Psalm 84:1-12  How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!  ² My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.  ³ Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.  ⁴ Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise. Selah  ⁵ Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.  ⁶ As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.  ⁷ They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion.  ⁸ O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah  ⁹ Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed.  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 live in the tents of wickedness.  ¹¹ For the LORD God is a sun and shield; he bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the LORD withhold from those who walk uprightly.  ¹² O LORD of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.

            Some of you may know the name Matthew Henry. He was a Presbyterian minister who lived in the late 1600’s to early 1700’s, and produced one of the most famous Bible Commentaries in existence.  His commentary is still widely used by many theologians, historians, pastors, and other leaders of the church.  Today, I offer to you his small but informative commentary on the psalm above, as you reflect on the scripture and how God speaks to you through it.

Commentary on Psalm 84:1-7

The ordinances of God are the believer's solace in this evil world; in them he enjoys the presence of the living God: this causes him to regret his absence from them. They are to his soul as the nest to the bird. Yet they are only an earnest of the happiness of heaven; but how can men desire to enter that holy habitation, who complain of Divine ordinances as wearisome? Those are truly happy, who go forth, and go on in the exercise of religion, in the strength of the grace of Jesus Christ, from whom all our sufficiency is. The pilgrims to the heavenly city may have to pass through many a valley of weeping, and many a thirsty desert; but wells of salvation shall be opened for them, and consolations sent for their support. Those that press forward in their Christian course, shall find God add grace to their graces. And those who grow in grace, shall be perfect in glory.

Commentary on Psalm 84:8-12

In all our addresses to God, we must desire that he would look on Christ, his Anointed One, and accept us for his sake: we must look to Him with faith, and then God will with favour look upon the face of the Anointed: we, without him, dare not show our faces. The psalmist pleads love to God's ordinances. Let us account one day in God's courts better than a thousand spent elsewhere; and deem the meanest place in his service preferable to the highest earthly preferment. We are here in darkness, but if God be our God, he will be to us a Sun, to enlighten and enliven us, to guide and direct us. We are here in danger, but he will be to us a Shield, to secure us from the fiery darts that fly thick about us. Through he has not promised to give riches and dignities, he has promised to give grace and glory to all that seek them in his appointed way. And what is grace, but heaven begun below, in the knowledge, love, and service of God? What is glory, but the completion of this happiness, in being made like to him, and in fully enjoying him for ever? Let it be our care to walk uprightly, and then let us trust God to give us every thing that is good for us. If we cannot go to the house of the Lord, we may go by faith to the Lord of the house; in him we shall be happy, and may be easy. That man is really happy, whatever his outward circumstances may be, who trusts in the Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob.

In our prayers this week: Ann, Jane’s parents, Charles, and Scott

God’s Peace,