A Journey To Zion

Psalms, Psalm 84, and I'm just going to bring out some points from the whole stretch of the psalm.

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts.

Now it's obvious as you read through the psalm that it's one of those pilgrimage psalms.

It's one of those psalms that speaks about a journey to Zion, a journey to the temple,

because as we'll see, he is away from the temple.

The psalmist is lamenting the fact that he's not in God's house or near God's house

and wants to know again of the benefit of being in the Lord's house.

It doesn't tell us where he is or how long he's been away,

but he does obviously have a longing to be back in the courts of the Lord, as he says in verse 2.

And you can see too that three times, at least through the psalm, you have the word blessed.

And in some ways you could say that blessed, as you find in verses 4 and 5 and 12,

the psalm is in a sense a meditation on the meaning of blessed

and how the whole concept of being blessed applies to God's people.

One of the beautiful things about the psalm, and it is such a comforting thought,

is that blessedness is not affected by whatever conditions we may find ourselves in.

Because the psalm takes us through different circumstances and different conditions,

even the fact that he's there and then in a place of longing,

and where he talks to later, as we'll see, to the valley of Baker,

the difficulties of the journey, the challenges of the journey,

and then reaching journey's end, throughout all of these varied experiences,

his blessedness remains in place.

God has blessed him. Nothing can alter that.

And all the way through, he's carrying the blessedness that belongs to him,

of which he speaks through each and all of these circumstances.

It remains intact for the whole of his journey.

And isn't that a comforting and reassuring thought for yourself tonight as a Christian?

That however things change in your experience or in the conditions of your life from day to day,

none of that affects your blessedness.

You are as blessed after God has blessed you.

You are as blessed in times of adversity and temptation and difficulty

as you are in times of comfort and joy.

The blessedness is not conditional upon the outward circumstances.

The blessedness continues right through every instance of life.

And that's, of course, what God demonstrated way back in the Old Testament days there,

further back in the days of Balaam coming to try and curse the Lord's people in the book of Numbers,

Numbers 23 · chapter mention

chapters 23, 24, as you read through that,

that Balak, the king of Moab, had hired him to come and curse these people of God.

He took him up to a mountain, as you remember, and sought to curse them from there.

And God came and put a word in his mouth.

And instead of uttering curses against the people of God,

he pronounced some of the most beautiful blessings from God upon these people.

And in pronouncing that, one of the things he said more than once was,

how can I curse whom God has not cursed?

And how can I bless whom God has not blessed?

If tonight your life is blessed, and as a Christian your life is blessed,

nothing is going to be able to curse you.

Nothing is going to alter that blessedness that God has actually laid upon you or taken you into.

Now, there are three points, just briefly, that we can divide the psalm into.

First of all, verses 1 to 4, and also verse 10,

you find that there is what you might call the element of pining.

He's pining for the house of the Lord.

He has a longing in his heart.

Secondly, verses 5 to 7 speaks about pilgrimage.

And then, finally, verses 11 to 12 speak about plenty,

the plenteousness that God has for his people,

as the one who is their son and their shield,

bestowing favour and honour.

No good thing does he withhold the plenteousness of goodness,

as God showers them with good things.

So, pining, pilgrimage, and plenty.

And the first verses, 1 to 4, here he is saying,

how lovely is your dwelling place.

He's thinking about the dwelling place of God, the temple of God.

And then he says, my soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord.

And one of the things that strikes you all the way through that,

especially in the beginning, how lovely is your dwelling place.

As he pines for the house of God, his mind is caught up with the beauty of that.

And with the beauty of the house of God, because of God's own beauty.

Because that's what you find right throughout,

where God makes his presence, that makes a place or a person beautiful.

You find that in Psalm 27, for example.

When you think of how the same reference there is to the temple or the house of God,

and the psalmist there in 27,

the Lord is my light and my salvation.

This is David this time, how that gives him encouragement and strength.

But then in verse 4,

one thing I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek after,

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

Why? To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, to inquire in his temple.

See what comes through to us from the word of God.

From the study of the word of God, from our meditation on the word of God.

What comes through to us as God impresses us with his word in our hearts

is the beauty of the Lord.

Every single thing that has beauty about it in this world.

And let's face it, this is still a world that's marred by sin,

waiting for the day of its deliverance at the end of the world

and the reconstitution into the new heavens and the new earth,

where righteousness dwells.

Nevertheless, all around you, you have beauty.

You have beauty in terms of your own human being.

The beauty of your mind.

The beauty in which God has put you together with the different faculties that you have.

Where does that beauty come from?

Where does the beauty of salvation come from?

Where does the beauty of redemption in Christ come from?

Where does the beauty of your adoption come from?

The fact that you've been made and brought into the family of God

and have become a child of God.

The beauty of that position and that relationship with God is from him.

Everything is derived that is beautiful is derived from his beauty.

God places his own beauty.

The beauty of his holiness.

The beauty of his life.

The life that he gives to us.

He impresses us and puts that upon us.

And so you find the same in verse 10.

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

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

than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

In other words, he's really saying the least position in the house of God

is of infinitely more beauty than the highest position in the world.

To dwell in the tents of wickedness.

To have that dwelling place instead of the dwelling place

of being in the house of the Lord.

There is no comparison.

Tonight you are in a beautiful situation.

Of course, the temple of the Lord, house of the Lord,

is more than this building.

The concept of God's dwelling place moves as we come into the New Testament.

It being now the church of God, the people of God.

That's where he dwells.

That's where he's placed his name.

That's the place he makes beautiful for his own presence

and by his own presence.

And you know, as we come to another Lord's day

and another Lord's supper, God willing.

One of the things that we ought to seek from God

as we come once again to take communion

is that the Lord would bless his word to us

and by his spirit enable us once again

just to dwell upon the beauty of the Lord.

To dwell upon what these elements of bread and of wine represent.

That this is the beauty of Christ.

Christ's own death, which is such a cursed death.

And the ugliness of death.

And the ugliness of bearing the punishment of God.

And yet, nevertheless, it is, in the other sense,

the most beautiful place in the world.

Because that is where the beauty of righteousness shines.

The beauty of God's love as it penetrates the darkness of Calvary.

And as you look at those things in emblem in the Lord's supper,

it should be for us a conveying of that sense of beauty.

How beautiful is our salvation.

How beautiful is our saviour.

How beautiful is that relationship to him

in which we have communion with God.

How beautiful is the prospect in the hope that he's given us

of eternal life with him in heaven.

Every single aspect of our relationship with God

has beauty in some way attached to it.

And we can say how lovely, how beautiful is your dwelling place, O Lord.

And you know that word lovely, it is beautiful.

It does mean beautiful.

But it also conveys with it a sense of beloved, of being valued.

How beloved is your dwelling place?

How valued is your dwelling place?

How precious to me is the fact that you dwell, Lord, in my heart.

That you've chosen this as your dwelling place.

It's something that I prize, something that I value.

Of course, that carries you into what the Bible many ways presents as,

the lament of God's people when they're not as aware as they once were of being near to God.

When they lament the fact that they have caused perhaps some distance between themselves and God

by disobedience, by something other that they know has caused that God's face has,

to an extent, been hidden from them.

They don't have the same comfort they used to have.

They don't have the same sense of nearness to God.

And they can say with the psalmist, Lord, my soul longs, faints.

I want this back.

I want to have that relationship restored to the way that I enjoyed you as I used to.

But, you know, tonight, if you are in that situation where you say,

I'm not as close to the Lord as I used to be.

I'm not as close to the Lord as I've been recently.

And I lament the fact that that's the case.

And I'd like to have it restored.

If that is the case, don't let that keep you back from the Lord's table.

Don't let it keep you from coming to take communion.

Because, after all, what could be better for you than to use a means of grace like the Lord's Supper,

by which the Lord channels grace into our lives?

What could be better for you than to come and avail yourself once again of it,

asking that the Lord would restore your soul,

would actually bring back to you that sense of his nearness,

if you've lost that to some extent.

So, this is his desire.

The soul is longing.

He's crying out for the courts of the Lord.

And these words in verse 2,

my heart and flesh sing for joy.

I think the old translation in that instance is probably better.

It's crying out to the living God.

And it's not necessarily devoid of joy,

but the prominent element, I think,

in his longing and his pining for the house of God,

he has that pain in his heart.

And he is crying out for the Lord.

This is really serious to him.

This is something he really wants to know,

and God's answer to God answering his prayer and his longing.

My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord.

She is envious at the sparrow and the swallow,

who have found a place to nest at your altars, O Lord of hosts.

He's really saying,

Lord, here I am, and I'm conscious I'm not at your house.

I'm not where I would desire to be.

At the moment, I'm distanced from your altars,

from your temple,

and I envy these very little birds that have a place in your temple.

If only I were as one of them to actually be at your altars,

O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.

And so that's the blessed state he speaks of.

Blessed are those, verse 4,

who dwell in your house,

ever singing your praise.

Well, is this not our desire tonight?

However much we've known the Lord in the past up to this moment,

whether we've been in this pilgrimage a long time or a short time,

that's not really the issue.

The issue is that tonight we want to see God spiritually with our longing eyes.

We want to come to this communion on the Lord's day,

praying that the Lord would reveal himself to us through his word

and through the elements of the Lord's Supper.

And that once again, we would gaze upon his beauty.

And that he would reinforce to our longing souls

the fact that he is our God,

that we are his people,

that he's taken us as his people,

that we are, in other words, blessed.

Blessed by him.

Because he speaks of him here as,

O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.

By that he shows that this Lord, this God, has no rivals.

None can take his place.

None can dethrone him.

More than that,

the Psalms very often are polemic.

That's to say they're directed against idolatry

and against the kind of religions

that Israel had around her at all times.

And so in the Psalms, you'll find so much of an emphasis on God,

their God being the true God,

the only God, the living God,

the creator God, the sovereign God,

the saving God, the covenant God.

All of that is a polemic against

those idols and these idolaters around them.

And really these gods in Psalm 115,

they're dead.

They're made by human hands.

They have certain shapes.

They've even got human form.

They have eyes.

They have ears.

They have mouths, but they can't hear.

They can't speak.

Because they're dead, worthless idols.

But your God is this God.

And as this God is your God,

so you'll love to have that made known

to the world in which you live.

And by coming to once again take communion,

and even by being here tonight,

you have demonstrated and you're demonstrating

that this God is your God,

that you're not living for the gods of this world.

That whatever shape the gods of this world take,

they are varied and they are many.

As we heard in the Lord's Day from Kalmurda,

if I remember rightly,

that the idolatry of our age

is not confined to things that people make with their hands.

There's all kinds of ideologies and philosophies and lifestyles

and many things related to that

that are just idolatrous.

Man worshipping himself and his own mind

and his own so-called ability

and putting God aside.

But this is your God.

Blessed are those whose God is this God.

At your altar, O Lord of hosts,

my King and my God.

And isn't it marvellous

how that little word, my,

just clinches that argument for us, doesn't it?

He's not just God.

He's not just God in terms of being the King

and the Sovereign Lord of the universe.

The psalmist is here saying,

I'm away from where I would long to be,

where I'm longing to be back at.

My soul is longing for the courts of the Lord.

At your altar, my King and my God.

Reminds you, doesn't it,

of the great words you find in John's Gospel

when Jesus came to reveal himself to Thomas?

Thomas not having been there a week before

when he revealed himself

as the risen Christ to the disciples.

And of course, he knew of Thomas' objection

and the words that Thomas had spoken,

even though Jesus wasn't physically present.

We invited Thomas specifically.

And what a marvellous thing that is as well,

that the Lord would make the effort,

if we can put it that way,

and would take such concern

to present himself to that one disciple

who had been missing from the previous gathering,

just to reveal himself to him this time.

And after Thomas had come with conviction

to realise who this was,

that this was the risen Christ,

how did he respond?

My Lord and my God.

My Lord and my God.

What a great confession.

One of the greatest confessions in the Bible,

combining as it did

the personal attachment of Thomas to Jesus

and Jesus to him,

but also Jesus himself being both Lord and God.

So there's pining,

pining for the house of the Lord,

the presence of God,

secondly,

there's pilgrimage from verse five.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you

and whose heart are the highways to Zion.

As they go through the valley of Beka,

they make it a place of springs.

The early rain also covers it with pools.

They go from strength to strength.

Each one appears before God in Zion.

Now the journey to Zion,

or back to the temple,

wherever he was situated this time,

was obviously going to be

through difficult terrain,

valley of Beka,

generally is interpreted by commentators

as a place of dryness.

Difficult to be precise,

but the meaning of the word Beka itself,

but certainly it was a desert place,

a place of dryness,

very arid place,

a place for which you needed strength

to actually walk through it

and come out the other side.

And he's saying here

that he requires that strength

so that they will go

and he will go from strength to strength

with those who are traveling.

It involves a tough journey.

It's the journey of life.

It's the journey on which you and I are set

as pilgrims heading towards Zion

because that road takes you,

as you very well know,

through difficult,

challenging territory.

You're going to meet with enemies

that will frighten you.

You're going to meet with failures

on your own part and mine.

You're going to meet with temptations

to some of which you will yield to,

and I too.

There's so much you're going to meet with

that really in themselves

are designed to put you off,

to make you turn back.

You're going to meet with Satan,

especially different forms

and different ways

in which he has access to our lives.

So as to try and intimidate us,

you're going to meet with the ways of the world,

with the hostility of those enemies of Christ.

So many ways in which the path,

the pilgrimage,

is a really testing one,

one of difficulty for which you and I need,

the strength that God gives.

That's why he's saying in verse 5,

blessed are those whose strength is in you.

In other words, he's saying,

blessed are those for whom you are the strength.

You are the one who gives them

the strength for the journey.

And really that's very much in line

with what the apostle wrote.

You remember to the Corinthians

in the second letter to the Corinthians

where he spoke about the difficulties

that he himself was facing.

But then as he came to chapter 12,

as you read it in chapter 12,

the experiences he spoke of there,

the thorn in the flesh that was given him,

to buffet him,

a messenger of Satan,

to harass me,

to keep me from being too elated.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this,

that it should leave me.

But he said to me,

my grace is sufficient for you,

for my power is made perfect in your weakness.

Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly

of my weaknesses,

so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ, then,

I am content with weaknesses,

insults, hardships, persecutions,

and calamities.

For when I am weak,

then I am strong.

He's saying that I am content.

For the sake of Christ,

I'm content with weaknesses,

and so on.

He knew that as he depended upon Christ,

as he depended on the grace of God

that was promised him,

he knew that the strength he needed

was given to him.

The strength to actually meet those challenges

that he speaks of in this chapter,

in these verses.

And the word he uses there for content.

For the sake of Christ,

I am content with weaknesses,

insults.

It's the very same word

that's actually used

for God's,

the Father's words about Jesus.

This is my beloved son

in whom I am well pleased.

That word in Greek for well pleased,

content,

is exactly the word

that Paul uses there

in 2 Corinthians chapter 12.

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

I am well pleased to be like this.

I am content that this is my lot,

that I know whatever circumstances I have,

my blessedness will not run out,

and it will not be taken from me.

My status will not change.

The grace of God will not fail me.

It is sufficient for me.

Whatever we're afraid of,

and we're afraid of many things,

whatever we're afraid of

must never deflect our minds

and our conviction

that the grace of God

is not sufficient for us.

Many people have fears

about coming to meet with the elders,

for example,

to come to take communion

for the first time.

And however much we do try

and emphasize and do again emphasize,

this is not to be seen

as a formidable challenge.

It's not there to prove

how much you don't know

or do know.

It's actually there to be

very much a stepping stone,

very much to do with

an encouraging step

for you to take

in terms of

coming to the Lord's table

for the first time.

In other words,

the challenge of that,

think of it in the words of Paul,

I am therefore content.

I am therefore pleased

that there's such a thing for me

that I can take this step,

even if it's a challenge,

because then the power of Christ

will rest upon me

and the grace that's promised me

will be my experience.

So he has the strength

even in the times of testing,

but notice how he's saying

as they go through

the valley of Beka,

they make it a place of springs.

And I think the imagery

that you've got there

is a very precious one.

He's not saying

as they go through

the valley of Beka,

the rain comes down.

He does mention that

in the end of verse 6,

but the first thing he says here

is they make it.

These pilgrims

make the valley of Beka.

They make it a place of wells.

In other words,

they have to actually use means

by which to dig up

the water for themselves.

The valley of Beka

is arid on top.

It's a desert.

There's nothing to be seen

on the surface,

but when you dig down

deep enough,

you'll come across water

and you can actually

get a refreshing drink.

That's the image

that you've got here.

And that image follows you

into the Christian's experience

as well.

Because there are circumstances

in your life,

and if we can put it

in the language of the psalm,

you have to dig

a blessing out of it.

It takes effort

on our part.

We can't bless ourselves.

We cannot earn

the blessing of God,

but God places us

in situations

of distress,

sometimes of anguish,

sometimes of

whatever difficulties

they may be.

And he's saying to us

from this psalm,

however difficult it is,

whatever kind of difficulty

it is,

you have to dig down.

You have to search through it

and find the hand of God

and find the water

that God has provided

for his people

throughout the journey.

They make it

a place of springs,

a place of a well.

So if you're facing

tonight a specific

difficulty,

even if you find

it's one that

you may feel

nobody else

can actually

help you with

or understand,

maybe different

to what anybody

else may be going

through,

here is the Lord

encouraging you,

dig into it

in such a way

as you pray

to me,

you pray for me,

you pray that

I will actually

make myself

known to you,

that I will bless

this to you,

that you will find

that it is in fact

by my blessing

and coming to see

me in it

a place of wells,

a place of real

blessing to your soul.

And that's why

he's saying here

the early rain

also covers it

with pools,

well that's

in addition to

needing,

to blessing,

to digging

for the blessings,

God graciously

sometimes just comes

with a shout

of blessing

even if you haven't

done much digging

at all

because he's God

and because he's

kind.

He comes with

unexpected blessings.

He showers

down blessings

upon us.

And so

verse 7,

they go

from strength

to strength

each one appears

before God

in Zion.

And you have

something quite

wonderful again

in this.

You've got both

an emphasis on

the company

of God's pilgrims

and each

individual

appearing before

God in Zion.

And what a benefit

it is for us,

friends,

especially when

the testing

comes to us

and the going

is tough

and the pilgrimage

really is through

very difficult territory

spiritually.

What a blessing

it is to know

that you're not

on your own,

that you're part

of a company,

that you belong

to a fellowship,

that you're

traveling together

with others

who are pilgrims

on the same

journey,

who maybe

have been

through similar

circumstances

before and

can help you

through it,

but even not,

if not,

they're there

for your support.

They go from

strength to strength

and as we dig

for blessings,

let's make sure

that we're looking

out for those

that we can help

and let's make sure

that we're willing

to receive

the help we need

whenever others

offer it to us.

We are there

for each other.

We are there

as fellow pilgrims.

We are there

sharing the journey.

We are there

so that in

sharing the journey

we may go

from strength

to strength

step by step,

strengthening each other

until we come

to appear

before God

and sign

until we reach home,

until we reach

the temple above,

the heavenly Zion.

But you notice

how it's changed

from they go

to from strength

to strength

to each one

appears before God

and sign.

None is left out.

Now this life

may for some Christians,

many indeed be

a very lonely journey.

They may find

difficulties

sharing things

with others.

They know they belong

to the company

of God's people.

It doesn't necessarily

mean that it's easy

for them to die

divulge their needs

to others

or their thoughts.

But whatever

experiences we have

and whatever the company

needs to go through,

each one appears.

He's not going to leave you

in the desert.

He's not going to leave you

in the valley of Baca.

He's not going to take away

his strength

for the latter part

of the journey

or for the section

or for the section

you're going through

just now.

Each one

appears before God

in Zion.

Be thankful tonight

for that emphasis

on individuality

set in the context

of the corporateness

of God's people together.

Because that's what we have

to always hold on to.

I'm not alone.

And even though

I'm part of a crowd,

I'm not lost

in the crowd.

I belong to the company

of those pilgrims

that are traveling home.

Pining,

pilgrimage,

and then plenty.

Because from verse 11,

he speaks here about

the Lord God

is a sun and shield.

The Lord bestows

favor and honor.

No good thing

does he withhold

from those who walk

uprightly.

So it's really

in these two verses

what God is

and what God does.

He is a sun

and he's a shield.

He gives light

and he gives protection

at the same time.

That's the God

who takes his people

through this pilgrimage

until they appear

in his presence.

To counter

all the fears

that we may have.

Here is God saying,

if you need light,

then I've got light

for you.

If you need strength,

I've got the strength

you need.

If you need protection

as a shield,

I am your shield

and I am your exceeding

great reward,

as he said to Abraham.

I will look after you.

I will protect you.

I will be your defense.

And also,

he gives

favor and honor

the Lord bestows.

And again,

the old translation

has,

he bestows

grace

and glory.

There's nothing wrong

with putting it as

favor and honor,

but somehow,

especially for those of us

of an older disposition,

perhaps we might prefer

these words.

He gives

grace,

which is,

of course,

favor and honor,

which is really

ultimately glory.

Isn't it

whichever translation

we choose,

it really amounts

pretty much to the same thing.

He gives grace

and he gives glory.

He gives you his favor.

He bestows that upon you

and he gives you

his honor.

He honors you.

He gives you glory.

That's really a description

of a Christian.

What am I as a Christian?

What are you as a Christian?

What are we together

as Christians?

We have people

on whom God

has bestowed

grace and glory,

favor and honor.

That's our portion.

And that's why

when every Lord's

supper opportunity

comes around,

we have to respond

to the fact

of what this is saying

to us.

The blessing,

the blessed people,

we have to respond

by saying,

well,

how can I not go

and take communion?

When God

is all of this

to me,

when this is the fact

of what he has done

and is doing,

how can I possibly

think of

anything less

than taking

the cup

and taking the bread

and doing this

in remembrance

of him?

Really similar

isn't it?

Romans chapter 8

Romans 8 · chapter mention

and verse 28.

It says there

in verse 12

of the psalm,

O God of hosts,

Lord of hosts,

blessed is the one

who trusts in you.

As Romans 8, 28

puts it,

blessed indeed,

where Romans says

that as Paul saw

the wonder

of being in Christ,

the wonder

of the blessings

of Christ,

that all of the things

that he had mentioned

there actually

in verse 28,

just give me a minute

to look it up,

the surrounding verses

as well,

where he said

that the spirit

helping them

in their infirmities

and the calling

of God,

the justifying

of God,

what shall we then

say to these things?

If God is for us,

who can be against us?

And we know

in verse 28,

we know that

for those

who love God,

all things

work together

for good.

Just like

the psalm has said,

he will give

grace

grace

and glory.

No good thing

will he withhold

because

all things

work together

for good

to the Lord's people.

May he bless

these thoughts

on his word.

Let's

sing in his praise

in Psalm

let's

pinch enrage

for good

Schluss

into

the

truth

after

you

should

tell

he

to

UN

do

the

us

and