Today’s Scripture is Psalm 84

 

No Melody is too sweet

The psalms in the Bible are like the hymns in the modern church, so when I think of Psalm 84 as a hymn – no melody is too sweet and no sound is too beautiful for this psalm.

This is a pilgrim song, a song that the weary traveler would sing on their journey to the temple in Jerusalem.  In the days of the temple at Jerusalem, the faithful made pilgrimages to the Temple where God was known to dwell on the mercy seat inside the temple.

I say no melody is too sweet because I want to hear the sweet melodies that surround the throne of God.  It is also the type of music I want to hear when I have a troubled heart or come across disappointments or even when I am physically worn and tattered because I am “fighting the good fight, finishing my course and keeping the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)

We sometimes need to sing the psalm or hymn found in Psalm 84.  When life feels difficult or dark clouds arise in our hearts, that is the time to open the book of psalms and sing inside your soul as you read.  Let me see if I can share how I sing this song when my mood needs a lift.

Psalm 84

To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.

v1 How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!

I see your beautiful courts, Lord, I might be dragging my way to you, but I am on my way, “O Lord of hosts!”

v2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

Sometimes I feel you are too far away dear Lord, way out there, but I am coming, step, by step, by step.

v3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.

v4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.

I feel hope.  I see others have made it into the courts of the Lord. If others are there, I can be there.  I see even the small birds can find their way to the altar of the Lord and are blessed by my God and King.

v5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.

v6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.

v7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

My God is before me!  My goal is set. When passing through trials, my heart leans on the strength of God

v8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.

My Prayer

v9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.

I kneel in thy presence

v10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

My joy is full

v11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

v12 O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

Testify!

Looking Forward With Faith

The final two verses of Psalm 84 set our minds to the day when “no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”(Psa. 84:11)  The Christian life does not get the faithful follower a pass on the trials of life.

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10)

Walking uprightly before the Lord is as simple as looking past the times when we are tired, stressed, and don’t seem to know what is coming next.  With a hope in Christ, we can wipe away the tears and still be climbing the hill to the Temple of our Lord.