The Ultimate Experience in Life (Psalm 63:5-6)
Delight Yourself in the Lord
The Ultimate Experience in Life
Psalm 63:5–6
 
In these evening studies, we are exploring what it means to delight ourselves in the Lord. Psalm 37:4 tells us to "delight ourselves in the Lord and He will give us the desires of our heart." That is the ultimate pleasure in life.
 
  1. week, we applied that to the salvation experience through the parable the Lord told about a man who discovers a treasure hidden in a field and how he sells everything he has to acquire that treasure, and he does it for the joy that treasure brings to his life. That is the ultimate treasure in life.
 
Today I want us think about our worship and the ultimate experience in life. For anyone who's ever visited a Chick-fil-A restaurant and thanked an employee for their service, you've heard them respond by saying, “my pleasure”. In fact, as the parent of a Chick-fil-A employee, I've heard that said a few times with a little sarcasm added for emphasis.
 
Their goal was to ensure that every customer had a pleasurable experience when they came into our restaurant to eat, and that “my pleasure” response was one way to let them know that they were working to fulfill that goal.
 
How much more should it be our pleasure to give God pleasure? The truth is, that's the very reason for our existence. And there is one time in particular where that should especially be true and that is the "worship" time.
Maybe that's what Michael W. Smith had in mind when he wrote,
 
When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come, longin' just to bring something that's of worth that will bless your heart,
 
I'll bring You more than a song for a song in itself
is not what You have required. You search much deeper within, through the ways things appear,
You're looking into my heart.
 
I'm comin' back to the heart of worship and it's all about You. It's all about You, Jesus. I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it when it's all about You. It's all about You, Jesus.
 
Those are beautiful lyrics, and there is so much worthy of our consideration in them. But I wonder if that is really true. Is worship only all about God?
 
As I've begun to explore this idea of delighting ourselves in the Lord, I must confess the study has challenged me at several levels.
 
And when I read those lyrics and think about them in terms of our personal and corporate worship, and lay them alongside what I read in Scripture, I must come to the conviction, that worship is about us also.
 
And that truth is presented no place better than the 84th Psalm. So as I read it, I want you to listen to this psalm and what it says about the God who is worshipped and the results of that worship.
 
Psalm 84:1-12
First, let me offer you a couple of thoughts in general about this psalm. First, let's think about
 
1. The Place of Worship
 
The psalmist is expressing this strong, intense desire to be in the house of God and what he writes is all about this pilgrimage to worship God in the tabernacle.
 
Many think this psalm may have originally been written by King David. You’ll note that in verse 9, the writer asks God to look upon his anointed one. That’s certainly referring to the king of Israel. And what you discover as you read this psalm, it that the king of Israel is not currently in the tabernacle. Apparently something has prevented his return, and now he is longing with all his heart to return to it.
 
  1. let's think about the tabernacle itself. That's the destination throughout the psalm. That word "tabernacle" takes us back to the exit from Egypt and the instructions the Hebrew children received about construction a "tabernacle", a tent in the wilderness. Later that temporary structure was replaced with a temple.
 
These were the central places of worship for God’s people down through the years. That’s where the Ark of the Covenant was held. That’s where the Levites would offer up the sacrifices. That’s where they were to come and worship God.
 
Notice all the references to this place of worship. In a very poetic fashion, there are a number of different descriptions given to this place of worship.
Verse 1 refers to the tabernacle of the Lord, literally, the dwelling place of God.
 
Verse 2 talks about the courts of the Lord; referring to the immediately surrounding enclosure to the tabernacle.
 
Verse 3 mentions the altars of God; that would have been at the tabernacle.
 
Verse 4 mentions God’s house.
 
Verse 7 mentions Zion; that’s the name of the mountain in Jerusalem on which the tabernacle sat.
 
Verse 10 again refers to the courts of the Lord, this time in contrast to the tents of the wicked.
 
  1. obviously, the psalm has at its focus the central or primary place of worship for God's people. In Old Testament terms, that is the tabernacle of the Lord.
 
We also see what goes on in this place of worship.
In verse 2, the worshipper says, "my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God". The word “cry out” here in the Hebrew is the word for shouting for joy. In fact, it can also be translated as “sing”.
 
So verse 2 is not so much about crying out in distress or trouble, but in praise. This is the heart cry of a man who deeply desires to praise His God in the place of worship.
 
Verse 4 makes the same connection. It connects those in the house of God as the ones still praising God. After all, that’s what goes on at the tabernacle. Praise and worship. This song itself would have been a song sung there. The psalm itself is full of praise.
And that brings us to
 
2. The Focus of Worship
 
The praise is directed to God. This is the psalmist singing, "It's all about You, God, it's all about You!"
 
  1. the titles and phrases throughout the psalm.
Verses 1, 3, 8, and 12, all refer to God being the LORD of hosts. That’s a title expressing God’s mightiness as the captain of his holy army. That would be praise for His power.
 
Verse 2 says God is the living God.
 
In verse 3, He is worshipped as my King and my God.
 
Verse 11 calls God our shield and sun. These are all descriptions that praise God. In fact, through the psalm itself, the psalmist is doing what he'll do once he gets to the tabernacle, which is praise and worship God.
 
But we also see
 
3. The Benefits of Worship
 
And here is where we discover that worship is also about us. And just to see how the psalmist views worship, notice the contrast he gives in
 
verse 10
 
That's quite a contrast! being in the house of God versus being in the tents of wickedness. We’ll come back to that verse in a moment, but for now just consider the contrast. There is something infinitely better about being in God’s house than anyplace else in the world.
 
So what is it that makes it better according to this psalm? Three primary things: blessing, grace and glory.
 
Three references in this passage talks about blessing for God’s people.
 
Verse 4 tells us those who dwell in God's house will be blessed.
 
Verse 5 again talks about the blessing of strength, and in particular the heart to worship.
 
And the psalm ends in verse 12 with a blessing for those who trust in the Lord of Hosts.
 
These blessings, then, are explained in verse 11 and that's where we find the grace and glory.
 
In fact, the verse continues by telling us that no good thing will be withheld from those who walk uprightly.
 
That thought is very akin to our theme verse in Psalm 37:4: Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.
 
 
 
Now think about what we're learning here: For the person who has a heart of worship, God has blessings, including grace, glory and every good thing! So I guess worship is about us also, huh?
 
Isn’t that amazing? I could understand if worship was just about God. If it was just about giving to God and glorifying God. That makes perfect sense!
 
After all, He’s the almighty and all glorious God. But isn’t it amazing that he gives us grace and glory and every good gift? And isn’t it amazing that in this psalm we find this undeniable link between our worship and His blessings?
 
After all, God deserves to be worshipped and we ought to worship even if there was nothing in it for us. But He has arranged a way for us to meet with Him and offer our worship, and in turn, He shares His very life with us!
 
That means we ought not take lightly any part of worship! Every worship experience is a meeting with God!
 
So let's talk for a moment about
 
4. The Delight of Worship
 
In fairness to the text, we need to keep in mind we are reading an Old Testament psalm as New Testament Christians. So here we have a man, most likely an Old Testament king, who had a burning desire to get to the tabernacle of the Lord to worship.
 
And up to the is point, of the three things we've talked about so far, the place of worship, the focus of worship and the benefits of worship, only one has changed from the Old Testament to the New. God is still the focus of our worship and He still extends the blessings of grace, glory and every good thing.
 
But the place of worship is different. In the Old Testament, God had a temple for His people. But now, He has a people for His temple. What did Paul write to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 6? Verse 19 says,
 
"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?"
 
That means we don't have to go anywhere to get to God. He's with us and in us, and it is our privilege to live in an atmosphere of worship.
 
  1. does that mean we don't have to go to church to worship? No, you don't have to go to church to worship, but why wouldn't you want to? From time to time I hear people say they can worship by themselves out on the lake or fishing or whatever. Therefore, they don't have to come to church.
 
Well, I'm all for worshipping out on the lake or wherever you may be, but forget about whether or not you have to come to church. Why wouldn't you want to? Why wouldn't you want to be in a place with others just like you who are worshipping and praising God for his grace, glory and gifts?
 
Compare that attitude with what we read here in Psalm 84.
When this psalm begins, you can almost hear the writer's breathing growing heavy with excitement and anticipation about the possibility of getting to go worship His God!
 
And think about this: That statement was made by a man who knew nothing about salvation in New Testament terms. How much more should be the desire to worship for those of us who live in intimate, unrestrained, uninterrupted relationship with the God he desired to worship!
 
Read verses 1 and 2 again and ask yourself this question: Does that describe how I felt when I first awakened this morning? Could those verses have been written of me if someone had known how I felt when I went to bed last night? Did you find yourself singing a song of praise as you got ready to come to worship? When you were driving to church, did your heart began to race as you thought about being in the presence of God and worshiping Him?
 
Did you begin to shout with joy when you pulled in? Did you find yourself picking up the pace of your walk toward the church, not because you were dragging in late, but just because you couldn't wait to be with God's people in God's house lifting your praise to God?
 
I'll leave it to you to answer those questions and evaluate your own worship, but I will tell you that's what we find here in this psalm. They tell us about the joy and happiness the psalmist experiences when he goes to meet God.
 
 
In fact, in this psalm, even birds like living in the temple! Here we find people with their hearts and minds set on Jerusalem, coming into the Temple to worship and they describe it as the ultimate experience in life. It is the joy and delight of their life to meet with God and offer Him his praise and worship!
 
Notice how many times that delight is voiced:
 
Verse 1 talks about how lovely is God’s tabernacle. You could say, how loved it is. The man of God finds a great love for the tabernacle, for what it represents. He loves being there worshipping God.
 
Verse 2, “My soul longs, yes even faints, for the courts of the LORD.” That passion is expressed in parallel when it talks next about the heart and flesh crying out. The point is that the whole person yearns to be there. It is the call of God for us to love Him with all our heart, soul, and strength. That’s what verse 2 expresses concerning worshipping God in his house.
 
Verse 3 uses the imagery of the sparrows and swallows nesting in the tabernacle to make the same point. The birds of the air know how good this place is. They delight in it; so should especially all mankind. Perhaps the most vivid verse that expresses the delight of worshipping God is
 
verse 10
 
  1. verse is so full of imagery. And his conclusion is spending one day worshipping God in His Holy Temple is better than a 1,000 days, almost 3 years spent anywhere else in the world!
It is better, the psalmist says, to just stand in a doorway without having a seat in the place of worship for one day than it is to live with the wicked in a big house with a soft couch, relaxing in front of a 72" HDTV for the next three years!
 
He is describing the incomparable delight of being in the place of God’s presence for even the shortest time in the most minimal way. How blessed, how happy is the one we find here in the presence of God. Never mind what God gets out of it; this psalm is all about what the worshipper gets out of worship!
 
In fact, that's how the psalm comes to a conclusion in
 
verses 11 and 12
 
And it just occurs to me as I read this psalm, and especially how it ends, that maybe one of the great enemies of worship in our churches today is that we've stopped expecting to get something out of it.
 
We have come to believe it's all about God, and in our attempts to put all the emphasis on Him, we have failed to see how much good we receive from worshipping appropriately.
 
To put it in terms we can understand, worship is feasting on the goodness of God! It is finding everything we need in God! It is delighting ourselves in the graciousness of God! It is coming to the banquet table of God's glory and power and grace and goodness and eating our fill!
 
 
And what we need to become convinced of is that worship, in that regard, is the ultimate experience in life! It ought to be the highlight of our week to worship together and it ought to be the delight of our life to worship personally!
 
Maybe that explains the deadness and dread in our worship services today. Maybe churches are plagued by people coming for other reasons. We are coming out of duty or obligation or habit or pride or guilt or some other reason.
 
But I hear the psalmist saying, "I can't wait to get to church and worship because I know when I get there I'm going to spend time with a God who doesn't withhold anything good from those who come to worship!
 
If we make it to March 9 of next year, Lisa and I will celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary. Now let's just suppose on the day of our anniversary I go by the florist and pick up 3 dozen roses, purple ones, since that's her favorite.
 
And when I get home, I ring the doorbell, and she opens the door, surprised, because I never ring the doorbell. I just go in. Now if she looks out and sees a man with flowers, she might not answer the door at all because she doesn't know who he is.
 
But just for the sake of the story, she opens the door and I hand her the roses and say, "Happy anniversary!" And she says, "They're beautiful! Why did you do this?"" And I say, "Because I'm your husband. It's my duty. After all, this is what husbands are supposed to do. I read it in a book."
 
Now we think that's ridiculous. But let me remind you, there is nothing wrong with duty. Duty is a good thing, but duty-given roses on an anniversary is not a good thing.
 
So we rewind the tape and start over. Ding, dong. “Oh, Terry, they're beautiful! Why did you?” And I say, “I couldn’t help myself. I just love you and I love buying things for you. In fact, I have arranged for us to get out of town and go to a bed and breakfast and leave the kids and we're going to spend the night together because there is nothing I'd rather do than be with you tonight!"
 
And she says, “Yeah, right! Nothing you would rather do. I know exactly what you're after. You men are all alike."
 
Now listen: Neither of those things would ever happen because in our relationship, we know each other and what one gives the other is motivated by love and desire, both to please and be pleased.
 
Now the point of that story is that is worship. It is two individuals, God and the one who worships, who are madly in love with one another, giving for the pleasure of the other.
 
And yet, did you realize Sunday by Sunday, day by day, multitudes of Christians go to "the tabernacle of the Lord" with a little token of affection and present it to God because it is their duty?
 
Listen: when you bring your roses to God, whether it is in the privacy of your quiet time or at the high and holy Sunday morning hour, if He says, Why did you bring this? Don’t tell him, “It's my duty!
After all, I read it in your book! The Bible says to worship and I am a good, disciplined Christian. I do the right things.” Don’t give him that answer.
 
Instead, say, “God, there is nothing I would rather do than spend an hour with you. And I am just bringing you these roses because they are beautiful and you are beautiful and I want to know you better an experience you more.”
 
I promise you, when you come like that, He will never say, "Yeah, right! I've heard it all before. All you worshippers are just alike." Instead he will fill your life with grace, glory and every good gift!
 
I'll close with this:
 
John Piper served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota for 33 years. Prior to his retirement, he wrote:
 
"I dream of an hour a week utterly unlike any other hour; a weekly corporate appointment with the living God. A room filled with people who from the bottom of their heart say,
 
O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is. (Psalm 63:1)
 
I dream about a gathering of people who love the conversation of Christian friendship, but who, for the sake of the depth of that very conversation, give it up for one hour and during the organ prelude, bow in unashamed earnestness of prayer that the Spirit of God might descend upon our worship and shake this place with his power.
I dream of a gathered family of believers on Sunday morning who are as genuinely happy in God as families are on the first day of vacation, or around a big turkey at Thanksgiving, or beside the Christmas tree when the gifts are given out. Unfettered hearts of joy, free to say, “Amen!” when the choir has carried us to God, or when the organ praise has enthroned the King of kings, or when the preacher speaks some incomparable gospel truth.
 
I dream of an hour together where grudges melt and old festering wounds are healed in the warmth of the joy of the Lord. An hour with God, where battered saints absorb the strength and power of the Lord to re-enter their work revived and strong on Monday.
 
I dream of a people gathered, hungry to hear the word of God, and to make a joyful noise to the God of their salvation with song, and organ, and piano, and trumpets, and flutes, and strings, and cymbals, and shouts.
 
I dream of one hour a week with you, where we encounter God together in such a real and unmistakable way that strangers will enter and say, “God is surely in this place!”
 
That was the heart of the psalmist as well, and may it be our heart, a heart of worship.
 
Let's pray.