Psalm 84 is special to me because it tells me the secret of happiness. In verse 4, it declares, "Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they will still be praising you." Why is a person blessed? They are blessed when they dwell with God. Then their praise will never end.
I'm sure you've heard the word, blessed, before. Psalm 1:1 began "Blessed is the man..." Jesus listed a whole series of blesseds in the Beatitudes beginning in Matthew 5:3, "blessed are the poor in spirit, etc." The word, blessed, is often translated as happy, or contented, or satisfied. How about this definition? To be blessed is to be blissfully contented with life. Or this one: joy unspeakable and full of glory.
What makes a person that way? The answer from Psalm 84:4 is to dwell in the presence of the Lord. It comes from having that sweet, precious communion with the One who loves us more than anyone, and who proved that love by dying on the cross for us. So if you want to be miserable, focus on yourself. If you want to be blessed, focus on God. Spend your time in His presence.
What makes a person miserable? It is to live apart from God. We would do that because of sin, choosing the pleasures of sin over a relationship with Christ who died for that sin. We see people like that all the time, who stay away from Christ because they know they wouldn't be comfortable in His presence while they enjoyed their sin. But to live in Christ's presence or apart from it is as dramatic a difference as night and day.
So how is your relationship with God? Do you have close fellowship with Him? Is it sweet? Then that is expressed how? As it says in Psalm 84:4, "They will still be praising You." That blessedness just bubbles out of us in praise - praise to God. We can't contain it.
Then this section of the Psalm ends with the word, selah, In other words, "What do you think of that?" Let's examine this word, selah, for a moment. The Psalms were written to music, right? They were intended to be sung. So selah is a musical notation. The word isn't intended to be read. You don't read a book and say comma, period, semicolon. So you don't read the word, selah, either for the same reason. The word is like a rest in a musical score. It indicates a pause or a breathing space. It gives us time to sit up and take notice and think about what has been said.
But the word means still more. Selah, in the verb form, means to exalt or to lift up. But lift up what? How about God? How about we pause and exalt the Lord? How about we lift up and bless His name? After pausing and thinking about what has just been said in the Psalm, we lift up and exalt God through our praise. So why don't you do that? Why don't you pause right now and exalt God's name?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment