Idol Breaks in Church Building
posted by T L @ 16:36
July 31, 2009
July 10, 2009
"I'm not from here." - A Reflection on Psalm 84
Dear Friends,
There has been a special Psalm to me this past 30+ days. I have been reading in the Psalms and came to it shortly after we arrived back in Johannesburg. Psalm 84 (ESV, NIV)
The first two verses begin with our heart cry, the heart cry of every Christian--an expression of the beauty of the place of the Lord, because it is filled with His radiance in glory.
In the Old Testament context, this was a literal physical temple, built by human hands. It wasn't the literal dwelling place of God but it represented it and was special in a very real way. I believe the Psalmist can also be referring to the greater Kingdom of God, in its former physical boundaries, and the Promised land.
Reading the Psalm redemptively, in light of what Christ has come and done, this is a Christian's crying out for the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the place wherever God's people live under God's rule.
It can be right where you are right now if you are living with a new heart beating in your chest and a new spirit that is not overcome by the grave.
It's a precious and powerful truth and we need to read the Psalms and include references to the Psalms in our systematic theology. It's not just poetry. It's doctrine. And we to see the appropriate emotion that goes with the truth and reality of the spiritual Kingdom--the place where we are with God now, through faith.
The sparrow, the tiny sparrow, vs. 3, which interestingly Jesus says are sold for a penny and don't fall to the ground apart from His Father (Matt 10:29), seeks out the nearness of the Lord.
It is a blessed thing, a happy thing, vs. 4, to be in the place of God, and it results in praising and exaltation. In other words, people are blogging about it. They're living their lives for it. They're marrying and buying and selling to get more of it. Whatever the means God ordains, people are seeking Him and that place of being near Him out. It's living according to the will of God.
I love verse 5 in the NIV. "Blessed are those whose strength in in You, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage." This is just great, but what is it saying about happiness? What's been key to me this past 30 days, is what it implies. If the people who are journeying to an invisible ultimate place are the blessed ones. Being in the ideal place on earth isn't supposed to be what makes us happy. It's the spiritual place where we reside wherever we are and the spiritual place where we are going.
Verse 5 in the ESV is like peeling back a layer and looking a tad deeper. It says that in the Christian's heart are the highways to Zion. They go the way of holiness because it's their heart desire.
Verse 6 is my cry and prayer right now, that it would be true for me. The Valley of Baca represents a troublesome place but God with His people makes it a wonderful place. This is stated as fact here in the Psalm. I can't find the Valley of Baca elsewhere in Scripture but it must have been a place without springs. It becomes a place of springs, covered by pools, (rain from beneath and above), as the Christians pass through it. Just think of Psalm 23. The resting places and refreshment of Christ. I imagine it also as a place people will be attracted to drink from Christ and rest from their works of salvation for themselves. That's my prayer, for a traveling Oasis of truth and light and love that people can come to know Christ through.
Verse 7 speaks of God carrying them to the day when He appears to them face to face. That is so encouraging. Our faith in Christ will not fail when it comes from Him. He is strength in our weakness.
In verses 8-9 we have the Psalmist's petition, and every person who reads this as someone who knows that God, the God of Jacob, God Almighty.
It's interesting that he says to God, "Behold our shield." The shield is very significant, both able to refer to Christ and to faith in Christ which is the instrument that connects us to Christ and His righteousness (Phil 3:9). He says look at the face of Your anointed. The capital "A" Anointed is Christ. The little "a" anointed is the Christian. When the Psalmist says to "look" at H/his face, redemptively he's speaking of both. Look at Christ's face for cause, for grace, for mercy, for the work accomplished. And look at my face for need, for a place to reflect your glory.
Verse 10, the famous song verse. I wonder if most people who sing it know where or what the courts are. I sang it for at least a couple of years without thinking about it. I think it was 2003 when it just began to strike me as odd and I had to figure it out. I think most people think it's just about Heaven--but it struck me as odd because I didn't want it to be just Heaven and it wasn't what I was experiencing. I was experiencing it then. Now experience is not bastion of theology, but it is a beacon. Theology comes from Scripture. The feeling just made me ask the question.
The psalm in the OT context could be read literally. There were literal physical courts. There were doorkeepers at the house of our God. Was it that way now, spiritually, too? Or was it something that was here and now gone? It's here brothers and sisters. It's here. I don't know if there are symbolic doorkeepers, but the point is true--it's here and it's awesome. Kings on earth can't imagine it if they don't know Christ.
This Psalm is saying so much. This short writing can't even begin to get into it, but look at what else it is saying: God has a house. The wicked have tents. God is permanent. Wickedness is transient. God's house will not be shaken but He will sweep the rest away. The question is where are you living? I will be the doorkeeper and show you the door if you wish.
Vs 11. The attraction should be God, not the fear of sudden sweeping destruction. He is a sun and shield, better and brighter than the sun we know. Stronger and mightier than any shields we know. He's incredible. He does not withold Himself from those who trust in Him.
Vs 12 Amen.
Why this Psalm has helped me so much and been precious to me is I got really sick of moving around. I got sick of airplanes and I am not a guy who minds flying. I'm done with airports, man.
This Psalm speaks of where we are and where we want to be, at the deepest most important level.
Many Christians will say, "I'm not from here." "This is not my home." But I want to go beyond that and say, "I'm not living here!" either.
Not only is this not where I come from (spiritually), nor where I belong, nor where I will be--it is not where I am now. It's not.
The place I am is not ultimately America, or Namibia, or South Africa. The place I am is God's place.
Those places are not where we are and they are not what we focus on. We do not have to hinge our happiness on being in one place or another. There are nice things, and things to do, wonderful things, even for God and for His glory, but those are other levels. The main way to glorify Him is to be happy in Him in any circumstance in any suffering. God is putting us through suffering for His glory. That is plain and simple. We glorify Him by being Happy in Him wherever He puts us.
That is part of what it means to be a disposableChristian and one of the original reasons why I picked this name for the site.
I praise God for Psalm 84, the whole Psalm, and the dots that were connected just recently since reading into that song so long ago.
It's what I'm clinging to in this time. It doesn't matter where we're at as long as we are with the Lord. I pray this will be a witness, not just to others, but to my children. I pray they will see their parents rejoicing in God wherever we are at and living for His glory and will therefore join us on this pilgrimage spiritually and not just physically.
posted by T L @ 13:30