Psalm 84 for Sunday, February 17, 2008

Translation:
(1) To the director: Upon the Gittith, for the sons of Korah, a Song
(2)How lovely are your tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts
(3)My being longs and even faints for the courts of the Lord
My mind and body shouts with joy to the Living [One]
(4)Even a bird finds a house, and a swallow a nest for itself,
where she puts her chicks; on your altars
Lord of hosts, my king and my God.
(5)Blessed is the one who lives in your house, forever praising you. (Selah)
(6)Blessed is the man whose strength is in you, whose heart are the highways.
(7)Those passing through the valley of Baca will make it a spring.
Even the rain wraps it in blessings.
(8)They go from strength to strength, it will be seen before God in Zion.
(9)Lord God of Hosts: Hear my prayer! Listen, O God of Jacob (Selah)
(10)Look at our shield, O God look on the face of your anointed.
(11)For better is a day in your courts than a thousand I have chosen
It is better to be a guard in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
(12)For the Lord God is a sun and shield, He gives grace and glory.
The Lord will not withhold good things to those who walk with integrity.
(13)O Lord of Hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you.

This Psalm has been chose as the scripture for our Sunday sermon on "Passionate Worship." Some scholars think that this Psalm was recited or maybe sung by pilgrims as they mad their way toward Jerusalem for one of the three major pilgrimage feasts. You can imagine a pilgrim saying these words with anticipation of reaching the Temple to worship.

I like what this Psalm suggests about worship. To me, it suggests that worship is something powerful. The Psalmist is drawn to God in an almost magnetic way. Take a look at verses 1-3. The Hebrew words here don't leave any part of the Psalmists physical being out. The heart, the mind and the corporal body are all included. The whole being, the Psalmist's whole self is yearning for God, to sing praises to God and to just stand in God's courts.

Then, verses 4-8 seem to indicate a transformation in the worshiper. Particularly verse 7 and the valley of Baca. Though we do not know exactly where the valley of Baca would have been, the Hebrew word Baca is very close to the word for "tears." Some translations actually say "the valley of Tears." Imagine the transformation here--the valley of sadness is transformed to become a spring where the rain blesses the earth. What a powerful transformation we're talking about here!

There is some kind of petition in verses 9-10 where the Psalmist is asking God to do something. The Hebrew imperative verb form is used here, probably to indicate a sense of urgency that God should listen and hear the pleas of those who pray to him. And finally, the Psalm ends in the way it began--with the Psalmist's own experience of what it feels like to be in the presence of God.

I think this Psalm has a great stage before our own contemporary ears. Sometimes we take worship for granted. It happens every single Sunday, with much the same ordo or pattern. You might even call it predictable. But, this Psalm reminds us that our worship is more than just a pattern, more than just a weekly routine. Our worship is powerful because it happens in the presence of God. It is powerful because it is one way that we can communicate with God and a time and a place where we can have fellowship with God.