“How lovely is your dwelling place O Lord Almighty…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…”
Interestingly this psalm touched me in a new way reading it from a different season of life. A number of years ago I was constantly on the move with the work that I did, and I was struggling with loneliness and feeling left out of “normal.” So when I read the verse “Even the sparrow has found a home” I was reading it thinking the psalm was a complaint. (When I look back, I wonder ‘How could I have possibly though that?!’)
But oh so wonderful is this psalm from a different perspective! The dwelling place of God is so wonderful that even the sparrow and the swallow find their home. It’s not psalm of exclusion but of inclusion!
I was also touched by the understanding that blessed are those who “set their hearts on pilgrimage….they go from strength to strength.” The Christian life is one of pilgrimage. It’s not a one-time event but a journey. And this journey isn’t from struggle to struggle but strength to strength. If we had this perspective, how much of our perspective on life change? How much more our joy? That’s what I want.
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Psalm 84: memorized 10/5/10
