Welcome back. This is lesson 10 of Psalms, Lift up your hearts. Let's begin our time in prayer. In the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Our Father, who art in heaven, how Lord be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us the stay our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, Amen. In the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, Amen. All right, now that we've had our prayer time, we're diving into lesson 10 here, looking at Psalms 82 to 89.
Just a handful of them, but they're really important Psalms, especially 88 and 89, will spend a lot of time in those two Psalms at the end of this lesson. We're going to be concluding the third book of the Psalter. So only two lessons for book three, also just to give you a heads up. We're only going to be doing two lessons on book four as well, lessons 11 and 12.
There's not a lot of Psalms in that book either. So including book three, remember as I introduced this to you last lesson, lesson nine, book three is not so happy. It's not happy at all. It's pretty downcast, pretty miserable, and honestly once you see 88 and 89, you'll see exactly why that's the case.
The crescendos on this, you can't really see a high point of melancholy, it's really a low point of melancholy, right? But it really does build up in crescendo where things are really, really dark. And that's all because this book three is focusing really on the fall and the destruction of the David King, his kingdom, Jerusalem Zion, the temple, everything is destroyed. As we saw last lesson in Psalm 74 and some other songs as well.
So we're finishing up book three here, and it's going to get pretty dark. But I promise this is the darkest of the Psalms, and we're going to be moving into much happier stuff in book four and especially book five. Things do improve a little bit. I would argue in a book four and Psalms 90 to 106.
We have that to look forward to, I promise. So that any further ado, let's start with Psalm 82. Pick up where we left off. We finished last lesson with 81.
So 82, it is a pretty short Psalm. It is a legal Psalm. Where God here is called to judge the wicked. The wicked in general, but specifically the wicked of Israel, the judges, the leaders of Israel who are corrupt and dishonest to saying do something with this.
And in fact, God is saying, oh, I'm going to do something about it. So we're sitting upon his throne and it's heavenly court judging the wicked, corrupt leaders of Israel. And this honestly flows with previous Psalms that we've seen before of God coming to judge the wicked of all the nations. But in this case, it's going to be specifically those leaders of Israel.
And there's a lot of confusion here because these leaders are called certain things that others would interpret as more heavenly beings, divine beings, angels, whatever might be, with some key quotations I provided for you from these commentaries, you'll see that they are actually just the human leaders given divine authority by God to judge his people and they're failing at it miserably. So this is very short, I only eight verses. So why don't I just read the entirety of the Psalm and then I'll come back here to the notes, I'll share with you some key quotations here and give us some perspective on this legal Psalm. God judging the wicked of Israel.
All right, Psalm 82 verse one says, God has taken his place in the divine council. In the midst of the angels, he holds judgment. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Give justice to the weak and to the fatherless, maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute, rescue the weak and the needy, deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
They have neither knowledge nor understanding. They walk about in darkness, all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I say you are gods, sons of the most high, all of you. Nevertheless, you shall die like men and fall like any prince.
Arise, oh God, judge the earth for to you belong all the nations. All right, we'll stop right there. Now what makes this song confusing, depending on who you're reading or listening to, we're talking to, the song is kind of confusing here because of these addresses. Well, first, like he's sitting in the midst of the angels holding judgment and he says to those whom he is judging, you are God, sons of the most high.
And so you got this sense of, man, maybe we are talking about angels. Maybe we're talking about some kind of divine beings. Maybe we're talking about the false gods of Canaan. So there's a lot of questions about this.
Now let's just begin with the beginning verse verse one here, where he's sitting in this divine council in the midst of his angels. Now it makes a lot of sense. And when God is in heaven, all the angels are surrounding him in this heavenly core. And that's a totally realistic, reasonable depiction here of God.
But the word for angels is actually Elohim. In fact, on that point, let me just read this quotation I have for you from a major Catholic study by which says the Hebrew word for angels, Elohim is God's. Now this word, I'm kind of reading this very loosely, this quotation here, sometimes angels are meant by the word Elohim. And so the revised standard version, Catholic second edition, which is what I'm reading for.
I'm teaching from it's a very common translation. It offers up another positive. So the revised standard version, Catholic edition offers a possible translation of angels. So this translation says, Elohim must be angels.
But here, the quote says, the term is a title of honor for Israel's judges who are addressed as gods down below. So that is the essence of the quote here kind of read that really loosely to explain something. So yeah, Elohim can't, usually as gods, Elohim is the plural of God, the generic word for God. It could be used for divine beings, could be used for angels.
And like I said, it makes a lot of sense of God as in his divine council, but the larger context is possibly that Israel's judges who are being confronted by God. Right. So what is the confrontation? Well, God is saying like, you're all corrupt, you're all wicked, right?
You're showing partiality to the wicked. You are giving no justice whatsoever to the weak and the fatherless. You are not helping those that are afflicted and destitute, the weak, they need the vulnerable, etc. So your sin, oh, judges, is that you're actually not taking care of anybody at all.
And so they are called in this next verse, and that makes a lot of sense. Right. So they are this, their sins are described here in verses two all the way to four. And that's why they're said to lack understanding, they have no knowledge, they're walking about in darkness, etc.
Then the scripture calls them two things. You are gods. This is verse six. You are gods, sons of the most high.
All right. Now what I'm breaking this up in your notes here to look at one out of time. All right. So you are gods.
Now again, very confusing. You are Elohim. Does this mean he's talking to the false gods of Canaan or angels, angels have fallen, perhaps? No, that you are gods is actually referring to leaders of Israel.
So here's another quote. I'm going to actually provide two quotes for you both from the Catholic side of Bible as well as from the know of our Bible. And so the first quote for you is from the know of our Bible, which says that the text itself seems to refer when it says you are gods, the text refers to the leaders of Israel, kings or judges who abused their power to the detriment of the poor, which we just read in verses four to four, even though it's that over office to God, in that sense, they are called gods or sons of the most time and their behavior undermines the order will by God and God issues his judgment against these so-called gods. One more quote here from the Catholic Bible that says pretty much the same thing.
The title gods appears to have been born by persons who judged Israel since they wielded divine authority by applying the standards of God's law to specific circumstances. And all right, so God is addressing these leaders of Israel who are given authority, God's own authority is given to them in order to rule over the people. So in that sense, they can be understood as lower case g gods because really honestly, as Paul will say in the New Testament, all authority comes from God. So if all authority comes from God and God gives authority to people in order to issue justice and righteousness and to govern the people well according to wisdom, right, and they don't do that.
Well, that's a big problem because God's authority has been given to them. So they're not called gods because they are actually divinities. They are called gods in a nuisance because they are given God's authority, right? And I hope that makes a lot of sense to me.
It seems very, very clear as a matter of fact. So he's judging these individuals whom he gave his authority and then they're just messing up big time. And so by extension, if they are gods, sons of the most high, they're gods because they are gods sons of God. Now the expression of sons of God is very widespread.
The interpretation can be a lot of different things. It can be used for Israel in Exodus 422. Israel is called the Son of God and Israel likes themselves in Deuteronomy 14, 1. Yes, angels are called sons of God in Psalm 89, which we'll see another time.
Also in Job chapter 1 and 2, the divisited kings are called sons of God and so on and so forth. And then of course, in the New Testament to be a son of God is to be Christian, right? So this expression, sons of the most high, is very broadly understood. You have to look at the context.
And the context here is that these leaders, so God is sitting in his divine counsel in the midst of all of these leaders, right? In the midst of all of these rulers, kings governing authorities, whoever they are, God had given them his own authority. And so therefore they are called in a derivative sense, an indirect sense, sons of God, and they are children of God, right? They're gods themselves, not because of their own essence, but simply because of what God has given them.
And they are messing it up. Okay, it's that it's really that simple. We don't really need to try to read into the text that he's speaking to the angels or false divinities of Canaan or Egypt or whatever it might be. All right.
Now, all of this makes a lot of sense. What do you look at Jesus's own words? So if human beings can be called sons of God, because they've been given God's authority, then what about Jesus himself? So as a matter of fact, Jesus is the perfect son of God.
He is the perfectly upright judge of Israel, who does administer justice, who does take care of the poor in the needy, who shows no partiality, etc, etc. And so Jesus quotes this passage. So in Matthew, and you know what Matthew is, in John, I'm actually a flip ahead right now and read this, it'll make a lot more sense of the more meaningful, this quotation from Eric Kavik said about what I want to share with you. In John chapter 10, a surrounding verse 34, I'm going to actually back up to 31.
All right, so Jesus is having another confrontation with the Pharisees and Sadducees, all the religious leaders, and that's important, right, because Jesus is talking to the religious leaders who have God's authority, right, to administer justice. But of course, they're all messing up as well to the point where they're actually crucified. Jesus, that's a huge problem. So at one particular point, chapter 10, verse 31 of the gospel of John, the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
And Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works of the Father for which of these are you stoning me. And the Jews said, we're going to stone you for no good works, but for blasphemy, for blasphemy, because you being a man make yourself God. And Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law? He said, he quotes Psalm 82 right here.
Is it not written in Psalm 82? I said, you are gods. If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, so he's not referencing, pagan amenities, he's not referencing to angels, Jesus himself tells us that the text is speaking to human beings to whom the word of God came, aka the religious leaders. So he says, if he called them gods to whom the word of God came and scripture cannot be nullified, do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, you are blaspheming, because I said I am the Son of God.
If I'm not doing the works of my father, then you're not believe me. But if I do them, even though you don't believe me, believe the works that you may know understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. Really powerful section there. So Jesus is quoting Psalm 82 to prove the point.
Look, if scripture calls your religious leaders, gods, then why are you stoning me wanting to kill me if I call myself the Son of God? Now obviously, Jesus is the Son of God in a completely different way than anybody else on earth, right? So Jesus is the Son of God by essence, by nature, we are so by adoption. All right, so this quote I want to share with you is really just explaining everything I just said right here.
So it says, quote, Jesus cites this passage in John 1034 to rebuke the Church of blasphemy. If mere humans can be called gods and sons, because the word of God came to them, then he is even more qualified to speak of himself as the Son of God, because he is the word of God sent from the Father, end quote. All right, so that's in essence what is being addressed here. So so many psalms in book three and elsewhere calling for God justice.
Well, he is coming to judge the wicked, specifically these religious authorities and you probably say civil authorities, receive authority from God are thereby in a certain sense kind of divinise or at least receive God's authority. They have a great responsibility on messing it up. So because of their corruption here, we can see at the very end of the Psalm, Psalm 82 verse seven, nevertheless you shall die like men and fall like any other prince, arise, oh God, judge the earth for to you belong to nations. So they're doomed to die when God judges the earth, because all nations belong to him, they're going to die.
They had been given this amazing opportunity to participate in God's authority, but they messed it up. So they're going to die like any other prince that word prince actually is going to be applied to all the other nations in Psalm 83, which we're going to talk about right now. So hopefully that makes sense. You don't have to read into it too much at all.
It's pretty, I think, straightforward. And honestly, I should say, although it's straightforward, it actually teaches us a lot about what what authority is and how God entrusts his own authority, which is divine authority to human beings to wield it properly and write justly and justly. And when you don't, you're going to die like any other man. In fact, judgment will be worse to whom it just given much as required.
All right, that's Psalm 82. Psalm 83 really follows very well on the theme here, because Psalm 83 now is really petitioning God to judges enemies to do it quickly, right to not be silent anymore, to vindicate his people. And so it's going to quote a whole bunch of enemies of Israel here. So the really straightforward Psalm, so I'm 83, the first half is enumerating all the many historic enemies that fought Israel and were defeated by God.
So God has defeated all of these different enemies who line themselves up to attack Israel in one way, shape or another. And then they fail, right? So for example, let's say, let's go to chapter 83 for let's just start at the beginning. Why not 83 verse one?
Oh God, do not keep silence. Do not hold your peace or be still. So in other words, come and judge quickly. Step up, right?
Handle the situation. Verse two, for behold, your enemies are entomalt. Those who hate you have raised their heads. They lay crafty plans against your people.
They consult together against your protected ones. They say come let us wipe them out as a nation, but the name of Israel be remembered no more. Yes, they conspire with one accord against you when they make a covenant. And here it lists all these historic enemies.
The tense of edemites and the Ishmaelites and the Moabites and Hagrites, Gebel, Ammon, Amalek, Amalek, excuse me, Felicity, the inhabitants of Tyre, Assyria and so on and so forth. And you can go to your various commentaries if you want the background of when these particular peoples or battles or individuals rose up and fought against Israel. We don't have the time to get into all of that. That would take a lot of time.
But it's just going through this list of all the enemies that tried to attack Israel and failed because God protected them. So what's the point? So for the second half of the Psalm, the Psalm is just saying, look, because you've done all these wonderful things for your people against your enemies in the past, so now rise up and defeat our current enemies, which in light of the theme of book three, that would be Babylon, right? For example, the whole Babylonian captivity and Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed the king, the kingdom, the temple, the city and all this stuff.
So rise up and defend us as much as you can. So let's keep reading here verse 13. Oh, really quickly. Verse 11, as it's listing all these individuals, these different historic enemies, says in verse 11, make their nobles like Orab and Zib and all their princes like Zabah and Zal Munah.
So I just wanted to make the connection here about make them all like the princes of these characters. So Psalm 82 verse seven, remember I shared with you that these leaders who though they are called sons of God and children of God, sons of the most high, they're going to die like any other prince. Well, it's no surprise in Psalm 83, it lists a bunch of the princes who have fallen before God, right? So these Israelite Jewish leaders are going to be no different than the list of enemies here in Psalm 83.
I think there's a connection right there. All right, only in case, let me keep reading now. Verse 13, oh my God, make them like a whirling dust, like chaff before the wind. There's another connection, by the way, to Psalm 1 verse 4.
Remember Psalm 1 and 2 is the prologue for the entire Psalter. So chapter 1 verse 4 talks about the wicked, how the wicked are like chaff, which the wind that drives away will now Psalm 83 tapping into that image is saying, make them like chaff. The word chaff is only mentioned three times in the entire Psalter in chapter 1 verse 4 in 35, 5, and then now here's the last time. So again, you've got this whole imagery of the good way, the bad way, the two ways, right?
Way of righteousness, way of unrighteousness, of holiness and wickedness, et cetera. So this is just another throwback to the prologue there in Psalm 1. In any case, make them like chaff before the wind as fire consumes the forest as the flames that sit in the mountains ablaze. So you pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane, fill their faces with shame.
And I want you to underline this. If you have your Bible in front of you and you highlight in your Bible, which I encourage everyone to do, you should really be highlighting 16 and 18 to highlight this whole section. Fill their faces with shame. Why?
That they may seek your name, O Lord, let them be put to shame and be dismayed forever, let them perish in disgrace, and let them know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the most high over all the earth. So in this entire Psalm here of again, the first part listing all the historic enemies and the princes that have been defeated now rise up and defeat us. The feet are current enemies, make them be like chaff in the wind, et cetera. And the purpose for all of this is that they may seek your name, O Lord, that they may know that you are the one true God.
And the Hebrew word for no is not like I know about something. I know about Christopher Columbus. I know about George Washington or whatever. The word is Yaddah.
It's a very important Hebrew word. I've talked about a ton in the Exodus story because the plagues of the Exodus account, the plagues against Egypt, all of these great signs and wonders of Moses, one of the purposes for these signs and wonders is that Egypt and Israel and all nations would Yaddah the one true God. They would convert. So this is a really important point.
God's punishment, his chastisement for everybody is really honestly for the purpose of conversion. Hopefully they're going to convert and if they don't convert, of course, or then the punishment continues forever. All right, but God chastises. He disciplines.
He punishes. So that way we can realize, you know what I messed up. And so this is really, I'm going to come back to Psalm 83 in a little while. Psalm 83 is saying defeat them, shame them so that they can seek your face.
They can convert and turn to you just like what happened in the account of Egypt. Many Egyptians converted and left Egypt with Israel. I can't get into all these verses. It's a great multitude left Egypt, a great multitude of Gentiles left Egypt and went with Israel.
So the plagues performed their, all their many purposes, which I can't get into now again. One of those was conversion. So I want you to keep that in mind always that God is not just as vengeful, wrathful, vindictive God. He is mercy.
He is justice. He is love. And he does everything for good. In fact, the word good, we're going to talk about a lot as well here in this particular lesson.
God does good for everybody who loves him and writes and walks up rightly. So chastisement is for the purpose of conversion. All right, I really love that. I wanted to really emphasize that for you.
All right, so there is Psalm 83 pretty straightforward. 84 is another Zion Psalm. So the Psalms of Asaf are concluded now. So the Psalms of Asaf start at the beginning of book three.
That would be Psalm 73 and goes all the way to Psalm 83. And there's a whole collection of the Psalms of Asaf. Hopefully this is not too much in the weeds here when you're talking about authorship. But remember we talked about all the authorship stuff and lesson number one.
And then now we're getting back to some other Psalms of the sons of Korah. All right, and the sons of Korah wrote various Zion Psalms back in 45, 46, 48, actually those are alternating Zion, royal, Zion, royal. So it's no surprise that you have this Zion Psalm here 84 when it's written by the sons of Korah. Okay, and it's all about, of course, Zion.
So it's praising God for dwelling in Zion. And this is probably a hopeful reminiscence, right? It's reminiscing hopefully with hope about the destroyed temple because we studied that at the beginning of book three, Psalm 74, for example, the temple was destroyed and hacked to pieces with their hammers and hatches and they burned it all to the ground, etc, etc. It's a pretty depressing Psalm.
So I think what's going on here is that Psalm 84 is reminiscing with hope. Look, the temple has been destroyed. And I just remember the temple. I remember its beauty.
I remember its goodness. And I remember the pilgrimages that were made there with singing and dancing and joy. So it's kind of a throwback. It's a kind of a walk down memory lane because it's all gone now, right?
So the first part of Psalm 84 versus one through seven is this incredibly beautiful song about desiring to be in God's presence in Zion. It's a very popular song brought into various hymns and modern hymnals and songs for us in church, right? So let me read verses one through seven. It says, How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts, my soul longs.
Yes, thanks for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow and nest for herself, where she may lay her young at your altar as O Lord of hosts, my king and my God. Blessed are those who dwell on your house ever singing your praise.
Blessed are the men who strength is in you. These five, six and seven is all about pilgrimages. You can see it. You can see the imagery here pretty clearly.
Blessed are the men who strength is in you, whose heart are the highways to Zion that's pilgrimage highways. As they go to the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs. The early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength.
The God of hosts will be seen in Zion. It's a beautiful way to describe that pilgrimage, right? So verses one through seven, it's really beautiful. I just, I desire to be with you and desire to be in your courts, my soul, my heart, my flesh.
That's verses the verse two there. Desires to be, desires for the courts of the Lord, right? Super beautiful. Body and soul, he desires to be with God.
And this by the way, echoes for me, how lovely is your dwelling place. I desire to be in the courts of the Lord, my soul longs and faints. That's very, very similar to what we saw before, right? In Psalm 42 and 63, very similar language, right?
As the deer panted for living waters, soul, my soul, thirst for you, etc. Same imagery right there that you find for all these books of the Psalter, this desire to be with God. So as he desires with body and soul, heart and flesh to be with God, he says, look, even the little sparrow can find a home and a nest where she may raise her young. I really like this a lot.
I mean, I might be pushing the imagery a little bit too much, but I just, it struck me when I was reading this one time about the whole sparrow reference. I mean, sparrows are pretty plain birds. I mean, they're not like super beautiful at all, right? They're really plain, simple, brown birds, right?
And they're not like the, I don't know, the cardinal or the blue jay or the little yellow finch, you know, some of the birds I have flying around my yard from time to time. They're not really like just magnificent, like they're just a pretty plain brown bird. But the thing about sparrows, at least, you know, some of the birds I find is they're pretty much beggars. I don't know, whenever I see like little brown birds hopping around, especially like outdoor picnic tables and things like that, they're always begging for food and picking up the crumbs off their tables.
So when I see this humble brown bird, I don't know why, but I just think about the Franciscans. I think about Saint Francis and all the Franciscan monks and priests and how they're supposed, according to their vocation and their spirituality, be imminently poor in spirit and humble and they beg for provision from others. It's just knowing a little bit about the story of Saint Francis, which I hope you do. It just, because the Franciscans seem like little sparrows to me.
I'm going to be out of my mind here. I just think they're cute with just cute little birds relying on God's providence. So even the humble, simple begging sparrow can find a home in the temple where she can rest and she can raise her young. And so this imagery is like, I think this almost is saying, you know, if a little sparrow can do this, why can't I do this?
Is what I desire to have a place in the temple as well, right? Now this really makes me think of a passage in the gospels. This occurred to me. Maybe other people have made this connection.
I don't know. I haven't seen it anywhere, but I'm sure someone has. In Matthew chapter 10, verse 29, really that whole context there, Jesus is also talking about sparrows. So let me read verses, I'm in Matthew chapter 10, verse 29 of following, where Jesus says, are not two sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them will fall to the ground without your father's will.
But even the hairs of your head are numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. I just like this. So Jesus makes this little reference to sparrows, again, a very humble, simple bird.
There's tons of them everywhere begging around, right? And he says, look, God knows everything. And he knows when one falls to the ground and you're more valuable in a sparrow. So to my mind, on my own personal reflection, I think about this in the context of Psalm 84.
And I'm like, look, if the Psalmist is saying, look, even the sparrow can find a place to find a home in a nest in the temple, I desire that too. And the response by God would be, yes, you are much more valuable than a sparrow. I will allow you, if you desire me, I will allow you to be in my presence. Let's just have personal reflections on mine.
One more little thing about this before I move on. It says that the sparrow may lay her young in her nest, like in the context of the temple. To my mind, I think it's important about the sparrow taking care of her young in God's presence. That echoes in my mind so many different places where the Bible says, you must continue to give the faith, raise your children in the faith, discipline your children, pass down the faith to your children, etc.
I mean, one of the greatest examples is the classic Shema prayer of Deuteronomy chapter 6. Here, oh, Israel, Shema, the Lord your God is one Lord, love him with all your heart, soul and strength, etc. If in you shall pass this all down to your children, diligently, diligently teaches to your children, when you rise up, when you go to bed, when you're on the path, etc. I'm parabrasing this, but diligently pass the faith to your children.
So if the sparrow does that, she may lay her young in the presence of God. So we who are more valuable in sparrows are protected by God, allowed to come in his presence, and we too must take our young into his presence. So hopefully you appreciate that. I don't know.
I was kind of thinking about that myself and making some connections with other pastors of scripture. But anyways, moving on then, the person who does this is blessed, right? Verse four, verse five, even at the end of the Psalm, verse 12 talks about blessed is the man who trusts in you. So the man who does this, who makes pilgrimage to God, who desires to dwell in his house, seeing his praise is blessed.
That's another throwback to Psalm number one, to two ways. Okay. So blessedness is he who desires to be in God's presence, and God will hear him and bless him as a matter of fact. Okay.
Now, the second half of Psalm 84 is a bit of a prayer. It seems like he's praying for the blessings for all of Israel and specifically the anointed one. So look at verse eight, O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer, give ear, O God of Jacob, behold our shield O God, and look upon the face of your anointed. Now, who is the anointed one?
Well, it's the king. Now, obviously in the Old Testament, priests, prophets, and kings were all anointed, but the king in a very special way, the Messiah, the Mashiyach is the anointed king of God, right? Anointed by the Holy Spirit. So I'm wondering, I just kind of think myself, and he says, look upon the face of your anointed.
This is probably a prayer to restore the Davidic kingship that was lost. It's the big reflection of the entirety of book three is the kingship's lost. The king is gone. So look upon the face of your anointed one and restore him.
I think that's what's going on here. Not only restore the king, the anointed one, but also the temple. So what we gets back here in verse 10, this is a classic line. For a day in your course is better than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. There again is the contrast between the two ways, right? To be in your courts, which he opened up this song talking about my soul longs to be in the courts of the Lord in verse two. So now here in verse 10, he's saying to be in your courts, this better than anything else, right?
I'd rather be there than anywhere else. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, the temple, than dwell in the tents of wickedness. So once more, there's the two ways being depicted from someone. Now, this is very, very significant.
And many people have pointed this out. It's very typological for the spiritual life of the soul longing to be with God in the heavenly temple. Like since Christ, you know, obviously that veil is torn from top to bottom. We have access to the Father.
And so really, if you apply this to the human soul or any human soul, you should ask yourself and of course others, do we desire to be with God more than anything else? Is a day in the, as a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord, better than absolutely anything else, it's a great moment for an examination of conscience and spiritual reflection to desire to be with God in his courts, in his house, in the heavenly Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem is what we should be desiring no matter what, right? That's, that's really beautiful reflection there. So can we make Psalm 84 our own song with our own words?
Is that a prayer of our own heart? And many people have made that connection. That's why Psalm 84 actually is so popular. All right.
So in conclusion down in verse 12, he says, no good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly. So that whole reference to, he shows good all good things God gives to those who walk uprightly. The word good, we've already talked about this matter of fact in the beginning of book three, Psalm 73, remember begins and ends with this concept that all good things come from God. So there's this note of hope, I think despite the, I don't think there's despair so much in book three, because despair is a sin against the virtue of hope.
You have all of these different little notes of hope that God does give good things to those who love him, to those who walk uprightly. And so just as Psalm 73 began book three, talking about how God is good to those who love him, you're going to see that repeated now here at the end of Psalm 84. And we're going to talk about it over the next few songs as well. So there's always this hope.
God is good to those who are upright to those who love him. And they're therefore blessed. All right. So hopefully that makes sense.
Popular popular song there 84, this is on Psalm now. Let us move on to Psalm 85, a lament Psalm. Hey, this is Dr. Nick.
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