Psalm 84
Better is One Day in Your Courts
"Why do we come to church?" is the question Pastor Aren opens with this morning. Why do we come? What brings us here? Psalm 84 invites us to consider that question and to celebrate our answers. That's what Pastor Aren invites us to do this morning and he invites us to walk with him through this Psalm, and enter into the experience it describes.
If you would like to listen to the sermon again, or perhaps for the first time, you can access our sermon library here. If you prefer, you can access the livestream version of the entire service here.
Psalm 84
For the director of music. According to gittith. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.
1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
Lord Almighty!
2My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.
3Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
4Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you.
5Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
7 They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.
8 Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty;
listen to me, God of Jacob.
9 Look on our shield, O God;
look with favor on your anointed one.
10 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.
11For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.
12 Lord Almighty,
blessed is the one who trusts in you.