A Gatekeeper's Song

6 · The pastor draws the interpretive conclusion from the prior exposition: the fact that lowly gatekeepers wrote this psalm reveals how deeply they treasured their place in God's house

So it's these men, these gatekeepers in the temple of the Lord, these sons of Korah, who wrote for us Psalm 84. So I want us to keep that in mind as we're reading this verse. It was written by the doorkeepers. Some translations use janitors. These are just the— not guys with— these weren't the priests, these weren't the guys serving at the altar, these were the doorkeepers, the janitors, those who were watching and watching over the temple. But this, as we keep that in mind as we read further, it opens up to see how precious a privilege these men considered that job to be, how much a privilege they considered to be able to be with the people of God, to worship God with His people, and to be in the house of the God all through their days. Their labors may have been menial, their station may not have been an exalted one, but they loved, they loved to get up in the morning and to be in the house of the Lord. And they lead us in He's singing about that in this psalm.

7 · The pastor signals the sermon's three-part structure, naming the three blessings he will trace through Psalm 84: dwelling in God's house, depending on God for strength, and trusting in the Lord

There's much in this psalm that we could look at. There's much in here that's worthy of our consideration. But there are 3 particular blessings that are pronounced in here that I want to take a look at this morning. The first one is the blessing of dwelling in the house of the Lord. The second is the blessing of having the Lord for our strength. And the third and final will be the blessing of trusting in the Lord.

8 · The pastor reads Psalm 84:1-4 aloud as the text for the first blessing, identifying the theme: those who dwell in God's house are blessed because they long for, worship, and delight in the presence of God

So the song in this psalm The sons of Korah tell us of 3 blessings. The first one is the blessing of dwelling in God's house. Again, Psalm 84:1-4 says, 'How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. 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! Blessed are those who dwell in Your house, ever singing Your praise!

9 · The pastor explains that in the Old Testament, God's dwelling place was the physical temple where His people gathered for worship

The psalmist here begins by drawing our attention to the dwelling place of God. He's pointing us to the blessedness of dwelling in God's house, especially when God's people are gathered in worship together. The first person who is blessed in this psalm It's the person who finds communion and worship with God's people, the person who longs for God, who longs to worship God, who longs to praise God. That's the person that we are told that is truly blessed. When this psalm was written, God's people gathered in the temple. It was a place, just a brick and mortar building, but that's where the people would come and gather together to worship. It's a place where God would descend and dwell in the Holy of Holies. And that represented God's presence there. It's a place where God's people would come to worship, where they would come to make their offerings and their sacrifices. And this is the place that the sons of Korah longed to be, where their souls longed to be, where they said that they even fainted to be in the courts of the Lord. Today, as you know, God does not inhabit a building per se like He did at the temple. We have a building, which we're grateful for, to come and worship in, but it isn't the building that's the focus anymore. In Acts 17, Paul tells the citizens of Athens that the Lord of heaven and earth does not live in a temple built by hands. We know that we now are the temple of the Holy Spirit. God's house is you. God's house is me. God's house is the church, the people of God when we come together, whether it be here in the sanctuary If we were to gather in the parking lot, if we were to go down to the gym, if we were to gather in people's homes, in coffee shops, whatever the case may be, when God's people gather together, that's God's house. That's where God dwells.

10 · The pastor applies the psalmist's longing to the congregation: the New Covenant believer should likewise long to be with God's people in worship, finding deep satisfaction and joy there

So the psalmist is saying that there is no other place on this earth that he would rather be than to be with God's people in the temple of God, worshiping God and praising Him. For the New Covenant believer, What we would say to that is that there's no place that we would rather be than with the people of God worshiping God. We delight in it. We find our great satisfaction in it. It's our joy. We long to be with God and His people singing and worshiping and praising Him.

11 · The pastor clarifies that the church is not special because of the people themselves—who are ordinary sinners—but because God's presence makes them holy

There isn't anything magical about the church. Church is just a group of people, regular old human beings, run-of-the-mill, garden-variety sinners. Who are imperfect and flawed just like you and I, with one exception. Just as God made the temple holy because of His presence there, He makes us holy because of His presence in our lives. That's what makes our times together special. That's why we gather together and worship corporately. That's what makes it special. That's why it's valuable. That's why it's important. The sons of Korah longed to be with God's people, and that's why I hope that we can long to be together with God's people here on Sunday mornings and other opportunities throughout the week. Because when we gather together, God inhabits those praises. He comes and He's there with us.

12 · The pastor asserts that there is a fullness in corporate worship that cannot be experienced in isolation

So it's not a building. We're grateful for the place we have to come and worship, but that's not what makes it special anymore. God's presence is there with us. There's a fullness that exists when the body of Christ gets together that can't be seen or experienced when we meet individually.

13 · The pastor shares a personal story from his time on a short-term mission trip in Asia, where many young missionaries skipped Sunday worship to sleep in ('Bedside Baptist')

Many years ago, I did a short-term missionary trip or time in Asia, and it was very common for a lot of the kids there to go on Sunday mornings to what we called BB. That's where we went to church. Was short for Bedside Baptist. We would not— here we are, a bunch of kids thinking we're missionaries, but when Sunday morning came around, you couldn't find us in church. We would be sleeping in, going and doing other things, and it was, you know, at the time we thought it was normal because everybody else was doing it, but looking back on it, it was not good. We were missing out on a significant part of our life together with the body of Christ by sleeping in and not getting up and going, making the effort to be with God's people on Sunday mornings.

14 · The pastor argues that isolation from the body of Christ deprives believers of the spiritual gifts distributed among the congregation

So there is a fullness that exists when we get up, get out of bed, come down here, come to our care groups, go to Bible studies throughout the week, gather together in people's homes. There's a significant thing that takes place that we cannot experience if we just isolate ourselves and try to live live alone. The gifts come into play. Not all of us have every single gift. We come together, there's much more of the gifts that can be put into use. We don't have it all. God has not created us to be fulfilled in and of ourselves, but only when we come together.

15 · The pastor applies the psalm's longing to the congregation by posing a searching question: Do your calendars and time priorities reflect the longing for corporate worship you verbally affirm? He anticipates everyone would say yes, but challenges whether their lived schedules support that claim

It's in that context of the church that this psalm finds its fulfillment. The challenge for us then, the question for us is this: Do we long to be with God's people? Does our heart faint as it did for the sons of Korah to be in the house of the Lord, to be gathered with God's people and worship with Him? If we were to be asked this morning whether you agree with that, I think most of us would stand up and say, 'Yes, absolutely, I agree with that.' I don't think there's anyone here who would stand up and say, 'No.' That doesn't describe me. I have no desire to be with God's people. I don't want to be worshiping God. There's lots of other things I'd rather be doing on Sunday morning. But if someone were to look at our calendars and see how we spent our time this month, would they come to that same conclusion?

16 · The pastor acknowledges the competing demands on the congregation's time—work, sports, theater, vacations—and affirms these are not evil

We would all answer that question, 'Yes, I love to be with God's people. My heart longs for it. It faints to be with God's people.' But some of us live out our lives and plan our weeks in a way that contradicts our answer to that question. Sometimes this isn't easy. There are a lot of things going on. There are a lot of events and activities that vie for our time, activities that vie for our time, for our kids' times. And most of these are good things. There is nothing wrong with work and working hard, with sports and enjoying that. With dance and theater and music and vacations and movies. These are all good things. There's not a single one in that list that's evil. But the question remains, what do we do? What do we value? What do we prioritize?

17 · The pastor shares a personal story about his passion for car racing, which he pursued into his late 30s

Many of you know that I enjoy cars and racing cars. When I was in high school, I had a 1968 Camaro that had an engine that was a high-performance engine. It had an exhaust system that I put on it. That you knew when I was coming down the road. You could hear that low rumble of a car that you just knew that Dave was coming. It had a— it was raised up in the rear so that I could get those big tires around those polished chrome mags. Underneath it, it had a T-top in it, and it was painted a dark blue, metallic blue. And my car was fast, and I did a lot of street racing. In that car. And people, some people knew me, but most people in my school didn't, but they knew my car. Later in life, I graduated to legal racing. Street racing was not so legal, but we did it anyways. And I was in my late 30s, my dad and I had a race team, and I was the driver of the team. Some of you guys can go out on the football field or basketball court or baseball diamond and get an adrenaline rush and get those competitive juices flowing for me, I need to be going down a back straight about 120 miles an hour, side by side with someone else, going into a corner where there's only room for one, and waiting to see who's going to blink and brake first. One time, neither one of us blinked, and when the dust settled and the car parts started to stop flying around, we were all okay, but it was not a pretty sight. Racing is fun and I enjoyed it immensely. Trouble was, it was a weekend sport and it meant that I had to be away from church if I was going to participate in it. Because of that, for most of those years we kept racing to a minimum, just, just 2 or 3 times a year. One year though, my dad and I thought we decided it'd be fun to try and win the division, which meant that I would need to double or triple our other races that we competed in. Sadly, that year what became important for me was that I longed for, but went out on my calendar, was racing. Several friends, several caring friends, my pastor and some other friends challenged me on that priority that year, the prior that I put on racing and upon winning. That was my last year of racing. There were a number of factors that went into that. But the time that it took away from being with God's people was primary among our considerations for giving up racing.

18 · The pastor introduces Psalm 84:3, explaining that the sons of Korah observed birds—sparrows and swallows—nesting in the temple

The psalmist goes on in verse 3. He says, '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.' Here the son of Korah looks around and sees the birds in the temple. This is just an observation that he's making here. There's lots of birds there, sparrows and swallows. He sees these birds and he notices them making a place to build a nest and find a home there in the temple of the Lord.

19 · The pastor expounds on the sparrows, emphasizing their commonness and low value—Jesus said two could be bought for a penny

First, he looks at the sparrows. These are just common little birds. If you're familiar with sparrows, there are billions of them, if not trillions of them in the world. They are everywhere. They aren't exotic. They're common little birds. They're not rare. They're just ordinary, everyday, average little birds. And if you actually think about it, they're not so average. They're actually below average. They're not even worth very much. Jesus uses the sparrow to talk about things that aren't worth very much. In Matthew 29, He says, 'You can buy two of them for a penny.' That's not much value in a sparrow. But He says this, 'And yet not one of them falls to the ground.' apart from your Father. In the same way, if these birds that are worth so little have found a home near God's altar, will God not provide a place for us?

20 · The pastor quotes Donald Gray Barnhouse, who applies the sparrow imagery to humble Christians gathering in a small chapel

Donald Gray Barnhouse, when considering Psalm 84, writes this. He says, 'I look down some little street and see a humble chapel where a group of simple people worship, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.' despised and rejected of men, even as was their Lord. And I know that this is the rich reality of spiritual truth. Here are the sparrows that find their nest at the cross of Jesus Christ. Here is worthlessness that finds its worth because the Savior died.

21 · The pastor describes swallows as restless, constantly moving birds—he recalls the famous swallow celebration at San Clemente mission in Southern California

The psalmist then takes us in to consider, asks us to consider the swallows. Have you ever been around a place where swallows are? These are crazy birds. They just fly everywhere. They are restless. They are constantly going. We used to live in Southern California, and there's a place called San Clemente. And there they did it at the Catholic mission there. They did a big celebration every year. They'd read the return of the swallows in the spring. And you could go down there, and it was just crazy. These birds, they would fly fast. They don't know how to sit still. They're just going and going and going all over the place. The buzz just continues with them. These birds are restless. They flitter and they fly all over the place. The psalmist looks at these swallows though and says that when they're ready to mate and settle down and build a nest and to raise their young, that they're able to do that in the temple of the Lord. They find a place to rest. They find a place to relax, to settle down and rest peacefully. To raise their young.

22 · The pastor interprets the swallows as a poetic picture of restless human souls who find their rest in God

So he paints a poetic picture here, the souls of men who finally find their rest in God. We can be that same way before we know the Lord. Our hearts are just all over the place. We can find our rest. We can come to Christ and find our rest there. So as we look at these birds, these worthless birds, those who are unable to find rest, but in the temple of the Lord, it says, they do find rest. They find a place place to nest. They find worth and they find value there. St. Augustine wrote this. He says, 'Our souls are restless till they find their rest in Thee.' Again, aware of the restlessness in the human heart.

23 · The pastor concludes the first section by restating the main claim: the blessed person is the one who longs for God, who longs to worship God and be with God's people

So the sons of Korah tell us the one who longs, even faints for God, the one who longs to worship God, to praise God, and to be with God's people. That is the person who is blessed. That is the person who knows that the deep satisfaction is found in communion with God and in worship of God with God's people.

24 · The pastor signals the transition to the second major section of the sermon: the blessing of having the Lord as your strength

There's a second blessing found in this Psalm. It begins in verse 5, and this is the blessing of having the Lord as your strength.

25 · The pastor reads Psalm 84:5-9 and explains that the blessed person is utterly dependent on the Lord for strength

'Blessed are those whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.' 'As they go through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs. The early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength. Each one appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob.' The psalmist now focuses on a man whose dependence and delight is in the Lord. The Lord is his strength. In other words, he understands that it is God who upholds him. It's God who gives him the strength to get up each morning to put one foot in front of the other throughout the day. It's the Lord who gives him the strength to keep going in the face of challenges and difficult times and trials, gives him the strength to keep on serving through those times. This person, this is a person who is utterly dependent upon our Lord. The Lord supplies his strength. And gives him the strength that he needs to live the life of faith. This is a man who is dependent upon the Lord and upon the strength of the Lord. And that's the man who then finds his strength in the Lord. And that man is a blessed man.

26 · The pastor contrasts the cultural ideal of the self-sufficient, self-made man with the biblical ideal: the man who finds his strength in the Lord

Think of the contrast that we see in our culture today. We so often celebrate the person who's independent, self-sufficient, autonomous, self-sufficient, The self-made man, it's a myth of the 20th century. The man who doesn't depend on anybody, the man who did it all on his own. These are the ones that are held up in our society as role models. These are the ones that we hold up and look to and want to model. But the psalmist says that is complete contrast to the man who is blessed. The man who is blessed finds his strength not in himself, but in the Lord.

27 · The pastor explains that the Valley of Baca represents spiritual dryness—seasons where worship feels lifeless and God seems distant

The psalmist, though, is also a realist. He knows that we pass through dry places. Verse 6 and 7 speak of the Valley of Baca. And it says as they go through that, those who find their strength in the Lord, as they go through that, they make it a place of springs. The Valley of Baca is a dry place. It's a reference to a dry place, a barren place, the desert. It's a place of thirst. We all experience places like this in our lives, times like this in our lives where we would be dry, where we'd feel like we're walking through the desert alone, thirsty, in need of the Lord. Worship just isn't what it should be during those times. We aren't quite which we should be during those times. Sometimes these can be momentary, just a brief moment throughout the day. Other times they can be extended and due to circumstances that are beyond our control. They can be— times of dryness can be caused by by our own lethargy, our own laziness, and failing to engage God in our lives. It can be caused by sin, unrepentant sin that we're failing to deal with. The psalmist doesn't say here what the cause is. He just says, though, that as the people go through the Valley of Baca, the one who finds his strength makes it into a place of water, a place of pools there. And it's the one who finds his strength there is the one who keeps pushing through that dry place, pushing through the desert till he finally arrives at the courts of the Lord.

28 · The pastor applies the Valley of Baca teaching: when you go through spiritual dryness, be intentional in pursuing God

So as they go through the valley, the one who finds his strength in the Lord, the one who's blessed that way, goes from strength to strength. And that's what we must do as well. When we go through dry times, it's a time to be intentional in our pursuit of God. When you feel like you're in a dry season, a dry time in a desert place, and you're wondering where God is, that's the time to be intentional. About pursuing the Lord. We need to not be satisfied or content until we experience Him in a fresh way. Only the sincere worshiper is going to take the time or make the effort to do that. So unless you are a sincere worshiper, it's easy to find ourselves falling into a place where we'd just be satisfied living in a dry place.

29 · The pastor uses a brief analogy: some people like living in physical deserts, but spiritual dryness—where God seems absent and worship is lifeless—is not a good place to remain

There are a lot of people that like the desert. You know, if you live out in Out West, there's a lot of desert places, and there's some nice things about the desert. But when we go through that spiritually, when God is not there, when our worship is dry, when our prayer times are dry, that's not a good place to be in. So the question is, do we push through those? Do we push through those times? Do we strive to make sure that we're worshiping God and pursuing Him? Or do we simply live in the dry place and think that's all there is for us?

30 · The pastor applies the teaching by sharing his own experience: when he neglects corporate worship, care group, biblical fellowship, or spiritual disciplines (prayer and Bible reading), spiritual dryness sets in

Deserts can be crossed, folks. Sometimes they are small, can be crossed quickly. Other times they are large and they take some time to get through them. I go through times of dryness, as I'm sure all of us do. I know there are certain things that if I don't do them, I can find a dryness that enters into my heart. If I'm not experiencing God on a regular basis, either here on Sunday mornings in a corporate way, if I'm not experiencing it through care group, If I'm not experiencing biblical fellowship, if I am not practicing the spiritual disciplines, particularly of prayer and of reading of God's words, I can find that my heart begins to drift into a dry place. We need to speak to ourselves at that time. King David did that. You can read some of his Psalms. One of them says, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.' David's talking to himself now. He's preaching to himself here. And he says, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul.' He's telling himself to bless the Lord. He's reminding himself, 'You need to bless the Lord, my soul. Bless the Lord.'

31 · The pastor describes a common Sunday morning pattern: conversations and distractions carry into the worship service, and it often takes until the third song before hearts are fully engaged in worship

Sometimes we come to church and we're talking and hanging out in the mornings, and that is a wonderful thing to do. I encourage that. Come early, do that. But then when the worship leader begins to play, comes time to disengage those conversations, we need to find our seats. Find our kids. Where are those kids? Where'd they go? Look around for them. And finally, we get settled in and we look up at the words, we begin to sing, but there are still 1,000 things on our mind from the past week. We're looking ahead to the week ahead, 1,000 things running through our minds. And we begin to worship, but in that first song, there's just not a lot of engagement. There's not a lot of worship taking place. Then the second song begins and we become a little bit more focused. We see the words, we agree with them, but again, it's just still at a mental level. Our worship is not fully engaged. Finally, the third song begins. Now our hearts are beginning to engage. We've got the kids, we're settled, we found our spot, focused in on what's going on up front. We're trying to put out of our minds what's going on, what took place in the week behind, what's coming up in the week ahead. We can start to really engage into worship. Does that progression sound familiar to most of us? Is that what we go through, something similar to that on Sunday mornings?

32 · The pastor offers concrete practical steps to reduce the lag time before full engagement in worship: arrive on time or early, spend time with the Lord before church, get enough sleep on Saturday night, check kids into children's ministry early

I want to encourage us though, and I believe that if we work at it, we can cut down that lag time. First of all, I encourage you to be here on time or be here early. When we come in late and miss the first or second song, it may not be until the fourth or fifth song that we're fully engaged beginning to really enter into worship with the Lord, and that's about the time that the worship leader is wrapping up. About the time you're ready to focus, worship is ending. So come early, get a good seat, be ready to go at 10:00 AM. Another thing we can do is come a little bit early on Sunday morning, spend time with the Lord before you come to church. Get up a few minutes early on Sunday mornings. This week you all had a huge benefit. Fall back time. We get to set our calendars back. Everybody should have got an hour extra sleep last night, so I don't want to see anybody's head dozing off this morning except for one person who showed up here an hour early. So if I see his head dozing off, I'll know why, James. Get to bed early on Saturday night in order to get a good night's rest. If we have kids, aim to get here early. You've got to check them into to children's ministry. You know you have to do that. We do that every week. Get here in time to do that so you can be in your seat and ready to worship at 10 o'clock. These are all practical things, but they can all have a big impact on our worship time if we come prepared, having got a good night's rest. Spend time with the Lord in the morning before you come. If we do those things, our hearts are going to come ready to engage. We don't have to wait till the third or fourth or fifth song to engage in worship. We can begin at the first or second song.

33 · The pastor returns to Psalm 84:6 and explains that those who draw strength from the Lord not only endure spiritual dryness but transform it into a place of springs

So in verse 6, as they're going through the Valley of Baca— got a little distracted there— 'Those who draw their strength from the Lord make it a place of springs.' The beautiful thing about these blessed ones is that they don't just persevere through the dry place, they actually make the dry place a place of spring and of blessing. They bring worship to bear on their dryness, not as a result of their own effort though, but by the blessing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is, in the life of the believers, the one who can bring life into those dry places. This becomes a fundamental difference in the way in which a Christian walks through the dry places. The true worshiper walks through those times engaging God constantly so that we might experience the renewal that the Holy Spirit brings into our lives.

34 · The pastor reads Psalm 84:8-9 and highlights the passion in the psalmist's prayer

Verse 8 and 9, the psalmist cries out to God in prayer. He says, 'O Lord, God of hosts, hear my prayer.' 'Give ear, O God of Jacob! Behold our shield, O God! Look on the face of Your anointed!' There's a passion in this plea. There's a passion in this prayer. It's not a prayer of the apathetic or the proud. When we find ourselves in the Valley of Baca, when we find ourselves going through those dry times, it's a time to cry out to the Lord, cry out to God, and ask God to refresh us and be ready to worship Him there in those dry times.

35 · The pastor concludes the second section by restating the main claim: the blessed man is the one who depends on the Lord and delights in the Lord

The believer delights in the Lord, therefore his heart is a highway to the worship of God. That's the blessed man, the one who depends on the Lord and delights in the Lord. He goes from strength to strength and he appears before God in Zion. That's our reward. That's his reward. He wants God. He wants to be with God. He wants to worship God. And God gives him that blessing of his strength.

36 · The pastor signals the transition to the third and final major section of the sermon: the blessing of trusting in the Lord

The third and final blessing. Is the blessing of trusting in the Lord.

37 · The pastor reads Psalm 84:9-12, the closing verses of the psalm, and identifies the third blessing: trusting in the Lord's provision and protection

Behold our shield, O God! Look on the face of Your anointed! 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. For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor, and no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in You. Life's true purpose, its deepest satisfaction is found in communion and worship with God's people, in dependence and delight in the Lord, and in trusting in the Lord's provision and protection. Notice how in verse 9 he says, 'Behold our shield, O God, and look upon the face of Your anointed.' He's seeing God's protection. He's seeing God as a protector. And again in verse 11, 'For the Lord God is a sun and a shield.' The Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

38 · The pastor expounds on Psalm 84:10, his favorite verse in the psalm: 'A day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere

Verse 10, this is one of my favorite verses in this passage, in this Psalm. It says, 'For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.' We often sing a song here on Sunday mornings that contains this verse. When we read that verse, when we sing that song, do we sing it as if we mean it. A day in Your court is better than 1,000 elsewhere, Lord. It's better than 1,000 elsewhere. Can that day be today? I don't want it to be tomorrow. I want it to be today. Can I be in Your court today? Is that what's going on in our hearts? Are we just longing to be in God's courts? The psalmist here, the sons of Korah, their hearts are fainting to be in the courts of the Lord. When we sing that song, do we sing it with meaning?

39 · The pastor imagines a sarcastic, self-convicting prayer: 'Yes, Lord, a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere—but does it have to be today? Can we schedule it for next Tuesday when I'm free?' This rhetorical move exposes the hypocrisy of affirming the psalm's claims while living in a way that contradicts them

Or would it be like this? 'Yes, Lord, a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.' I agree with that. But does it have to be today? What about next Tuesday? I don't have anything else on that day on my schedule. My calendar is free on next Tuesday. Could we make it next Tuesday? Today just isn't going to work. But I do look forward, Lord, to a day in Your courts. Just not today. What's in our hearts when we sing that song, when we read this verse? Are we fainting? Are we longing in our souls to be in the courts of the Lord? Or are we so busy that we don't have time to spend a day in the courts of the Lord?

40 · The pastor interprets Psalm 84:10b—'I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness'—as a statement of radical prioritization

The psalmist goes on to say, 'I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to be a big deal somewhere else.' Is that your heart cry as well? Is that what's in your heart this morning? Do you want to be with God to experience His nearness? Is that the real thirst of our souls? Church, I hope that is what's in our hearts. If you make God the focus of your worship and devote yourself to Him, then you will find such grace and power and love immersed in His presence that everything else is going to seem boring to us. We can encounter God in worship in ways that can change us profoundly. When we experience this, it makes all other endeavors in our lives pale in comparison and significance. 'I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my Lord than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.' Would we agree with that? Would that be our desire, our pursuit?

41 · The pastor explains why the sons of Korah would rather be gatekeepers in God's house: because God is 'a sun and a shield

The psalmist goes on then to give reasons why he'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God. He says this, 'For the Lord God is a sun and a shield.' He's beginning to meditate now on who God is, meditating on His eternal attributes and meditating on what God has been and who God is to him, a sun and a shield. The sun was everything back there. These people lived in an agrarian society and they didn't have big power plants that powered lights and generators and motors. They lived off of the sun. It was everything to them. A lot of pagan societies would worship the sun because that's how the importance and the value they placed on it. But this psalmist is not worshiping the sun. He's worshiping the God who created the sun. And the God who was a sun, was like a sun to him. God is the one who brightened his heart on a cloudy day. God is the source of all of his blessing. God was his provision. Shield. God was his protector. God is his sustenance. And it's that God in who he delights to be with. God is the one he enjoys being with more than anything else. God is the one who will take care of him.

42 · The pastor cites Jesus' promise—'I will never leave you or forsake you'—and then references Psalm 137, where God vows never to forget His people

Jesus said, 'I will never leave you or forsake you.' In Psalm 137, God makes this promise to us. He says, 'If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its 'Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.' God's making a tremendous promise to us here that He will never forget us. He will never forget you. He will never forget me. He's our shield. And as the sons of Korah reflected on this, they write that, 'God, You are my sun and my shield.'

43 · The pastor reads the latter half of Psalm 84:11—'No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly'—and notes that the psalmist has experienced the goodness of God, not just His power

He goes on further and says, 'The Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.' He's not just seen the power of God, he's experienced the goodness of God in his own life. We too have experienced that goodness of God, but we are so forgetful. We are forgetful people. So often we forget what God has done for us. We need to take the time. We need to make time to stop and pause and remember. What God has done for us. When we don't do that, we find ourselves being ungrateful for what we do have. But God has been so good to us and He's blessed us in so many ways, how can we not be grateful for Him? We need to take the time to stop and pause and remember what God has done for us.

44 · The pastor grounds the promise of Psalm 84:11 ('No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly') in the gospel

God has promised to withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly. Paul states in Romans 8, 'If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?' We need to understand that God has given us all things through Christ. We need to remember that all the promises of God are yes. That's why we can trust Him. That's why the sons of Korah trusted Him. Well, He withholds no good thing to all those who walk uprightly. The problem is who walks uprightly? Who indeed can walk that way? None do. No, not one, Paul says. But wait a minute, there was one. There was one who walked uprightly, and that's our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus walked uprightly and He imputed to us His very righteousness as a gift. Because of that, we can walk uprightly before the Lord. Because of that, we can go and expect God to give us all things, not because we are good people, not because we are needy, because Jesus lived a perfect life and perfectly obeyed the Father. And because of that, we can be seen as walking uprightly before the Lord, and that's good news to us.

45 · The pastor applies the psalm's call to trust in the Lord by addressing the upcoming presidential election (2012)

Tuesday this week is a big day in our country. I'm sure all of you will get up and go down and vote. And as a nation, we're going to decide who our next president's going to be. And on Wednesday morning, there are going to be millions and millions and millions of people who wake up disappointed because their candidate lost. Doesn't matter who wins. Half this country's going to wake up disappointed on Wednesday morning. But I don't intend to be one of them. Not because I think my candidate's going to win, but because my hope and my My hope and my trust is not in the candidate. My hope and my trust is in the Lord. Listen, if God intended for our hope to be in politicians, Jesus would have come as a Caesar or a king of some country. If our hope was to be in the Republican Party, Jesus would have come as an elephant. If our hope was to be in the Democratic Party, Jesus would have come as a donkey. He didn't come. That way. Jesus is not the Jesus that we know.

46 · The pastor reads the final verse of Psalm 84—'Blessed is the one who trusts in You'—and contrasts trusting in political candidates with trusting in the Lord

Psalm 84 concludes with this. He says, 'O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you.' It doesn't say, 'Blessed is the one who trusts in Barack Obama or Mitt Romney.' 'O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you.' The problems of this world aren't political. That's why politicians can't solve our problems. And if we place our trust in this election, we're going to wake up on Wednesday morning disappointed. Our problem is a problem of sin and separation from a holy God. Our trust is in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, because He alone is capable of solving the world's problems. Our trust is in the One who came, who knew no sin. He came in the form of a man, knowing no sin, yet took on our sin. Our trust is in the one who bore the wrath of God in our place. Our trust is in the one who died and was raised on the third day, now sits at the right hand of God. Our trust is in the one who died that we might live and spend all of eternity worshiping God, being in the presence of God and worshiping the Lamb of God. That's where our trust needs to be placed, not in politicians, not in any man of this world, but placed in trust. Our trust is in Christ and Christ alone. 'O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in You.' That was the heart's cry of the sons of Korah.

47 · The pastor synthesizes the closing verses: the sons of Korah celebrate God's provision ('No good thing does He withhold') and protection ('He is our shield')

The sons of Korah are also celebrating the Lord's provision. 'No good thing does He withhold.' They're celebrating the Lord's protection. He is our shield and our protector. He guards against the assaults of our enemies. He is blessed because He who trusts in the Lord and who provides and protects. You see, he understands that this God is everything to him. God has given him everything he needs. He has supplied his deepest needs and desires. And therefore, God becomes to him his greatest desire. God is the one thing that he needs. God is the one thing that he desires.

48 · The pastor concludes by restating the sons of Korah's heart: they would rather be gatekeepers in God's house than wealthy in the tents of the wicked, because God is their provision, protection, and delight

So he would rather be serving— the sons of Korah would rather be serving as a gatekeeper in the house of the Lord. Than doing anything else. They would rather be standing there by the colonnades near the west court. We'd rather be there than in the midst of all the riches of the tents of the wicked. Because what's there in those tents of the wicked has no comparison. It pales in light of what they have in the courts of the Lord. So he wants to be with God, these sons of Korah. This psalmist wants to be with God because God is his provision, his protection. He wants to be there because God is his delight, because he wants to commune and worship with God more than anything else in this life. And shouldn't that be our attitude? I can tell you this morning there's no place I'd rather be than be here with you, worshiping God, gathered together to worship him, to sing songs to him, to remember him through our communion, to worship him through our giving, to worship him through the ministry of preaching of God's Word. Do we look forward to being together on Sunday mornings? Whether it be here Sunday, care group night, gathering in the middle of the week to pray together, to study God's Word together, gathering in coffee shops, gathering in homes, doesn't matter. Wherever the people of God are there, God is to be worshiped there. These gatekeepers, these sons of Korah, that's what drove them. That was their passion. That was what motivated them. Them. Whether they were stationed at the West Colonnade or somewhere else around the temple, they loved to be in the house of the Lord. May God grant us hearts like the sons of Korah to be together in the worship of God together.

49 · The pastor closes in prayer, thanking God for His Word and for the example of the sons of Korah

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for the heart of these men of God, these doorkeepers in your temple. We thank You for their example. And as we look and read and see that they called Your worship lovely, that they called the gathering of Your people blessed, they've longed to commune with You and to worship You and to be in Your house. Thank You that they delighted in You and You alone, and that they found strength from You for each day. And, O Lord, I pray that this morning You would give us hearts like that. Give us hearts like the sons of Korah that would long, even faint, to be in your courts and to treasure one day in your courts above all others. In Jesus' name, amen.