“And look, O God, upon our Shield
The face of Your Anointed view;
One day within Your courts will yield
More good than thousands without You.
I’d rather stand near my God’s house
Than dwell in tents of wickedness.” ~ Psalm 84:9-10
You find your happy safe place through honesty
Have you ever made a stop along the way on a journey and knew, “This is not a happy safe place.”? You then proceeded to ignore what you knew, stopped anyway, and afterward regretted it with tears of deep sorrow? Where, after that, can you find your lasting happy place, your safe place to rest?
Jesus came from his happy safe place where he is leading his people through their lapses in good judgment to join him one day. He purposely came from a position of perfect strength to live for a while among us. God came as a man only to have his manhood questioned as he was despised and mocked when he wouldn’t come down off the cross to save himself.
Jesus came to save you from the lies that convince you that you are what you look like, what you accomplish, what you possess, what talents you have, what others say you are or what they do to you, whether they accept or reject you, or even what you think and feel about yourself. As long as you think those lies are true, you will never be at home no matter where you go.
Is there anything you have that you didn’t receive? Who you are comes from the one who gave you all things, the originator of your very life. Everything that was made (that includes you!) was made by Jesus. When you return thanks to and worship your Creator, your King, you are seeing him face-to-face as he is, Lord of all. Only when you honestly, humbly accept who you are and what you have as gifts given to you by God, will you be truly at home in your happy safe place.
You come to prefer God’s ways to any sinful pleasures the world can offer you. These pleasures might taste sweet at first but over time sicken the stomach. They’re the shiny apple you bite into only to find a stealthily placed razor blade that bites you back. They’re the drugs that require more and more of them to yield the same amount of pleasure that they gave at first until no amount is enough to bring back that pleasure. They’re deceptive in that they not only don't deliver what they promise but cause great harm in the aftermath of placing your trust in them. They don’t stand the test of time.
You find your happy safe place through allegiance
With the Lord, it is just the opposite. He not only fulfills all of his promises, but they only get sweeter as time goes on. They are the pain of training and practice that lead to expertise. They are the soul searching admissions of humbling yourself before God and the willingness to make amends and reparations toward those you have wronged that can lead to reconciliation. They are honest and true. As the sparrow and swallow find kind care, safety, and rest in the Lord’s house, so his people like songbirds sing and fly under the protection of his wings. He is the Lord of angelic armies who shields you and fights for you. He is your God. He is your King. He is your home. You place all your eggs in his nest because he alone is worthy of all your trust and is himself your happy safe place.
“The sparrow has her place of rest;
The swallow through Your kindly care
Has found where she may build her nest
And brood her young in safety there.
Your altars as my rest I sing,
O LORD of hosts, my God, my King.” ~ Psalm 84:3
We have set our sights too low. When we have the opportunity to engage in something that we know feels good, and perhaps even is good, we say it’s too good to be true. Yet God's gifts are so good precisely because they are true. Better yet, they are not just temporary or momentary like the suffering you are called to endure. They are eternal.
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal…For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ...” ~ 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, 10:5
Although hiding from God isn’t possible, Adam, Eve, Cain, and Jonah tried nonetheless. They desired to depart from his presence because pleasing themselves took priority over pleasing God. When Peter recognized himself as a sinner, he saw the disparity between himself and Jesus and asked that Jesus depart from him because he thought Jesus was too good for him. Later, when the Lord would not continue with Peter unless he allowed him to serve him and wash his feet, Peter relented and humbled himself. He’d do whatever it took to loyally remain in the Lord’s presence. Although Jesus is too good for me, because he is mercy and love wrapped in grace and truth, he is not too good to be true.
God has no problem redirecting the fickle nature of his people who regress from weakness to weakness at just the right time not only to change our behavior but also our very thoughts to win our hearts in undivided loyalty. Singing Psalm 84 gives us the boldness we need to approach the throne of grace with confidence.
“O how I long, yes, faint to see
The LORD’s own courts, His dwelling place!
My heart and flesh with joy draw nigh;
As to the living God I cry.” ~ Psalm 84:2
You find your happy safe place through remembering where you came from
What does it look like to desire to be in the presence of the Lord more than anything else?
When you want to regain your affection for Christ and the sense of his strength with you always upholding you in your weakness, singing Psalm 84 can bring you there. Imagine longing to be in his house as you recall Jesus, before going back to the Father, promise that the Holy Spirit will indwell you and make you into a home where he and the Father can live. You can be a happy safe place for God forever once you come to Jesus as your home.
“I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.” ~ Jeremiah 32:40
Is it possible to feel uncomfortable in your own skin, out of sorts with who God made you to be, or displaced where God has you when you are confident that he is living together with you and you are living together with him? I don’t think so.
Those feelings happen when you forget where you are in relation to where he is. He hears your cry as you alternatingly seek him and stray from him. He seeks you out, exposes the lies of imposters who masquerade as having the truth, and turns your tears of distress into springs that shower and cover you with blessings. Jesus is your full body shield whose face the Father sees as you are clothed with Christ. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because God views the face of your King, the Lord Jesus, who took the wrath of God away when he paid the price for the sins of his people.
The Lord knows just how and when to awaken you from the stupor of disillusionment that you suffer from thinking you were heard by those who seem to commiserate with what you have suffered. You expected and imagined that you would be esteemed in their eyes, only to find that when you revealed your deepest concerns, they fell on deaf ears. Like a bucket of ice water poured over your head while sleeping, you are left with the cold reality that those who pledged to always care for you never did.
You were merely being used to propagate their agenda. You learn this after you dared to express a conflicted thought that falls out of line with that agenda. When they realize that you are no longer an easy target for their unreasonable philosophies to dictate the course of your life and refuse to be a puppet, you are no longer of any use to them and are consequently dropped without hesitation. Your belonging was contingent upon your playing the part they scripted for you, never in being who you are, in who God made you to be. This, that would bless you, they deny.
Disagreeing with them results in being cut off. They will not initiate again. They won’t pursue you, look back at you, or give you a second thought. As long as you were a cog in their wheel, it seemed all was well. But now that you have become an impediment, you are extricated so they can roll on their merry way unobstructed, much more likened to cloned drones than pilgrims. After their personalities flip, you remember that you did not come from them and that you don’t belong to them. This rude awakening to rejection is part of your journey by sovereign design so that you would remember where you came from and desire to flee from the world’s group think to where you truly belong. God made a covenant that he doesn’t and can’t forget. He never stops pursuing his own.
“Blessed they who in Your house abide;
To You they ever render praise.
Blessed they who in Your strength confide,
And in his heart are pilgrims' ways.
They make the vale of tears of spring,
With showers of blessings covering.” ~ Psalm 84:4-6
What does your home look like with the gracious Lord dwelling in it with you? It looks like you! Unadulterated you. You, minus the trappings of what the world throws at you. You, no longer confiding in those who use you for evil. You, unapologetically standing as one made in the image of God who loves you for good. You, who have found a safe place to rest, your happy place at last. Now secure, you want nothing more than to share this happy safe place with anyone who will listen.
“How lovely, LORD of hosts, to me
The tabernacles of your grace!” ~ Psalm 84:1
Worshiping the Lord on his day in his house with his people is the time and place for excited rest and restful excitement. You gather and grow together as his bride, being made beautiful, securely awaiting her bridegroom, anticipating the wedding feast. Together, his people complete the bride in whom Jesus, the bridegroom, rejoices!
“Advancing still from strength to strength
They go where other pilgrims trod,
Till each to Zion comes at length
And stands before the face of God.
LORD God, of hosts, my pleading hear;
O Jacob’s God, to me give ear.” ~ Psalm 84:7-8
With time, it becomes more and more real who God is, who we are, and where we are with him. The waiting transcends beyond time and space. The waiting helps you reflect and remember the only one that you can always count on. The Lord will give you the energy and ability to do whatever it is that he wants you to do at the precise time he wants you to do it. Jesus will lead you to the places where he wants you to go “till each to Zion comes at length to stand before the face of God.”
The Lord will be for you your enjoyment, your trust, your happy safe place to rest in the midst of it all. Identifying as his alone, you will advance from strength to strength, from grace to grace, from mercy to mercy, from hope to hope which will land you in everlasting love beyond anything you can imagine. Jesus won’t disappoint—he has given ear to your pleas—maturing every good intention seed that he advances to fruition—reversing every evil through which he brings about better things than the good that would have been done had you thought better of it. In your seeking and in your wandering, you remember that God made a way for you to no longer boast in what you can do in your own strength. You find your happy safe place confiding in his strength. You trust the strength of his heart and his love to lead you to himself who is your home.
“For God, the LORD is shield and sun;
The LORD will grace and glory give.
No good will He withhold from one
Who does uprightly walk and live.
O LORD of hosts, that one is blessed,
Who makes his trust upon You rest.” ~ Psalm 84:11-12
July 26 - August 2, 2024
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