I.
This week our focus is on Psalm 84.
The Psalmist opens with –
How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
As you spend time with this Psalm and read it several times, notice what is claimed to be The Lord’s “dwelling place.”
II.
Psalm 84 (NRSV)
How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, indeed it faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh sing for joy
to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my God.
Happy are those who live in your house,
ever singing your praise.Selah
Happy are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
As they go through the valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
the God of gods will be seen in Zion.
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed.
For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than live in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
he bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does the Lord withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts,
happy is everyone who trusts in you.
III.
Where does the Psalmist report The Lord dwells?
Where are the “courts of the Lord”?
The “alters” are mentioned as a safe place for sparrows and swallows to nest and “lay [their] young.”
The “courts” of God are mentioned and likewise the “[door] in the house of God.”
Why is the Psalmist content to be a “doorkeeper in the house of … God”? Maybe he should expect a “better” job for himself in God’s courts?
When you read these expressions of “where” God dwells, what comes to mind for you? What do you see?
charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}