85, and 87-88. they wanted to serve and worship God and they did it with joy. So they would now write this psalm approximately 925 years after the destruction of their forefather.
So with that example before you what will you do? Would you be able to write a song of loving and longing for the presence of Yahweh, emphasizing that the Temple or the church nowadays was God’s meeting place, and a place where people should want to use to closely approach God’s presence?
Are you going to blame your parents for what they did or did not do, or are you going to let the weaknesses of the flesh which we all experience turn you away from longing for God and longing to be in God’s presence?
The solution is quite simple. If you’re ever feeling that simply go down on your knees and ask God for forgiveness and help to overcome whatever it is that is keeping you off the right track.
When scholars look at this psalm and try to examine its message to see what it is emphasizing for the benefit of our own spiritual life with the Lord, they tried to look at the historical background which would prompt the creation of such a psalm. The background of this psalm is a very difficult one to discern and it is very difficult to know why it was written.
The problem is that this Psalm was written to examine the stimulating journey to the Temple in Jerusalem which should give rise to an exceptionally powerful emotion and which made the heart break out in a spontaneous song.
Maybe this Psalm was written because of an important religious festival such as Passover or the Festival of Lights which of course would allow and give the psalmist opportunity to have a mountaintop experience of praising God as he travelled with like-minded believers.
But the feeling in this Psalm is so intense some scholars have suggested that this concerned the history of King David when his son Absalom rebelled against him and David had to flee from the city of Jerusalem along with some close advisors, some faithful men and some servants. Absalom intended to kill his father David as well as his supporters and he had the advice of the brilliant Ahithophel who had been David advisor.
But God turn the advice of this former brilliant advisor to nothing and this type of Judas went and hanged himself. Absalom lost the battle and was killed. God would miraculously protect His anointed servant David.
It is then assumed that one of the talented children of Korah that had fled with David and who loved the presence of the Lord, who loved the Temple and the service that he had been rendering to God before he fled with David, now looked forward to being in the Temple to carry on the worship of the Lord. The supporters of David and the king then headed back to Jerusalem after the defeat of Absalom and it was possible that this talented writer of the Psalm was so anxious to begin his ministry and singing songs of praise to God, he expressed powerfully his need and his longing to be in Jerusalem and to be where God’s anointed king should be. The trip back was made and he looked forward to being in the direct presence of God in Jerusalem.
Note that these scholars might be correct in their assumption but we really do not know why this Psalm was written and why David the anointed king had this great reference.
But it is important for us to know that we are to worship and to serve God and to pray. Saints of God must long for the great experience of worshipping with the Lord God of Heaven. The psalm’s intense emotion only reflects what is properly due to the Lord God of Heaven, the Lord of hosts, and we should understand that the Tabernacle of God should be a Home to us.
THE TEXT
Verse 1. So there is no better way to start this psalm than the way the Psalmist did as he teaches us how our thoughts and our lives must be oriented. So he begins:
“How lovely are your dwellings,
Yahweh of Armies!
Or in another translation:
“How amiable are thy tabernacles,
O LORD of hosts!
So turn your imagination on. You have been away from home. The circumstances might be different for these Old Testament worshippers as it is for you, but the common thread should be that the psalmist is telling us that Yahweh’s dwellings are lovely and beloved.
This word for “dwelling” is now used in the plural in this verse. It was used 108 times in Scripture to mean the Tabernacle where God dwelled during the wilderness journey after the children of Israel were released from bondage in Egypt. We call this the Exodus.
But note that the plural for dwelling is used to tell us that God’s tabernacle can be in the wilderness tent, the brand-new Solomon’s Temple, the simple Temple erected by the returning exiles from Babylon, the new elaborate Herod’s Temple, the synagogue, and now in our hearts.
The psalmist make sure that he uses the divine name to make all worshippers very aware that God is the Lord of all things and that He rules with infinite power in Heaven and earth.
This psalmist just loves the presence of God and being in the tabernacle is certainly no burden to him. He wanted to be there in the presence of God and he looked forward to it.
This stands in contrast to believers who have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit and now have all kinds of extra incentives to worship the Lord God with the other brethren. The psalmist did not have the privileges that we have today as believers, but yet his only focus was to be in the presence of the Lord, and addressing what that meant in his daily life and service to God.
Verse 2. This psalmist is away from Home and he strongly desires to be there. Those feelings came from his innermost being. His feeling is so strong that he cries out and he uses the Hebrew word for cry that pictures a child that is very hungry, the whole body shaking when it is hungry. He knows that the food he seeks is near. He is shouting perhaps joyfully as he knows he’s on his way to the sanctuary of God in Jerusalem. Clearly then his will, his soul, his heart, his body are all involved in the longing for the presence of God.
The psalmist is fainting during his pilgrimage as if there is some obstacle that will prevent him from reaching where he wants to reach. One writer comments on human behaviour as follows:
“A principle of human behaviour could apply here: The nearer the goal, the greater than anticipation of arriving at it, and the greater the frustration at not having yet arrived”.
Verse 3. Apparently the Temple in Jerusalem had different courtyards and because some of the courtyards did not have a roof birds build their nests in the courtyard. Several nations at that time apparently allowed birds to build their nests in and around their Temples and they were allowed to remain there rather than being driven off or killed. Since God allowed birds to build their nests in His Temple and did not kill them, they felt God obviously wanted them to remain there and He would protect them.
In contrast to the birds, if someone that was not allowed to come near where the sacrifice were offered to the Lord came into sacred territory they would be killed by God. So God allowed the birds to remain and be protected though they would be near the altars where sacrifices of bulls, goats, sheep were made.
The psalmist seems to have been jealous of the birds because there were allowed to stay right in the middle of the Temple, nesting in His house and being under God’s protection despite the death that was around them. God cared for these sparrows and pigeons which had very little value economically and gave grace to these birds that could be bought for a farthing. See Matthew 10:29 for Jesus’s comment on the fact that the Father cared and His love reached out to even those that we consider of little value.
Verse 4. So the psalmist notes that those who dwell in the House of the Lord had a marvellous privilege and they are blessed. All who are always in the House of the Lord, even the birds, will be singing and praising God for being allowed to be so close to God.
You might not think of it but you can be sure that many times when the birds around us are singing they are really singing and praising God. They are engaged in joyful and happy worship.
Verse 5. Blessing is not something that is only conferred when one is in the sanctuary. When a person in their heart wants to be in the Temple of God even before they set on that pilgrimage they are blessed or in bliss.
They find strength in Yahweh and because of that though they are not in Zion itself they are with the Lord God. They are strengthened by God and this strength will give them comfort. There is a great benefit to be on the road or pathway to Zion. One writer comments:
“Studies have shown that families active in churches enjoy a number of advantages over their non-churched neighbours. They tend to be stronger psychologically, spiritually, economically- and with regard to family cohesiveness”.
The psalmist is telling us that when the heart is set on worshipping God as the highlight of the week that person would get fulfillment and will get rejuvenated, gratified, and satisfied by God. So it is a wise thing to choose to get your fulfillment and satisfaction not in the things that unbelievers do even though they might be good things. It is better to satisfy your inner spiritual hunger which can only be met by worshipping God. Missing time with God and believing that just by reading one or two chapters a week will help you will really not cut it. So try to resist the temptation to chase after things which are temporary for they do not fulfill. Charles Spurgeon advises:
“The blessedness of worship belongs not to the half hearted, listless worshippers, but to those who throw all their energies into it. Neither prayer, nor trees, nor the hearing of the Word will be pleasant or profitable to persons who have left their hearts behind them”.
Verse 6. No one is quite sure where the Valley of Baca was or what its significance was. One writer tells us what some people think:
“Some think it means “Valley of Rain” due to Springs of water that were there. Some think it means “Valley of Weeping” because this might be where Israel wept in Judges 2 when confronted with their sin. Others think it’s an arid valley that developed pools during the rainy season.
But no matter which interpretation we choose, the point of the landmark is clear. As you know, Israel in general is a very arid country. Roads can get hot and dusty, and travellers can get very thirsty. So whether the Valley of Baca is an actual valley with pools of water in a dry valley that develop pools, or is a historical “point of interest” along the road, the Valley of Baca was an area of refreshment and remembrance for all that God has done and all the ways He has blessed them”.
Note therefore that hearing the word of God and fellowship with other Christians will be like fresh and refreshing water to your souls for when you are in in the presence of God’s people something great happens to you and the dry times will diminish. One writer applies the teaching of this verse to life:
“The individual who has the sense of the presence of God and who learns to draw upon his strength, he can pass through any circumstance, and he can find that the Lord God will be with him in it. And even though he goes through the valley of Baca, Baca of course is the word that is the transliteration of the Hebrew word that means weeping, so this is the valley of weeping. You know in the Old Testament more than one place has a reference to Baca as a place of weeping. And so, “ Who passing through the Valley of Baca make it a well”.
The individual who passes through the experiences of life that are trying experiences of life finds that if he relies upon the Lord God in them, they are not valleys of Baca, but they are places where the rain fills the pool. And any Palestinian would think of that as a great blessing. So the way to him may lead through Baca outwardly, but inwardly it’s an opportunity for the Lord God to minister to us. In fact, someone has pointed out with this verse in mind that the way to him is the way out of the world. In other words, by learning to rely upon him we draw away from the things in the world that would be problems and trials for us”.
Verse 7. On the road to Jerusalem they would go from one point to another point where they could find refreshment. As they seek Him and get nearer to the presence of Yahweh they would get more strength. Their goal will grow nearer and nearer.
Everyone of those going to God will certainly reach God. So we should remember that the experiences of life are ways by which we grow for by God allowing these events in our lives we get to know God better. We will pray to get away from these experiences but they are there for a purpose and the psalmist realizes that the closer he gets to Jerusalem the stronger he becomes.
We recall that the friends of Jesus, Mary and Martha, felt a lot of pain when Lazarus their brother died. They expressed their feeling that if Jesus was there Lazarus would not have died. But it was through the experience of this death that they and we learned that Jesus was the Resurrection and the Life and that whoever liveth and believed in Him would never die. A tragic experience and the suffering of the sisters made them come to a greater understanding of who the Lord Jesus was. We too have learned from their experience. We know without a doubt that Jesus has life in Himself and that when we are in Him we also will have life eternal. For believers death has been conquered.
Verse 8. The spirit of the psalmist is healthy and it grows from strength to strength and as he moves toward the Temple in Jerusalem, and his strength is multiplied. So he prays to the Lord God of Hosts to hear his prayer. He certainly appeals to the Lord God of Hosts to use His mighty power and bring him safely into His presence.
Verse 9. The psalmist seems to now refer to the anointed King David and appeals to God as his shield to take him and the king to Jerusalem. He certainly seems to be asking God to do something to help the King which would benefit not only him but Israel, Jerusalem and the Temple.
The appeal is made to God who is a Shield. This idea that God the LORD of hosts is a shield is found in Psalm 3:4; 7:11; 18:3, 31, 36; 28:7, 33; 115:9-11; 119:114, 144 and in other verses.
Verse 10. The Lord God is certainly precious. He wants to fellowship with the Lord God. He has chosen a particular course of action.
He knows that those who are blessed have their strength in God as he states this according to verse five. So now he states literally that he has chosen to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord preferring this over being in the tents of wickedness. He would choose a minor job inside the Temple over the lucrative place inside a wicked place.
Do not overlook the fact that being a gatekeeper means that you’re a man of valour according to 1 Chronicles 26 for they had to guard the doors to the Temple for it is in the Temple that the precious things of the nation were stored. Meeting the terms of good service to God therefore and protecting the treasures of God surpassed the benefit of living and enjoying life with the wicked.
Verse 11. The rewards of being with God’s will is overwhelming. God provides all that is needed. He’s a sun and a shield. When we need protection from heat He is a shield. When we need the help of God He will illuminate us and bring us light. These are only few of the gifts that God brings. Israel knew that there was a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of light by night which went with them throughout all of the wilderness wandering. So God smiled on His children at all times.
God gives grace because He smiles on us and brings us benefits. God brings glory to us and not to the world. We receive glory when we serve God. He will not withhold any good thing from us when we walk uprightly and when our hearts are right with God. He promises blessing and fellowship, rewards and joy when we walk with Him. So the psalmist stressed.
Verse 12. The psalmist therefore concludes that whenever we trust in God there is great blessing. The more you trust the more you will receive and the more you long for God the more you will be blessed. So the closer you get to God the more your blessings will be. So spending time in the presence of God you will find joy and peace, light and protection, grace and glory and every good thing. It is better to spend one day near God than a thousand days away from God.
There are many that have been blessed by God. They might not have been blessed by the world or been highly regarded by the rest of the world. But it is well worth knowing that Yahweh does not keep back anything from those that will live blamelessly the lives of sacrifice. God loves that. God seeks a life of moral quality in us. So the benediction is made that those who trust God can feel secure in their confidence, for God is always providing security and life.
We are therefore encouraged to travel with God no matter how many discomforts there are on the road to Zion. It is not an easy road. Sometimes there will be drought, sometimes heat. But the cost is well worth it and the psalmist was willing to pay the cost and travel any distance to get it.
CONCLUSION
The wisest thing you can do therefore is to long for God and to travel to God for the presence of God is better than anything else that the world has to offer.
You might not be able to travel a long distance but you will you be blessed when you do whatever you can to fellowship with the people of God.
We are told in Scripture to seek first the kingdom of God and all of the things that we think we need shall be added to us.
We are also told to keep on knocking and asking.
We are told that we are to strengthen our heart of worship by faithfully following after God, embracing whatever difficulties we might encounter, for when we are honouring God in any trial God will provide peace for us in the middle of these trials.
But remember that God has infinite understanding and wisdom. He knows how to conform us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you’re making a mistake or if you think you’re making a mistake simply go down on your knees and talk to God about it. There is really no need for needless worry.
Psalm 84 then gives us the advantages to those who are in touch with the living God and who live a life of faith in God and the life of fellowship. There is beauty in the presence of God and it should excite you.
God we know provides an hunger in us and it compels us to long for God to seek His cure. So let us not feel unnecessary pain. But let us satisfy ourselves by feeding on His word and being close to Him at all times.
Remember also that there is a vitality and a joy that we would experience in the presence of God.
Remember also that God protects even the sparrows and He will protect you for you are more valuable than the sparrows.
Above all remember that God is your sun and shield and He give gifts, honour and grace to those that walk uprightly. And better yet God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit stand ready to help you and enable you to walk upright.