As you read Psalm 84, imagine that you are remembering what took place a long time ago, almost three thousand years ago. It may even have been on a day during the Feast of Tabernacles. Can you picture a man singing this Psalm in Hebrew? He is singing about how wonderful it is to be in the house of God. Not many people have come to the house of God on this particular day, but this man, a prophet of the Lord, is there singing because he knows that God has chosen to dwell in that place. He thinks how wonderful it is to be there, and he wishes he could live there. He watches the little sparrows fly in and out of the Tabernacle, and he knows they have a nest somewhere, but he does not disturb them. As he looks toward the altar of the Lord, he sees a little nest there, a beautiful sight to see.
This Psalm does not speak of a time like today, having to do with a busy life, cities, highways, and cars, but a time when walking was the only way to reach a destination. The prophet has walked a long way to come to the house of the Lord. He is weary and he kneels, holding a rod in his hand. Then he lays it down and starts playing on a little harp. He is aware of the presence of God in His Tabernacle, and he begins to sing this Psalm in a somewhat tuneless chant: How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. The bird also has found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even Thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. How blessed are those who dwell in Thy house! They are ever praising Thee. Psalm 84:1–4.
As the psalmist hears the little birds chirping, he thinks about something very precious. He thinks how good it is to live where God lives—how good it is to have the altar of the Lord for a dwelling place. Every time he lifts his hands to the Lord, he considers how the little birds have built their house upon the altar of the Lord, and he wishes he could live there too. He wishes he did not have to go back to all the cares and the hard work of tending sheep, of plowing and tilling the ground just to have enough food to eat. “If only I could live here forever” is the cry of his heart.
Perhaps he is even remembering what Joshua did. When Moses pitched the tent of meeting outside the camp at Sinai, Joshua refused to depart. He went there to live because the glory of the Lord was there. He may have been reminded of other things to take care of, but for him there was nothing as important as living in the presence of the Lord (Exodus 33:11).
Nothing is as important for us as becoming aware of the Lord. Oh, to be like the little birds that flew into the house of the Lord! May we, too, find our way into His presence, and never find our way out. May we begin to realize what it means to come into a new awareness of His presence.
People’s lives become confused when they lose their awareness of the Lord. They no longer know which way to go, and so they start looking around to find answers. You do not need to find answers, even though you may have problems. Just abide in His presence. A problem may seem so urgent that you think it will mean disaster unless you have an answer by a certain time tomorrow, but tomorrow the world will still be going around and God will still be sitting on His throne. He is still Lord of lords and King of kings, and He is saying, “Abide in Me; come and abide in Me.”
It is time to come and tabernacle in God. Change your address and live in Him. How blessed are those who dwell in Thy house! They are ever praising Thee. God never tires of people who praise Him. He loves it. God will listen to praise for eternity. Those who dwell in His presence will be praising Him forever and ever.
The Psalm continues with verse 5: How blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee; in whose heart are the highways to Zion! What does this mean? Such a man has learned all of the avenues that God uses to bring a man to Himself, and he has made a freeway of them for his own heart. He knows all the ways to reach God. In his heart are the highways to Zion.
The Old Testament has many spiritual principles to teach us. Three times a year, at the principal feasts, the Israelites were to come and present themselves before the Lord: they were following the Law. At the Feast of Tabernacles they were required to have an offering for the Lord and to be altogether joyful. No hands were to be empty; no matter how poor they were or how many problems they had, they were to come with something for the Lord. This does not seem fair. A man who was rich could come and be happy because he had a good offering in his hand. He could be rejoicing over the providence and the blessing of God that had made him rich, but what about the poor man? We do not yet understand that the way out of all troubles is through faith and acceptance that everything is answered in God, just as He has said.
Do you insist that you have problems which need answers? You are not coming to God for answers, even in the face of impending disaster. You are coming to the Lord in order to live in Him. Develop an awareness of Him. Of all the people in the history of mankind who should believe this, it is the people who are living in these days of His presence. The one objective in this hour is to be alert to His presence and to become aware of Him. Study to become so aware of the Lord that His presence ceases to be remote.
When you are praying and you feel that the Lord has not heard you before you speak, something is missing. God wants to so lead us that when we begin to talk to the Lord, we will sense that He has been drawing us to that prayer for quite a while. Even before we ever spoke, He was pulling the levers and setting things in motion with the answers. How wonderful it is to be so aware of Him that we live in His presence!
When you face problems, do not be grim. God wants joy and rejoicing. Every problem will be answered in God. A problem is not answered by answers: a problem is answered by God. You would do well to remember that as a Kingdom proverb. A man may think that if he becomes close enough to the Lord to hear what He has to say, he will have a list of questions to ask Him. However, the day that he stands in the awareness of His mighty presence, he will not have a single question. You may think that there are certain things you need, but they all point to the fact that God must become a dwelling place for you.
Psalm 90 is beautiful, and it begins, Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Psalm 91 is also beautiful, and it, too, begins with the same thought: He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. What is your address? “Well, my address is God, but I haven’t been home lately. I have been on a kind of vacation.” Let us not have to say that we have been away, but that we dwell in the secret place of the Most High. He overshadows us, and under His wings we take refuge. That is what tabernacling with God is all about.
When the people kept the Feast of Tabernacles, even in the time of Christ, they looked back hundreds of years. They remembered when a patriarch, one of their forefathers, had looked out at night from his little hut to see the pillar of fire. He probably comforted himself, saying, “Lord, You are living with me. Thank You, Lord.” In the morning, he looked up and saw the cloud which obscured the hot sun as it beat down in the wilderness, and he probably said, “Lord, You are still living with us. We are dwelling where You dwell.”
We can experience God’s same presence with us today. How beautiful to be living always in His courts, ever praising Him. Every one of us can experience the reality of knowing that wherever we go, we have the canopy of His presence over us. Wherever we go, our hearts can be warmed by the glow of the pillar of fire. We do not have to make a move until we know that He is moving. All the responsibility of intricate problems for which we have no answers is laid upon Him. He has become our Lord. He has become our King.
Verse 6 of Psalm 84 begins, Passing through the valley of Baca. Baca means weeping, a valley of weeping. When you go through a difficult time, when you weep until your eyes burn and you can no longer weep, watch for a spring of water, a time of refreshing, because this Scripture says, Passing through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring, the early rain also covers it with blessings. They go from strength to strength, every one of them appears before God in Zion. Verses 6–7.
Practice being aware of God. Become aware that He knows you and loves you. It can be frightening when you realize how much He loves you. What will thrill you even more is not your awareness of the Lord, but your awareness of His awareness of you. Study the difference between God’s awareness of you and your awareness of God, perhaps only as a rather impersonal force before whom everyone bows down. The awareness of God involves even more than the fact that He is aware of you and you are aware of Him. It brings much joy when you become aware that He knows you and loves you and has joy over the fact that you are aware of His awareness—it is a love relationship. This awareness is the key to everything in regard to your dwelling and abiding in God. This truth ought to cause you to rejoice, to dance, to turn somersaults, to ring bells, and to beat drums, because there is no greater truth in all the world than for you to know God and to know that He knows you, to be aware of Him and to know that He is aware of you. Practice His presence and live in it, and for you it will be a true Feast of Tabernacles three hundred and sixty-five days a year.
What happens when you lose your awareness of the Lord? You become aware of other people, and that is not much fun. Then you become aware of yourself, and that is even worse. You are no longer alive, but in a stupor. There are no fountains, no joys, no bells ringing, no songs; and you go up to the house of the Lord with mourning. Why? You are not going up to meet Him. You are not aware of Him. There is no eagerness in your heart. Listen further to the prophet’s psalm, For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness. Verse 10. What is he saying? “Oh, I can’t wait to get there. A day in Your house is better than a thousand outside. I would rather be there in Your presence, Lord, than anywhere else.”
You live a lifetime, merely enduring, every day that you are out of His presence; but you enjoy the pleasures of eternity every day that you live in His presence. Where do you choose to live? It is up to you to decide. Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place. Move back in and dwell in the secret place of the Most High. Learn how to live in God. First learn awareness. Keep praying, “Lord, where are You?” He will keep saying, “I am right here.” He is not far off. He is close—closer than your hand, closer than your breath, closer than your heartbeat. He loves you. When are you going to learn to walk with Him? How long will you hold out?
Put away the excuses. You can keep your mind on God. You can live with Him—you can do it. Your whole purpose for existing is to walk with God and to live in His presence. To do that, just turn the dial and tune in. He is there; become aware of Him and love Him. If you have not heard from God for a long time and you are discouraged, that is not God’s fault. He is still talking; He is still loving you. He has never ceased to love you and to speak to you. When you finally tune back in, you will know how wonderful and how good the Lord is and that He could have been blessing you all the time.
Learn to tabernacle with God. You do not have to go to a special place to do it. It is a state of heart, not a place. God is in you. Turn the dial just right, and He will start talking to you. If you really learn the secret, you can turn the dial wherever you go, and He will always be there. He still will be talking because His presence is a state of heart. Do not fear that you will lose the blessing of His presence when you have to face the many problems and responsibilities that are upon you; just turn the dial and tune in to God. If you are tuned in to other things, you will think it has been a long time since God talked to you. But He has been talking all the time! If you have tuned yourself out, tune in again. Open your heart and keep tuned it!
Although this Psalm has been expounded, read it in its entirety to receive its full blessing. How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. The bird also has found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even Thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. How blessed are those who dwell in Thy house! They are ever praising Thee.
How blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee; in whose heart are the highways to Zion! Passing through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring, the early rain also covers it with blessings. They go from strength to strength, every one of them appears before God in Zion.
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Behold our shield, O God, and look upon the face of Thine anointed. For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in Thee!
If you feel as though you must lift the blinds because the sun is shining and you are still in the dark, you need the blessing of His presence. You go through difficult times only because you do not press in to an awareness of His presence. He is with you all the time. Sing the twenty-third Psalm as David did: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Sing about the green pastures and the still waters; but sing also of the awareness that He is with you as you go through the valley of the shadow of death: “Thou art with me! Thou art with me!” He is always there. If you are unaware of His presence, it is because you lack faith. Believe for what He wants to be to you. He wants to be a sun and a shield to you. He wants to give you grace and glory and not withhold any good thing from you.
Stop hiding in the corner and let God be good to you! Come up out of the cellar; come out of the dark place. Take off the veil. Start practicing His presence. Tell Him, “Lord, I believe You love me. You will be my dwelling place. You will be my address. I am going to learn to live this way because You have set it before me in the Word, and I believe it. I have no other concern but to hold on to my awareness of You.”