Psalm 84
Loving the Worship of God

Remember with me, if you will, that the O.T. form of the revealed religion was very geographical. Whereas in our form of the revealed religion it is the same wherever in the world or whenever in history you happen to be a Christian. With the N.T. example of house churches, Christians can meet on the Lord's Day even in Saudi Arabia or North Korea. The essential ordinances are basically unchanged though they might slightly differ in the way they are practiced from culture to culture. In the Hebrew form of the religion one almost of necessity had to live in the Near East in order to fully practice the religion. Of the 7 great feasts, 3 of them had to be performed at Jerusalem. Sacrifices were all made on the great altar at Jerusalem in front of the Tabernacle and later -- after the time of Solomon-- of the Temple. 

And then in the 500's B.C. this whole generation of believers were taken into a far land and, as another Psalm -- Psalm 137 -- says, "By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept!" And this writer of Psalm 84, a prophet of the Lord, was a true servant of God and worshipped the Lord just as we do, except using a different form of worship. 

I. NOTICE HERE THE LOVE OF THE WORSHIP OF GOD. 

1. "Vv. 1-2" you are familiar with these words. They are set to music in a well known solo piece. 

2. This worship is seen as revolving about the Temple worship. As you know, as an accommodation to the frailty of people in ancient times the Temple was the symbolic dwelling place for God. In that age of absolute monarchies God was depicted as holding court in Jerusalem. To be sure, spiritual Israelites knew that God didn't actually dwell there. Jeremiah reminded them (17: 12): "A glorious high throne set in heaven from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary." But God symbolically, sacramentally, we would say, dwelt at Jerusalem. 

3. This, of course, has a completely different application in our case. The N.T. never sees a building as the "house of God" as people are always calling it. The people are the house of God. There is no "sanctuary" -- a sacred place. God does not dwell there but in his people. 

It is unfortunate that our word "church" -- derived from a Middle English word which was derived from the Late Greek word kuriakon, "belonging to the Lord" has become the word for a church building. The Middle English word from which we actually get this word "church" was used for holy places and houses for the deity. But in the N.T. example it is the congregation that is kuriakon. They are called hagioi, "holy ones". But the building is merely a "place where the church meets" and the church itself, the people, is almost always designated in the N.T. by the Greek word ekklesia which means "the congregation," the "assembly." Literally it means "the called out ones" because it originally was the word for the electorate of a Greek city. 

4. Notice here the intensity, the deep feeling and love for the worship of God. ("v1") V.2: "My soul longs (literally -- "has grown pale" or as we would say "is famished") for the courts of the Lord." The next phrase the R.S.V. has translated in one possible way: "My heart and my flesh sing for joy". But it does not flow well with the context. Literally, The Hebrew says: "My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." It presents a great love and longing for the public worship of God. This is more in keeping with the way v.2 begins. Again, notice v.4. ("v.4a")

I urge you to cultivate the worship of God. We are priests of the most high God and that is our function on Sunday mornings. It is not something "put on" to amuse ourselves or entertain others. We are ministering before him as priests and any satisfaction you might gain is an additional plus. But it is not supposed to be a performance. I urge you to cultivate the love for, and sincere participation in, the worship of God, using the guidelines found in the N.T. example. 

And may I ask you to consider getting up a little early and coming with a spirit of anticipation on Sunday mornings and getting some sleep on Saturday night? 

II. NOW IN THE SECOND PLACE IN OUR PSALM FOR TODAY, NOTICE THAT THOUGH THIS WORSHIP IS FOCUSED FORMALLY IN THE TEMPLE, IT IS A SPIRITUAL THING. IT IS APPARENTLY NOT RESTRICTED TO PHYSICAL PRESENCE IN JERUSALEM. 

1. The likely historical background suggests this. In the familiar solo piece I mentioned before, v.3 is a touching piece of sentimentalism implying that the Psalmist longs to go where only, in fact, the sparrow can go. For the little bird has built her nest on the altar in Jerusalem. 

I would suggest that the writer is off in Babylon and remembers that the worship of God has ceased -- the first time in, perhaps, a millennium. He wasn't wishing he were the bird. But he supposes that birds were roosting and nesting on the altar of God's holy Temple. It wasn't a beautiful, sentimental picture but and outrage! The holy place was an architectural wreckage and the birds and the wild animals had taken it over. 

2. Now notice, if this is true, see how the Psalmist holds out the possibility that one could be spiritually present in the holy Temple and could in a spiritual way enjoy fellowship with God. 

V. 4 no doubt means this. ("v4") No one really dwelt in the Temple of Solomon and at this time no one even formally worshipped there. Yet there were those said to "dwell in (God's) house ever singing (his) praise." Then and now, the person who turns his heart in worship to the God of Israel and the God who is now our God "dwells in the house of the Lord. 

Notice "v.5".

Notice v. 10 in its figurative meaning -- which is certainly the way it should be understood --. ("v.10") In the "door keeper" phraseology the idea is not a contrast between being the high priest vs. being the priest who tended the door. And the contrast is not between being a full time Levite and life in general society but between standing -- on duty merely at the entrance, way out away from the important participants, i.e., being a "doorkeeper", serving in the most lowly spot of the Temple in holy worship and fellowship with God -- being totally unimportant CONTRASTED with dwelling comfortably, settling down in the comfortable, plush, tents of wickedness where people live lives devoid of all consideration of God and his worship. It is a contrast about many of you here and those people all over Athens who are lounging around, shaking off the effects of misbehavior last night and surfeiting themselves on delicacies, the morning paper and Sunday morning T.V. shows. And the believing child of God strongly, unquestionably affirms "A day in the Lord's courts is better than a thousand spent elsewhere! I would rather be a lowly, unimportant doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell sumptuously in the tents of wickedness." 

III. FINALLY, IN THE 3RD PLACE SEE HOW THIS WORSHIP-CENTERED LIFE SHEDS A DIVINE GLORY OVER ALL THE ASPECTS OF ONE'S LIFE. 

1. "V. 5-7" These persons who are described as they go through the valley of baca -- the word means "dryness" -- are able to turn the experiences of bitterness, of parched dryness into a place of delightful springs of God's blessing. And as v.11 says: ("v 11"). 

One of the noticeable things in history is that idolatry is not only a theological crime: It is a social , psychological and moral sin which degrades people (either as individuals or as a culture). For people are profoundly influenced by that which they worship (even when that object of their worship is inanimate as it usually is in our culture). All around us we see people worshipping their possessions, their lifestyle, their pleasure and that pervasive idolatry has a terrible influence upon them who are the worshippers. 

So too, the worship of the true God lifts humans up and gives them something of the reflected glory of the Lord God of Hosts, the God of Jacob, the God with whom we have to do. ("vv 11-12," "vv 5-7")