Blessed before God

God is the faithful God. He is the God who made promises to Jacob centuries before, promises he is still faithful to today. God has been making and keeping promises to his people for centuries, going all the way back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God is a source of light and life to his people. Besides verse 11, nowhere else is God explicitly called a sun in Scripture (Boice, Psalms, vol. 2, 693). Scripture does not typically identify God with the sun because of pagan religions that worshiped the sun (Goldingay, Psalms 42–89, 598). Nevertheless, the psalmist looks up at the light and life the sun brings, and this is the way he describes being in the presence of God, who shines brightly on his people.

God is a shield of protection and provision for his people. This is a picture of protection for people who find refuge in him.

God showers his people with his grace. He grants “favor and honor” and “good” (v. 11). Though they didn’t deserve it, God was gracious to Israel. And though we don’t deserve it, God is gracious to his people today.

God surrounds his people with his glory. When verse 11 says the Lord grants “honor” to his people, the phrase might be more literally translated as God bestowing his “glory” on his people (Kidner, Psalms 73–150, 307). He surrounds his people with his glory so that they dwell in it. This is what the temple was all about. In Psalm 3:3 David prays, “But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.” As we come into God’s presence, God bestows honor on us, surrounding us with his glory.

God shows his people all his goodness. The effect of being in God’s presence is that the psalmist lacks “no good thing” (ESV). With God’s grace on him and God’s glory around him, the psalmist rests confident in God’s goodness to him.

When you put all this together, you realize why the psalmist longs to be in God’s presence and why you and I, if we realized who God is, would long to be in God’s presence. Think about the God whom we gather to worship. This is our King; this is our God. And it is good to be before him and to sing and shout for joy before him day after day. That is the point of the first blessing in this psalm, the blessing of working in the temple.

It Was a Blessing to Journey to the Temple

The second blessing the psalmist mentions comes in verse 5: “Happy are the people whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.” Zion (v. 7) is a reference to the place where the tabernacle, and later the temple in Jerusalem, was located. The psalmist is talking about people who are far away from the temple but who find their strength by setting their hearts on the presence of God. Obviously, this was the majority of people in Israel; most people lived far away from Jerusalem, and only a relative few actually worked at the temple. So the psalmist sets his gaze on the people of God scattered throughout the country; and he gives us this picture of the road that leads to Zion, and the strength that people find, though far away, when they set their hearts’ hope on the presence of God.

The psalmist describes how hope in God brings strength amid weakness, even to those who are far away. In verse 7 he uses the imagery of traveling to the presence of God in Zion, saying, “They go from strength to strength.”

“Baca” in verse 6 is a Hebrew word meaning “balsam tree,” a tree found in dry landscapes. The resin of this tree oozed out, like tears, and this noun, Baca, sounds similar to the Hebrew verb for “weeping.” That’s why some people refer to the “Valley of Baca” as the “valley of weeping” (Kidner, Psalms 73–150, 305). The psalmist is talking about people on a figurative (or maybe a literal) journey from where they live to Zion, to the presence of God. They make this journey by walking through the “Valley of Baca,” symbolizing dry and difficult days filled with hardship and hopelessness that causes weeping. In the middle of that valley, what sustains them is the hope of God’s presence. When they hold on to that hope, even this dry, desolate place becomes a valley of springs and pools from which they can drink and be satisfied.

The psalmist is also describing how hope in God brings joy amid weeping. Tears of sadness become springs of joy when the pilgrim looks to the presence of God. It was a blessing to journey to the temple, the psalmist says, both physically and spiritually.

It Was a Blessing to Live with Trust in God

Right after he talks about walking uprightly before God, the psalmist writes, “Happy is the person who trusts in you, Lord of Armies!” (v. 12). This blessing comes wherever one lives, whether at the temple gates or far away. Blessed are those who walk with all of their trust placed in God.

The three blessings mentioned above are for Old Testament Israel, when God was dwelling in a particular way among his people in Jerusalem (in a tabernacle or a temple). However, this is not where the story of this larger book, the Bible, ends. As Christians, we no longer travel to Jerusalem to worship at a temple. There is another “place” where God’s glory now dwells, resulting in at least three blessings for Christians today.

Three Blessings for Christians Today

John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Greek word for “dwelt” (skenoo) is the same word used in the Greek version of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) to describe the tabernacle. Literally, God became flesh and “tabernacled” among us. The good news of Jesus’s coming was that God had come to dwell in the midst of his people, and in Jesus his people would see his glory.

This theme of Jesus as the temple continues in John 2. Jesus was having a discussion with some Jews at the temple in Jerusalem:

Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.”

Therefore the Jews said, “This temple took forty-six years to build, and will you raise it up in three days?”

But he was speaking about the temple of his body. (John 2:19-21)

Jesus was telling the Jewish people that he was the temple. He was the place where the presence of God dwelt. He was the revelation of God’s grace and glory in the flesh. When Philip asked to see the Father, Jesus replied, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip?” (John 14:9). To be with Jesus is to be in God’s presence, for he is God.

When Jesus died, the Bible says that the curtain of the temple that separated man from God was torn in two (Matt 27:51). God was making a way for sinful men to be reconciled to him through faith in Christ. Now, for those who are in Christ, God’s presence dwells in us: “Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and that is what you are” (1 Cor 3:16-17). God identifies his people corporately as the temple. Then, a few chapters later, Paul says something similar: “Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body” (1 Cor 6:19-20).

The temple imagery is both personal and corporate. So, Christian, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and the church, corporately, is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Today we don’t go to a designated place of worship like Israel did in the Old Testament because we are the place of worship. You are the place of worship. If you’re a Christian, the Spirit of God dwells in you. For the church gathered, the Spirit of God dwells in us.

For the psalmist, working in the temple was a blessing. But you and I don’t work as doorkeepers in the temple. Our situation is far better. Consider three blessings we receive by virtue of our union with Jesus.

It Is a Blessing to Be the Temple

The glory of God’s presence now dwells in us, which radically changes how we live. We wake up with the presence of God in us; we walk through every detail of our day with the presence of God in us; we go to bed at night with the presence of God in us. The blessing today is not for those who dwell in God’s house; rather, blessed are those whose bodies house the glory of God. Knowing this—that God’s glory is manifest through your body—changes the way you use your body. It changes the way you act and think, the way you speak and love. You (literally) walk in the worship of God.

On a corporate level, when we gather as the church, there is indeed something unique about this gathering. God is among us! We gather together as the people of God, as the temple of God, and we sing his praise. Our hearts long for this. This is no casual thing we do once a week. This is a blessing! Blessed are those who gather together as the temple to celebrate the glory of their God.

It Is a Blessing to Journey to Heaven

For the psalmist it was a blessing to journey to the temple. For the Christian now, we’re not focused on pilgrimages to Jerusalem, but that does not mean the highways of our hearts have no hope, for we now journey to heaven. While this was true for the psalmist then, we know this in an even greater way today based on what we know in the rest of the Bible.

The Bible talks about Christians as “strangers and exiles” (1 Pet 2:11). Along with faithful men and women from the Old Testament who went before us, we are “foreigners and temporary residents on the earth”; we seek “a homeland” and desire “a better place—a heavenly one” (Heb 11:13-16). Revelation 21 describes that heavenly country, that homeland:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away. (Rev 21:1-4)

Over and above physical descriptions of its beauty and all that will be there, the most important thing about heaven is not what is there but who is there. The dwelling of God will be with man in this holy city.

Later in the chapter heaven is described with measurements that match the shape of the temple (Rev 21:15-17). The point of this imagery is that all those who have trusted in Christ are secure and will be fully reconciled to God. Yes, God is with us now, and his presence dwells in Christians, but we are longing for more, aren’t we? The highways of our hearts are set on the hope of a day when sin and suffering will be no more, and we will be with God in perfect, pure, endless joy forever and ever.

Now, in the meantime, we often find ourselves walking through the Valley of Baca, for on this earth there is weeping and dryness and, at times, darkness. Many of God’s people find themselves traveling “most of the way to heaven by night” (Spurgeon, “The Child of Light Walking in Darkness,” 542). There is struggle in this world. There is a fight for joy on some days. So what do you do on those days? The answer Psalm 84 gives is to keep your heart fixed and fastened on your hope in God. Even when the journey in the present seems bleak, lift your eyes to the hope you have in God.

Darkness and difficulty often come when we feel alone or isolated. Psalm 84 says to such people, “You have a home with God.” For those with feelings of restlessness, Psalm 84 says, “There is refuge in God.” To the worthless, Psalm 84 says, “You have worth before God.” In the midst of darkness, our greatest need is for a source of light and life, for a shield of protection and provision. And all of these things are found in God. Oh, set your heart’s hope on him!

It Is a Blessing to Live with Trust in Christ

It is a blessing to live with trust in God (v. 12), even amid darkness and difficulty. And for the Christian today, it is a blessing to live with trust in Christ. For God has sent his Son, the Word made flesh (John 1:14), to us, and he has identified with us.

He hurt as we hurt. He experienced sorrow as we experience sorrow. He knows what it’s like to be abandoned, and he knows what it’s like to feel alone. He knows what it’s like to look to God the Father in the midst of total darkness and ask, “Why?” He identifies with you, and he says to you, “Trust in me.”

Trust in the one who has walked through the dark night and has come out on the other side in victorious light. He has conquered sin and sorrow. He has defeated death and hell. And he is coming back to bring all who trust in him on this earth to glory with him in eternity, where he will wipe away every single tear from your eyes. He will heal every ache in your heart. So put your hope in Christ! Piper put it best:

Every Christian who struggles with depression struggles to keep their hope clear. There is nothing wrong with the object of their hope—Jesus Christ is not defective in any way whatsoever. But the view from the struggling Christian’s heart of their objective hope could be obscured by disease and pain, the pressures of life, and by Satanic fiery darts shot against them. . . . All discouragement and depression is related to the obscuring of our hope, and we need to get those clouds out of the way and fight like crazy to see clearly how precious Christ is. (“Can Christians Be Depressed?”)

The psalmist knew that God’s protection of his people was tied to God’s protection of the king who led them. Then the psalmist prayed for God’s favor on an earthly king (v. 9), but that earthly king in Israel was ultimately set up by God to point us to an eternal King over all.

Now the Christian enjoys God’s favor through our eternal King. Whether things are going well for you right now or you find yourself amid difficulty and darkness, you, Christian, have a King who keeps his commitment to you, who has made a covenant of love with you that he will not break. He is the commander of heavenly armies, and he is a source of light and life to you, a shield of protection and provision for you amid whatever you are walking through. His name is Jesus. Spurgeon said,

I know, perhaps, as well as anyone here, what depression of spirit means—and what it is to feel myself sinking lower and lower—yet, at the worst, when I reach the lowest depths, I have an inward peace which no pain or depression can in the least disturb! Trusting in Jesus Christ, my Savior, there is still a blessed quietness in the deep caverns of my soul, though, upon the surface, a rough tempest may be raging, and there may be little apparent calm. (Spurgeon, “Rest as a Test,” 483)

Reflect and Discuss