{"id":18032,"date":"2014-02-23T01:35:50","date_gmt":"2014-02-23T06:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=18032"},"modified":"2014-02-23T01:38:46","modified_gmt":"2014-02-23T06:38:46","slug":"better-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/02\/23\/better-courts\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Courts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For better is a day in Your courts than a thousand [elsewhere]; <\/span><\/strong>
\nI prefer standing at the threshold in the house of my God <\/span><\/strong>
\nmore than dwelling in the tents of the wicked.<\/span><\/strong>
\nPsalm 84: 10<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Psalm 84 is a song of longing for the house of God, to be where the Lord dwells, and where His praise is sung and His people gather for worship. It may have been sung by Hebrew pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem for a festival, but whatever the context, it expresses the heartfelt desire for worship that should be in every believer.<\/p>\n

The psalmist makes two comparisons in this verse. The first<\/strong><\/em> is between spending a day in the courts of the Lord than a thousand days elsewhere, or in other places. The Temple in Jerusalem had a series of courts, an outer court for Gentile converts, a court for women, a court for Israelite men, and a court for priests. There were also various gateways into the courts, used by different people for different purposes. At the center of the Temple was the Holy of Holies, which is where the Ark of the Covenant was and where, once a year, the sacrifice for atonement was made by the High Priest. \u00a0The psalmist says that to be in the courts of the Lord\u2013and he doesn\u2019t specify which one, so we can presume any of these courts, is better than spending a thousand days anywhere else. \u00a0Just to be within the vicinity of where God\u2019s people are worshipping just for a day is more precious than being anywhere else for a thousand days.<\/p>\n

The second<\/em><\/strong> comparison is between standing at the threshold of the Temple (some translations speak of being a \u201cgatekeeper\u201d\u2013but I think \u201cstanding at the threshold\u201d makes more sense of the comparison), and dwelling in the tents of the wicked. Someone who stands at the threshold of a place is someone who is not planning to stay. They\u2019re visiting, or just looking in, as opposed to someone who dwells, who has made their abode in that place. The psalmist has made a choice (my translation \u201cprefer\u201d is probably not strong enough\u2013the verb is \u201cto choose\u201d): he would rather hang around the entrance to the Temple, able to hear the worship of God\u2019s people, than live with the wicked in their tents, far removed from the praises being offered to the Lord.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t worship in the Temple, but we do gather for worship every Lord\u2019s Day with God\u2019s people. \u00a0And we do know the Lord inhabits the praises of His people, so the place they are gathered for worship is, indeed, the Lord\u2019s house. \u00a0Do we consider going to church better than being anywhere else? \u00a0Would we rather stand in the lobby, hearing the voices of God\u2019s people lifted in praise, and the words of the Scriptures read and expounded, than be among unbelievers? Church is not an optional extra for Christians. \u00a0The Lord expects us to gather with our brethren in Christ for public, corporate worship. \u00a0May the words of this psalm impress upon us the attitude we should have toward church.<\/p>\n

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *<\/span><\/h4>\n

Lord, we give You glory for the privilege to be among people who worship You. We will dwell in Your courts forever; in Jesus\u2019 name. Amen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For better is a day in Your courts than a thousand [elsewhere]; I prefer standing at the threshold in the house of my God more than dwelling in the tents of the wicked. Psalm 84: 10 Psalm 84 is a song of longing for the house of God, to be where the Lord dwells, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3188,3173,5597,1287,425,5596,5598],"class_list":["post-18032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-ann-mwafulirwa","tag-daily-devotional","tag-dwelling-in-gods-courtstemplehouse","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-psalm-8412","tag-seeking-him-devotioanl","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-4GQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18032"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18035,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18032\/revisions\/18035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}