PS 84 :1 -How lovely is your dwelling place,
O LORD of hosts!
2 – My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.
3 – Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my King and my God.
4 – Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise! Selah
5 – Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6 – As they go through the Valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
7 – They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion.

A strange drama hit the church world during and after the Covid confusion that we all endured in 2020-2021. Everything was shut down, there was even church closures enforced by government officials. We were threatened by the Parrish officials as well as the Jefferson Parrish Sheriff Office if we had any sort of public meetings. Even after the mandates had been removed many Christians had learned to live without the benefit of gathering at church. Many continued to watch online and others found no need for church after all “we are the church”. Today’s passage describes an entirely different experience. These Old Testament believers longed to gather in the house of God, that’s where they could rejoice in God’s presence. That’s actually the primary purpose of church, a place inhabited by God Himself. We are intended to meet with Him corporately, this is the place we find the strength of God. Here is what the ESV STUDY BIBLE says about this passage.

“This is a psalm celebrating pilgrimage to Jerusalem in order to worship at the temple. It is very much like the hymns in praise of Zion as God’s special place (e.g., Psalm 122), although this one especially focuses on the delight of going to worship there. The purpose of singing this psalm is to cultivate that delight, to open the eyes and hearts of God’s people to the staggering privilege of being a welcome guest in God’s own house, and to write deep into their souls the conviction that wickedness offers no reward that can even remotely compare to the joy and pleasure of God’s house.”

So our lives are a pilgrimage heading to our ultimate place of worship, the Father’s House in our heavenly inheritance. In the meantime we are going through valleys of weeping at times but even there we find springs of rejoicing. I am so glad Victory Church is my home, I look forward to our gatherings there as we all go from strength to strength. For me this is a Sunday, hope to see you in the house of God today.