The Righteous One on His way to the city of the Living God

Though the author of the psalm is unknown, Spurgeon wrote, “It exhales a Davidic perfume.” It describes an overwhelming longing for God’s house. A longing that brought to the verge of fainting, not physically, but an intensity of desire that almost prostrated his spirit.

Although a king, yet he would exchange places with a doorkeeper. He did not think of that as a sacrifice, for he reckoned service in the house of God was superior to the throne. The tents of wickedness were not to be compared with the tent or tabernacle of grace. One day of opening and shutting the doors of God’s house is supremely greater than a thousand days of worldly pursuits. A full day will give a full blessing.

It is a hollow statement to say, ‘I can just as well worship God in my home.’ That sentiment repudiates this psalm, mocks David, disbelieves Scripture, and contradicts the desire that should be in the soul of every regenerate child of God. The tabernacle is the place where the hungry are fed, grace is matured, and God appears as a sun and a shield.

Pastor Jeff O’ Neil

Recommended Tune: Wetherby

Psalm 84

¹How lovely is thy dwelling–place,
O LORD of hosts, to me!
The tabernacles of thy grace
How pleasant, LORD, they be!

²My thirsty soul longs veh’mently,
Yea faints, thy courts to see:
My very heart and flesh cry out,
O living God, for thee.

³Behold, the sparrow findeth out
An house wherein to rest;
The swallow also for herself
Hath purchased a nest;

Ev’n thine own altars, where she safe
Her young ones forth may bring,
O thou almighty LORD of hosts,
Who art my God and King.

⁴Bless’d are they in thy house that dwell,
They ever give thee praise.
⁵Bless’d is the man whose strength thou art,
In whose heart are thy ways:

⁶Who passing thorough Baca’s vale,
Therein do dig up wells;
Also the rain that falleth down
The pools with water fills.

⁷So they from strength unwearied go
Still forward unto strength,
Until in Zion they appear
Before the Lord at length.

⁸LORD God of hosts, my prayer hear;
O Jacob’s God, give ear.
⁹See God our shield, look on the face
Of thine anointed dear.

¹⁰For in thy courts one day excels
A thousand; rather in
My God’s house will I keep a door,
Than dwell in tents of sin.

¹¹For God the LORD’s a sun and shield:
He’ll grace and glory give;
And will withhold no good from them
That uprightly do live.

¹²O thou that art the LORD of hosts,
That man is truly blest,
Who by assured confidence
On thee alone doth rest.