Heart Songs: Week Three | Entering God's Sanctuary (Psalm 84)Sample

Reap the Blessings

Someone once asked evangelist Dwight Moody, "How do you manage to remain so intimate in your relationship with Christ?"

He replied, "I have come to Him as the best friend I have ever found, and I can trust Him in that relationship. I have believed He is Savior; I have believed He is God; I have believed His atonement on the cross is mine, and I have come to Him and submitted myself on my knees, surrendered everything to Him, and gotten up and stood by His side as my friend, and there isn't any problem in my life, there isn't any uncertainty in my work, but I turn and speak to Him as naturally as to someone in the same room, and I have done it these years because I can trust Jesus" (adapted from Robert J. Morgan, Nelson's Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes [Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000]).

Moody had learned the secret of surrendering everything into the hands of God to be able to reap the blessings. In today's verses, the psalmist gave the Lord God his life, knowing that through living a consistent, upright life, God would allow His grace to fill his life.

Read the verses below and answer the following questions:

"For the LORD God is a sun and shield;

The LORD will give grace and glory;

No good thing will He withhold

From those who walk uprightly.

"O LORD of hosts,

Blessed is the man who trusts in You!" (Psalm 84:11-12).

Practical Observation

1. How is the Lord God described?

God's Holiness. The brilliance of God's holiness shines a light on and exposes our sins. The crimson blood of Christ covers us as a protective shield, allowing God's gaze to behold us through Jesus' righteousness. "But to you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings" (Malachi 4:2).

2. Explain what the Lord will give and to whom He'll give it.

3. Psalm 15:2-3 says, "He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart; he who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend." What attributes do you see in that passage of those who walk uprightly?

4. What causes a person to be blessed?

Personal Application

a. Think back on your answers to question 3. Are you walking uprightly? If not, what areas of your life do you need to change?

b. We learned today that God does not withhold any good thing from His children who walk uprightly. What blessings, spiritual or other, have you received from living in integrity and truth?

c. Like the sun, God's holiness radiates over all the earth, exposing the sin of mankind. If you finish this lesson during the day, step outside, close your eyes and let the sun shine on you. Get a flashlight or a tiny lamp if you're completing this lesson at night. Turn off all the lights, close your eyes, and shine the light on yourself. Take a few minutes to open your heart and let God's holiness shine in you. Take time to think about what He revealed to you.

Shortly after the death of their daughter Robin, Roy Rogers and his wife, Dale Evans, met a pale little boy who stuck out his hand and said, "Howdy, pahtnah!" Dale and Roy adopted him and named him Sandy because of his hair. He was bright-eyed and good-natured and was a blessing for the couple. During a Billy Graham Crusade, Sandy became a Christian.

At seventeen, he enlisted in the army "to prove myself." Sandy worked hard and won respect. He was sent to Germany and then volunteered for Vietnam. One day, as Dale Evans returned from a trip, she received the news at the airport. "It's Sandy, Mom. He's dead." Sandy had returned from twenty-six days of maneuvers. His buddies had taken him out for the night, and Sandy, who couldn't tolerate alcohol, had given in. They fed him hard liquor until he collapsed. The following morning, he was discovered dead in his bunk.

Drawing strength from Scripture, Dale Evans survived the sorrow. "Tragedy in a Christian's life is a refiner," she wrote. "God has not promised an easy way, but peace at the center of the hard way" (adapted from Robert J. Morgan, Nelson's Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes [Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000]). For the believer, the blessings from God are many, but most important is the peace of God's presence in us on earth, and ultimately our union with Him eternally.

Let your heart long for the living God, like the psalmist did, even in the darkest valley and on the longest journey. Determine in your heart to dwell with Him now and for eternity. You can expect to reap blessings. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8).