Heart & FleshSample

I Would Rather Be A Door Keeper

I want to focus on a few specific things David says in Psalm 84.

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. (Psalm 84:10-11)

Normally I would immediately think that "walk uprightly" means without sin, but that's not exactly what that means. Of course, God doesn't want us to live in sin, but walking uprightly is much more about walking the way God intended for you to walk and less about trying not to sin. It's about walking, IN His ways, IN His thoughts, and IN His nature. Verses 10 and 11 are a beautiful picture of this journey God wants to bring us on.

First, He wants to place in us a desire for His house, or better put, for His habitation. That His love can so move us that only His ABIDING presence satisfies. God shares this desire with us in Ezekiel 36:26-27. When our heart beats after this habitation of the Lord, THEN we begin to walk uprightly. It says in that place that "no good thing will He withhold from you." It reminds me of what Jesus said about the person of the Holy Spirit in Luke 11:11-13. The absence of His abiding presence makes a tent of wickedness wherever we are. In the same way that without oxygen, you're not living but slowly dying. We begin to whither without the abiding presence of Jesus and without the desire for His abiding presence.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. John 15:4

Let's pray together:

King Jesus, your heart's desire for my life is that I would abide in you. And that you and I would be one the way you and the Father are one. I pray that you would open the eyes of my heart to see the reality of your great love for me! Please show me the victory of the gospel. You overcame sin and death so that the veil that separated you and me would be torn! Thank you, Jesus, for removing it and showing me your ways! Place in my heart a desire for closeness and a hunger for righteousness. Lead me today, and I will follow you. You are my Sun and My Shield.

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