Longing to be home

Good evening, please have a seat. Pearl and I just got back from our trip home to Singapore and Taiwan, which we’ve been looking forward to for a while. But as usual, it was only when I got on the plane that I started to truly long to be home with family. Before that, my mind is here, and the thought of home feels distant. So, the closer we got on the 16-hour journey, the more my anticipation grew. You reach a point where you can start to make out the city through the clouds as you look through the window. Then when we’ve made it to the airport, through the customs, drive back home and finally face to face with family and food – that’s when we delight most in being home with family. And just to add, I felt the same way coming back here. More or less.

Well, that’s the heart of the Psalmist in our passage, who yearns to be home with God because he has a deep delight in God. And even though he may not be close to his destination, he is close to God and knows how to delight in God. He knows the journey and he knows that when God brings him there, he will be able to enjoy God to the fullest. For us following Jesus today, we’re all on that same journey to be fully with Him when He comes again. Maybe you’re feeling tired of walking God’s way and needing a break or distant because your mind is somewhere else. God’s Word here lifts our eyes and hearts to delight in God, and a delight in God stirs up our longing to be home with Him. But before we go further, we need God’s help to delight in Him, so let’s pray.

[PRAYER]

It’ll be helpful if you could keep your Bible open to page 493 to have Psalm 84 open in front of you. My first point follows the heart of this passage which is:

1. A delight in God makes us long to be home.

From Psalm 84.1-4 the song begins:

How lovely is your dwelling place,O Lord of hosts!My soul longs, yes, faintsfor the courts of the Lord;my heart and flesh sing for joyto the living God.Even the sparrow finds a home,and the swallow a nest for herself,where she may lay her young,at your altars, O Lord of hosts,my King and my God.Blessed are those who dwell in your house,ever singing your praise!

Like a child perched by the window looking into the house, the psalmist dreams of being in God’s dwelling place – in other words, the temple back then where God’s people could meet God. A house where even the birds could find protection and rest, surely God’s servant will be offered the best. This deep thirst from his body and soul is not just for the temple – but most of all cries out to the living God himself. He’s saying every part of me wants to be there in the temple with you, my King and my God. Absolutely entranced with the thought of being with a loving God that he knows those who can continue to praise God are blessed. What’s amazing for us today, is we have access to God through Jesus as we heard from our reading in Ephesians. We can come to him at any moment when we pray or read the Bible. So, to share the desire of the psalmist is to say, I want to be with God. I want to spend time in the Bible each morning. I want to go to bed early tonight so I’ll actually have time with Him in the morning. I want to deepen my relationship with God not just know Him from a distance. And if the dwelling place of God today is God’s people gathered, then to share the same desire of the psalmist is to say, I want to be with God’s people. I want to be invested in the lives of those at church even when it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient. Yet that can be hard for us to say especially if we’ve been far away from God and spending time with Him doesn’t seem appealing.

If we want to share that desire for God today, we start by going back to delight in Him. And we know that when we do give ourselves more time and space in His Word, the deeper our knowledge of Him and our relationship with Him grows. Often, I find it the case that if I’ve been in a dry period, the moment I start to delight in God again through time in prayer, Word, or song, I think, why haven’t I come back to Him sooner? Why would I not want to be under the care and protection of a loving God who wants me safe and near to Him? Why would I not want to be a part of church family when that gives me a fuller picture of God’s majesty? The one who finds joy in God, is the one who longs to be in his presence daily, and fully when Jesus returns. The more we delight in God, the more we’ll want to be with Him and his people each day. Now the psalmist shifts his attention to travellers on this long and difficult journey to be with God, possibly pilgrimage. We see from Psalm 84.5:

2. God’s strength sustains us on the journey.

Psalm 84.5-8:

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,in whose heart are the highways to Zion.As they go through the Valley of Bacathey make it a place of springs;the early rain also covers it with pools.They go from strength to strength;each one appears before God in Zion.O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;give ear, O God of Jacob!

He says, blessed are those who rely on God’s strength to sustain them in the journey; those who love God’s house and have made the road to God’s house the path they want to be on. As they travel through the Valley of Baca (a challenging place, maybe a dry barren dessert), they make it a spring because they see it as blessing to be strengthened by God during trials. From strength to strength, they make it before God. The closer they were to God, the more strength they drew from Him to make the journey. Which puts our commute to church this evening in perspective. However, we notice the psalmist switches from they to my in Psalm 84.8. He has only been imagining the travellers on the journey, he’s not actually with them. Maybe he’s further away but still he’s with God and makes known to God his prayer to be on that same journey and to find strength in God.

One of the highlights of the trip which I’ll stop talking about, was river tracing in Taiwan where you’re in the river tracing upwards to the waterfall at the end. You need a guide to show you the way as you climb up rocks and trace through the river sometimes having to swim against current. It can get potentially more dangerous with heavy rain causing the current to grow stronger. In which case you would want to be as close as you can to the guide. He was the one with the first aid, supplies, and the experience to tell you which rocks to step on and which deep ends to avoid. He’ll be the one to pull you up when you need a hand up a steep and slippery rock. Of course, you still need to accept his help, which I found most of us preferred to climb up ourselves most times. Having said that, it didn’t rain, and the path was fairly manageable that day. But the lifelong journey of the Christian is one that can’t be made on our own strength. The good news for the weary traveller who’s exhausted from suffering, loss, pain, or simply tired following Jesus. There is strength found in God who brings us through the valley, giving rain even during the driest times. And the closer we are to God, the more we will be strengthened by Him. The more we will know who He is as a loving God who keeps his promises. So, the more we can trust Him for help.

While there is a sense of the lifelong journey, there are also the daily and weekly journeys to be with God. Something as simple as making it to church another week, or to the next time you spend time with God in the Bible. Like the psalmist describes those whose heart are the highways to Zion, would you say your heart is to be here in church worshipping with God’s people? It’s good if we’re in the habit of meeting with God regularly, but where is our heart as we come to church or open our Bibles? It’s always easier, more convenient, and more comfortable to choose not to meet with God. Stay at home. More time to rest. More time to get ready for the week ahead. So, let’s be asking God to make Him where our heart is at. Then we’ll find ourselves wanting to be here each week. Taking time before coming to church to pray that he would prepare our hearts to praise Him, that he would reveal more of himself to us, that we would respond to Him. And let’s rely on His strength to draw us to Him each week. Lastly, in our last section from Psalm 84.9 we see:

3. God’s goodness fully enjoyed when we’re home.

Psalm 84.9-12:

Behold our shield, O God;look on the face of your anointed!For a day in your courts is betterthan a thousand elsewhere.I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my Godthan dwell in the tents of wickedness.For the Lord God is a sun and shield;the Lord bestows favour and honour.No good thing does he withholdfrom those who walk uprightly.O Lord of hosts,blessed is the one who trusts in you!

Here the psalmist returns to his deep longing to be with God but expands on it by singing that God is unlike anything else the world has to offer. An extended holiday abroad to the French Alps or warm beaches in Thailand – doesn’t compare to the joy of being with God for a single day. Living comfortably in the cleanest and safest city in the world – doesn’t come close to a day under God’s roof. I’d rather take the lowest place in your house, than the highest place in world without you – which in our culture, speaks of a lifestyle that says yes to whatever desires feel right, and yes to whatever improves my quality of life. It sounds crazy but all of this is no exaggeration, because again, the psalmist knows who God is, and delights in Him. He describes God as a sun that gives warmth to life and light to their paths on the journey. A shield that offers protection from evil attacks along the way. A God who bestows favour and honour – or better translated, grace and glory, which are given completely without any of our own doing, only received. Grace given when being saved without deserving it. Glory given when his people are made perfect in Jesus. And a God who does not withhold good things (what He knows is good for us). God’s goodness is incomparable, so who can receive it? By those who walk uprightly.

Walking uprightly means; trusting that God’s ways are right and good, and obeying his ways even when it’s hard. In our passage today, that would look like, trusting that being with God is a delight and that the journey to Him is worth it. Then it’s choosing to draw close to Him. It’s trusting that God’s strength will bring you home, and then relying on it day by day. When we’re walking this way, it will be hard, it will be tiring as all of us will feel. But that’s when we get to experience more of God’s strength in our weakness, more of God’s grace in our unworthiness, and more of God’s power as He grows us in his likeness. That’s why the psalmist ends by saying, blessed is the one who trusts in you! Truly that person is blessed because he gets the full experience of God’s goodness. What’s striking is as the psalmist sings of God’s goodness, grace, and glory – all these would have been a faint image at the end of the journey for them. Jesus had not come yet, so they wouldn’t have known the full extent of his grace and power. They had glimpses of God’s goodness and simply had to believe that being with God was better and possible. We have much more of God’s goodness to look back on today but we still need to trust Him each day, that dwelling with Him is far better than anything.

This psalm today has much to say to us wherever we are on our Christian walk with God. To the weary traveller who’s lost energy, would you trust that if God has brought you this far, he can renew your strength again as he brings you home. To the distant traveller who’s lost sight of the journey, would you trust in God’s goodness and draw back to delight in God again.
And to the traveller who’s still not sure if he wants to embark on the Christian journey, would you see that God is better than anything this world has and so is worth the journey. What a joy to know that when we struggle to want to be with God, it’s not just the destination that we hold onto, but the present delight in God that stirs up our longing to be home. Let’s pray.