Psalm 84 - The Response

In Psalm 84, the author, who was assigned to be a gate keeper in the tabernacle, looked around and burst into praise of God's home. But that praise causes him to have an emotional response. So the author, in verse 2, blurts out, "My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." What heart-felt passion! What emotion! But this is the desire of his heart. He wants to be in the presence of God. That's the real point here. The author has an intense longing for God's presence.

For the Israelites, they had to go to the tabernacle to meet God, and that's what he wanted to do with all his heart. He wanted God. That intensity seems so foreign to most church members who don't seem to care all that much about spending time with God. The typical church member will let almost anything get in the way. But the author wants to be in the presence of God most of all. And for him, that meant being in the tabernacle.

A noble castle or a majestic cathedral is never enough if no one lives there. How lonely an empty house is. A beautiful church is but an empty shell without the Spirit of God. Ornate caskets still house only dead men's bones. What is needed most is life - God's life and presence. Gold, marble, and ivory are cold and can never really satisfy without someone to share it all with. So the real longing here is for the lord; for His presence. The Psalmist didn't long for a building, but for God.

In the same way, we don't really long for heaven because of the streets of gold, but because that's where God is. We long to be in His presence - to see Him face to face. That's why the Psalmist says, "My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord." That is almost a physical thing. He is almost ready to faint out of his hunger for God. It is like what the fantastic verses of Psalm 42:1-2 say,

"As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?"

Do you see that same longing?

Have you ever missed a meal or two and almost gotten faint from hunger? Your belly growls, and hunger gnaws at your insides. You'd give almost anything for a PBJ sandwich. Well, have you ever had that kind of craving to be close to God? Have you ever longed for Him as much as a man parched and dry in the desert searches for water? As Psalm 84 verse 2 continues, "My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." Is that what your heart cries out for - for that sweet, close fellowship with God?

Than do your actions prove it? What actions? Oh, come on. You know what actions. do you long to learn more about Him? Are you sitting under the teaching of the Word? Are you studying the Bible for yourself? What about your prayer life? Are you longing to spend time with Him? Are you talking to Him? Walking with Him? Does your soul long for a closer relationship with God? You will never find that sweet relationship if you don't hunger for it.