Psalm 84:7,8
If you want something badly, you are not going where it cannot be given to you. Parents who want their out-of-state children to come and visit them are not going to leave town the day scheduled for that visit. And if we agree with the psalmist that God's tabernacles are lovely, and that to dwell with Him there is most blessed, we are going to seek it and pray for strength to walk on the way unto it.
Therefore the psalmist in Psalm 84:7, 8 wrote, "They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. O Lord God of Hosts, hear my prayer give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah." If you want to dwell with God in His house, you will pray for strength to seek it and for a strengthening of the desire for it in your heart.
Since this desire for a life of holiness — which is the only life that can be allowed in God's presence — and this strength to walk on the way unto it is ours, we will and must pray to God for the continuance of them and the strengthening of them.
Here is a measuring rod wherewith to determine how much we really do want to dwell in God's house of holiness. The question is not whether we want to get out of that valley of tears, that dry valley of Baca. Everyone, the devil and his fallen angels included, wants to escape the curse in this life and the lake of fire after death.
The question is whether you consider the place where you can live in love toward God, and serve Him with all your being, to be a truly lovely, amiable place. And our prayers reveal how intensely we want to appear in Zion. Our versification presents it in these words (PRC Psalter):
Advancing still from strength to strength,
They onward go where saints have trod,
Till every one appears at length
In Zion's courts before his God;
Jehovah, God of Hosts, give ear,
Our father's God, in mercy hear.
Read: Psalm 138
Psalter versification: #229:4
(Words and Music of the Psalter)
Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism
Song for Meditation: Psalter #365
Why not sing along??
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Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Isaiah 12 ; Isaiah 13 ; Isaiah 14:1-32
2 Corinthians 13:1-13
Psalm 57:1-11
Proverbs 23:9-11
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Quote for Reflection:
"If we are not convinced that God determines our marital status in order to make us as happy as we can possibly be, in this lifetime and in the next, we will be left without hope." ~ Lydia Brownback, Fine China is for Single Women Too
Additional Info
- Date: 13-September
Heys, John A.
Rev. John A. Heys was born on March 16, 1910 in Grand Rapids, MI. He was ordained and installed into the ministry at Hope, Walker, MI in 1941. He later served at Hull, Iowa beginning in 1955. In 1959 he accepted the call to serve the South Holland, IL Protestant Reformed Church. He received and accepted the call to Holland, Michigan Protestant Reformed Church in 1967. He retired from the active ministry in 1980. He entered into glory on February 16, 1998.