This Morning, We Are Continuing in Psalms, Learning About Expressing Our Emotions in Prayer to God

This morning, we are continuing in Psalms, learning about expressing our emotions in prayer to God. Last week was Psalm 13, a psalm of abandonment and despair. This morning we are in Psalm 84, which is a song of longing and desire.

Psalm 84:1-12 - For the director of music. According to gittith. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm. How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young-- a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Selah 5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. 6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. 8 Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob. Selah 9 Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one. 10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. 12 O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.

Psalm 84 is written by the sons of Korah, who according to 1 Chronicles were gatekeepers in the tabernacle and the temple:

1 Chronicles 9:17-19 - The gatekeepers: Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman and their brothers, Shallum their chief 18 being stationed at the King's Gate on the east, up to the present time. These were the gatekeepers belonging to the camp of the Levites. 19 Shallum son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his fellow gatekeepers from his family (the Korahites) were responsible for guarding the thresholds of the Tent just as their fathers had been responsible for guarding the entrance to the dwelling of the LORD.

So, this Psalm is written by men who served in the temple, guarding the gates and maintaining those sections of the temple. In those days, the presence of the Lord was centered in the temple, and you can picture this Psalm being written by one of the doorkeepers when he is away from the temple. Before we get to the Psalm, I want to say two things about our longings and desires:

1) We are people with longings and desires 2

This is obvious, I am sure, but it is still helpful to name what our longings and desires are, since they tend to happen without thinking. What do you long for? What are the deepest desires of your heart, the things you want the most in your life? Here are some possibilities:

I long to be loved – for someone beautiful to see me as beautiful. I long to experience the intimacy and ecstasy that is possible with another person. For someone to see the worst things about me and still love me

I long to be perfect – to be free of my flaws and mistakes. To be able to be the spouse, parent, friend, employee that I know I can be. To be freed from guilt and shame and that that I am okay

I long to be significant – to be recognized as valuable, to accomplish a goal, to be adored by the masses

I long for freedom – a life with no responsibility – to win the lottery, to be rich, to have time away with nothing to do

I long for peace – a relief from the stress

I long for abundant life – to feel truly alive, to enjoy great food, great beauty, travel, feel the rush of life

I long for order – for everything to be in its right place

Many times it is when these longings are not met that we are driven to prayer. We long to be perfect, and yet we feel guilty and dirty. We long for freedom, and yet our life is full of responsibility. We long to be loved, and we feel unloved. We long for peace, and life is so stressful.

What are your longings? What are your desires?

2) Underneath all desires is the desire for God

I want you to consider that when you really look at what is underneath the longings and desires of your heart, what you are truly longing for is God. And that if you truly understood God for who He is, you would find in Him all that your heart is longing for: the love, the perfection, the significance, the freedom, the peace, the 3 abundant life, the order, the beauty. And you would understand that nothing in this world can ever truly and fully satisfy the longings and desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4 - Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 145:16 - You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

With that in mind, let’s consider Psalm 84, the picture of someone who has found in God the true longing of his heart:

Psalm 84 - How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

How lovely – the Hebrew word lovely is from “dod,” where the words for love and lovemaking come from. It’s the language of intimacy. Yearns, faints, cry out – this is the language of intimacy, deep desire to be with God. There is no sense of duty or obligation, but rather a natural, even physical, desire for God.

Psalm 27:4 - One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.

Is this foreign to you? Think about your faith, your relationship with God. Can you relate at all to this Psalmist? Or do you just believe, but not really know God in this way?

Consider that the greatest commandment, according to Jesus, is to love God:

Matthew 22:35-38 - One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

Yes, love means that you obey. But certainly it is more than that. There is also an emotional component. Do you love God? Or just believe in Him? How can you love God? There is no shortcut – it comes from knowing Him, from walking with Him, from experiencing Him. Then we begin to long for him, to desire him, as we see his beauty and experience How amazing He is. 4

1 John 4:19 - We love because he first loved us.

The first need you have is to know the love of God, to be in a relationship of love with Him, to experience that depth of intimacy and ecstasy.

When I step back and try to objectively look at my life and this faith that I have, when I consider the person I was before Jesus and the person I am now, it is this topic, this emotion – longings and desires – that really fascinates me. I am by nature a pretty unemotional person, very even keel. I don’t get very angry or upset, nor do I get incredibly joyous. There are only a few things in life that make me passionate. But there is one major exception. If you saw me spending time alone with God in the sanctuary, you would seriously wonder about me. I become a charismatic. I will yell at the top of my lungs. I will be balled up in tears on the floor, trying to burrow into the carpet. I will dance and shout and clap my hands. I will scream out in agony. This doesn’t happen every day, but often when I come to prayer it’s like there is this burning inside of me, this indescribable something. It doesn’t happen every day, but it has been there on and off for over 20 years. It’s as if something supernatural has happened inside of me, like there is something that has taken up residence inside of me that desires God on such a profound, otherworldly level that I become a different person, a deeply passionate man who more than anything else just wants to be with God and wants to be holy, set apart for Him.

And as I reflect on the songs and the psalms that I connect with the deepest, they are the ones that express this longing, this desire, to know and be with God. You are my one desire. My soul will be satisfied with you. My heart and flesh cry out. Of all the songs, the one that probably moves me most often to tears is a song called Obsession by Delirious: The chorus is “My heart burns for you.” So there’s something about this topic this morning that is deeply personal, and yet, maybe because it is so personal, so hard to capture in words. I love God, and I don’t know how that happened, because there is no explanation apart from the reality of God invading my life.

It isn’t that way for everyone at all times, and it isn’t that way for me at all times. His desire is that we would love him and long for him above all else. Whether we are full or empty, that He would be what we long for:

Psalm 63:1 - O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 5

Psalm 42:1-3 - As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"

The goal is to see God so clearly and know Him so intimately that He becomes our heart’s foremost desire. Let’s read on and learn why this Psalmist could have such a longing for God.

3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young-- a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Selah

The sparrow in the Bible is representative of the most worthless of birds.

Matthew 10:29,31 - Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father…So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

In God we have someone who loves us even in our insignificance. What is man that you love him?

Psalm 8:3-4 - When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

The swallow, on the other hand, is a restless bird, always flying until it comes time to mate, when he builds a nest and settles down peacefully. In this way, the swallow is like the soul apart from God and then finally at home in God.

We search everywhere else to fill the void. We desire God but don’t realize it and so we try to find satisfaction in things of this world. Think of Solomon in Ecclesiastes, trying everything and realizing that it was all meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

As Augustine said: “Our hearts are restless till they rest in thee.”

We can look elsewhere, but until we come to Him, we will be restless. Maybe you 6 thought getting married would satisfy and complete you, but it hasn’t. Perhaps you thought achieving your dreams would satisfy but it hasn’t. Or maybe you thought your job would, but it hasn’t. More experiences, more travel, more of something else. Our hearts are restless till they rest in God.

Listen to CS Lewis: “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Moving on:

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. 6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.

The Psalmist turns now to talk about pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem – they go through many valleys and dry places, but are not disheartened, because their hearts are set on God. Therefore, every experience becomes something that brings them closer to Him. Even the worst things in life can become experiences that deepen our desire for Him, our need for Him. He strips things away and all we have is Him, and when that happens we find that He is enough. In our loneliness we need in more, in our poverty we cry out to him more.

As Tim Keller put it: “If your ultimate love and joy is found in the treasures of this world, then suffering will rob you of your joy and make you sadder and madder. But if your ultimate love and joy is found in God, then suffering will drive you deeper into the source of that joy.”

And so we can declare that we will bless the Lord whatever he does, and trust in Him at all times.

James 1:2-4 - Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 7

Everything is a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. I am a man on pilgrimage to the heart of God. Every hill and every valley just brings me closer to the presence of God. Thank you God for this trial which you have allowed, because it is achieving the sanctification of my soul, allowing me to know you more.

8 Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob. Selah 9 Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one. 10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. 12 O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.

Remember that the sons of Korah were doorkeepers/gatekeepers, protecting the temple and caretakers over different areas of it. And so they can say from experience that it is far better to be with God than to be anywhere else. He loves us with a perfect love. He works all things for good. He satisfies our desires with good things.

Maybe you say, “this is just not my experience with God.” The reality is that with all of our desires – for perfect love, eternal significance, perfect peace, abundant life, perfection – although we get real glimpses here and now in our walk with God, we will not have them all in full until that day when we step into eternity into the presence of God.

Can you imagine? Just think of the longing a mother has to meet the baby who is inside of you, the longing a wife has to see her husband who has been deployed overseas, the longing a man and woman who have kept themselves pure have for their wedding day and night, the longing an athlete has to win the championship – all the tears, the self-denial, the agony of waiting, the fears that the day will never come, the hope and anticipation as the clock seems to move so slowly – and then that day comes, and the baby arrives, the husband arrives home, the husband and wife are joined as one, the athlete wins the championship. Have you ever experienced that satisfaction and fulfillment? Now can you imagine experiencing the fulfillment of all of your deepest desires, as the God of the universe welcomes you into a place where there is no more suffering or pain, where you have been perfected and live in a perfect community of love, where you are known fully and loved as you are, where there is perfect peace, abundant joy, everlasting life? That 8 is what is promised to every believer – the fulfillment of all of your deepest longings and desires.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 - He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

We long for eternity.

Bring your longings and deepest desires to God, and you will find that underneath all of those longings is a longing for God, which one day will be fully satisfied in a way that your temporal longings never could be.

Some men who have put it more eloquently than I ever could:

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” (CS Lewis)

“To come to Thee is to come home from exile, to come to land out of the raging storm, to come to rest after long labour, to come to the goal of my desires and the summit of my wishes.” Charles Spurgeon

“God is the highest good of the reasonable creature, and the enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows. But the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean.” Jonathan Edwards

“Hearts on earth may say in the course of a joyful experience, “I don’t want this ever to end.” But invariably it does. The hearts of those in heaven say, “I want this to go on forever.” And it will. There is no better news than this.” JI Packer