Hello friends.
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in dogs.
Welcome back as we continue our journey through the Psalms of refuge today with Psalm 84.
As we begin,
As always,
I invite you just to pause,
Take a nice deep breath in.
And out.
Is taking a conscious moment to become still.
Allowing your body,
Your mind,
And your heart just to settle into this moment right now.
That beautiful,
Simple gift of being here and present.
And as you said,
I'll just become aware of God's presence here,
A presence that has been here since before you arrived.
A presence that will remain whether you notice it or not.
A presence that surrounds you.
And sustains you.
Just take a nice slow breath in.
And rest.
Now Psalm 84.
It's a psalm that's filled with deep longing.
But it's not the sort of longing that comes from lacking something.
Cool.
Longing that comes from not quite attaining.
Success or achievement or goals or whatever it is that we're going after.
It's a much deeper Longing.
A longing for home.
A longing for belonging.
A longing for a place where the soul can fully come to rest.
And I think there'd be a lot of people who spend their entire lives carrying this longing.
Maybe without even knowing they do.
It's the longing that I think lays behind.
The search that we take in the places where we look,
Where it's never quite fully fulfilled,
Sometimes relationships.
Accomplishments.
Experiences,
Possessions.
Going places.
And even when we experience these wonderful things.
We don't quite feel that that has fulfilled it.
We just continue searching.
And so Psalm 84 suggests that beneath every.
.
.
Longing.
Is a much deeper.
Longing.
A longing for God.
A longing for home.
So listen as we read the words of Psalm 84 and again keep your ear and heart out for an image or a phrase or a feeling that seems to draw your attention.
As you receive the words of Psalm 84.
How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts.
My soul longs,
Indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home.
And the swallow a nest for herself,
Where she may lay her young,
At your altars,
O Lord of hosts,
My King and my God.
Happy are those who live in your house,
Ever singing your praise.
Happy are those whose strength is in you.
In whose heart.
Are the highways of Zion.
As they go through 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 Gods will be seen in Zion.
O Lord of hosts,
Hear my prayer.
Give Air.
Oh God,
I'm shaking.
Behold our shield,
O God.
Look on the face of your anointed.
For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield.
Bestowing favour and honour.
No good thing.
Does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts,
Happy is everyone who trusts in you.
Just take a moment for those words to settle.
What has stayed with you?
What image,
Phrase or feeling?
One of the beautiful things about Psalm 84 is that it speaks of desire.
But it's desire without shame.
The psalmist isn't embarrassed by their longing.
And doesn't try and suppress it.
Rather,
The longing becomes a doorway.
A guide if you like,
A teacher.
I think a lot of us spend our lives trying to satisfy our deepest longings and we imagine that if we could just achieve enough,
Acquire enough,
Experience enough,
Become enough,
Then finally we would arrive.
We would finally have peace.
And yet,
Our souls often remain restless.
I'm not convinced it's because something's necessarily wrong,
But because.
.
.
The soul is searching for something much deeper.
So take a moment to ask yourself now,
What am I longing for?
That this isn't.
What I think I should want or what others expect me to want.
What's my soul truly longing for?
And then the psalms also filled with images of dwelling,
Remaining,
Abiding,
Being at home.
In God's presence.
For the psalmist,
The temple isn't just a building they go to,
It's a symbol of communion.
And belonging of life lived in a full awareness of God.
The deepest desire.
Isn't just a visit with God occasionally,
But to dwell there,
To live there.
To make one's home there,
To abide.
In and with God.
Which raises.
A really important question.
Where do we believe home is?
I think often when we hear that question,
We imagine home as a place.
A destination.
A future achievement or a set of circumstances,
Something that lies somewhere up ahead.
Contemplation.
Often helps us see in another direction that home isn't somewhere we go.
It's a reality that we awaken to.
Home is God's presence,
The place where we discover that we've always been Hill.
Imagine for a moment that the thing that you've been searching for isn't far away.
That what your soul longs for is already here,
Already present,
That beneath all the noise and the striving,
There's a place of deep belonging,
A place that's never abandoned you and that can't be lost.
And the psalm also speaks about pilgrimage,
About people moving through difficult places.
While remaining oriented towards God.
And this is really important because the journey towards home isn't always easy.
There's dry seasons,
Confusing seasons.
Seasons of pine?
Times when God feels close and times when God feels hidden.
But the psalm insists that the journey itself.
Can become holy,
That even the difficult places can become places of blessing.
And perhaps there's a part of your life that feels like a really difficult road right now.
A season of uncertainty.
Of waiting and of change.
Perhaps rather than resisting it.
Maybe it's time to acknowledge it and consider the possibility.
That God is right there present within that too.
That God isn't just something you find at a destination,
But God is right there with you on the road itself.
One of the most beautiful movements in the psalm is that longing eventually becomes joy.
The heart longs.
Becomes the heart that sings.
The soul that searches begins to discover what it was searching for all along.
The psalmist writes,
My heart and flesh sing for joy.
And those words are beautiful because they show us that it's not only the spirit that rejoices,
The whole person rejoices,
The heart and the flesh.
This is body and soul.
And so the psalm describes a faith.
That's not trying to escape from life,
But is wanting to participate more deeply within life,
A deeper awareness.
Of God's presence right there.
In the midst of it all.
So what would it feel like?
God,
We're no longer distant.
What would it feel like to discover that the presence you seek is already surrounding you?
Isn't something that you're moving towards in the future somewhere,
But home,
Real home,
True home.
Is already a present reality.
For the next few moments,
Just simply rest with that thought,
Perhaps as you breathe in.
You might say,
I am coming home.
And as you breathe out,
I am being healed.
Again,
Breathing in.
I am coming home.
Breathing out,
I am being healed.
I am coming home.
I am being held.
Allow the words to settle,
Allow them to move beyond your thought and to be a beautiful awareness that's present,
Truly present within you.
I am coming home.
I am being held.
As we prepare to finish,
Just hear once more the heart of the psalm.
Much of our life is a search for home,
For belonging,
For the place where we can finally rest.
Psalm 84 reminds us that our deepest home is found in God.
A deepest reality that we discover right here within this world where we live.
A presence that welcomes us,
That accompanies us,
That invites us to rest.
Let's prank.
Loving God,
You are the home our hearts have always sought after.
When we become restless,
You draw us back to you.
When we become distracted.
Help us remember what matters most.
When we feel far away,
Remind us that your presence is already here.
Walk with us through every season of life.
Be with us on every road we travel.
And teach us to recognise your presence as our true dwelling place.
May our hearts find rest in you.
May our souls discover belonging in you.
And may we learn that we are already at home in your love.
And may grace,
Peace and love be known to us deeply as we go today and always.
Amen.
Thank you for spending this time in prayer and reflection,
Friends.
May you move through this day with a deeper sense of belonging and may you remember that the home you seek is closer than you think.
You are held.
In God.
Until next time.
Go in peace.
Bye for now.
