Introduction: I am going to go through this psalm and make a ‘polite, nice’ comment in green and a fiery, biting, critical one in red! I’m not in a bad mood but I feel like commenting as if I have wakened up ‘grumpy and doubting’ and ‘at peace with the world’! In fact I’m challenged and delighted to comment on a portion of the Bible, every day!
1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O LORD of hosts! – ‘Why couldn’t the author have put a bit of ‘oomph’ into the description like magnificent’! or ‘I like ‘lovely’ – it is so heavenly, quiet, meditative and brings peace to my soul’!
2 My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God. – ‘Okay but it sounds so girlish, I’m a man and I want action’! 0r ‘I’m sick of temptation and so I need to escape into the very presence of God’.
3 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. – ‘Birds, spiders, rats and …why can’t they clean it properly?’ or ‘He reaches beyond the farthest star, but I’m so glad that He provides even for a swallow and the safe birth of her babies!’
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise! **Selah** ‘Why don’t these priests get out and do something helpful! or ‘Praise, prayer, worship and singing sets the tune aright for the whole of life!’
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6 As they go through the Valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
7 They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion.
8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob! **Selah** Well I believe in God, but life doesn’t seem like that to me. The world is in such a mess! or ‘Thank You, that You walk with me through the roughs patches and settle my soul, and bring peace and joy like a flood over my path!’
9 Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed!
10 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 dwell in the tents of wickedness. – ‘What is this all about? Who is God’s anointed? Sure I don’t want to live in the tents of the evil rotters but I don’t want to be a doorkeeper! or ‘God I see the promise of a Messiah here, and thank You, my God for offering me a place in Your Kingdom!
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
12 O LORD of hosts,
blessed is the one who trusts in you! – ‘What about the martyrs in Nigeria and the persecuted, even murdered, in Iran?’ or ‘What a promise, Father! Give me strength to press on to Your glorious ending!’ I would be truly blessed by You over anything else!
Proverbs 14: 15,16 – The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps. One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless.
Prayer: Help me to wrestle with You as Jacob did in his day, and be blessed as You lead me into Your Way.