Psalm Meditation 779
Pentecost
May 24, 2015

Psalm 84
1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!
2 My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living 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.
4 Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise. Selah
5 Happy 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; the God of gods will be seen in Zion.
8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
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 live in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; he bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the LORD withhold from those who walk uprightly.
12 O LORD of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.
(NRSV)

There was a house in our neighborhood that was way too nice for me to even imagine entering. It presented a grand, imposing face on both the front and the back, with tall ceilings on the multiple stories of the building. And yet, we got to know the owners of the house and they invited us in, gave us the grand tour and asked us to make ourselves at home in their house. It has continued to be a grand structure, though it is no longer imposing since I know of the hospitality that waits on the inside.

There was a house in a different neighborhood and a different time period in which the furniture was covered with plastic slip covers and the carpets were covered with protective runners so that folks could see the patterns while getting no joy from the textures. My parents were invited in while none of the children were. Even though my parents were already friends with their hosts, they did not feel welcomed inside the house.

The house, the presence of God, is more like the first house. In the midst of otherwise imposing architecture there is a warm and heartfelt hospitality that welcomes us into the space and the hearts of our hosts. It is the kind of place in which we would be content standing on the fringes of any activity because we know that we are as welcome here as is anyone else. “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.”

May 18, 2015
LCM