PSALM 1 PSALM 84 LONGING FOR INTIMACY WITH GOD

PSALM 84 To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

84:1 How lovely is your dwelling place, LORD of hosts! 2 My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. 3 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. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah

“Wherever believers gather to worship, it should be a place where the Word of God is proclaimed, the name of God is magnified, and the will of God is pursued.” “The greatness of a church is not measured by how many visitors come to admire the building, but how many worshippers come to admire God.” Holman Old Testament Commentary Steven J. Lawson

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. 6 As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.

8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah 9 Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed!

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. 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. 12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!

Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 1 Corinthians 2:9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”

BEATITUDES IN PSALM 84 Blessed: Happy, Joyful, Content, Satisfied, at Peace, Favored by God with intimacy 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! 5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. 12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!

INTIMACY WITH GOD Revelation 21:22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

PRINCIPLES Intimacy with God is a blessing and privilege Intimacy with God should be the believers #1 priority Intimacy with God makes a person happy, content, and joyful Intimacy with God enables a person to make “the valley of weeping a place of springs” Serving others with God is better that being served by others without God

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

APPLICATIONS How strong do you pursue the Lord? What prevents you from intimacy with God? Will you do anything about it? What are you most passionate for? When you are honoring God by serving others do you feel put upon by people or favored by God?