I first came to church and to a relationship with God in my early 20’s. I was not ready. Can you relate? To wanting something and not being ready for it? I wandered for a few years, but always felt called back. And when it was time and I felt God calling me home, back to him I came. When I did, Psalm 84 seemed like a guide, a welcoming home sign. It reminded me that better was one day in God’s courts, then a lifetime in the tents I had been living in. It was my soul declaring I would never leave again, even if I had to spend my life as only a doorkeeper. I have held this psalm tightly, some days for dear life, determined. But in this last season, I have found a whole new dimension to this psalm.
God has made nooks and crannies for birds to have their young. How much more for me? He knows I will have lomesome valleys. These are expected. But so are cool springs and pools brimming with rain. God has traveled these roads. The may curve up steep mountains, but there are places I will see God, in full view.
Full view. Imagine what they will feel like. Full view. Here is the full text in the message version. Soak it all in. Enjoy how God is found here, present in this moment and in his words. He wants to be found.
A Korah Psalm
84 1-2 What a beautiful home, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
I’ve always longed to live in a place like this,
Always dreamed of a room in your house,
where I could sing for joy to God-alive!
3-4 Birds find nooks and crannies in your house,
sparrows and swallows make nests there.
They lay their eggs and raise their young,
singing their songs in the place where we worship.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies! King! God!
How blessed they are to live and sing there!
5-7 And how blessed all those in whom you live,
whose lives become roads you travel;
They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,
discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!
God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and
at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!
8-9 God-of-the-Angel-Armies, listen:
O God of Jacob, open your ears—I’m praying!
Look at our shields, glistening in the sun,
our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.
10-12 One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,
beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.
I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God
than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.
All sunshine and sovereign is God,
generous in gifts and glory.
He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions.
It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
