“How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, indeed it faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God” (Psalm 84:1-2). This is a psalm of someone who spends time in the temple on an ongoing basis, enough to have observed that birds have built nests in various niches in the temple walls (84:3). This tells the psalm got written in Jerusalem during the mid to late kingdom era, perhaps in the eighth century BC or thereabouts, rather than a psalm of the Exile, written in Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 587 BC.

The psalm offers the audacious statement that “No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly” (84:11) – even though surely the psalmist knew of instances – as do we all – where faithful people asked for something good from God’s hand, and did not receive it. Why would a person make such a claim?

It’s hyperbole, of course; it’s a purposeful exaggeration in strong and vivid language, to help us exult in the wonder of living in the presence of the Lord. If you’ve got that, it implies, you’ve got everything, because compared to that, everything else is miniscule. “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 live in the tents of wickedness” (84:10).

Wait, what was that again? Did the psalm really just suggest that spending a whole day in church is far preferable to spending three years doing whatever you happen to feel like? That’s good to know, because I had the impression that some people get anxious if worship lasts longer than an hour …

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Ah Lord God! What would it be like, if we really longed that much for your presence? What would it be like, for us to cry out for joy, heart and body, to you? Heal us, inspire us, change our hearts, that we may run eagerly to meet with you, and revel in your deep and steadfast love!

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