Psalm 84
This Psalm is drawing out a longing in every human - the longing to dwell in the presence of the Lord. What would it be like to dwell in the presence of the Lord always? The Sons of Korah, a group of men appointed as gatekeepers at the threshold of the tabernacle, stood waiting and longing for their Lord. They loved the presence of the Lord, so much so that the psalmist says, “my soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord: my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.” (Psalm 84:2). What does it mean to dwell? To dwell means to live in a space, and the psalmist is longing to live in the space of the Lord. Think of it like this, most of us desire to be married, so we long to live in the space of our future spouse, whether we know them or not. We all long for that.
It can feel easy to long for things tangible like a spouse, but Psalm 84 helps reorient our eyes and hearts to long for eternity, to long for what we see in Revelation 21:3, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” The Church, the promised bride of Christ, is waiting and longing to be with her God. We aren’t meant to dwell in the Valley of Baca (of weeping) for eternity. We are meant to dwell, to live forever, in the presence of God face to face. How whole, healed, and complete it must be to do such a thing.
But what do we do now? How do we deal with a deep longing for something that feels so far away? We pray and we go. We pray that his “kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven”, and we go tell everyone the good news. I pray this Psalm ignites a new affection for the Lord and for His kingdom. Church, let us not settle to dwell in the valley of weeping, to dwell in the broken world. Let us go before the throne boldly and ask Jesus to come now. Let us be a people who use our longing to go to complete a mission that will bring about the picture in Revelation 21 that we dwell with our God, our King, our Savior forever and ever, amen.
