How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place - 20 October 2008

At the beginning of September Martin preached on Rediscovering a Passion for Prayer.  I confess that I consider my prayer life to be pitiful and crave a deeper experience.  Take a few seconds to be honest with God about your prayer life.  Now read Psalm 84:

How lovely is your dwelling place,

       O LORD Almighty!

My soul yearns, even faints,

       for the courts of the LORD;

       my heart and my flesh cry out

       for the living God....

  … Better is one day in your courts

       than a thousand elsewhere;

       I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

       than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

 For the LORD God is a sun and shield;

       the LORD bestows favour and honour;

       no good thing does he withhold

       from those whose walk is blameless.

 O LORD Almighty,

       blessed is the man who trusts in you.

Psalm 84:1-2, 10-12 [NIV]

You can read the entire psalm or listen to it by clicking this link Psalm 84

Do you long to be in God’s presence? Do you identify with the psalmist when he says that he yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord?

Pray these verses back to God.  By this I mean read it, preferably out loud, as a prayer several times through.  Go slowly pondering each phrase, for example as you read, “How lovely is your dwelling place”  you might think, “Where is your dwelling place Lord?”  “Can I go there?” “In what way is it lovely?”  Then listen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning is now and shall be for ever.  Amen.