Grace, Glory and the “In Between”

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
1        How lovely is your dwelling place,

    LORD Almighty!

2        My soul yearns, even faints,

    for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and my flesh cry out

    for the living God.

3        Even the sparrow has found a home,

    and the swallow a nest for herself,

    where she may have her young—

a place near your altar,

    LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

4        Blessed are those who dwell in your house;

    they are ever praising you. 

5        Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

    whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

6        As they pass through the Valley of Baka,

    they make it a place of springs;

    the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

7        They go from strength to strength,

    till each appears before God in Zion. 

8        Hear my prayer, LORD God Almighty;

    listen to me, God of Jacob.

9        Look on our shield, O God;

    look with favor on your anointed one. 

10      Better is one day in your courts

    than a thousand elsewhere;

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

    than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

11      For the LORD God is a sun and shield;

              the LORD bestows favor and honor;

no good thing does he withhold

    from those whose walk is blameless. 

12      LORD Almighty,

    blessed is the one who trusts in you. (Psalm 84, NIV) 

REFLECTIONS:

Psalm 84 expresses the thoughts of a man who wants to go to Jerusalem for a feast but cannot. We don't exactly know why he can't go to Jerusalem. Maybe he was in captivity. Perhaps he was ill. There may have been some sort of trouble at home. Despite his inability to go up to the temple, he yearned for a “temple experience”—he desperately wanted to experience intimacy and communion with the living God. He prays:

“How lovely is your dwelling place,
    LORD Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints,
    for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
    for the living God.” (verses 1-2).

He didn't simply want to go to Jerusalem to observe a holy day. No, his great desire was to go to the temple to meet with God. “Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young” (verse 3). In other words, God's house is to his soul what a nest is to a swallow—a place of rest and security and satisfaction. The psalmist even envies the priests. “Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you” (verse 4). The psalmist is jealous of the priests, because they are allowed to live and dwell in the house of God. They experience intimacy with the living God, 24-7. They smelled the scent of the perpetually burning incense. They saw the light of continuously burning on the lampstand. They were intimately familiar with the daily sacrifices. They were allowed to enter the Holy Place and maybe, just maybe, if their number was called, they were allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. The priests' exclusive calling allowed them the honor of dwelling near the living God. This same priest-like intimacy with God was something for which the psalmist longed.

As those who have been saved by God's grace, you and I ought to have a strong desire to worship the Lord and fellowship with him. We have the privilege of gathering together with God's people and worshiping him together. Do you desire to be with God's people? Is your heart overflowing with a longing to declare God's praise? Do you hunger and thirst for more of God? Does your heart cry out with a longing to experience the living God? 

………… 

At the time this psalm was written, every Jewish man was required to go to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast three times a year. Whole villages would make their pilgrimage together, singing along the way. 

“Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
    whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
    they make it a place of springs;
    the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
    till each appears before God in Zion.” (verses 5-7) 

As they traveled down the road, the men looked in three directions. First, they looked within (verse 5). “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.” Or, as another translation puts it, “in whose hearts are the highways to Zion.” Everyone has a roadmap in his heart that takes him where he really wants to go. Look within yourself today. What kind of roadmap do you have? Where does it lead? Have you limited yourself, or are you entering into all the fullness of walking with the Lord? 

They looked back (verse 6). They passed through the Valley of Baka—the place of “weeping.” As they passed through this valley of sorrow, they left behind a blessing for someone else. Sometimes on our pilgrimage we go through the valley of weeping. But when we go through this valley, we can be assured that we are not alone. Our God is with us (Psalm 23:4). And when our God is with us, he provides not only comfort and strength, but life and abundance and peace and contentment. God blesses us in our time of sorrow so that we might be strengthened to leave behind a blessing for someone else. 

Then they looked ahead. “They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion” (verse 7). They were looking forward to meeting with the living God as they went to celebrate the feast. We, too, go from strength to strength. We may look ahead and say “I'll never make it.” But we will. Our God is faithful (Philippians 1:6). When you look to him, he gives you the strength and insight to keep going as you make your pilgrimage. 

We, too, look in three directions. Our journey is often arduous, painful, dangerous, and difficult. But God will give us the strength to continue and to make it to the very end. In our heart, we have a roadmap to Zion. Today, let us follow it. And let us be assured that one day we will stand face-to-face with the living God. 

………… 

As I mentioned earlier, it seems that the psalmist is yearning to go up to the temple to fellowship with God. But as he meditates on God, he has an epiphany. He realizes he can experience the blessing of God's presence right where he is. He does not have to go to the temple. “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless” (verse 11). 

“Favor and honor.” Favor—or grace—that's how our spiritual journey begins. God bestows his favor upon us. We are saved by his grace. We trust in Jesus, and in grace, God rescues us and redeems us to himself. Honor—or glory—that's how our spiritual journey ends. One day we will look upon the Lord, we will see him as he is in all his glory, and we will somehow share the glory of the Lord forever (1 John 3:1-3). 

But between favor and honor, grace and glory, life can be rather difficult. We read in 1 Peter 5:10—“The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” Whatever begins with grace leads to glory, but how do we make the journey between grace and glory? This in between time is so painful, so full of heartache and tragedy and temptation and trial. How will he make it to the end? How will we stand strong on this journey? By holding fast to the psalmist's pronouncement: “The LORD God is a sun and shield” (verse 11). He is a “sun.” That's provision and sufficiency. He is a “shield.” That's protection and security. We start the journey with grace; we continue the journey trusting God's provision and protection; we end the journey by entering into the glory of the Lord. 

What does it mean to walk “blamelessly”? It means walking in the light, holding fast to his word of promise, loving and trusting the One who is our all-sufficient source of grace, strength, and protection. When we experience the living God, we come to love the living God. And when we love the living God, we rejoice to lay our lives before him as an offering of praise. 

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” (Romans 12:1-2, The Message)

WHO AM I?

I am Tres Sansom, and I want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! I pray God's blessings upon you, and hope you experience a genuinely delightful time gathering with family and friends. We have so much for which we can give thanks. May God open our eyes and cause our hearts to overflow with thanks and praise. And may we testify to his goodness throughout this upcoming weekend. 

Please note that today's devotional will be the last devotional published this week. We will resume our daily devotionals on Sunday, December 1—the first day of Advent.