THE JOY OF WORSHIP
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: PSALM 84:1-12
KEY VERSE
Blessed are those who dwell in Your house! They are ever praising You.
Psalm 84:4
INTRODUCTION AND STUDY
The Study introduces us to the writer of this Psalm who was a son of Korah, a man who annoyed God because he rebelled against the leadership of Moses. He wanted power even though he knew God had told the nation that Moses should lead them to the Promised Land of Canaan. God punished Korah and his followers and they died.Sometimes people who should know better
You would have thought this would have made the children of Korah dislike God. But that did not happen for they knew God was right in what He did. They became worship leaders for the nation, joyfully worshipped and praising God, and carried out the job of keeping the entry gate to the Sanctuary and later to the Temple when that was built. They sons of Korah did all kinds of great work in the service of God. They knew that God loved them despite what their father had done in challenging God’s decisions.
Now this writer of this psalm was so in love with God that when he was away from his house and unable to go to the Temple in Jerusalem to lead the worship service he was very unhappy.
He wrote this psalm to tell his people and Christians that the Temple of God where the people met to worship God was the most beautiful place on earth. The psalm tells us that the people ofGod should be excited to meet with other worshippers and sing praises and offer thanks to God for the many, many things God had done to save them and provide for them.
He did not like being away from the Temple for he had great joy when he was there. He is really telling us that we should have joy and excitement being in Church and if we did not something was very wrong with our spiritual life. We should long to be in the presence of Godfor there was joy and peace there.
On the way to meet with God there should be excitement. God would know that His people wanted to meet Him and He would start blessing them for their right attitude. He pointed out in the Psalm that God allowed the little sparrows to live in the Temple near the altar of God and God protected them and did not allow anyone to drive them away from being near to Him. They would sing and praise God for His kindness to them. God cared even for the little birds and He would care for and look after all those who loved to come and worship Him and be in His presence. This writer of the Psalm wanted to be near to God all the time just like the sparrows.
The Psalm encourages us to think of the joy and the beauty of the blessings we will receive when we gather together with the other lovers of God to worship God. Even on our travel to worship God would bless us and strengthen us.
So let us begin to appreciate what God has done for us. He gives security and many blessings. We therefore should love being in His presence just as this Psalm writer the son of Korah did.