The Pleasure We Have With God

Saturday morning Pastor Bob Alderman taught on the first four verses of Psalm 84 at the Men’s Prayer Advance.  Here are some notes on his teaching (Italics mine).

Introductory Story: There was a couple who moved to a new town and they started searching for a church to join. They visited many churches. Then they returned to the church of their choice. When they joined one of the church leaders asked them , “Of all the churches in town, why did you choose this one?” The answer was, “This church serves the best coffee.”

The theme of this message is that pastors and churches need to focus on their own relationship with God, and not on material things (like coffee) or outward appearance.

Psalm 84 is broken into three parts. (The word ‘Selah’ is how the Holy Spirit marks the division points.)

1. The Pleasure we have with God (vv. 1-4)
2. The Pilgrimage we take with God (vv. 5-8)
3. The Provision we receive from God (vv. 9-12)

Verse 1:  “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts!”. The word ‘tabernacle’ is our focus today. In the Old Testament God had physical tents or building built for His worship. Today believers have a tabernacle with God within them. We can meet with God wherever we go, all day long. “The tabernacle of God is with men.” (Revelation 21:3)

‘Tabernacle’ represents our meeting with God.

• Do we enjoy meeting with God?
• Do we pursue meetings with God?
• Do we anticipate with excitement our next meeting with God?
• Is meeting with God our greatest, purest desire?

Is our church a church that desires meeting with God?  If not, we ought to rebuke our own profane, cheap, temporal ways of drawing people to church.

Pragmatism is a philosophy of pursuing ‘what works.’ But we ought to ask what is it that we want to work? Do we want to put forth a good image of the church?  Are we more concerned of outward appearance than we are of the indwelling Holy Spirit?

Contrast the beauty of God’s dwelling place vs. the modern church building’s beauty. Would we still desire God passionately if we had no church building? No heat? No air conditioning?

Verse 2 – The Satisfaction of His Lordship:  “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.”

In this verse we see the author’s entire being (soul, heart, and flesh) crying out to God. (The heart can be considered as another name for the ‘spirit’.) Side note on ‘flesh’:  The thorn in Paul’s flesh was his flesh, not an eye problem or a heart problem. He was talking about indwelling sin. One of the goals of our Christian school is to ‘brainwash’ the children. As sinners, each of us needs to have our brains washed of worldly desires and of the lust of the flesh.

Verse 3 – The Security of the Altar:  “Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.” The Altar is where the sacrifice is; where the fire is. The Altar represents the cross. Do we love the cross? Do we visit the cross often? Do we flee to the cross for safety?

Verse 4 – The Consistency of His Worship: “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee.” If we truly love God, we will be consistent in our tabernacling with God.

• Be in love with God
• Continually praise God
• What would you be willing to give up God for? If you have an answer to that question, you need to confess it and repent of it.