Through the Bible in one year - Day 84

Psalm 84:2

My soul longs, yes, faints

for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and flesh sing for joy

to the living God.

Verse 10:

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 dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Do I really long - yes faint for the courts of the Lord? If I'm honest the answer is not always (maybe never?) I know there have been times when I desire to stay in the Lord's presence ardently, and desire not to leave the mountain top as did Peter - but to say that I faint for the courts of the Lord, I don't know. I am simpatico with verse 10 - this is indeed true in my heart and I can say with certainty that I agree - how much better it would be for me to say with certitude that my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God - all the time; without distractions or selfish detours.

Exodus 29:43-46

There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory. I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.

In a continuation of our story, we have the Lord letting the people know how to come into his presence - and that he will be with them at the altar in their praises and worship; this is reinforcement for our psalmist's desire to reside - body and spirit in the courts of the Lord - this place to be in his presence.

Nehemiah has shown God to be concerned with all the people - and especially the poor and those who do not have 'kin' to look after them. Here the covenant is given/taken and the obligations set out for the people to know - in these ways are they keeping in step with the Lord's plans - that they do not neglect the house of God - and in our understanding this house - is built of the people of God in whom the praises and worship rest.

In Paul's letter to the Corinthians today he says something that stands out to me. He says:

I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (verses 3-5)

All along in our Exodus journey (and before that in Genesis) we have seen the power of the Lord for his people, and I think what Paul says here is important - that we are not just to think things or that we need to fully understand things - yet in the evidence of our lives with God we see him moving on our behalf, and like Abram, this is reckoned to us as righteousness. Paul finishes today's reading by saying - who has known the mind of the Lord - so as to tell him what to do? We do often desire to instruct the Lord - but this is very good advice - we do not know the mind of the Lord so how do we then instruct him?

Today’s readings: Psalm 84, Exodus 29, Nehemiah 10, 1 Corinthians 2