Intense desire for worship
A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked. For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right. Psalm 84:10-11
The Psalmist from the text expresses his longing to experience God’s presence by coming to the temple. Even at the beginning of this prayer of praise, he began by expressing his longings. “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Heaven’s Armies. I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God” (Psalm 84:1-2). Public worship is part of God’s design for His people. He doesn’t suggest it or request it. He commands it. If we truly feel gratitude for our redemption, we will not only obey this command but will also do so with the intense desire expressed by this psalmist. And when we intensely desire worship, we will certainly find ourselves immensely enjoying the blessings that flow from it. We must make sure we do not miss the reason for such intense longing. It was because the public worship in the temple was the worship of the LORD of hosts (v. 1). The Lord God is the creator of everything. As such He is worthy of our worship. We will never feel like worshiping God until we understand something of His greatness, and we cannot help but worship once we do. In other words, there is a direct correlation between our belief of God and our desire for worship. The greater God is in our eyes, the greater will be our desire to worship Him. What can we say of ourselves on this matter of desiring public worship? The sad fact is many who profess to know the Lord have very little or no appetite at all for worship. What makes worship so satisfying to us? It brings us into contact with the eternal God who delights in being a sun and a shield to those who love him and serve him (v. 11). As we worship him, he gives us grace and glory and every ‘good thing’ (v. 11).
Blessings,
