Ps.84:7 – They go from strength to strength,
Every one of them appears before God in Zion.

I love to watch the Tour de France every summer about this time. The last two years it has been won by a young cyclist from Denmark by the name of Jonas Vingegaard. This year he was not the favorite because of a catastrophic accident in April with multiple fractures and a punctured lung. Of course recovery was long and hard, keeping him from training, and Jonas was questionable even to perform in the Tour this year. Race day arrived and Jonas was there, this year he was considered a long shot to win. After two weeks of the tour a long hard mountain stage in the Pyrenees was the challenge. Jonas was able to gain strength as the race proceeded, winning that stage of the race at the top of the mountain. There is still over a week to go but now Jonas seems stronger than when he started and has a real possibility of winning the Tour again this year. As I watched this cyclist get stronger each day without his normal training for months I began to reflect on today’s verse. We are in an eternal race and against all odds and we too can win the day going from strength to strength. Here is how Charles Spurgeon describes this.

“So far from being wearied they gather strength as they proceed. Each individual becomes happier, each company becomes more numerous, each holy song more sweet and full. We grow as we advance if heaven be our goal. If we spend our strength in God’s ways we shall find it increase. Every one of them in Zion appears before God. This was the end of the pilgrim’s march, the centre where all met, the delight of all hearts. Not merely to be in the assembly, but to appear before God was the object of each devout Israelite. Would to God it were the sincere desire of all who in these days mingle in our religious gatherings. Unless we realize the presence of God we have done nothing; the mere gathering together is nothing worth.”

I love this quote today, it is not enough just to be in the gathering of God’s people in the house of God, we must press into God’s presence. That was the whole point of Moses’ Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple. Without the presence you have just a tent in the wilderness and a building in Jerusalem. It amazes me when people say that the church is just a building, ‘I can serve God at home’ they say. The whole point of Christianity is for us to gather and for God to be in our midst. This is how we go from strength to strength.