Psalm 84:6-7 The Valley of Baca
Each one of us has a destiny in Christ. A walk or a journey that we must make to get to our final destination. God himself is our destination, as in his presence is fullness of joy and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore. Yet, to arrive at our ultimate destination, all believers should expect to pass through the dry valley where the only apparent water is our tears. We cannot make a detour as it is on the highway to heaven.
Do you feel that the Lord forgotten you, as you are even now passing through the dry valley?
If that is you or a loved one then His word to you today, is to remind you that He is the same Lord God who pours out his Spirit on the dry and thirsty ground and causes the crocus to bloom in the desert. The Lord has filled your wayside pools with living water.
Draw near to him who is the fountain of living water and be refreshed and renewed and you shall go from strength to strength, and you shall increase.
The early rain has started and is falling.
Main Text
Psalm 84
Spurgeon has called this Psalm ‘the pearl of the Psalms.’ Psalm 84 has a subtle radiance. The psalm would be sung accompanied by the music of the gittith (a stringed instrument) and sung joyfully as the grapes were pressed to make the new wine.
It is subtitled 'longing for temple worship', and we are a people who are longing for true spiritual worship of the living God.
The Psalm describes a journey into God’s very presence.
Our motivation for the Journey
Verse 1-2; Feel the longing and desire of the psalmist as he contemplates the Lord’s house some Christians almost have to be whipped to come to the Lord’s house. It was the psalmist’s heart’s desire.
Verse 3; He guided the sparrows and swallows just to be near him. We can identify with him as my King and my God.
Verse 4; What a privilege for those who are with him, all the time. No wonder they are praising him continually.
When the journey gets difficult
Verse 5; How unmovable, how unshakable are those who draw their strength for the journey from God himself as their map, and their route is in their heart.
As the Spirit says, ‘this is the way, walk ye in it’.
Verse 6; The Valley of Baca, is known as the valley of weeping and is the dry and arid valley where only the mulberry tree can grow. The Valley of Baca to the Israelites represented the season of spiritual drought and dejection.
A dry and arid time where the only water is from your own tears, but yet we can take our strength from God. His ways are in our hearts.
As we are passing through (for it is for a season) the dry valley, we can actually turn it into a place of pools and springs, joyfully looking to our final destination. God himself surely, he is worthy of a little toil and effort. He intervenes and is intervening today to show you his pools of living water that you can drink deeply from to be refreshed, to be renewed and comforted whilst you are in the dry place.
Beloved, it is by faith that we bring out the living water from the rock and the dry ground. God has and is even now filling the pools with his gentle early rain and the desert areas in your lives are beginning to bloom with the crocus. Drink of His Spirit instead of becoming weary as the journey goes on.
Verse 7; We can go from strength to strength, supply to supply, force to force, company to company. Drink from the scriptures:
Isaiah 12:3; Draw joyously from wells of salvation.
John 4:14; Drink of living waters that truly quench.
Psalm 23; Let your cup overflow.
Everyone who thirsts may come to the waters.
Yes, everyone who draws their strength from him.
Yes, everyone who places their trust in him.
Yes, everyone who drinks deeply from his Spirit.
Yes, you will go from strength to strength and will make it. You will achieve your destiny and enter into his very presence forever.
Even today, your wayside pools are filled with water, the early rain of the Holy Spirit is falling right now. Let each one of us drink deeply of the Spirit right now by faith for the Lord desires to refresh, renew and comfort you today.
And you will go from strength to strength.
Amen
Personal Prayer
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