WWUTT 1109 Better is One Day in Your Courts than Thousands Elsewhere?

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How much better it is to be in the presence of God with His people singing

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His praises than to be anywhere else on earth. When we gather as the church, it is practice for heaven when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

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Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

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Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the

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Psalms on this Thursday, and picking up where we left off last week, that would put us in Psalm 84.

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We finished up the Psalms of Asaph, and now we get back to the

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Psalms of Korah. We've already read some of the Psalms of the sons of Korah, and Psalm 84 is one of those

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Psalms. Perhaps the next one will be as well, and I'll talk about who the sons of Korah are, refreshing your memory on that.

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But first, this is Psalm 84, and I'll begin by reading through all 12 verses. How lovely is your dwelling place,

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O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints, for the courts of the

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Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living

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God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young.

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At your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God, blessed are those who dwell in your house ever singing your praise.

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Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs.

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The early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength.

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Each one appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer.

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Give ear, O God of Jacob. Behold our shield, O God. Look on the face of your anointed.

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For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my

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God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield.

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The Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

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O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you.

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Now if you're familiar with modern praise and worship songs, then there's a lot of this psalm that might sound familiar to you.

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You might be familiar with the Matt Redmond song, Better is One Day. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.

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Now granted, you repeat that over and over again, and because the song is so repetitive, I very seldom sing it in my own church.

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But nevertheless, it is a catchy song, and I do enjoy it because it comes straight out of Psalm 84.

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To the choir master, according to the Geteeth, that was likely the piece of music that this psalm was set to, a psalm of the sons of Korah.

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Do you remember who the sons of Korah are? Well, this goes back to Numbers chapter 16, the rebellion of Korah, and then the subsequent plague that came after that.

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Because Korah and those who were with him rebelled against Moses. The Lord consumed them, caused the earth to open up beneath them and consume them.

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Two hundred and fifty died, and then another 14 ,700 died in the plague that followed.

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And so overall, you had about 15 ,000 people were killed in Korah's rebellion. And yet the sons of Korah who are descended from the same line of Korah, for Korah's whole household was not consumed, as was usually the case when somebody rebelled against God in that way.

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Usually their whole household would suffer the consequences. But in this particular case, the sons of Korah remained and would eventually become servants in the house of David who were responsible for the songs and the musical instruments and leading the accompaniment for the people of Israel when they would sing these songs of praise to God.

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So they went from being upset about their position of service to these descendants of Korah, God giving them a position of service in the temple.

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And they were delighted to do it and became famous for this in that several psalms are named after them since these sons of Korah were the writers of this particular piece.

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How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts. Now, what is God's dwelling place?

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His dwelling place is the temple. What is God's dwelling place now? His dwelling place is in us.

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As we were just reading this week in Acts chapter 17, Paul's sermon at the Areopagus, he said,

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God does not dwell in buildings made by hands. Where does he dwell? According to 1

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Corinthians chapter 6, he dwells in us. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit whom

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God has given you. Therefore, honor God with your body. Romans 12, 1, in view of God's mercies, present your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto

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God, for this is your spiritual act of worship. Now where several

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Christians are gathered together singing praises like this unto the name of the Lord, what is that?

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It is the gathering of the church. And how lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts.

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This is the psalmist, in this case, the sons of Korah, celebrating being in the place where God dwells, that would be the temple, and being there in the assembly with the gathered people of God.

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And so likewise, when we consider this in the spiritual sense today, and that we might be talking about the church rather than the physical temple of God, but we would be talking about the church, the ecclesia, the calling out of God's people from the world to himself, and the gathering of that people together on the

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Lord's day in worship. Then that's how this song would pertain to us.

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How lovely it is to be with the people of God, worshiping the Lord of hosts.

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My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living

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God. This is very similar to something that David had prayed back in Psalm, was it 42?

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As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living

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God. When shall I come and appear before God? And David in that same Psalm saying how

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I would love to lead the procession into the place of God. So he wants to lead the people into God's dwelling place to worship him there.

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And this is Psalm 84 kind of has some echoes of that. We see similar themes come up here.

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My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living

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God. So it's in the spirit of a person, and that's reflected even in their actions, that their action is a reflection of the condition of their heart.

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They long for God, and they want to be with him in his presence and with his people.

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Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young at your altars,

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O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Think of something that Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6.

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And I have to wonder if in this section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus didn't have Psalm 84 in mind.

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He says in Matthew 6, starting in verse 25, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.

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Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air.

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They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

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Are you not of more value than they? And so you see that God cares for the animals.

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He cares for the birds of the field. You are more valuable than many sparrows. And so the

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Lord is going to take care of you just as he takes care of the rest of his creation. Now, when we read here in Psalm 84, 3,

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Even the sparrow finds a home, the swallow finds a nest where she may lay her young at your altars,

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O Lord of hosts. I have to wonder if this is really quite literal. I mean, we see all kinds of personification and metaphor in the

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Psalms. But think about where the temple is located and that birds would come on top of it and probably make nests up there on top of the temple.

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Why not? Why wouldn't they? And is anybody going to climb up there and shoo the birds away?

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So if birds are actually making nests at the top of the temple and they find a place of dwelling where she may lay her young, then how much more should we desire to be in the place of God?

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We who are invited to come into that place and worship God in his presence where he dwells.

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Blessed are those who dwell in your house ever singing your praise.

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So our hearts are always for God and for his people that we may be there worshiping the

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Lord, singing his praises, hearing his word proclaimed to us.

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As Charles Spurgeon has said, don't go where it is all grand music and fine architecture and lofty speech.

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Go where the gospel is preached and go often. We should desire to be in church because the gospel is proclaimed there.

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We love the fellowship with God's people. We love singing praises unto our

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Lord, our voices being lifted together unto his name. It's heaven practice for all.

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We're all going to be doing that forever for eternity around the throne of grace.

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Verse 5, blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

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Folks, you put trust in anything in this world, you're going to come up empty. You're going to find yourself lacking and never fully satisfied because the stuff of this world is wasting away even as it sits in your pocket.

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You know, talking about your smartphone and the newest device you just picked up, some sort of new gadget or gift that somebody gave you for Christmas.

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It's wasting away. You might have received a little bit of joy when you opened up that gift, but it's ultimately not going to last.

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Nothing in this world will. The only lasting joy that we will have is in Christ, our savior, and that is a guarantee.

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We can have assurance in that. Folks, if you try to put your faith in stuff, if you even try to put your faith in people, you are going to be disappointed and you will find yourself depressed and weary and broken hearted.

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We must find strength in Christ and in him alone. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

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It is through Christ that we find our way to everlasting life and presence with God forever.

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As they go through the valley of Bacchae, they make it a place of springs. The early rain also covers it with pools.

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They go from strength to strength. Each one appears before God in Zion.

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Everything all of creation flows. It's the outflow of God. God has given us all good things.

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So we are to praise him for everything that we receive, good or bad. We give praise to God because it ultimately all leads back to him.

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When you stand before God, that throne of judgment one day, are you going to be there to be judged?

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Or are you going to be there because the price of your judgment has been paid and you will hear from God, enter into the kingdom rather than depart from me,

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I never knew you. So we go on here to verse 8 and 9, Oh Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer.

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Give ear. Oh God of Jacob, behold our shield. Oh God, look on the face of your anointed.

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For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. Boy, I look forward to Sunday.

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I don't know about you. Of course, I'm a pastor. I need to look forward to Sunday. It's my favorite day of the week. I love getting together on Sunday and preaching on Sunday morning and being with the family of God.

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It's also my most exhausting day of the week, but it is the day from which

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I get the most joy, the most delight. To be with these people, to be worshiping our

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God and a day there is better than the rest of the week anywhere else.

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And I hope that the people who were there with us on Sunday, they feel the same way. I would rather be here in church on Sunday than at the

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Chiefs game. The Kansas City Chiefs play just two hours from us and they're very, very popular around where we live.

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I would rather be at church than at work this week. I would rather be at church than anywhere else.

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I hope that that's the attitude of anybody that comes and worships with us on a Sunday. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my

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God than dwell in the tents of the wickedness. Let me ask this of you, would you be happier sweeping the floors at your church for probably no pay, no reward?

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You would rather do that than go to work this week and make the paycheck that you're going to receive to help provide for your family.

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You'd rather be in the church sweeping the floors, right? Doing some sort of work or service to God that you might benefit the body or minister to them in some way, even ministering in the upkeep of the building.

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Would you rather do that than dwell in the tents of wickedness? Do not be taken by the ways of this world, the temptations that come toward us.

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There are all kinds of ways Satan is going to try to manipulate us. Look at what you can have here.

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Look at what you can get here. Hey, you're not receiving this. You should complain about it. You deserve rights. You deserve this.

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You're being oppressed, so you should raise your voice. You're not getting the stuff that you think needs to, that you need to make you happy.

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So complain about your pay so that you get more. That way you get the stuff that's going to make you happy. All these different ways

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Satan tries to entice us. But the joy of the Lord is to be our strength, and we are to be completely satisfied in him alone.

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I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

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For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord bestows favor and honor.

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No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Oh, Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you.

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And that even comes back to what Jesus was saying in Matthew chapter six. Trust in the

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Lord. He will give you all good things. He knows how to care for the other creatures in his creation. He will take care of you.

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Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.

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Matthew 6, 33. Let's do one more Psalm here. Let's go to Psalm 85.

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To the choir master, a Psalm of the sons of Korah once again. And then next week when we jump back into the

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Psalm, Psalm 86 will be a prayer of David. So here's Psalm 85. Lord, you were favorable to your land.

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You restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people.

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You covered all their sin. Selah. Then we have a pause there. You withdrew all your wrath.

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You turned from your hot anger. Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us.

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Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations?

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Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love,

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O Lord, and grant us your salvation. Let me hear what

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God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints, but let them not turn back to folly.

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Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.

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Steadfast love and faithfulness meet. Righteousness and peace kiss each other.

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Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky.

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Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.

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Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps away.

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So you have a little bit of the Psalms that we have been reading previously combined with the

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Psalm that we just read in Psalm 84. You have an admission of guilt and a desire to be forgiven, and that God would put away his indignation, the punishment that is coming upon a people because of their sin and rebellion against God, instead that he would revive them, that he would grant salvation, that he would forgive the iniquity of his people.

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So you have an acknowledgement of sin and a request for forgiveness, that God would put sin away from us, that he would restore the fortunes of his people.

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And then you get to kind of more what we read in Psalm 84 with, let me hear what

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God the Lord will speak, loving his word, desiring his word to be spoken. Just as in Psalm 84,

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I want to go with the people of God into his presence. I want to go into his courts with praise.

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So likewise, we have in verse eight, let me hear what God the Lord will speak. This is not saying, let me have some sort of subjective voice in my head that I think

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God will use to answer this prayer that I just prayed to him. No, it's let me hear the words of his law and his prophets that have been written down in the scriptures.

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Let me hear these things proclaimed for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints.

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Where do we have words of assurance? Where do we find words of the promises of God, how he has assured us he is going to deal with his people?

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We find it in the scriptures. We have hope because of what the Bible says to us.

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So when you feel guilty or ashamed because of a sin that you have committed and you should feel ashamed and you come, you come before God and you ask for his grace and his forgiveness.

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Where can you find confidence that God will forgive you your sin and cover over all your iniquities?

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You find that assurance in the scripture. It's not going to come by some voice that speaks into your head. My child, you are forgiven.

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Okay, that's not how you're going to, that's not how you're going to know. Oh, yay. I've been forgiven my sins.

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You will know because you come to the scriptures and you find that there is a savior who has died for you, who took on flesh and dwelt among us, who lived a perfect life for you, who died for you and was risen again from the grave so that all who believe in him will not suffer under the judgment of God because of their sins or transgressions.

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They will be forgiven those sins. First John one nine. If we ask forgiveness for our sins,

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God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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Why is God just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness? Because the price has been paid.

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Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe sin had left a crimson stain.

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He washed it white as snow and we know this and we have assurance of this because of what is said to us in the scriptures.

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He will speak peace to his people, to his saints. We have peace with God through the salvation that is given to us in our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Look at the next part of verse eight though, but let them not turn back to folly.

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So forgive me of my sins. Please don't let me go back to this sinful thing again.

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Change the nature of my heart so that I will be after righteousness, not after wickedness.

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Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him. Amen. It is that glory may dwell in our land, steadfast love and faithfulness meet righteousness and peace kiss each other.

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When we're pursuing the righteousness of God, we know we have assurance of peace with God, but when you're walking in folly and ignorance and wickedness, you don't have that assurance.

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You fear God for a completely different reason. You don't fear him in that reverent way. You fear the judgment of God because you're walking in sin.

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If you want love and faithfulness and righteousness and peace, fear the

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Lord and obey his commandments. Verse 11 faithfulness springs up from the ground and righteousness looks down from the sky.

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We have a righteousness that is not our own. It is given to us by our savior.

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Yes, the Lord will give what is good and our land will yield its increase.

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Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps away. Let us pray.

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Heavenly father, we thank you for the goodness that you show to us daily. How undeserving we are of the kindness that you show to us on a regular basis.

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We are undeserving of the love and affection that you give to us. Yet we are reminded of this in Romans 5, 8,

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God shows his love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

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We are saved by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and give us peace and contentment and assurance in that promise today and teach us to walk in righteousness that we may be in pursuit of God daily, not after wickedness, but drawing near to God and the devil will flee from us.

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Keep us in paths of righteousness, for your name's sake, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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