Often people come seeking counsel concerning their salvation. “Am I saved or not? I have many doubts and I’m not sure. How can I have peace?” The first thing I do is take them to the Bible. I have given out a pamphlet for well over forty years, “100 Verses Why I Know I’m Saved.” My aim is to give the person a confidence in the Word of God, aka the Promises of God, so they will realize it is the Lord that saves us and the Lord that keeps us. But there is another ingredient I’d like to throw into the mix today, the desires of your heart and mine. The old Puritan preachers observed that, “the desires of the heart are the best proofs of our salvation. If a man wishes to know whether or not he is really a child of God he can soon find out by putting his finger on the pulse of his desires. For we cannot counterfeit our longings. We can counterfeit the things we say; we can easily pick up a smattering of the language of Canaan and say the right things. We can counterfeit the things we do; a good action can be done out of a sense of discipline or duty without our hearts being in it at all. But we cannot counterfeit the things we want.”
It is likely that King Hezekiah was reigning when Psalm 84, a beautiful song, was written. This unknown Levite is on his way to Jerusalem for a Pilgrimage and possibly his time to serve at the Lord’s house. He has attended the Temple before, serving, and remembered with great fondness the joy he experienced. 84:10b tells us that he would “rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.” He had served before; else how would he know? The threat from the Assyrians had finally passed and he was anxious to resume his duties to the Lord. As he thinks about what is soon to occur, he has an inspiration strike. If you notice the title of the psalm, it is to the chief musician, for the sons of Korah, to be played on the Gittith. A “Gittith” is a stringed musical instrument that likely originated from the Philistines. David likely saw it and incorporated it into the worship of the Lord. Now years later, this Levite is plunking the strings of his Gittith, humming this tune and the words come flooding into his soul. Do you feel the desires of this Levite as you read the words of this song? Let’s walk through some of it together while being honest with ourselves about the desires of our own hearts.
84:2 – “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord.” Fainteth means he’s homesick for the house of God and looking forward to being back.
84:3 – Even the sparrows and swallows, the birds, like being at the house of God. On one of my trips to Israel this verse seemed to come alive over and over again while we were walking in Jerusalem, especially while at the Western (Wailing) Wall. On that huge wall, constructed of massive stones, there were cracks between them. At the bottom of the wall, pilgrims write prayers on paper and stuff them into the cracks as a way to petition the Lord. But way above the reach of the people, the birds make their nests in those larger cracks.
84:4-5 – Blessings for those that have a chance to dwell in the Lord’s house and to those that take strength from the Lord. In the fifth verse, the little word “ways” is very interesting. It is translated in the Old Testament 27 times. 21 times the word is “highways.” The verse could be read “in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” Do you feel the desires of his heart?
84:6 – This Levite has experienced heartache and tragedy. The “valley of Baca” is the place of weeping. It was just a short time ago that the Assyrians and their red wave of destruction was knocking at the gates of Jerusalem. Their northern brethren were captured, and it looked like they too would be taken, but God stepped in. God sent one angel, just one, and in one night 185,000 Assyrian soldiers outside the gates were killed. It was as if they were dying of thirst and suddenly the water was everywhere. He describes it by saying “the rain also filleth the pools.” Every empty cistern now is brimming with fresh, satisfying water. Do you not have the desire to be around a God that has brought you through so much?
84:10 – “For a day (a single day) in thy courts is better than a thousand (in other places).” As this Levite stops to jot down some more lines of his song, he thinks about the comparison between the service as a doorkeeper (think usher or greeter) and what he lives when he’s back up in the northern territory. Life is hard. The ravaging for him and his people is brutal, but for just a little while he has a reprieve. Where does he get the joy? Serving at the Lord’s house. The greatest joys of my life are all around the house of the Lord. It is awful when we have circumstances such as ice storms and snow storms that hinder the church family from getting together.
84:11 – The goodness of God was on display 2700 years ago just like it is today. The sun feels good on our faces and backs when the days are cold and the night has been a long one. He starts to wind down his inspired words, but his last ones are a truth we also should never forget. “For the Lord God is a sun and shield: The Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Every good thing I have ever had in my life has come from God! I say that, and the more I say it the more I want to say it. God has been so good to me. If I counted right, the word “blessed” is used three times. How can a Christian not desire the presence of God?
Do you want to have assurance that you are truly saved? Trust your Bible, but you also should check your desires. No desire for the things of God, that screams trouble. Remember the old Puritan’s words, “The desires of the heart are the best proofs of our salvation. If a man wishes to know whether or not he is really a child of God he can soon find out by putting his finger on the pulse of his desires.