Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] O heavenly Father, although you are almighty, although you are surrounded by splendor, majesty, and light, you have an openness to let people like us speak to you.
[00:00:28] You invite us to speak to you.
[00:00:33] So I pray that we could see prayer in a different way today.
[00:00:39] And we have a longing in our heart to spend time in your presence.
[00:00:46] And I ask this for your great namesake. Amen.
[00:00:51] I'll tell you another sitting bull story this morning. Everybody likes an indian story, right? I mean, before Sitting Bull was a great warrior or a chief, he was a holy man.
[00:01:07] It was very common for him to leave the village and go to places that there are just places in nature where you can feel God.
[00:01:21] Can you identify with that? There have been places in nature where God seemed closer.
[00:01:29] And it wasn't uncommon for him to go to these places and stay and pray for two or three days at a time.
[00:01:41] He was at one of these places. It was on a hill, and he was in a, all I can say, a spiritual state, sitting on the ground praying, and a piece of prairie grass blew through the air and hit him on the forehead.
[00:02:06] And he took some hair.
[00:02:09] I couldn't do this.
[00:02:12] And tied the prairie grass to his head.
[00:02:20] And in a vision, he stood up and he saw a path that he had never seen before.
[00:02:28] And he followed this path off the hill, and it went down into a ravine where there was a river.
[00:02:36] And he sat down in the water, and it was a mountain runoff stream, so the water was just freezing cold.
[00:02:46] And he sat there and prayed.
[00:02:49] And when he stood up, he said he felt like he had been reborn.
[00:02:59] He felt he felt different within himself, and he believed it marked the beginning of his ability to lead other people.
[00:03:21] Now, you can read this story two ways.
[00:03:27] If you're a strict religious person, you can just say he had an odd experience.
[00:03:35] I read it that God meant it when he said, draw near to me and I will draw near to you.
[00:03:46] I don't believe he just had some odd moment.
[00:03:52] I believe God draws near to everyone who draws near to him.
[00:03:58] But if you only believe he had an odd moment that made him a different man, can you see that that odd moment happened while he was praying?
[00:04:17] So even if it really wasn't an experience with God, prayer made him a different man.
[00:04:28] And if you're like me, you can believe that God draws near to those who draw near to him in prayer. God changed him.
[00:04:39] He said he felt like he had been reborn.
[00:04:45] Prayer changed him into a different person.
[00:04:51] We shouldn't be surprised because the Bible is full of examples of prayer changing people.
[00:05:02] I don't pray to change God. I pray so God can change me.
[00:05:09] Because frankly, God doesn't need to change. I do.
[00:05:17] He's doing pretty well for himself.
[00:05:21] I'm the one who needs to get my act together.
[00:05:26] In psalm 84, we have the prayer of another warrior, the great warrior, King David.
[00:05:34] And we're going to study this prayer together today in the hope that something will trigger of in your heart. And you'll want to come to the week of prayer and spend time in the presence of God and see what God might do in your soul as you draw near to him.
[00:05:58] So the psalm begins, how lovely is your dwelling place, o Lord of hosts?
[00:06:08] My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord, and my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
[00:06:20] This is a poem, and we need to understand its poetic image if we're going to understand what it means.
[00:06:29] So the poetic image is God's dwelling place is someplace that is beautiful and fascinating.
[00:06:44] The poet is saying, when I think about where you are, I'm overwhelmed with a sense of how beautiful it is where you are.
[00:06:59] And my soul starts to long to be where you are.
[00:07:07] The poetic image is saying, if you could really see God the way he really is, you would be attracted to his beauty.
[00:07:18] Your soul would long to be in his presence.
[00:07:24] And as your soul was in his presence, you would find your heart and your flesh singing for joy to the living God.
[00:07:36] I believe we should delight ourselves in the presence of the Lord for no other reason than there is nothing more lovely to the human soul than being in the presence of God.
[00:07:52] You can fly to the most beautiful places in the world.
[00:07:56] You can go to the most wonderful resorts.
[00:08:01] You can set out in the evening and watch the sun set into the Gulf of Mexico from Puerto Vallarta. And it's beautiful.
[00:08:10] But I'm telling you, there is nothing more lovely than the soul being in the presence of God. God.
[00:08:18] There is nothing that draws us. There is nothing that calls the soul so profoundly as the majesty, the wonder, the beauty and the dignity of God.
[00:08:31] And every one of us need to do a heart check this morning.
[00:08:37] If you had to answer honestly on a scale of one to 1010 being the highest, one being the lowest, where would you say you are on the scale of longing for God?
[00:08:53] If you have to compare your longing for God with the longings you have for other stuff. We all want this. We want that. Wouldn't it be nice if we got this?
[00:09:04] So and so has this. I like to have the same thing on the scale of your longing for other stuff.
[00:09:12] Where does your longing for God fall?
[00:09:18] If your longing for God is on the low end of the scale, it's because you have lost your sense of how majestic he is, how beautiful he is, and how wonderful he is. And if you restore your sense of the beauty, the majesty and the splendor of God, your heart will naturally long for it.
[00:09:45] And then the poem changes its image.
[00:09:48] Now there's another poetic snapshot. Let's look at it.
[00:09:53] Even the sparrows find a home and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young at your altars. O Lord of host, my king and my God.
[00:10:10] Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praises.
[00:10:17] Now the image changes from this very beautiful place to two of the most common little birds that could have been found. When this poet wrote this poem, a sparrow and a swallow, they were insignificant.
[00:10:35] People didn't pay much attention to them. They were common. Now, listen what the poem is saying.
[00:10:43] Even a common sparrow has a place in the presence of God.
[00:10:53] Why would the poet say that? He's saying to us, you don't have to be special for God to want to share time with you.
[00:11:03] You don't have to be an eagle. You don't have to be the most beautiful parakeet in the world.
[00:11:13] It doesn't have to be anything significant about you. You can be as insignificant as a sparrow, but to God, you're valuable.
[00:11:25] He has a place for you. In the very same way that a swallow could build its nest near the altar of God, you can build a resting place in the presence of the Lord. You're welcome. Every single one is welcome into the presence of God.
[00:11:48] How blessed are those who take God up on his deal.
[00:11:54] How blessed you are. When you say, I'm gonna seek for the Lord with all my heart, I'm gonna allow the Holy Spirit to draw me into God's presence.
[00:12:07] I'm gonna make this week a spiritual retreat.
[00:12:12] We're gonna pray here every day from 08:00, at 06:00 in the morning, at noon, and at 06:00 in the evening.
[00:12:22] I don't just come here to say words to God.
[00:12:27] I also come here because I want to sit in his presence.
[00:12:32] When other people are praying. My heart is saying, dear God, I'm reaching out to you. I would like to draw near to you. I would like to spend some time in your presence. I'd like my soul to be renewed. I'd like to have a sense of being refreshed. I would like your spirit to touch me in the kind of way that I'll be a better man at the end of the week than I was before.
[00:13:00] Can you hear this? The psalmist is saying, it is there are blessings in the presence of the Lord that you can't get any other way.
[00:13:12] And so carving out time to spend in his presence is a great blessing. And don't say to yourself, that's just for other people. That's for people more religious than I am. That's for people better than I am. If you are as common as a sparrow, the presence of God is open, and he welcomes you in.
[00:13:43] And then the poem changes in the third stanza.
[00:13:48] And the third stanza says, blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
[00:14:02] As they go through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs.
[00:14:09] The early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength. Each one appears before God in Zion.
[00:14:20] Now the image changes. First we saw this beautiful place where God lives, and then we see sparrows are welcome into the presence of the Lord. And now we have a vision of two pathways.
[00:14:34] The first is the highway that leads to Zion.
[00:14:39] Zion was on, Jerusalem was built on Zion, and Jerusalem is built at the top of a mountain.
[00:14:48] And in David's time, there were really only a couple of ways up there. And if you read the psalms, you can read the psalms of ascent, and that's the psalms that they used to chant while they were walking uphill to Zion.
[00:15:03] So the first pathway is a pathway that leads to a place of strength and power, the citadel of David, the city of Zion.
[00:15:16] And the image is walking up to this beautiful place, this stronghold, this safe place.
[00:15:24] The second one is just the opposite, the valley of Baca. Baca is the hebrew word for weeping or mourning.
[00:15:35] Now, I'm not walking up to Zion. I'm not chanting praises to God. I'm walking through the valley of weeping and mourning.
[00:15:45] Ah, but when I walk through this valley, it in the presence of God, look what happens.
[00:15:54] They make it like a place of springs.
[00:15:57] The early rain also covers it with pools.
[00:16:02] If I am walking in triumph to the presence of God, there are great blessings.
[00:16:08] If I am walking through the valley of sorrow, if I'm going through a time of very deep, troubled soul, and I do it in the presence of God, he has a way of turning the valley of sorrow into a place where my soul is nurtured and cared for by God.
[00:16:32] And so both of these images are to get us to verse seven.
[00:16:36] They go from strength to strength. Each one appears before God in Zion.
[00:16:44] Spending time in the presence of God, whether you're triumphantly going to Zion or you're walking through the valley of sorrow, spending time in the presence of God always makes you stronger. You go from strength to strength. The presence of God strengthens your soul. The presence of God strengthens your heart. The presence of God strengthens your mind. You are more prepared to live whatever challenges life gives you. When you have spent time in the presence of God, there's no losing when you seek the Lord with all your heart.
[00:17:29] Then the psalmist says to us in verse eight, O Lord of host, hear my prayer.
[00:17:38] Give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah, pause and reflect.
[00:17:46] Now he lays aside the poetry for a minute and he makes a direct request of God.
[00:17:55] O Lord of hosts, hear my prayer and give ear, O God of Jacob. And I'm going to. And then the psalmist says, I'm going to pause right here and I'm going to reflect.
[00:18:10] I'm going to think about who you are. I'm going to think about what I really want to say to you.
[00:18:18] I'm not going to babble prayers. I'm going to be thoughtful.
[00:18:24] I'm bringing my a game to this prayer.
[00:18:30] There are different qualities of prayer.
[00:18:34] Can you admit this?
[00:18:36] In your own life you've prayed. All right, I'll say me. In my own life I've prayed some good prayers. And in my own life I prayed some pretty sorry prayers.
[00:18:50] I have said one thing. I have said one thing with my lips and my mind has been a million miles away.
[00:18:57] I don't know who I think I was talking to, but certainly God knew I wasn't talking to him.
[00:19:04] So there are different qualities of prayer. There is a prayer that doesn't really come out of my true self, and then there is a quality of prayer that comes out of my true self. It's the real soul touching God and speaking to the heart of God. Do you see?
[00:19:30] Now the psalmist says, there is a beautiful place where God lives and everyone is welcome there.
[00:19:40] On your way there, you may be marching in triumph to Zion, or you may be weeping your way through the valley. God will give you strength. But this is what you need to know. The way you get there is by serious prayer.
[00:19:56] O Lord, God of armies, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob.
[00:20:06] Pause and reflect.
[00:20:08] Church, I'm asking you to come to the week of prayer because whether you know it or not, your soul needs it.
[00:20:17] I'm encouraging you to come to the week of prayer, because there is blessings that God has for those who seek him.
[00:20:25] I'm encouraging you to come to the week of prayer because no matter what the conditions of your life are, if you find the presence of God, you will be better off and you'll be more strengthened to handle anything God places in front of you.
[00:20:41] Your prayers don't have to be poetic, but they do have to come from the best part of who you are, from the riches of your soul, from the depths of your authentic character. That's where we pray.
[00:20:56] It's not the words that matter, because God judges the heart.
[00:21:02] He looks into our innermost parts and he says, this person is honestly seeking me. This person is honestly calling on my name. This person wants to see what is most beautiful in me. And when God sees that in the human soul, he reacts powerfully and we experience God in an awesome way.
[00:21:29] And then the psalmist said, behold our shield, o God.
[00:21:36] Look on the face of your anointed one.
[00:21:40] This is the request. This is what I want. Dear God, you are my shield.
[00:21:49] I can't face life without you in front of me. And this is really what I want. Dear God, I would like to have the sense that you're looking on me, that you're seeing me, that you hear my prayer, that there is an honest connection between who I am and who you are, between what we're doing here that matters spiritually today. Can you hear me, church?
[00:22:22] Some of you have experienced this kind of relationship with God, and some of you, this is all new to you, okay?
[00:22:35] It is a beautiful thing to grow spiritually.
[00:22:39] It's a beautiful thing to have a richer relationship with Christ today than I did five years ago.
[00:22:48] It's a sad thing to stall spiritually.
[00:22:54] It's a sad thing to get to a certain point in your spiritual development, and you're not getting drunk on Friday night anymore or not smoking a pound of weed a week.
[00:23:08] You kind of got your act together a little bit, but then you stall spiritually and you stay in that same place year after year after year. Psalm 84 is an invitation from God that there is something richer, there's something more noble, there's something more compelling about God than you have experienced yet. And he's worth seeking. He's worth pursuing. It's worth taking some extra time to find God.
[00:23:50] The richest blessing God can give me is not winning the lottery or something like that. The richest blessing God can give me is to share himself with me in a way that I feel looked on. I feel God is looking upon me and he loves me and he values me and I matter to him. Church, you can handle anything in life when you feel that God has his eye on you, that God really cares for you, that there's something about you that fascinates God and he absolutely loves.
[00:24:34] And then the psalmist returns to his poetry and he creates another poetic image.
[00:24:43] For one day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
[00:24:50] I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
[00:25:00] Listen to what this image is.
[00:25:03] He says, I have this sense that I would rather spend one day in the presence of God than a thousand days anywhere else.
[00:25:19] Ah, you can connect with this.
[00:25:24] Can you remember days that were so awesome you didn't want them to be over?
[00:25:30] The day was so beautiful, you delighted so much that you didn't want the day to be over.
[00:25:38] Last fall, my family and I rented a house and we all spent time together for my birthday. And at the end of one of the nights that we had had dinner together and my kids and grandkids were all there. And I sat down on the edge of the bed when I was taking my boots off and I said to Sharon, I hate for today to be over.
[00:26:06] This is the kind of day that I want. I wish it could linger.
[00:26:12] This is the mystery of time when I'm having fun. Poof, the day is over when I'm not having any fun. Man, it just drags. I just cannot get to the end of the day. I'm crawling up the driveway at the end of the day trying to.
[00:26:32] This is what the psalmist is tapping into. He says, when you really find the presence of the Lord, when you really have these beautiful encounters with God, something in you says, oh, how I wish this did not have to end.
[00:26:51] I would rather do this for one day than do anything else for thousand days.
[00:26:58] Are you getting a sense of how good it is to be in the presence of God?
[00:27:05] Is it possible that you've missed something very beautiful, something very valuable, something at the core of what it really means to be a Christian because you've just not had a sense of how meaningful it is and how much it is worth seeking the Lord with all your heart?
[00:27:30] Listen to what he says.
[00:27:33] The presence of God is so awesome.
[00:27:36] I don't care what I have to do in his presence.
[00:27:40] I would rather be a doorkeeper in the presence of God.
[00:27:47] Thank you. Have all the luxury and all of the self indulgence that can be had in the tents of the wicked.
[00:27:56] You see, the poetic contrast. I would rather do anything in the presence of God than waste my life in self indulgence in sin.
[00:28:10] The presence of God is so beautiful. It's so compelling. It's so awesome.
[00:28:17] I'd be willing to be a doorkeeper just to be in his presence.
[00:28:22] I find it much better than dwelling in the tents of the wicked.
[00:28:28] Do you know, I've never felt guilty one time for being in the presence of God.
[00:28:36] I have felt guilty for being wicked.
[00:28:40] Church.
[00:28:44] My memories that bother me, they're not when I was spiritually rich and good. It's when I was spiritually bankrupt and wicked. Church and the poem is saying, it's not worth wasting your life over here in the tents of the wicked when you can have life in the presence of God.
[00:29:07] All right, and now we get down to the real nitty gritty. There are six payoffs for spending time in the presence of God.
[00:29:17] There are six benefits. There are six blessings for the Lord. God is a son and shield.
[00:29:28] The Lord bestows favor and honor.
[00:29:32] No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
[00:29:37] O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you. Let's look at them individually.
[00:29:43] The Lord is a son and a shield.
[00:29:48] I had to think about this.
[00:29:51] I had a hard time putting the two together at first.
[00:29:57] What is the significance of the Lord being a son and a shield?
[00:30:02] It seems like the sun should go with something else and the shield should go with something else. Anyone?
[00:30:09] Good?
[00:30:12] If you're having a hard time staying awake, just go get a cup of coffee, I don't mind. All right.
[00:30:19] But here is my sense. My sense is the Lord is a son, the light of my life. The thing that makes it possible for me to navigate. The Lord is my son. He shines his light, the light of his love, the light of his grace, the light of his goodness.
[00:30:41] The sun represents the blessings of God on those who put their trust in you.
[00:30:48] And then the shield is the Lord is my defense. He's not only going to bless me, he's going to defend me. It's one thing to be blessed and not be able to hold onto it. And so the Lord is my son and my shield. He blesses me with all these good things, and then he defends me so I can enjoy the blessings that he's given me.
[00:31:12] When you spend time in the presence of God, you get the blessing of the Lord saying, I'm gonna shine on your life. I'm gonna shine in your heart. I'm gonna shine in your thinking. I'm gonna shine in your behavior. My blessings are gonna rest upon you. And then he also says, I'm gonna bless you in a second way. I'm gonna make sure that in the struggles of life, you know I'm right there with you. You're not doing it alone. I am your shield in everything you're doing.
[00:31:47] Sarah and I did a lesson together for CC midweek, and I was reminded when we did that lesson when my life was at its very hardest.
[00:32:03] I have profound memories of God's grace being sufficient hour by hour.
[00:32:10] I wasn't doing it alone. I had a sense of the presence of the Lord.
[00:32:16] The Lord is a shield to those who seek him and take refuge in his presence.
[00:32:23] And then the next two are, the Lord bestows favor and honor.
[00:32:30] It matters who favors you and who doesn't favor you.
[00:32:38] Do you know that?
[00:32:40] It matters who favors you.
[00:32:44] I don't want the favor of evil. I don't want evil to favor me. If bad people don't like me, I can live with that.
[00:32:55] If wicked people don't like my faith, I can live with that. I don't need their favor. But I tell you what, there is nothing that matches the favor of God.
[00:33:07] When I look at my life and I see all the way God has favored me, I just. I'm in awe. I don't know what to say.
[00:33:16] God has blessed me in my rising up and in my lying down, in my coming in and in my going out.
[00:33:23] Everywhere I look in my life, I say, God was kind to me there. God blessed me there. God helped me there.
[00:33:32] God got me over the hump there.
[00:33:37] God made my wife insane enough to stay with me in this issue.
[00:33:44] When I sense God, when I sense God, I have a sense that he has shown his favor to me.
[00:33:57] I hope this doesn't sound. I hope you can identify with this. I believe God likes me, and I want you to believe the same thing.
[00:34:06] I don't think God, hey, I'm just a sparrow in the court of God, but I'll take all the favor I can get church.
[00:34:15] I believe that if you'll come to the week of prayer and you'll open your heart to the holy spirit and you'll start looking at your life in an honest way, you'll say, God has favored me in a real way.
[00:34:31] And it's not just favor. The fourth thing is honor.
[00:34:36] God has honored me.
[00:34:39] I look in my life and I see that.
[00:34:48] I see the goodness of God.
[00:34:54] I have known families that they despised each other.
[00:35:02] They loathed each other.
[00:35:06] I get to live in a family where we honor each other because of God's steadfast love and faithfulness. I get to live in a family where we honor each other.
[00:35:26] God wants to give you that gift.
[00:35:29] He wants to do that for you.
[00:35:32] And it's beautiful. It means everything to me.
[00:35:38] I feel blessed to pastor this church. I feel honored to be the pastor of this church.
[00:35:46] I talked to other pastors from time to time and none of them stayed at their church for 41 years.
[00:35:53] I'm honored that I got to stay here my whole career.
[00:35:58] I'm a one church guy and I'm not done yet. So don't get your hopes up.
[00:36:17] The fifth thing, no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Do you know what you're going to find in the presence of God? You're going to find out that God really wants to bless you.
[00:36:30] He doesn't want to withhold any good thing from you.
[00:36:35] God's desire is to have such a healthy relationship with you that he can trust you with anything he wants to give you.
[00:36:47] I believe God would bless us more if he could trust us with more. I believe he blesses us to the extent that he can trust us with what he blesses us in the presence of God. You get this sense, you get this feeling that God really wants to do good in my life. He really wants to show me kindness. He's really looking for ways to interrupt my life and be good to me.
[00:37:15] And then if the psalmist says, I'm running out of my poetry, I'm running out of poetic expressions, I'm getting to the end of this, but I really haven't said everything I want to say. So the last line of the poem, look what he says.
[00:37:33] O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you. It's just like an overarching statement. If I haven't covered it in this poem, if I've missed something in this poem, he says, I'm going to bundle it all together in this statement.
[00:37:54] There are great blessings for people who trust God and seek him with all their heart.
[00:38:02] I could spend 2 hours telling you the miracles God has done in answer to prayer. I could spend hours and hours telling you the absolute miracles our church has seen because of the week of prayer.
[00:38:22] Blessed are the people who reorganize their life in the kind of way that they seek God passionately. For one week.
[00:38:36] God has incredible blessings for them.
[00:38:42] Not asking you to go sit on a mountaintop and tie grass into your hair, not asking you to go sit down in a cold spring until you get hypothermia. Although I know some people who like cold plunges.
[00:39:02] The only cold plunge I like is opening the refrigerator door.
[00:39:07] Good with it.
[00:39:10] I'm not asking you to do to go on a pilgrimage. I'm asking you to reorganize your life this week, to spend 1 hour every day seeking the Lord with all your heart being open to him, focusing on him, speaking to him honestly from your inward self, and see what God will do for you. Our dear heavenly father, thank you that you're willing to let us invade.
[00:39:49] Your Majesty, thank you that even though we come imperfect as we are, and we come into your absolute, majestic presence, you always have open arms.
[00:40:06] Your heart is always saying, I've been waiting for you.
[00:40:12] I pray this week that we will not miss the opportunity to seek you with all our heart.
[00:40:20] I pray that we would encourage each other as we do seek you.
[00:40:25] And then I pray that you would grant us all the blessings that you have for those who spend quality time in your presence. In Christ's name, amen.
