Psalm 84

What’s Happening?

The psalmist wants to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem’s temple, but heartbreakingly is unable to. To him, the temple is his lovely bride and he wishes he didn’t need to spend another moment away from its courts and God’s presence (Psalm 84:1-2). He’s jealous of all the sparrows who flit in and out of the temple’s courtyard. They can build their nests right by the altar where priests offer sacrifices and secure God’s forgiveness. He wishes he could be like them and experience the blessings of being that close to God once again (Psalm 84:3-4). 

The psalmist also wishes he could join others currently making pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He’s made that journey before and knows that even as they travel, God’s presence meets pilgrims on the road. The farther they are from home the more God gives them strength, making dry and dangerous roads as easy to walk as lush and well-watered garden paths (Psalm 84:6-7). But unable to join his countrymen and see God’s home for himself, he begs God to protect the king—the ruler God appointed to protect the temple until other pilgrims like him can make the journey (Psalm 84:8-9).

After a long time separated from the temple, the psalmist knows that the few days he has spent in God’s presence are better than the thousands he’s endured outside of it (Psalm 84:10). In fact, being near God for even a moment is better than a thousand of anything! If he could, he would settle for just standing near God’s temple like a servant because God is like the sun. Anyone who stands close is warmed, blessed, and given life (Psalm 84:11). But the psalmist also knows that anyone who longs to be with God will be blessed by him despite the distance. 

Where is the Gospel?

Like the psalmist, many of us feel far from God and wonder if we will ever experience his forgiveness and blessing again. Thankfully, God answered the psalmist’s longing, not by allowing him and other pilgrims to finally travel to the temple, but by sending Jesus. He is God’s final temple to them. In Jesus, the psalmist’s deep longings for God’s presence, strength, and forgiveness are met—not by a pilgrim’s jealousy for and journey towards the temple but by God’s jealousy for and journey towards his people (John 6:38).  

Jesus told us that he was his people’s ultimate temple (John 2:19-21). It’s not because he would become a building, but because, in his own body, he would secure forever what the temple and its sacrifices had always intended to provide. Namely, access to God's presence through God's forgiveness of his people. We come to God’s presence not by traveling to Jerusalem, but simply by asking God’s temple—the Spirit of Jesus—to come to us.

The psalmist also asked God to protect the king so that he could protect the temple until he arrived there. And Jesus is the King who protects God’s temple for the benefit of pilgrims like us (Hebrews 1:3-4). Jesus the King protects the temple by dying as our ultimate sacrifice. In his death on the cross he not only secures forgiveness and blessing unparalleled by the death of animals in the temple, but he also makes those blessings permanent and eternal (Hebrews 10:4). But King Jesus didn't let the temple of his body remain dead, he raised it never to die again. Jesus the King has been victorious over the ultimate enemy, and his temple will never be threatened again. That means God’s presence, his blessing, and his forgiveness will always be ready and waiting for those who want to receive it. 

See For Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the God who wants to be with and bless his people. And may you see Jesus as God’s King and temple who secures his presence and blessing forever.