Blessed are Those Who Dwell with God
We're going to go quite deep into Psalm 84 this week. Can I encourage you to read this Psalm every day this week? Whenever the devotion comes to you, read the whole Psalm. It's 12 verses, and I think you'll be blessed if you do. That's really the focus of the Psalm - that people are blessed for various reasons.
The Beatitudes in the New Testament were Jesus talking about how people can live blessed lives. Psalm 84 actually contains a number of beatitudes, and the Psalm opens with these words in Psalm 84:1-2: "How lovely is Your dwelling place, Lord Almighty. My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God."
Blessed in God's Presence
Psalm 84:4 says this: "Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they are ever praising You." There is blessing, there is joy, there is peace for those who find themselves where God is.
For the Jews, that was the temple. They wanted to go to the temple to experience God's presence. This Psalm was written when the Jews were in exile and weren't allowed to go to the temple, and so they were longing - as the Psalm says, fainting and yearning - to go back to the temple where they could experience God's presence once more. They were homesick, in a sense, for their church.
God Dwells Within Us
Perhaps you know the same feeling, as we face another lockdown in South Africa with churches closed. But can I remind you of the words of Jesus in John 4? The woman at the well asked Him why the Samaritans worship on the mountain, but the Jews in the temple - which one is right?
He said it doesn't matter. The time is coming - and that time is now - when it doesn't matter if you worship on the mountain or in the temple or wherever, because what matters is that God dwells within you, not in the temple. Paul said you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, your body.
A Place of Grace Wherever You Go
When the psalmist writes, "How lovely is Your dwelling place, Lord Almighty" - in today's terms we can say the church, the people of God, is God's dwelling place. Wherever you go, if you're a person of faith, God dwells within you.
We often say this is a place of grace - that's what the name means. But during lockdown we've learned that wherever we are worshipping is a place of grace.
Know today that you are blessed not because you've come to a church and worshipped God there, but because you've accepted Christ into your life and His Spirit dwells within you. Wherever you go is a place of grace, a lovely place, because God is there.
Familiarity is the enemy of gratitude - when we stop noticing the gifts around us, we stop being thankful for them. Ask God to open your eyes today to the beauty and blessing that surrounds you.