PSALM 84 HOW TO HEAP UP HAPPINESS2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Psalm 84 How To Heap Up Happiness

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019. Well, as we look at Psalm chapter 84 this morning, we're looking at this psalm that can be divided into three parts. It's kind of three separate verses or three divisions that are found here, and it's divided by the word selah.

And Selah is used a couple times here in this passage to break up the portions and to indicate that a transition is taking place. Now with each of those verses, each of the three parts of this psalm, the psalmist also pronounces a blessing. And we want to talk about that idea of blessing this morning and consider what that is. The psalmist says,

The word blessed is used three times. It's found in verse four, it's found in verse five, and then also it's found in verse 12. And the idea, the concept behind this word blessed is often translated as happy. And that's a good translation, a good understanding. Blessed or happy is the one who is with the Lord and walks with the Lord and all of those promises and declarations that we see throughout the scriptures.

Many times it's also described as you could replace the word blessed with, oh, how happy. It's kind of an exclamation as the psalmist reflects on the condition of a person who, you know, is in different situations and circumstances with the Lord and

And you could say, oh, how happy or blessed is the one, right? And so there's a great understanding of that happiness. And as I was considering that this week and preparing for Psalm chapter 84 this morning, I stumbled across another explanation or definition that I really enjoyed. It's from commentator John Trapp. And here's how he defined blessed. He described it as heaped up happiness, right?

Not just happy or oh how happy, but heaped up happiness. And so I've titled the message this morning, How to Heap Up Happiness.

That is a heap or a pile, you know, just this huge mound of happiness is kind of the picture that is contained in this word bless. And I like that picture, that heaping up, that big pile of happiness or blessings because, well, it speaks to me about the idea of adding to, investing in so that over a period of time, at the end, you have a heap of happiness.

A lot of times we describe the difference between happiness and joy and reflect on that. You know, happiness typically is referred to something that's temporary. It's based on our happenings or, you know, current circumstances. I can be happy and yet joy is rooted in more deeper things than the current circumstances and more eternal. And so we could have joy even if we're not happy. And, you know, that's a good concept and important things for us to consider.

But this idea of blessed is not just the temporary moment you have an ice cream and so you're happy kind of situation, but it is this picture of this heaped up happiness that is built over time. And at the end, there is this huge mound of happiness and blessings that you have as you walk with the Lord in the way that he calls you to.

Now, that doesn't mean then that every moment is necessarily super happy or you may not always feel blessed, but you have the assurance and confidence that you will be fully blessed at the end. It's a lot like saving money.

You know, when you have a goal or a desire and so you're purposefully putting away money, it doesn't feel like you have more money at the moment, right? You feel like you're losing money because it's going out of my account, you know, and so I have less money now because, well, I'm putting it away into savings. And so at the moment, it doesn't feel like you have more. But

But you know at the end, you know, after that money is put away and saved and it grows and accumulates over time, so at the end, you get the benefit of, well, that big mound of money, that heap of money that you've saved, or maybe it's just like a little stack of money, whatever it might be. But in a similar way, we have this opportunity to heap up happiness, right?

that we can, by following some examples set for us here in Psalm chapter 84, heap up happiness in our lives and store up for ourselves many moments and days and years and eternity of blessing. Remember what Jesus taught us in Matthew chapter 6. He said, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy, where thieves do not break in and steal. It's very easy for us in this life to have our focus on the current, the moment, the things that we can see and touch and taste right now. And so we're laying up for ourselves treasures on earth because that's what we're consumed with, captivated by, focused on, and we're pursuing.

But Jesus says, be careful not to do that. Instead, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven or heap up for yourselves treasures or blessings in heaven because those cannot be destroyed and those cannot be taken from you. They will endure and they will last for eternity to come.

And so here we are this morning in Psalm chapter 84, and I want to give you some encouragement and some help, some direction on how to do that, how to lay up treasures in heaven, how to heap up happiness and blessings for yourself as we learn from the psalmist what to do. And so we're going to start out in verses 1 through 4 with the first part of this psalm and the first point this morning, which is stay in the Lord's presence.

If you want to heap up happiness, if you want to have a heap, a mound, a pile of happiness, well, what you should look to do then is to stay in the presence of the Lord. We're going to jump back into verse 1 and 2. Here's what it says. How lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

As we begin to get in this psalm, we find that it's speaking about the loveliness of the tabernacle.

Now the tabernacle was that tent that God instructed the children of Israel to build in the wilderness where they would carry it around and set it up everywhere they camped and they would perform all of their sacrifices here at the tabernacle. Later on, the tabernacle was replaced with the temple after David and his son Solomon then built the temple. And so this was where God had established the central place of their worship and their central place of relating to God.

Now we don't know exactly at what time this psalm was written. We're introduced to it in the beginning of Psalm 84 here. It tells us that it's a psalm of the sons of Korah.

And the Sons of Korah, it was a name for a choir within the tribe of the Levites. They were descendants of a man named Korah who wasn't really a good guy. He rebelled against Moses. But his descendants later on became this special choir. And so they would be about, you know, the business of singing and leading in worship.

for tabernacle services and things that were happening. And so here you have these sons of Korah that are presenting this song. And so it might've been in regards to the actual tabernacle, the original tent that Moses built, or it could also be applied to the temple later on in David's days or Solomon's days. But this Psalm would be used then in the pilgrimage to that tabernacle or temple.

That people, the Jewish people, would sing this song on their way to Jerusalem, or if it was the tabernacle, wherever the tabernacle was set up at that time. The Lord had instructed three times a year for the children of Israel to all gather together at the tabernacle. And so every year, three times a year at least, the people as a whole would gather

Get up and they would start heading to where the tabernacle was. And so everybody experienced this journey. It was always, you know, part of their culture. It was part of their upbringing and heritage. And every year, several times a year, you know, they went through this journey. And so there was routines and traditions that developed. And there was psalms that they would sing, songs that they would praise the Lord with as they were on their way as part of the journey to meet with the Lord and worship Him.

And so here in Psalm 84, we have some descriptions of that journey.

But as we look at those descriptions and that physical journey that they were taking, there's also some important pictures for us of our spiritual journey as we are also on our way to meet with God. But in the eternal perspective, we are on a spiritual journey and there is some important parallels that will help us to be blessed and to heap up happiness. And it begins with the attitude of the heart in verse 1.

Reflecting on the loveliness of the tabernacle, he says, how lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts. Now, lovely, it means to be dear. It's a very endearing term. And so it's this idea of, man, I just love meeting with the Lord at the tabernacle. I love the tabernacle. And I think this is a little bit interesting. I mean, you guys know me. I'm not super outdoorsy, right?

So I would never, ever, ever look at a tent and go, oh, how lovely is that? Like, that's just so amazing. And maybe you are a little bit more outdoorsy. Maybe you like the idea of camping. And you might say that. But I would even challenge you a little bit and say, no, no, no. Like, you're thinking of, like, the nature that you might get to see, the nature you might be in, and that's lovely. But the tent itself, it's probably not that exciting, right? It's not so lovely and dear to you.

The tabernacle was a tent. And I'm sure that it was extremely beautiful at first. When Moses was there and received the instructions and they built the tabernacle according to God's instructions, I'm sure, I mean, it was elaborately detailed and there was ornaments, there was gold, there was silver. I mean, it was beautiful at first. But, you know, then it goes 40 years in the desert.

Now, I don't know of anything that can last 40 years in the desert and be lovely, right? It's just, it's dusty, it's dirty. Now think about the tabernacle. It was also a place where sacrifices were made. It was, there was blood on the altars. There was blood inside the tabernacle on the furnishings. It was bloody, it was dusty, it was worn out and they probably had to replace different pieces and portions of the tent at time. And so,

As the psalmist here is saying, how lovely is your tabernacle? I would suggest it's, he's not so much considering the tent, the physical structure, but the tabernacle was lovely because, well, that was the place where they would meet with God. That's the place where the presence of God was. Here's what the Lord said in Exodus chapter 29. He said, so I will consecrate the tabernacle of meeting and the altar.

I will also consecrate both Aaron and his sons to minister to me as priests. I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God. What made the tabernacle special was not the materials, not the physical aspects of it,

But what made it special was that was the place that God said, this is set apart for me to meet with you and you to meet with me. This was the place where we have fellowship and I will dwell with you, my people. And so the psalmist here is, they're on the journey and they're on their way. They're not so excited about seeing the physical tent, but they're thinking ahead and saying, oh, how lovely it is

to meet with God, to dwell with God, to be in the Lord's presence. As we consider this for ourselves today, things have changed a little bit.

Because of what Christ has done for us, well, we have access to God in a new way opened up for us by the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, we still gather together in physical structures, and that's good, that's an important part of our growth and our walk with God, and yet at the same time, we're not limited to coming here to this place to meet with God, and we have an opportunity to stay in the Lord's presence forever.

For our whole lives and for each and every day of our life. The author of Hebrews, in considering these things in Hebrews chapter 10, says, Now the holiest, that was the name of the room inside the tabernacle where the very presence of God dwelt above the Ark of the Covenant.

And nobody was allowed in there. The sons of Korah who wrote this song, they weren't allowed in there. The people who came to offer sacrifices and worship, they weren't allowed in there. Only the high priest could enter into that special room one time a year, and that was it. But something changed when Jesus died upon the cross and the temple veil was torn from top to bottom.

The author of Hebrews is saying we have boldness now to enter into the holiest. That is, we have access to the Father and the presence of God like never before because of the blood of Jesus, because of the forgiveness of our sins. He goes on in a couple verses, verse 22, to say, "'Let us draw near with a true heart "'in full assurance of faith, "'having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience "'and our bodies washed with pure water.'"

Our evil conscience, it's cleansed. We're forgiven. We're washed with water because of what Christ has done for us. And so we have access to the presence of God like never before because of what Jesus has done on our behalf. And that work has been accomplished. We don't have access to God because of our great victories. And we're not limited in access to God even when we have great failures.

We have access to God because of the work that Jesus has done. And so that part is taken care of. We do have a part to play though. And that's what the author of Hebrews is saying here in verse 22. He says, let us draw near with a true heart. Here's our responsibility. Not to earn the way in, not to deserve the presence of God, but to

but simply to respond to what the Lord has done, to take advantage of the way that he has opened up for us and to draw near, to get to know God, to spend time with the Father.

to spend time in prayer, to spend time in the word, to gather together with his people, to look to the Lord and rely upon the Lord, to include God in every aspect of our life and every part of our day. We have the responsibility and the opportunity to draw near because we can enter in with boldness to the holiest. It's not limited to a physical location.

It's, well, it's you in your heart having opportunity to speak to God and commune with God. And so we get to stay in the Lord's presence. Now, as the psalmist is reflecting on the loveliness of the tabernacle, the beauty of, wow, the presence of God and meeting with God. In verse two, he goes on to say, my soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

And here he sets a good example for us. This is what the attitude of our heart needs to be considering the presence of God and the opportunity to draw near. He says, my heart or my soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord. This is describing a desperation. This is describing a serious longing for a great desire to

He says, my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. This is, there's an earnestness here. There's a ferventness that, man, I want to meet with God. I want to know God. I want to spend time with Him. And this needs to be the attitude and the condition of our hearts as well. And boy, where it's not, we need to present that to the Lord and invite Him to help us to take up this attitude that

that we would desire, that a day wouldn't go by without us spending time in his presence with him. To stay in the Lord's presence is how we keep up for ourselves blessings or happiness. It's the presence of the Lord that we need the most.

In verse 3, the psalmist is a little bit jealous. He says this, even the sparrow has found a home 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. Here the psalmist thinks about the sparrows and he's kind of a little bit jealous. Like, man, we have to take this pilgrimage. We have to take this journey and physically walk over hills and walk through valleys and, you know, make this effort to get to the tabernacle. But

The birds, they just fly. They have a straight shot. They can fly there. They even make their nest in the tabernacle. It's probably not how we would usually picture the tabernacle, right? And probably the priests weren't very excited about it. You know, birds...

nesting and making their home in the altar area, in the tabernacle area. They probably didn't like having to clean up the bird poop, you know, that would be around too. Again, it's not typically what we would picture with the tabernacle, right? But here the psalmist is thinking about those birds and he's thinking like, they're right there. They just go there, make a nest and

You know, they get to hang out in the courts of the Lord, in the presence of the Lord. Oh, I wish we could do that and always be there and not have to make this journey and be so distant. And it makes me wonder what the psalmists would think about our access to God. We need to value that access that we have.

and have the desire, that longing to be with God. Well, he goes on in verse four to say, blessed are those who dwell in your house. They will still be praising you, Selah. Blessed are those who dwell, who live in your house. Stay in the presence of God. You wanna experience the blessings of God? You wanna heap up happiness? Dwell in the house of the Lord. And that's not tied to a physical location.

That's tied to your heart, trusting in Jesus and by faith in what Christ has done, spending time with your father. Again, in the word, in prayer, in fellowship with one another and relying upon him and looking to him and worshiping him. You want to be happy? You want to be blessed? You want to have a heap of happiness in your life? Abundant joy? Here's a key. Here's the first step.

dwell in the presence of God. Invite God into all that you do and every aspect of your life. Well, the psalmist ends this verse with the word selah. And selah is an interesting word. We find it all throughout the Psalms. And there's some discussion that scholars have about what exactly the word means. And the general idea of it is a pause or a break. Some kind of take it more of a break for the singers.

So that this is like, okay, here's a musical interlude, right? Here's like, here's, you know, the guitar solo or the drum solo or whatever, right? So here's a part for the singers to break and there's just some instrumental portion here and some kind of take it that way. Some take it as a more of a, hey, stop and reflect upon. These words are important and good truth here that you need to stop and consider. And so they kind of focus on that. Some take it more as instruction to the, the,

people playing the instruments that, okay, here we change tempo, here we change tune, you know, here we're changing into the next phase of the song, perhaps a chorus or a bridge or, you know, whatever they would have called it. And so there's a little bit of discussion about what exactly it means, but it essentially means to pause and reflect, to take a break for a moment and consider what has just been sung or written or shared. I like the way that Charles Spurgeon puts it,

He says, And so there's an occasion here for us to pause and reflect and to lift up our hearts and sing to the Lord. And so I'm going to invite the girls to come back up and lead us in a song. And let's just do this right now. Take a moment and sing.

And enjoy the presence of God. Let's take a few moments to praise God and to invite God to be part of all that we do and dwell in his presence as we reflect upon the heap of happiness that's promised to those who stay in the Lord's presence. And so let's worship the Lord together.

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty, for my soul longs and even prays for you. For here my heart is satisfied within your presence.

i sing beanie the show of your wings better is one day and better is one day in your courts better is one day in your house better is one day in your courts thousand elsewhere better is one day better is one day in your courts better is one day in your house better is one day in your courts thousand elsewhere

One thing I ask and I would see to see your beauty to find you in the place your glory dwells. One thing I ask One thing I ask and I would see

To see your beauty, to find you in the place your glory dwells. Better is one day in your courts, better is one day in your house, better is one day in your courts, thousands elsewhere, better is one day, better is one day in your courts, better

Better is one day in your house, better is one day in your courts, thousands elsewhere. My heart and flesh, my heart and flesh cry out for you, the living God, spirit's water to my soul. I've tasted and I've seen, come once again to me, I will draw near to you, I will draw near to you.

Better is one day, better is one day, better is one day, than thousands elsewhere. Better is one day, better is one day, better is one day, than thousands elsewhere. Thousands elsewhere.

Lord, thank you that we have the opportunity to be in your presence. And it is better than anything else. It is what we need the most. And so God, I pray that you would give us frequent encouragements and reminders to draw near to you and to spend time with you. You love us so much and you invite us in continually. May we long for and earnestly desire to respond to your call, your invitation, and to spend time with you.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, as we continue to work our way through this psalm, we go now to verses five through eight, the second division of this psalm, the second portion of it. And here we get point number two, and that is ask the Lord for strength.

If you want to heap up happiness, first of all, stay in the Lord's presence. Spend time with him frequently, as often as you can, and enjoy the presence of the Lord. Now, continuing on, if you want to heap up happiness and have that mound of blessings for you, well, here's the second key, the second step. Ask the Lord for strength. It comes from verse five, where the psalmist says, "'Blessed is the man.'"

whose strength is in you, whose heart is set on pilgrimage. Blessed is the one, blessed is the man, blessed is the woman who finds their strength in the Lord. It's a good opportunity for us to begin to question and consider, where do I find my strength from? Where do I get the strength that I need for, well, for life and for the situations that I face? And here the psalmist ties this idea of strength together

Well, to also the concept of having our heart set on pilgrimage. Now again, this was a pilgrim song. This was a song that they would sing on the journey to the tabernacle.

And so they would sing this song to encourage themselves and to help, you know, kind of pass the time and make it through the hot days or the cold nights and to work their way towards the tabernacle in this way. Spiritually, we are also on a journey to meet with God in eternity. And so there's this idea, this understanding that we need to have of our hearts being set on pilgrimage. Now, the heart of a pilgrim is this.

I'm on a journey. This isn't my home. I'm passing through here to, well, the permanent dwelling place, the permanent home that is to come. This is the heart that you and I need to have in order to keep up happiness, to have the strength that we need from the Lord. The Apostle Paul, referring to our physical bodies, he called them tents, meaning they're temporary. They're not meant to last. They do break down temporarily.

There is an eternal body that is in store for us, that God has promised to us in his presence and in eternity. And we're on a pilgrimage. This isn't it. What we can see and touch and taste right now, the physical body that we have, the physical things that we interact with, the physical things that we accumulate in our garages or wherever, that's not the treasure that will last for all eternity, right?

But so many times it is what our hearts are captivated by. What we can see around us, the things that are there, the physical things, the temporary things. So many times our hearts are consumed and we're chasing after, we're pursuing the things that are here, the things that are temporary. But the psalmist says, "'Blessed is the man whose strength is in you, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.'"

There's a strength that comes from having your heart not set on the things that are temporary, but having your heart set on the things that are eternal. Happy are those, blessed are those who are willing to set their eyes on things above.

Even if it interferes with my plans, my goals, my desires. Boy, I would love to have this or that. And there's these career objectives I could have. I could, you know, make my home incredibly beautiful or get some great property or have some awesome experience. But we can look at those things and, well, when they're temporary, when they're just related to this life, it's not that they have no value, but compared to eternity, they have very little value.

That we need to set our hearts on the pilgrimage and come to terms with the fact that we are, we're just passing through. This life isn't heaven. Heaven is heaven and it's waiting for us in eternity. Well, those who have their heart set on pilgrimage, they have the strength that they need, the psalmist says, for the difficult days. Look at verse 6.

Now there's some pictures being painted here. The valley speaks of a time of, well, dryness, a difficult season.

We don't know exactly which valley the psalmist is referring to because, well, in regards to the tabernacle, it was located at different places at different times. So there was a valley that they would pass through on the way to the tabernacle. There was valleys that they would pass through on the way to the temple. And any one of them could have been given this nickname, the Valley of Baca.

But you can just kind of picture going on a hike, right? And there's this journey that you take regularly and there's this one spot that you go through and it's just a long stretch of, you know, very little water, much dryness, much barrenness in that sense. It's a dry season, a dry spell, a dry portion of the journey. But the psalmist says as they pass through the Valley of Baca, for those who have their hearts set on pilgrimage,

Their eyes are fixed on the objective to meet with God. They're passing through. And so as they go through the valley, well, they make it a spring. Even though it's dry there,

Well, they're prepared for it and they're able to make that valley a spring and the rain also covers it. It's kind of the picture of like digging down and kind of like digging a well, but finding a spring and now water flows forth where it once was dry and barren and empty. Now there's this place of refreshing in the midst of this parched valley. It paints a really powerful picture for us as we are on this pilgrimage journey.

As we are on our journey to eternity, we go through valleys of baka. The word baka literally means weeping or lamentation. You and I, we go through valleys of weeping and lamentation, don't we? We go through seasons of great difficulty and hardship and sorrow. We have these kinds of experiences in our journey.

Now, we're talking about the idea of being blessed, right? Keeping up happiness. But again, that doesn't mean that we never have difficulties, that we never have hardships. Having a right heart before God does not keep us from heartache, but it does keep us through heartache. And there's a big difference. It doesn't keep us from it. It doesn't mean that we have no difficulties or hardships or pains, but it does keep us through so that whatever we might experience...

As we are setting our eyes on the prize of the upward call of Jesus Christ, as we set our eyes on eternity, set our hearts on pilgrimage, the Lord provides for us a strength so that no matter what we go through, we have the strength that we need from him to make it through that valley. But even more than that, it's not just surviving the trial, surviving the affliction, surviving the tribulation. It is also then turning around and allowing God

The strength that God provided to be a resource and a benefit to others who are going through the valley. And that's the picture here. Those who pass through the valley of Baca, the valley of weeping, it's hard, it's difficult, but your heart is set on pilgrimage and you find strength in the Lord so that you're able to turn around and make it a spring.

The Lord pours down rain and covers it. And so there's this opportunity to be refreshed in the midst of the valley, but also to be a resource to encourage and comfort and refresh others in similar experiences. The Apostle Paul described it this way in 2 Corinthians 1. He said,

Talking about the comfort of God, he says, God who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by God. God is the God of all comfort, Paul says. And this God who has all comfort, all strength, everything that we need, he comforts us in the midst of our tribulation as we go through the valleys of weeping and lamentation.

God is able to meet with us, to strengthen us within, to give us all that we need to endure that valley, that season of difficulty. But he goes on to explain, but he also does that not just for our benefit to help us get through that hard, difficult time, but that then he's enabling us, he's equipping us. In other words, he's giving you not just the strength that you need, just like the bare minimum. Here's, you know, that's all you get.

should be enough. Hopefully it'll work, right? It's not just that, the way that God comforts you and strengthens you. God gives you more strength and more comfort and abundance and overflow so that you then have an opportunity to comfort others and strengthen others who go through that valley, who go through those times of weeping and lamentation.

And there's an opportunity here. And I want to encourage you to be thinking about it in those terms. When we're in the midst of the valley, of course, it's hard to see anybody else because we feel the pain. We feel the affliction so severely. And there's chaos happening in our minds, right? But as you seek out the Lord and find strength in him and set your heart on pilgrimage, God will meet your need. And I would encourage you that many times it's after you've passed through the valley, I would say.

that there is opportunity for you to go back and help others who are in the midst of that situation. Not necessarily while you're in the midst of the crisis, but after you've kind of recovered a bit from the crisis and kind of sorted things out in your mind. You know, sometimes it takes time to process all the things that occurred and the way that God worked in your life and ministered to you. And sometimes as we

Well, we leave that valley, that season of difficulty or hardship. It can kind of be easy for us to just, okay, put that behind us and now we just move forward. And perhaps it's because, well, that was a hard valley. I don't want to think about that. Or perhaps it's because, well, there's other things that I'm dealing with and we kind of just, you know, set those things in the past. But I would encourage you to maybe go back and reflect on some of the valleys that you've experienced.

And do so in a way that you would look to the Lord and say, God, you gave me strength for that valley. You brought me through. You carried me through. You helped me. Can I be used by you now to comfort someone else in a similar experience?

And it's important and appropriate for us to kind of go back and give God that opportunity to use what he gave to us in the midst of those valleys to be a blessing and an encouragement and a benefit to others who are in the midst of that valley and need that strength. When our hearts are set on pilgrimage, God meets our need and then some so that we can also be part of his plan in meeting the needs of others.

Well, the psalmist goes on in verse 7 to say they go from strength to strength and each one appears before God in Zion. When your strength is in the Lord, here's what happens. You go from strength to strength. It's another way of saying you increase in strength.

If your strength is in the Lord, you are going to be growing in strength, developing in strength. You're going to go from strength to strength. And notice the promise here in verse 7. Each one appears before God in Zion. Here's a great promise. It's a promise of arriving at the destination that you set out for.

Now, if you're picturing the physical journey of these pilgrims, right, they're on their way to the tabernacle and they're encountering, you know, some obstacles and some issues. They're going through dry valleys. They're facing hardships perhaps. And when their heart is set on pilgrimage and their strength is in the Lord, the psalmist says, each one will appear before God in Zion. Zion is another word for Jerusalem, where the tabernacle is set up, where the temple is set up in Jerusalem. And

You're going to arrive there. You're going to make it to meet with God when the Lord is your strength and your heart is set on pilgrimage. In a similar way, we can look to our spiritual journey and recognize as we look to the Lord for strength, as we set our hearts on what is to come, not looking at the temporary things, but fixing our eyes on the eternal things.

There's a great guarantee for us. Each one will appear before God in Zion. You will make it into eternity with the Father as you look to him for strength and as you set your heart on that encounter, that meeting with him. He says in verse 8, O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob, Selah. Here the psalmist says, Lord, would you hear my prayer?

And here's where we get the idea to ask the Lord for strength. When the Lord is your strength and your heart is set on pilgrimage, no matter what you encounter, no matter what you experience in this life, you will find the strength that you need and all that is necessary for you to make it to the end that God desires. You will make it through. You will meet with God. There will be a victory in that regard. And so we can ask God for strength. Lord, hear my prayer. I need your strength.

I need help setting my heart, fixing my heart on the things above, on the things of eternity, so that I can receive from you the strength that you provide and then provide strength for others around us. Remember what Jesus told Peter in Luke chapter 22? He knew Peter was going to abandon Jesus and betray him. And he says, Simon, Simon, the enemy, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat and

Jesus says, I'm praying for you. That's true of Peter. That's true of you. Jesus is praying for you. He's interceding on your behalf. And you may go through times of sifting, valleys of weeping, times of tribulation and affliction, but Jesus is praying for you so that your faith should not fail.

And when you've returned, when you've been restored, when you've survived and gone through and grown through that affliction, he says, strengthen your brethren. We have an opportunity to ask the Lord for strength, that we would receive what we need, but then also that then we would be equipped and empowered by the Lord to pass on what we've received from him to others around us. Now he ends this verse, verse eight, with the word selah again.

Stop and reflect and consider. And so we want to do that again. The worship team can come back up and let's take a few moments and worship the Lord with this in mind. Heaping up happiness begins by staying in the Lord's presence.

And then it continues by, well, looking to the Lord for strength. Ask the Lord for strength. And so let's cry out to the Lord. Let's pray to the Lord as we sing to the Lord and invite him to fill us with all that we need, the strength that we need for the things that we face that we might make it through well, but also be a benefit to others around us. Let's worship the Lord together with that.

When my heart is overwhelmed, I will look to you alone. God, my rock. God, my rock. God, my rock. You will stand when others fall. You are faithful through it all. God, my rock. God, my rock. God, my rock. In the blessing, in the pain. Through it all, you've never

You are the strength of my heart. You are the strength of my heart. And I can rely on you. I can rely on you. When I've struggled to believe, you have not let go of me. God my rock, God my rock, God my rock.

Carried through the darkest storms, you have held me in your arms. God, my rock, God, my rock, God, my rock. In the blessing, in the pain, through it all you've never been.

♪ You are the strength of my heart ♪ ♪ You are the strength of my heart ♪ ♪ And I can rely on you ♪ ♪ I can rely on you ♪ ♪ And you are the joy of my life ♪ ♪ And you are my song in the night ♪ ♪ There is no one as true ♪

Jesus, I trust in you. Sing out, Jesus, we trust in you. Jesus, we trust in you. Jesus, we trust in you. Jesus, we trust in you. Jesus, we trust in you. God, sing out, Savior. Savior, we trust in you.

Savior, we trust in you. Oh, Savior, we trust in you. Savior, we trust in you. God, sing healer. Healer, we trust in you. And healer, we trust in you. Oh, healer, we trust in you. Healer, we trust in you, God.

Cause you are the strength of my heart. You are the strength of my heart. And I can rely on you. Yes, I can rely on you. And you are the joy of my life. And you are my song in the night. There is no one as true.

Jesus, I trust in you. Lord, thank you for your great promises. Lord, that we can trust in you. And Lord, you've guaranteed and you've promised to provide us the strength that we need. Help us, God, to rely upon you and not ourselves. Help us to run to you and invite you to meet our needs through all the seasons of life that we face.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, there's one final portion of this psalm, verses nine through 12, which we'll wrap up here in these verses and consider this point, that is trust in the Lord. It comes from verse 12, where the psalmist says, O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in you. And so we find if you want to be blessed,

If you want to heap up happiness and have that mound of happiness, that mound of blessings for you, well, first look to stay in the Lord's presence. Seek out opportunities to walk with him and know him and spend time with him.

Ask the Lord for strength. Set your heart on pilgrimage. We're just passing through this life. We're looking towards eternity. Lord, give me the strength to persevere and press through. Ask the Lord for strength and you will heap up happiness. And now we finish up considering this idea of trust.

Trusting in the Lord. And there's two aspects to this trust in the Lord. In verse nine, he says, oh God, behold our shield and look upon the face of your anointed. He gives us the picture of a shield here in verse nine and then also in verse 11. In verse 11, he says, for the Lord God is a sun and shield. And you can picture a shield and recognize, well, a shield protects you from harm. That's the purpose of a shield. That's what it does, right?

Well, for us as believers, what we can trust in, in regards to the Lord, is that he is our shield. He's the one who protects us from harmful things that are, well, brought against us and sought to bring destruction into our lives. In verse 9, he says again, O God, behold our shield and look upon the face of your anointed. Now, some commentators kind of wrestle with who exactly the

Psalmist is intending originally, perhaps, you know, their king, perhaps himself. But as we look at these things, I think it's easy for us to see this is speaking about Jesus, the face of your anointed, the anointed one, the Messiah, the Savior, Jesus Christ, that he is our shield.

He is our protector. He is the one who protected us from the penalty and punishment of sin by receiving that penalty on our behalf. And isn't that what a shield does, right? If you have a shield and I'm, you know, striking you, the shield receives that strike in your place. That's what Jesus did. We deserved judgment for our sin. We deserved that penalty and Jesus shielded us

by receiving the full payment, the full penalty that we deserved. He is the anointed one, the Messiah, the Savior. In verse 10, he says, a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. A day in the courts of God, a day in the presence of God is better than a thousand anywhere else.

It's better than a thousand days in Hawaii. It's better than a thousand days at Disneyland. It's better than a thousand days, you know, being retired or a thousand days of whatever you could imagine. One day in the presence of God is better than a thousand anywhere else. You will never find as much fulfillment and joy and hope and peace than what you find when you are with the Lord.

The psalmist says, I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. And he's drawing a contrast here. This idea of a doorkeeper, you might immediately kind of jump to like the position or occupation, like a watchman, right? Someone who stands at the gate. But that's not what the psalmist is talking about. He's talking about if you were just limited to the doorway, you couldn't go past the entryway, you couldn't go past the doorframe. That's as close to the tabernacle as you could get. He says, I'd rather do that

than have a whole luxurious tent in the midst of wickedness. I'd rather be open and exposed to the elements, you know, there, just all I get is the doorway. That's as close as I can get. But that's better than being in a comfortable place, being in a covered place in the midst of wickedness. You can see the desire here, the longing to be with God and in the presence of the Lord. He goes on in verse 17.

11 to say the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. And here you can see two parts to our trusting in the Lord. You have the shield. The Lord is our sun and shield. But then you also have our provision. He gives grace and glory. And he goes on to say that no good thing will God withhold from those who walk uprightly. And so you have this

Two parts of trusting God. You trust God to protect you. He's your shield. So that whatever is harmful, whatever is not good for you, God will protect you from. And whatever is good for you, well, no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Now, that's not those who walk perfectly, but those who walk

As we've been discussing, come to him by faith in Jesus Christ. He finished the work for us. He forgives us and we stand before God as righteous because of him. And so we can trust in the Lord for protection. He will protect you. We kind of wrestle with that perhaps in our mind and say, well, why do I go through valleys of Baca? And why do I have times of weeping and pain and difficulty? A shield doesn't take you out of the battle. A shield protects you through the battle.

That's what the Lord does. There is a battle. This life, there is tough seasons. There is hurts and pains and things that we go through, but the Lord will protect you through it. He will see you through the end. He will see you through the midst of the battle so that what the enemy means for evil, he will protect you from it. What the enemy means for evil that you end up still experiencing, he will rework the purposes.

of that event, of that situation, and to bring about good from it. He will give grace and glory. And everything good, everything good for you, listen, you can trust God to give you. You know, sometimes we pray and we want something. We're asking God for something specific. And we wonder, why isn't God giving this to me? It would be so good. And perhaps our perspective is limited and skewed. And we don't understand. It's not really good for us. And that's why

God's not doing that the way that we're asking him to. We experience tough times and difficulties, but those are good for us. James tells us to count it pure joy when you face various trials and afflictions, right? Because God is doing good for us, even in the midst of what we would call hard or hurtful or painful. God has the eternal perspective, and we don't always have the eternal perspective, but here's what we can do. We can trust in the Lord.

The grace of God, we went through this through the book of Galatians and it just astounds me and amazes me every time I go back to it and reflect on it in my mind. The grace of God means this, no matter where I'm at, no matter what I'm going through, no matter what I've done, how successful or how much of a failure I've been, God is working what's best for me from my current position.

When I run from him, when I mess up, when I fall short, whether I'm spending time in the word daily or neglecting my spiritual walk, the grace of God is such that from wherever I'm at, God is from there working towards what is best for me for all eternity. He is my shield and he is providing for me what is good. He always has my best interest. He always has your best interest in mind and in his heart.

And so, oh, Lord of hosts, he says in verse 12, blessed is the man who trusts in you. You want to be blessed? Trust the Lord. Really learn to trust him. He will protect you. He does protect you from anything that's not good. And anything that is good for you, he actively is working to provide that for you because he loves you and he wants what's best for you.

The commentator Albert Barnes says, If you want to heap up happiness, it begins today.

With the Lord's presence, draw near to him, call out to him, spend time with him. It continues through the midst of peaks and valleys by asking the Lord for strength and allowing him to provide what you need in the midst of all the situations that you face. And the Lord will provide as you set your heart on pilgrimage and you look towards eternity. God will provide you the strength that you need.

If you want to heap up happiness, trust the Lord. Rest in the reality that it's easy for us to worry, but Jesus taught us not to worry, right? In Matthew chapter six, he says, seek first the kingdom of God and then all these other things, all the things that you're worried about and stressed about, you feel like are being withheld from you. I'll provide those things. I'll take care of those things. Trust in the Lord. You put me first. Rely upon me. I will protect you.

from what is not good. And I will provide for you what is good. Trust in the Lord. Those who dwell with God are blessed, happy, joyful. They praise the Lord. They find strength in the Lord. They have their hearts set on the things of eternity. And they use their life to be a blessing to others because they've heaped up these blessings in the presence of the Lord, receiving from the Lord.

and trusting in the Lord. So we want to finish out our time together with one last song, and the girls are going to lead us in this song. And let's worship the Lord together and begin to heap up that happiness, those blessings in the presence of the Lord, asking him for strength and putting ourselves in a place where we trust God, where we really give ourselves over to him completely and say, Lord, you protect me from all that is harmful to me.

And Lord, would you provide all that is good and then let him do it. Don't take it back in your own hands and say, okay, well, never mind. I'll take care of it myself. No, no, trust in the Lord. He's got you. He loves you and he wants what's best for you. Let's worship the Lord together. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.