Psalm 84 is a song for marching, or walking. Marching songs didn’t start with ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’ and ‘My Eyes Have Seen The Glory’ and ‘Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah’ or ‘I Would Walk One Hundred Miles’. The Bible has them, too. Because the Bible required marching of God’s people. There is a lot of walking in the Bible.
Israelites might have sung Psalm 84 as they journeyed up to Jerusalem to fulfill their duties in the temple or attend the annual festivals. In fact, later in the Psalter, there is a whole collection of songs for walking up to Zion, called ‘the songs of ascents’. They are Psalms 120 to 134. Typical of marching or walking songs, they are shorter, with repeated ideas and words.
This psalm was written by one of the descendants of Korah. The authorship is important. Their forefather, Korah was a notorious Israelite who rebelled God and Moses during the time of the Exodus. Korah, Moses’ cousin, was jealous of the priesthood given to Aaron. He was a Levite, but was not happy with being ‘just a Levite’.
As a Levite, he had an important job. They were God’s doormen, bouncers and bodyguards,. They were appointed to carry the dismantled tabernacle from place to place, given custody of God’s treasures to guard them, and when the tabernacle was erected, to stand at its doorways so that no unauthorised person would enter.
But this was not enough for Korah and his friends. He demanded the priesthood for himself and others. Everyone can be priests, was his cry. All God’s people are holy. While there was truth in that, he was wrong in his application. He did not recognise that God has the right to choose who he wants for ministry among his people. Numbers 16 records his rebellion and God’s extra-ordinary punishment on him.
Even though Korah died with his household, he still had descendants, sons who survived the Exodus and entered the promised land (Exod 6:24; Num 26:9-11). They were his older children who had started their own households by the time of Korah’s rebellion and did not join their father. Their lines continued within the tribe of Levi (1 Chron 6:16-32), and David the king appointed these sons of Korah to sing and praise Yahweh before the tabernacle. They were also appointed to be gatekeepers and guards of the tabernacle (1 Chron 9:17-27).
Aussies are proud of their convict ancestry, if they have it. Aussies will proudly boast, “My ancestors were on the first fleet, or the second fleet, or the third fleet. I’m descended from convict stock. How cool is that”. We are a weird mob.
And if you aren’t descended from convicts, don’t worry, you haven’t missed out. As humans, we are all descended from criminals. Our first father Adam and mother Eve rebelled against God and were banished from the garden. They were sentenced to death, and we share in their punishment. That is the nature of original sin. So no one misses out on having embarrassing family history.
Importantly, unlike his ancestor, the writer of Psalm 84 rejoices in the sons of Korah’s ancestral appointment. Look with me at verse 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. (NIV 84:10; 1 Chron 9:17-27; 26:19).
This son of Korah says, “I’m glad I am a gatekeeper at the tabernacle. It’s OK. It’s a good job. I get to serve God. I certainly am not going to do what our ancestor did. I’m not going to hang out with the wicked, no matter what they promise”.
This son of Korah is following the way of flourishing laid down in Psalm 1, to avoid walking in the counsel of the wicked. The alternative is to meditate on God’s instruction. Unlike his forefather Korah, he does not covet the priesthood. Grateful for his Levitical privileges, he is happy to stand guard at God’s house and sing God’s praises. This son of Korah has come to be grateful for his lot. He has learned contentment.
What about you? Have you learned the secret of contentment? Or is there that a part of you that harbours vain regrets and nurses secret longings for better, and more, and greater. Do you look back on life’s disappointments with anger and continually dwell in the frustration of being passed over? Or can you say with this son of Korah, “Being a doorkeeper in God’s house is enough. I won’t covet things beyond me. It is certainly important for happiness, to not look back pining after what is lost, banging on locked doors. Can you get over such disappointments and say, “Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul”?
In Psalm 131, David has learned the secret of contentment, and says:
"My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. 2 But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content” (Psalm 131:1-2 NIV).
Perhaps for you this is aspiration, as it is for me, that God is teaching us this contentment as we walk our walk with him.
However, this son of Korah is not without longings and desires. Contentment does not mean that you no longer have legitimate wishes and aspirations. Our composer, one of the sons of Korah, longs for and looks forward to arriving at his destination, Jerusalem (84:1-4, 10). Verses 1-2:
How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. (NIV)
Jerusalem was the place God in the Old Testament put his name. The composer is eager to arrive at his place of work, the temple, the dwelling place of the one true God, who has entered covenant with Israel. God is his ultimate joy and good.
What is the most important pursuit in this world? It is this: to know your creator who made you. That is more important than every other pursuit. And in that pursuit, we learn that our creator is also the redeemer who purchased us; and he is our sustainer who upholds us moment by moment. This is the fundamental human pursuit. It is the wise way to live. Every other human desire which does not seek for God and obedience to his will ends in only dust and ashes, gravel and tears.
Of course, as part of seeking first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, we will also love our neighbour as ourselves, for our neighbour is made in the image of God, and we honour the God who made us by honouring his image bearers. But all of this starts with the great and first commandment, that we love the LORD our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.
The song writer is so desperate to get to Jerusalem and the temple that he even envies the birds nesting around God’s dwelling. The birds don’t have to go home again. They get to stay in God’s house, and live their whole lives there always. Verses 3 to 4:
Even 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. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. (NIV)
The sparrows and the swallows, sold for half a penny each, live in the best place. They live near to God’s dwelling and around his altar. Unlike the Levites, they can fly into the courtyard of the priests, and walk around the altar, and then take flight again. They can have a bird’s eye view of the sacrifices the priests perform on behalf of the people of Israel.
This son of Korah envies the birds nesting in and around God’s dwelling. He longs to join the bird calls with his own voice, for his family have been appointed by David not only to guard the doorways, but to sing God’s praises outside the tabernacle. By their chirping, and calls, the birds always sing praises to God, lifting up their voices to give God thanks. This son of Korah wishes he might be with these birds, to join his voices to theirs in praising God (84:3-4; cf. 65:4). He seeks the blessing of being in God’s presence.
Friends, our citizenship is in heaven. Our Jerusalem is above, she is free, and she is our mother. Our longing is for the city of God coming down from heaven. This city will come when the Lord Jesus Christ returns. However, according to the New Testament, we have already come to this city by coming to its king, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12:22-24:
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (NIV)
We experience the now and not yet of the new Jerusalem. By coming to Christ, these things are ours. Yet we haven’t yet fully experienced them. We anticipate them, we hope for them, we wait for them, we know the way to it, but we have not yet enjoyed it. We are not yet enjoying our rest. You might be retired, and living in a retirement village, but you still have a journey to walk. So fellow travellers and pilgrims, keep going. Keep walking with God as you head to the celestial city.
Our journey to God’s dwelling and city has blessings of its own. So too did the son of Korah’s journey, and all the pilgrims to the present Jerusalem under the Old Covenant.
This son of Korah did not live near God’s dwelling at Jerusalem. He must journey to get there. He has to walk there. But the journey too had its blessings (84:5-8). Verses 5 to 7:
Blessed are those whose strength is in you [that is, God], 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.
The faithful Israelites longing for Jerusalem have their hearts set on pilgrimage. More literally, the willing pilgrims have “highways in their heart” and likewise receive blessing (84:5; cf. 122:1). They are desperate to ‘hit the road’, to get on their way.
As they journey to Jerusalem, they transform the landscape through which they travel. The valley of baka, in verse 7, the valley of the balsam tree, is an otherwise arid and dry place. But the pilgrims, as they travel through the desert, turn the dry valley into a well-watered land, full of springs and covered with pools of blessing (84:6; cf. Ezek 34:26). God enables what he commands: he says come to Jerusalem, and for those who obey, he provides for them abundantly along the way.
They go “from strength to strength”. That is, they are like runners approaching the finish line: seeing the finish line gives them the impetus for that final sprint. They don’t get weaker as they continue the journey, but they get stronger as they approach Zion. None are waylaid. Not one is lost. All arrive and appear before God (84:7). The saints persevere and make it in the end.
We who trust in Jesus also are on a journey, to the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city where God and his Christ dwells forever. We just want to be there, to be admitted, to be forgiven and see God face to face as loving father, not angry judge. Being a doorkeeper there would be fine. I don’t need centre stage. There we will sing praises of Jesus and his Father forever, in company with all of redeemed creation.
But our journey to heaven has its blessings to give and receive. We too are called to transform our world along our way. We can have a part and share in bringing blessings to our world, so that it overflows with living water. The way we do that is to share the gospel with those around us and to love our neighbour by the power of his Holy Spirit. As Jesus shouted out in the temple courts during a festival, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.38Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:37-38). The overflow of living water is the Holy Spirit who dwells within every believer. We are called to allow the Holy Spirit who dwells in us to overflow to others. We do this by sharing the gospel of Jesus and loving our neighbour.
Do you think of your journey through this world as a way of bringing blessing to those around you? Are you God’s means for bringing springs of living water to your fellow travellers? For this is our calling: to be a blessing on the way to receiving our blessing.
And God will enable his people to go from strength to strength. All those God has chosen from before the foundation of the world will reach their appointed end. None of his elect will fall short of their destination. All will appear in glory before God.
This son of Korah realises that all God’s blessings and purposes are found in his Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one that God has appointed as Israel’s King. This was the King in the line of David. Verses 8-9:
Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob. 9 Look on our shield,[e] O God; look with favour on your anointed one.
The psalm asks for God’s blessing to be given on the basis of the Messiah, the king in the line of David (84:9). Yahweh is both sun and shield for his people, giving grace and glory and withholding nothing good from the blameless (84:11; cf. 1:3, 6; 15:2; 34:9-10; Matt 6:33; Rev 21:23). But the Messiah also is the shield of his people. Psalm 2 urges us to seek refuge in the Messiah God has appointed, to kiss him in humble submission. Psalm 2 promises a blessing for all who take refuge in the Davidic King, the Son of God.
And friends, we likewise ask God to hear our prayers, not because of our righteousness, but because we have taken refuge in the shield he has given us, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Messiah God has established for us. God has proven this by raising him from the dead. As believers, our lives are now hidden in Christ in God. When we put our trust in Christ, our inheritance is safe in him from the chances and changes of this world. Our Christ is our righteousness, and he protects and saves us from the wrath we deserve.
The final blessing of psalm 84 is for the one “who trusts in” God and his Christ (84:12; cf. 2:12). The way of salvation is by faith in Christ. Our forgiveness, our justification, our redemption comes by trusting, relying, and depending on Jesus Christ, his life, death, and resurrection.
The context in which Psalm 84 is to given us enriches this call to trust in God. We find Psalm 84 in Book Three of the Psalter. Book Three is the low-point of the Psalter. Those who have rejected walking in God’s way appear to prosper (73:3-12). Jerusalem and the temple—to which the sons of Korah hope to journey—have been destroyed (74, 79-80). The covenant with David appears to have failed (77:7-9; 89:38ff). God remains angry with his people yet is their only source of hope (79-80). The very sources of joy for the composer of Psalm 84 appear to have failed.
So then, Psalm 84 is presented to us as a meditation on walking with God in a perplexing time, when it appears that God has let his people down and it is difficult to see how what God has promised will come to pass.
Psalm 84 tells us, that when things could hardly be worse, keep trusting God. Keep looking to the promises of God for the future, no matter how dire the situation seems in the present. So Jerusalem has fallen and is in ruins? So there is no visible Christ ruling on the throne? So God’s people receive set back after set back? Don’t despair. God will be faithful to his word. Keep faith. Trust in the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of David. Trust that you will see Jerusalem in glory.
“God remain good” (73:1; 86:1, 5, 17) and “God is king” (74:12), despite those confounding experiences. Keep longing for the Jerusalem (84, 87) to which you head. You will see the return of the Davidic king, the Christ, on whom your salvation depends (89).
No matter what situation you are in, may Psalm 84 encourage you to continue your blessed journey to the city above by trusting in God and his Christ, Jesus.
84:1
For the director. According to/upon the Gittith. Of the sons of Korah. A composition.
84:2
How beloved are your habitations, Yahweh of armies.
84:3
My life longs for and even is spent for the courts of Yahweh.
My heart and my flesh sings out to the living God.
84:4
Even a bird finds a house
And a swallow a nest for herself
In which she puts her young,
with your altars, Yahweh of armies, my king and my God.
84:5
Happy are those who dwell in your house.
Continually the praise you.
Selah.
84:6
Happy is the man, strength belongs to him in you, highways in their heart.
84:7
The ones passing by the valley of the balsam trees
A spring they set it,
And also blessings
Rain wraps.
84:8
They go from strength to strength.
He appears to God in Zion.
84:9
Yahweh, God of armies, listen to my prayer.
Give ear, God of Jacob. Selah.
84:10
Our shield, look, O God
And regard the face of your anointed.
84:11
For better is a day in your courts
than a thousand [anywhere else].
I choose to stand guard at the front of the house of my than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
84:12
For sun and shield are Yahweh God.
Grace and glory Yahweh gives.
He does not withhold good to those who walk in perfection.
84:13
Yahweh of armies,
Happy is a man who trusts in you.