for abiding promises that we shall be at home with you forevermore. Thank you for the promise of forgiveness of all your love and your spirit with us every moment of every day.
Lord, we give our tithe and our offering Lord, we want to joyfully sacrificially give our first and our best to you. Lord, we pray now that you’d speak to us through your word. It’s in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I posted that verse this morning. I was glad when they said to me, let us go up to the house of the Lord. It’s a joyful thing to be here. I love being here with you. I look forward to every Sunday gathering with you, singing with you, hearing the word preached, fellowshipping with you. It’s a blessing. We’re going to be in Psalm 84 as we continue our summer in the Psalms.
Can you think of a time maybe it’s been a while, maybe it’s recently that you’ve tasted just the sweetness of God’s nearness and that memory, that experience, it stands above the normal experience of life. Can you recall any of those? Do you ever find yourself remembering the power of that time, that experience? And you’re just longing for it again. Maybe you see yourself in a time of real need and so you feel a desperation for that experience. You just need to recline on Jesus.
Psalm 84, for me, over the last couple of years, has become a rich source of hope. I found it to express in words certain things that I’ve had only inward groanings for. And I’ve also experienced it, I’ve experienced that it gives remedies for when those groanings, they seem to wither in the heat of life’s scorching sun and they leave me with a sense of desperation because those desires are still there but the confidence of tasting those desires seem out of reach. This psalm, this psalm has been an ointment on that. Spurgeon says this about the psalm early in his commentary on it. This sacred ode is one of the choicest of the collection. It has a mild radiance about it entitling it to be called the pearl of psalms. If the 23rd be the most popular, the 119th the most deeply experimental, the 51st the most plaintive, this is one of the most sweet of the psalms of peace. So if you’ve found that psalm in your Bibles or read it,
I’m going to read the entire psalm but I’ll only be focusing on the middle section.
It says, For the choir director on the Gittith, a psalm of the sons of Korah, how lovely are your dwelling places, O Lord of hosts. My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. The bird also has found a house and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young. Even your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. How blessed are those who dwell in your house. They’re ever praising you. How blessed is the man whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. Passing through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring. The early rain also covers it with blessings. They go from strength to strength and every one of them appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob. Behold our shield, O God, and look upon the face of your anointed. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in you.
The psalmist shows what a high view, the highest view of worship is. And he’s consumed by the beauty and the blessing of being in the house of God. And for one reason or another, he’s prevented from accessing it for a season. So he expresses his longing to meet with God and shows us what it looks like to be so desperate to be with him that no matter what the obstacle to cross or to crawl under, he wouldn’t stop until he got there. The psalmist had in mind the temple in Jerusalem, the mountain of Zion, where God dwelled among his people. And in the temple, no one but the priests were allowed into that innermost sacred space. But yet the psalmist speaks favorably of the joy in the one who merely got to step into the courts of God’s house. But Jesus says something to the Samaritan woman at the well that one day the true worshipers of God would have no need of the mountain and no expectation to travel to Jerusalem, but would worship him simply in spirit and in truth. The shadows of that time were done away with when Jesus, through his flesh, brought us by his all-sufficient sacrifice into the most holy place where God dwells. How then should our attitudes be? What should our desires be considering we have such a bold access to the throne of grace through the blood of Christ? How eager should we be to come into that space?
But what about our passage? I’m going to be focusing on verse five through seven. Are New Testament saints exempt from experiencing the same longing for the presence of God that the psalmist did? In this life we’re all tempted with distractions and discouraged by difficulties to give up on looking to the Lord. Do you ever experience those seasons? Where you seem prevented from coming to God? Or you have difficulty communing with him? I suspect you do. I certainly do. But listen to this. True worshipers pursue the presence of God. Spurgeon, in his commentary to reference him again, he says that unless we have realized the presence of God, we have done nothing. To simply meet here and gather together is worth nothing. Unless we realize the presence of the living God, we’re here in vain. We’re not here to perform religious duties and outward ceremonies. We’re here to meet with the living God. So Lord, would you meet with us? Would you provide, Lord, what’s needed today?
Would you let yourself be known? I want you to consider the implications of this text in regard to these three facets of your life. Your daily personal approach to God, the regular corporate gathering of our church body to come before him, and the ultimate pilgrimage to our heavenly Zion, where we will worship unhindered in his presence, forevermore.
I like titles, so I’ll title this sermon A Pilgrim’s Pursuit. Consider the possibility that you will go through, or maybe the reality that you are in right now, a season in which it seems that God is not accessible to you. You call out, and you’re desperate, you’re weak, and you feel so distant. And then there’s a season here in the local church where you don’t believe you’re meeting with the living God on Sunday afternoons. Whether it’s because your heart is not fully vested, or you’re all in, but strains of ministry and serving and just merely showing up have you on your last thread. Maybe you’re failing to see the surety you ought to have in making it safely home.
And you lack eagerness to get to the true Mount Zion. What’s your answer in times when you come to a point of brutal honesty and you say, alright, I’m half committed in pursuing God. Or you desire truly to be with Him, but it seems like it’s an impossible feat. And it’s too far a journey. Do you just drag up? Do you despair? Do you leave off the Christian walk?
Or do you press on? I hope to encourage you here this afternoon to do just that. Press on. I love that phrase, you know that? It’s the main goal in the Christian life. Just keep pressing on. But if you want to do that, how do you do it and why would you do it? I want to answer those questions. I believe the Spirit has given us that in this text. But before we go exploring how to go about pursuing God, I want to note that the Spirit says that a man is blessed when he does it, when he pursues God in this particular way. This isn’t hashtag blessed in the modern sense where it carries the thought that God will rain down material blessings and worldly success the way that much of our contemporary culture would expect it. But it does carry with it the idea of reaping a reward for going about it as prescribed. The wisdom writer uses this term often for blessed. It means that one who does or receives what is described ends up being happy. The man who waters his tomatoes often is blessed. Why? Because he reaps the bounty of plentiful and healthy fruit. Not blessed or foolish is the man who neglects his garden. Why? Because the heat’s going to scorch it and the bugs are going to eat it up. And he’ll not reap anything from that garden. Hungry is the one who neglects and is lazy. Happy or blessed is the one who did what was necessary. Miserable are those who fail to discipline their children because they’ll be heathens and it’s going to bring much heartache and frustration. Blessed is the man who disciplines his children. Even though it’s unpleasant in the moment, no one likes to do it, he’s blessed because he’s going to enjoy a well-groomed family one day. It’s a general principle that holds true universally. Happy is the one who pursues God in this way, says the Spirit. So what is the way? How do we do it? True worshippers pursue God with prayerful dependence.
At the outset, before I take a step, before I pack a bag, before you do anything, you must realize your utter dependence on God. We are completely destitute of anything required or necessary to complete the Christian journey. We just can’t do it in ourselves. The Lord says to the prophet Zechariah, not by might, not by strength, but by the Spirit of God.
To say it another way, by the strength of the Spirit of God. I don’t do things in my own strength. You can’t. You just don’t possess it. Another way to think about it is that it says that the ground did not yield its strength. Strength in judgment. So you can water and sow and toil all you want. But the ground has a strength about it. It has an ability, the capability, the willingness even, to produce something for you. We don’t possess the strength. And so the one who pursues the Christian life in his own strength, in his own merit, in his own power, will be disappointed. You might realize it pretty quickly or you may be one who gets to the end and you realize that you still don’t possess what’s necessary. And so you will not be happy. You will not be considered blessed. Because he says, the psalmist says that the man is blessed whose strength is in God. So I must rely on God for everything in the Christian life. Firstly, I’m dependent on God’s strength to make me fit to even call on him in prayer. What business do we even have in approaching God? I’m called to take this journey to Zion and now I realize that my strength needs to be in God. What business do I have calling on God? I need the power of God to make me into a person who is faithful. Who is fit to come into his presence. Again, to refer back to the tabernacle, to the temple, you didn’t just walk into the presence of God. You would be struck dead. You’re unfit, unqualified. I need the power of God, namely, in the person of Christ to outfit me with righteousness to walk into the presence of a holy God.
Otherwise, I have no business calling on him. I’m dependent on God’s strength to supply my needs for a pilgrimage like this. I’m going to need a lot of things on the way. Before I ever leave the house, I need to be asking God if he’ll meet me with what I need. I’m going to need faith. I’m going to need courage. I’m going to need boldness. I’m going to need patience. I’m going to need peace. I’m going to need hope. I’m going to need a backbone. I’m going to need all sorts of things to walk the Christian walk. Where do I get them? Well, I’m a pretty successful man. I have a lot of good friends in high places. It matters not. I’m pretty smart. I’ve read a pretty good heap of books. I’m pretty sharp. I can come up with some stuff. I’m considered, you know, it doesn’t matter. It’s a straining at the wind. What’s necessary to know God and to pursue God is only given through the Spirit. We don’t, apart from God, we don’t possess the faculties to understand the things of God. They’re only discerned through the Spirit. I need to be dependent on God. I come to God and I say, I have nothing. I need you to give me what’s needed for this journey.
And I need to be dependent on God’s strength to protect from foes along the way. Satan is roaming around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. His minions are like-minded.
There are worldly enemies who would love nothing more than to just destroy you for their own twisted pleasures. Your own flesh, the old man, the old nature, loves the old way. It doesn’t like the Christian way. It’s not pleasing. It’s not comfortable. It’s not satisfying. So he would do anything he could to come up out of that grave and to snatch you off of the path. To heaven. I need to be dependent on God’s strength to protect me and preserve me from my enemies.
So, I look to the God who hears and the God who cares. And my dependence on God now has to be sponsored. It has to sponsor and meet a desire for God. So true worshipers must pursue God with particular devotion. It says that the one who has his strength in God, the true worshiper, the man who is blessed, he has the highways to Zion in his heart.
So, I’m devoted, particularly, to making it to Zion.
There are so many things that would distract you from pursuing God. You think about in your personal life, you get up in the morning. What is your spiritual rhythm? What do you do to meet with God? Sadly, a lot of times, we don’t. We get dressed. We brush our teeth. We got stuff to do. Gotta go to work. Gotta drop the kids off at school. Gotta bring them to daycare. Not bad things, but not the best things. It’s a distraction. Or we’re just so consumed with other things that we just don’t desire the highways to heaven. And the things that the things that I need to be thinking about to stay focused on that path. What is it that distracts you from being devoted to God, particularly? What are the things that your heart loves? Your heart will reveal your true desires and what you really love. Out of the heart, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. You’re gonna spend your money where your heart loves to spend it. Whatever is pleasing to you, whatever is sweet to you, whatever is most important to you, that’s where you’re going to invest your life’s resources.
We must be single track, just I’m ahead of desire. And we go, you ever took a road trip, go to Louisiana and it’s a 10 hour drive and it’s long enough already. I wanna get there. I got family to see. I got good food to eat. Hey, y’all wanna stop off at such and such? Y’all wanna stop off and, you know, take it? No. I’m getting to Maymay’s house. I’m going to Welsh. I don’t wanna stop off nowhere. I’m, the highways to Zion are in my heart. It’s what I’m thinking about. I was thinking about this earlier. It happened to me twice. I think in one week, last week or so, I got a package at work. I’m supposed to drop it off at the FedEx facility. It’s on the way home. It’s off the county line. I pass by it every day. Put it in the car. I put it on the front seat where I’m gonna see it and remember to stop and drop it off. Driving home. I’m listening to something good. Thinking about what the wife might have cooked. Wondering what the kids are doing. Calvin awake because he’s eating a snack. Man, I gotta turn around. I forgot to drop off the package. It’s because my heart wasn’t devoted to that. I wasn’t thinking about that. I wasn’t concerned with it at the time. At the time, my heart was invested in making it home. It’s what I wanted to do. That’s how we need to be in the Christian life. We need to be focused and devoted particularly to the way of God so that we can make it to Him.
True word. The worshipers, they must pursue God with perseverance and difficulties.
I need to be prayer dependent. I need to be focused and I need to love the way of God because sometimes, a lot of times, in the Christian life, The road is hard. It says that passing through the valley of Baca, it’s a valley of suffering. It’s a valley of weeping. It’s an unpleasant leg of the journey.
But it’s on the road to Zion. So if I have any intention of making it to Zion, I must persevere through the difficulty.
I think there are four specific parts of this text that are going to get me through it. We persevere knowing that these present difficulties are temporal. He says I’m passing through. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t say that I’m headed to the highways of Zion and I end up in the valley of Baca or I have to live in the valley of Baca. No, I’m just passing through. So in the moment, suffering is unpleasant and it seems like it’s never going to end. But I have to remember that I’m just passing through and it’s temporal. The greatest example that I could think about is that Jesus, for the joy, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross.
We persevere through difficulties knowing that we’re not alone in the struggle. He says passing through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring.
We must realize the necessity of the gathering of the saints, the body, the church. There’s no such thing, we’ve said it a bazillion times, there’s no such thing as a lone Christian. You can’t do it alone. They would have been passing through the valley of Baca as a caravan. They’re not making the pilgrimage alone. It’s dangerous. It’s foolish. It’s just not how they did it. It was a whole caravan marching on to the city. And so we have to realize that you both need the church and the church needs you in a sense.
The scripture says that God comforts us in our afflictions so that we know how to comfort others when they’re afflicted. And so in our suffering, we need to realize that in the corporate aspect, it’s not for nothing. And I have an opportunity potentially to comfort others in their suffering because I’ve experienced it and I’m with you.
We need to realize that passing through a valley of suffering is much easier if we’re willing to, to contribute to the work that’s necessary. So we’re together. We don’t have the approach where 10% do all the work and the other 90% watch them. Let’s be 100%. We’re all contributing to something.
We’re not alone in this. There’s just something about someone being with you. There’s something about having the ear of a brother or sister to share a struggle with, or to ask for prayer, or to confide in, or to rejoice with, or whatever it might be. God has designed us to be corporate people. We’re part of a body. The finger is no good without the hand, and the hand is no good without the arm.
We persevere knowing that these difficulties are providential and they’re meant to be. We’re meant to produce something of kingdom value in us. And Paul says that these sufferings are momentary and they’re light in comparison to the eternal weight of glory that they’re producing in you. And so whatever the bitterness is, whatever the season of life is that is a valley of Bacchus to you, know that it’s not, it’s not lost on God. It’s not meaningless. It has value in your life. So you should be diligent to sit and to be refined by it, to be molded by it, to allow God to do what he’s purposed to do with your suffering.
And we persevere knowing that God gives grace sufficient to overcome a season of suffering. Are you ready to receive God’s blessings? They make a spring. Some translate it as they make a well. So it’s a valley of suffering. It’s dry. It’s a desert scenario. There’s probably scarce water there. They dig holes in expectation. They dig holes in expectation that God is going to bring rain. So in the suffering, I need to be prepared to receive the grace that God is going to give. God does not leave us to walk through valleys of suffering on our own.
You ladies that serve in nursery all the time, week after week, we’re a small body here. And so we are limited on resources. But we have a lot of needs and it stretches us thin. And so I’m thankful, incredibly thankful for everyone who serves in any capacity. But specifically, specifically those who sit and wipe my kid’s snotty nose and listen to him cry and miss singing together, and miss the preaching of the word. Maybe they can go back and listen to it. But they’re willing to miss this to serve others. And that can be, I think, a form of bitterness and suffering. So I think I want to encourage you specifically in this to dig a well and expect God to pour out his blessings on you. So when you’re prone to be frustrated and prone to put in your letter of resignation to the children’s nursery and Sunday school teaching, don’t do that. Because when you dig that well, whatever that is, I was talking to Rebecca about this, take the opportunity to sing them a children’s song. Teach them about the Lord. Know that your investment is not for nothing. The investment, is going to produce something one day. Trust that God is going to bring a rain on that season of dryness.
Dig a well and sing while you dig it.
True worshipers must pursue God with principled determination.
We just go. We go on. We press on. I’m determined. In spite of my weaknesses, I depend on God. In spite of the distractions, I keep focused on him. In spite of the bitterness and the sorrow of the Christian life, I trust in him. And I just keep going. I’m determined. I’m not going to let those things turn me away from the ultimate goal. But I don’t do it. I don’t white-knuckle it and give everything I got and think that I’m going to make it. Again, then I think I’m missing point one. I’m relying on my own strength then. It’s principled determination. I press on according to how God has prescribed for me to press on. What do I mean by that? I use the means that God uses. And here at Providence, we have our sort of our what we do, how we do it. We’re prayer-dependent. We’re word-saturated. We’re community-focused. And we partake in evangelism. So the wheel, right? I have to be diligent to do those things. And when I spend time in prayer and I’m seeking God, He provides and I realize His provisions. And so then I’m strengthened and I’m encouraged to keep going because I’ve seen God show up for me. And in the Word, I’m taught. I’m equipped by pastors and I’m strengthened in that sense to continue on because the Word is living and active and it produces something in me. It reveals things that are not fit in me and it strengthens me where I need to be strengthened. In the community, we’ve touched on that. I need Christian community. You have gifts and talents and resources that I don’t have. And God has given them to you to serve me. And vice versa. I have things that you don’t have that you need. So I must be dependent on that. And then evangelism. We can’t leave that one off. But those things are heavy on active participation, right? Determined to do this. I’m going to pray. I’m going to read the Word. I’m going to show up for church every time the doors are open. Yes, we must do those things. But again, to balance that, we have to be a people who seek rest. Know your limitations and know when enough is enough. And for us lay people, I think that means mostly outside of the walls of the church. I think we overload ourselves in every dynamic of life. And then when it comes time to give to the local body. When it comes time to show up for Wednesday Bible study. When it comes time to worship the Lord on Sunday. I’m so exhausted. I have no desire to. I have no time to.
I have to rest. I have to say no to some things so that I can say yes to the better things. Be diligent. Be diligent to enter into that rest. Be diligent to reflect on Christ. Be diligent to supplement all of those other things with just sitting with Jesus. The Mary and Martha. Just sit. Don’t do nothing. And maybe it does come in to the context of church. Maybe you have been giving everything to Providence. And maybe it’s time for you to say no to something. Don’t burn out because you failed to be principled in your determination to press on. So why should you do all of this? Why would you endure a life like that? One of vulnerability and you must admit that you’re weak. You’re not strong enough. Sort of a bowed down posture. Toward God. Why would you sacrifice all of life’s pleasures? All the things that the world has to offer. All the things that you could strive for. All the money you could make. Why would you give all that up? Why would you endure suffering?
Why would you be diligent to practice the principles of the Christian life? Day in and day out. Day in and day out. Pressing on. Amen. It’s because true worshipers pursue the presence of God because we have his blessed assurance of arriving into the enjoyment of it. I press on. I’m not distracted by the world’s pleasures. I’m not distracted by the sufferings of this life because I have confidence that one day I’m going to make it home and it’s all going to be worth it. Every one of them appears before God in Zion. William McElvey says this in his commentary. That is, every one of them answering to the character described. Remember who the blessed man is. Others, as well as they, would appear in Zion before God. But not to enjoy his presence and to receive tokens of his favor. Blessedness or happiness was not to be enjoyed, but it could only be enjoyed by those who had been previously fitted for it by character and attainment. As certainly as these had been acquired, so certainly would the blessedness be enjoyed by each and by all of them. Every one of them appears before God in Zion. That has been a great comfort to me. We don’t seek God in vain. Why are there long, hard roads to travel and deep, dry deserts to endure? Because in God’s wisdom, that’s what was determined. But in Christ, we’re his children. And so you keep to your knees in your own closet, relentlessly pleading with God to show his face and to answer your prayers. Keep gathering with us. Don’t let it be an inconvenience to your outside life. You tell that life there’s no sweeter place than to meet with brothers and sisters, to be strengthened, and to strengthen them in the way. And every one of us, trusting in Christ, has a place at the table in the heavenly Jerusalem where we will dine and enjoy the goodness of God forevermore. So, pilgrim, press on. Soon you’ll be hung.
Lord, Lord,
help us to remember
how it is that we would be considered blessed in pursuing you. Remind us of our utter dependence on you and our need for you.
Lord, help us to drive out desires that are in opposition to you. Help us, Lord, in our suffering. Give us grace. Give us strength.
Lord, help us to grow in the disciplines of grace and in the means of grace. Help us to grow and appreciate more and more the things that you’ve given us and outfitted us with to make it. And, Lord, help us to live with an ever-present longing and assurance. That one day we’ll be with you. We thank you for that hope. It’s only in Christ that we have it.
And we bless your name. I invite you to take a few minutes to meditate. And then we will close with a song.