The courts of our God!

My all time favorite psalm is Psalm 84.  It paints such a gorgeous picture of a loving all-powerful King who adores His children and who helps them along their journey only to welcome them into His home and adopt them into His family. 

The psalmist starts off by talking about how he yearns, even pines, and is homesick for the courts of the Lord.

How lovely are Your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!

 My soul yearns, yes, even pines and is homesick for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out and sing for joy to the living God.

It made me wonder how many of us actually are homesick for heaven.  I meet so many believers who are so caught up in this life, they rarely give it much thought.  For me, heaven is becoming all the more real with each year that passes. Maybe it's because I'm getting older. Maybe it's because I've lived long enough to know that NOTHING in this world satisfies, that only the love of God makes me feel alive and gives me purpose. Honestly, I'm just excited to see my Father. I never had an earthly father, so I plan on crawling up in God's lap and getting a big hug!  

Yet heaven is much more than that. It is a magnificent city with tons of gorgeous houses and parks and lakes and gardens. And in the center is a court, a throne room where God rules. It is pageantry and majesty and ceremony!  Just think of all the great movies and fairytales you've seen with Kings and princes and princesses and all the pomp and glitter of the court. Heaven's court will be beyond anything we can even imagine! 

 The Psalmist continues talking about how though we have trouble on our way to Heaven, God will bless our trouble and turn it into blessing

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

 Passing through the Valley of Weeping , they make it a place of springs; the early rain also fills the pools with blessings.

 They go from strength to strength, increasing in victorious power, each of them appears before God in Zion.

 And then he states one of my favorite verses in the Bible.

For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else; I would rather be a doorkeeper and stand at the threshold in the house of my God than to dwell at ease  in the tents of wickedness.

For the Lord God is a Sun and Shield; the Lord bestows grace and favor and future glory honor, splendor, and heavenly bliss! No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly

So, don't dismay. As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 8

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Be comforted with these thoughts!

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