Blessed Are Those Who Dwell in Your House1
The dedication of Solomon’s temple makes us think about his father’s delightful psalm, in which he expressed his love of worshiping the Lord his God.
Psalm 84
1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O LORD of hosts!
The gathering for divine worship is more delightful than the tongue can describe. It is delightful to anticipate, delightful at the time and delightful to remember. Under heaven, no place is so heavenly as the church of the living God.
2 My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.
Do we feel the same burning desire after God? If so, we will not need urging to attend his worship. Some people need to be coaxed to worship, but David is crying for it here. He did not need to hear the clanging of a church bell to call him to worship. He carried his own bell in his heart.
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.
He envied the little birds that built their nests near the tabernacle. When he was far away from the Lord’s altars, he wished he had wings to fly to them, as the sparrows did, or build near them like the swallows did.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise! Selah.
He wished he could be like the Levites who worked for the Lord in the service of the tabernacle. He thought that even those in the lowest positions would always be praising him. The joy of those living so close to the presence of God would never stop; their praises could be heard both day and night.
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
Or, “whose heart is to do your will.” Only those who put their whole heart into worshiping the Lord find joy in it. Neither prayer, nor praise, nor the hearing of the word will benefit people who have left their hearts behind.
6 As they go through the Valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
The worshipers who traveled a long distance to the temple found water even in the driest parts of their journey. Even their gloomy trials became delightful to them. They even made the uninhabited desert valleys to be as cheerful as the town water well where men and women would meet to talk about the day’s news. There is no end to what holy fellowship and wholehearted praise can do.
7 They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion.
God’s people continue on their way, grow stronger, and at last reach the end of their journey. They have an almighty Helper who will not allow them to fail.
8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah.
9 Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed!
10 For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
The doorkeeper is the first to arrive and the last to leave. He gets less sympathy than anyone. Yet David would rather have the lowest job in God’s house that the highest position in the tents of sin. Quaint old Secker says, “Happy are those persons who God will use as brooms to sweep out the dust from his temple or who are allowed to pull at an oar of the boat where Christ and his people are on board.”2
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
What a great promise, or rather, what a great set of promises! Here we have all we need for all time and for all eternity. What an encouragement to pray! If all things are freely given to us by God, then let us open our mouths wide when making our requests. What more can God himself say than he has said in this most precious verse?
12 O LORD of hosts,
blessed is the one who trusts in you!
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1 Psalm 84:4
2 William Secker (died about 1681). From The Nonsuch Professor first published in 1660.
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