We often think of Old Testament worship as full of requirements, laws, and sacrifices so that there must have been no joy in coming to worship. But here the psalmist is rebuking the idea that the worship of God was some sort of chore, or some hard demand God put upon his people. That is not what it was at all.
Psalm 84 says, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts.” The words “dwelling place” refer to God’s tabernacle. The tabernacle was the place that God had chosen to come down and meet with his people in the wilderness. The God of heaven and earth had descended to meet with his people that they might call upon his name and worship him in the beauty of his holiness.
Notice the fervency of the psalmist; he is describing his love to come to worship. Deep within his being he longs, even faints, to think about the worship of God.
Worship in the Old Testament was filled with joy!
We often think of Old Testament worship as full of requirements, laws, and sacrifices so that there must have been no joy in coming to worship. But here the psalmist is rebuking the idea that the worship of God was some sort of chore, or some hard demand God put upon his people. That is not what it was at all.
The psalmist is describing that he found coming to the Lord’s house as the exact opposite, it’s lovely. How lovely is your tabernacle! It’s as if he says, “The worship of the Lord thrills my soul; it is my greatest passion, to be where God dwells. The worship of you, O Lord, is the most satisfying thing I have ever done with my life.”
This isn’t the only place such a description of worship is given. Psalm 27 states,
One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple. (Ps. 27:4)
The worship of the Lord for these saints was the ultimate blessing.
The psalmist is speaking about the spiritual blessings that flow from God’s presence.
Why is worship so important? The Psalmist is not putting emphasis on places of stone or wood nor the physical structure of the tabernacle. He is speaking about the spiritual blessings that flow from God’s presence as he had chosen to come down and tabernacle among them. There is an understanding presented to us in this psalm that when God’s people gathered corporately for worship on the Sabbath, there was something happening that you couldn’t get anywhere else.
You will notice in Psalm 84 that the psalmist’s heart and his flesh are crying out for the living God:
My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God. (Ps. 84:2)
God himself had chosen to come and dwell among them in that place.
