"Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
As they go through the Valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion."
(Psalm 84:5-7)

September 26, 2026

Dear friends,

As Christians it's good to get reminders that we're not home yet.

This morning my wife and I read Psalm 84 together. Yesterday we had a rather long road trip, and we were glad to get home to our own beds last night. The thought of getting home helps you get home, if you know what I mean.

On his pilgrimage to Mount Zion the psalmist writes, "How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD..." (Psalm 84:1-2) He reflects happily that even the sparrow has a place in the temple of God (v 3). (And Jesus said of the sparrows: "Not one of them is forgotten before God." --Luke 12:6)

Meanwhile, the journey there involves thirst and tears for pilgrims (vv 5-7). He places the Highway to Home upon their hearts to draw them. (Like migration and Monarch butterflies?) He turns their tears into pools and provides springs for their thirst. (The “Valley of Baca” may be translated “valley of tears”.) He gives recurring strength. Again, and again. They will -- they will -- arrive at their destination, Mount Zion. "They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion." (v 7)

The journey involves much prayer: "...hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob!" (v 8) The psalm does not say the journey will be easy. But here's the real secret to the success of the pilgrimage: "Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed!" (v 9) This may be referring to the nation, but likely it’s a look ahead to the Messiah. The Anointed One, Jesus, watches over them all the way, as it says: "...he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." (Hebrews 7:24-25)

"A day in your courts is better..." (vv 10-12) Better! Here the born again Christian heartily agrees (and disagrees with most of the world): Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord. No good thing does God withhold from those who walk uprightly. In this life we stand, as it were, just outside the full and unveiled presence of the Lord. At the door, at the gate, in the courtyard. We've not fully entered in. We're still on pilgrimage, going through our valleys of Baca, shedding our tears, and still feeling thirst. But still, if we've tasted the goodness of the Lord, we would say, we do say, it is better to be on this road of pilgrimage than to live and feast and dwell in the tents of wickedness in this world.

"For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere." (Psalm 84:10) The Christian life here is a life of pilgrimage. And we're not home yet.

Let me close with a little poem from Martin Luther that I came upon this week...

“Feelings come and feelings go,
And feelings are deceiving;
My warrant is the Word of God--
Naught else is worth believing.

"Though all my heart should feel condemned
For want of some sweet token,
There is One greater than my heart
Whose Word cannot be broken.

"I'll trust in God's unchanging Word
Till soul and body sever,
For, though all things shall pass away,
HIS WORD SHALL STAND FOREVER!”

And that's it for this week!

Sandy

Afterwords is an occasional newsletter on topics of interest to me (Sandy Young) since my retirement from full-time pastoral ministry. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.