A Psalm for Sunday

The strains of Psalm 84 are playing in my memory s I prepare for church this morning. Years ago someone set the first three verses to music and I sang “How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place” in my Senior Recital. So I’m going to leave the music off a while longer and listen to the voices in my head sing that sacred classic for solo voice and piano. I’ll smile a little when I enjoy full choir and orchestra at church later, knowing I started the day with a “really old tune”.

Actually, no.

I started the day with thoughts of my Savior. And that’s how it should be with someone you love. Here’s the psalm:

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Psalm 84

For the choir director; on the Gittith. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

How lovely are Your dwelling places,
O Lord of hosts!
[2] My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
[3] The bird also has found a house,
And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,
Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,
My King and my God.
[4] How blessed are those who dwell in Your house!
They are ever praising You.

Selah.

[5] How blessed is the man whose strength is in You,
In whose heart are the highways to Zion!
[6] Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring;
The early rain also covers it with blessings.
[7] They go from strength to strength,
Every one of them appears before God in Zion.

[8] O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
Give ear, O God of Jacob!

Selah.

[9] Behold our shield, O God,
And look upon the face of Your anointed.
[10] For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside.
I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God
Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
[11] For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
The Lord gives grace and glory;
No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
[12] O Lord of hosts,
How blessed is the man who trusts in You!

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Don’t you just love that last line? “How blessed –how happy– is the man who trusts in You!”
That’s the truth!

Did you notice that verses 1 – 4 are about the house of worship
verses 5 – 7 are about the people of worship
8 – 11 talk about God and
12 is the conclusion of the matter?
A well-crafted lyric!

1 John 4

Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section below; remember it’s perfectly fine to comment on verses already mentioned. You would in Bible study, why not here?

Enjoy.
Phil—

1 John 4

 

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

1 John 4:1-21