Homesick

God with you - A Series from the Psalms

Psalm 84

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2084&version=NIV;ESV

 

Have you ever felt homesick? Feeling homesick is not so much that you miss the home, as you miss the people in the home.

 

After retiring, my parents lived in Florida for a number of years. Following my Dad’s death, I went to help my Mom move. As we left the house for the final time, I placed a single rose on the mantle in memory of my Dad. I never lived there, but it was where he last lived; and it was home.

 

The Temple had that same kind of effect on the writer of this psalm. According to my NIV study notes, the writer was a Levite priest who had been active in the temple services. However, at the time of the writing, it is speculated that he was barred from the temple because Sennacherib, king of Assyria, had invaded Judah.

 

You could say that the author was homesick for the Temple. But, a more accurate description would be to say that he missed the Lord Almighty; the sovereign God.

 

² My soul yearns, even faints,
    for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
    for the living God.           NIV

 

His heart ached because he remembered how joyful he felt when singing God’s praises in the Temple; how people would be strengthened by traveling to Jerusalem to be in God’s presence. He wanted to be in the Temple more than anything else, because his Lord was there.

 

¹⁰ Better is one day in your courts
    than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
    than dwell in the tents of the wicked. NIV

 

The psalmist was homesick because he believed God lived in the Temple. But it’s different for you and I. You don’t have to make a trip to Jerusalem to be in His presence, because Jesus is with you always; and not just with you, but within you.

 

Sometimes you may still feel homesick for the Lord Almighty, but that doesn’t change the truth of the fact that He is with you. You just need to pray and trust in Him.

 

The song by Matt Redman titled, “Better is One Day” communicates in song what I’m saying in words. Click on the link below and see if God doesn’t touch your heart.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Fj9bbEmVk