Psalm 84

Jacob, when he moved to Egypt in the time of Joseph, told Pharaoh the days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life (Gen. 47:9).  The Bible says of the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that they waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God (Heb. 11:10).  They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth (Heb. 11:13).  They desired a better, that is, a heavenly country.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for He has prepared a city for them (Heb. 11:16).

Failure to have this perspective in life is the cause of disappointment, sorrow, bitterness, immoral behavior, frustration, pride and selfishness.  Those who can never come to the place of setting their heart on pilgrimage (Ps. 84:5) can never be truly happy in this life, properly called the Valley of Baca (“tears” in 84:6).  True satisfaction of the soul will always elude the person who determines to find it in this life, whose soul does not long for, yes, even faint for the courts of the Lord, whose heart and flesh do not cry out for the living God (84:2).

The pilgrim songs in the Bible’s great Hymnbook are among my personal favorites.  There is a whole collection, from 120-134, in which the pilgrim makes his way from his home to Jerusalem, leaving behind the evil that engulfs him in order to find a deeper relationship with God.  In Old Testament times that meant going to the tabernacle/temple, the place of God’s dwelling.  In addition to the collection there are many others that refer to the temple or sanctuary, each of them in some sense being the song of the pilgrim.  I consider Psalm 84 to be the chief of those songs as it most clearly calls us all to make this journey to God.

To make pilgrimage today is not to go to Jerusalem or any other holy location.  It is to commune with God through His word and prayer.  May I emphasize the essential of His word in our communion?  It is the only sure way we have of hearing from God.  And it is God’s way of reaching into the deepest recesses of our soul and spirit (Heb. 4:12-13). 

To be on pilgrimage is to walk the walk of faith.  The Psalm concludes with this bottom line: O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You! (84:12).  But it is trusting God as we realize that we are only temporary on this earth, that this is not where we truly are at home.  To use a very Biblical term, we are strangers here.  It means we don’t cling tightly to the things of this earth nor do we ever expect to be truly satisfied with what this world can offer.  Rather when we hear God and trust God and thus obey God we find that in this life there is the deepest of satisfactions.  For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly (84:11).  The tears of the valley become a spring of the freshest water so that we go from strength to strength (84:7). 

No, I am not kidding.  This is for real.  Nor am I trying to tell you that I have achieved a place on this road constantly.  But I can tell you without hesitation: a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere (84:10).  Let us walk this road together.