Sermon: Longing for Heaven, Longing for God

Well, it's a joy to be with you this morning. I've been with the men this weekend and we've been doing a series in the book of Sams, uh, excuse my Northern Irish way of pre pronouncing Psalms. So it's the book of Sams and uh, please turn with me to our final, uh, sermon in the series, Sam 84,

and as we come to the reading and the preaching of God's word, let me pray for us. Let's pray. Father, in your light we see light and so we pray that you would come now and by your Holy Spirit illuminate the reading and the preaching of your word so that we would see Jesus more clearly, love him more dearly and follow him more nearly. And we ask this in his name, the one who lives and reads with you and the Holy Spirit one God forever praised.

Amen. So Sam 84

to the choir master. According to the Gith, a Sam of the sons of Quora High lovely is your dwelling place. Oh Lord of hosts. My soul longs yes fes for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young at your altars. Oh Lord of hosts my king and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house ever singing your priest sayah.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion As they go through the valley of bacca, they make it a place of springs. The early re also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength. Each one appears before God and Zion, oh Lord God of hosts. Hear my prayer. Give ear, oh God of Jacob Sayah, behold our shield, oh God, look on the face of your anointed 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 tenths of wickedness for the Lord God is A sun and shield the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly, oh Lord of hosts. Blessed is the one who trusts in you.

The grass withers the flowers feed, but the word of our God endures forever.

CS Lewis once said, if I find in myself desires, which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world. Augustine said, oh God, you made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. Those two quotes by CS Lewis and Augustine, they capture the heartbeat of the Christian life. Longing for another world, longing for God. Different parts of the Bible bring this out

in an intense way. The heartbeat for another God, for sorry for another world, for God is always there in the Bible, but in some parts it's more pronounced than others. It's a bit like our own heartbeat. It's always there, but sometimes it's more elevated at other times like when you run up the stairs, your heart begins to race and you can feel the blood pumping through your veins. While certain parts of the Bible are like that.

At certain points in redemptive history, the human longing for another world, the human longing for God is pumping strong in an intense pulsating way. Just think of the patriarchs in Genesis. Abraham is called to leave his home and go to a country not his own. And when he gets there, what do we find? Him living in a tent. He never changes his abode till the day he dies Abraham. Abraham lives in a tent. Same with Isaac and Jacob. They both live in tents.

Here was this promised land of Edenic paradise, which was given to them by God and none of the patriarchs ever put a shovel in the ground. They only ever pitch tents. The writer of Hebrews captures it In chapter 11, by faith, Abraham went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land living in tents with Isaac and Jacob heirs with him of the same promise for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer

and builder is God odd. The patriarchs lived in tents. They saw themselves as strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They lived loosely to this world and longingly for another world. The writer of Hebrews summarizes their lives like this. These all died in faith not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would've had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country. That is a heavenly one. Do you see it? The patriarchs were strangers and exiles on the earth. Pilgrims looking for a homeland, looking for a better country, A heavenly one. Just think of when Sarah dies

and Abraham has to purchase a piece of land from the Hittites for her grave. Do you remember what he says? I am a sojourner and a stranger among you, so can I please buy a piece of ground to bury my wife? Do you know what's amazing about those words? He spoke them After living in the land for 62 years.

I am a sojourner and a stranger among you. Jacob speaks the same way when he arrives in Egypt, Pharaoh asks him, how old are you? He says, the days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my father's. In the days of their sojourning for Jacob, his life and that of his father's, Isaac and Abraham, Tara and Shem and Noah and Seth.

It was one long sojourn. They were pilgrims in the world. They could have sung with Jim Reeves, this world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. They were homesick for heaven, homesick for God. They had desires in them that nothing in this world could satisfy. As CS Lewis said, they were restless for God. As Augustine said, the period of the patriarchs living in their tents is one of those parts of the Bible where the heartbeat for heaven,

the heartbeat for God is pul seeding strong.

There's another part of the Old Testament that captures this heartbeat for another world, this heartbeat for God and that is the annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem, the annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Each year there were various festivals that were held in Jerusalem, the Feast of Passover and Pentecost, both around Easter time, the feast of Tabernacles around autumn, uh, harvest time. And in each case the Israelites would travel

from wherever they lived up to Jerusalem, up to the temple to make sacrifices, pay their tithes and to meet with God. And the journey was known as a pilgrimage and as such it was a pilgrimage to God's dwelling place because the temple symbolized God's dwelling place on earth. The temple in Jerusalem was like heaven come down to earth in microcosm. And so these pilgrimages to Jerusalem were a regular reminder to the Israelites that Canaan

was not their home, that they had a homeland beyond Canaan, somewhere better than Canaan. There was God's dwelling place, there was God himself and Sam 84 is set in the context of these annual pilgrimages to the temple in Jerusalem. And as such, it's another moment in the Bible where the heartbeat for heaven, the heartbeat for God is pulsating strong because this psalm, it strips back all the pomp and ceremony of the feasts at the temple

and it gets to the very heart of what these pilgrimages were about. These pilgrimages were about getting to God's home, about getting to God. Look at verse five. Blessed are those whose strength is in you. In whose heart are the highways to Zion? Verse seven, they go from strength to strength. Each one appears before God. In Zion, the pilgrimages were a regular reminder that their ultimate destination was heaven. Their ultimate destination was God.

And if Sam 84 does anything for us this morning, it's this. It shows us that this world is not our home. We're just a passing through. We're sojourners, strangers, exiles, pilgrims on the earth making our way to that celestial city above to God himself. And the Sam does this for us in three ways. Number one, a longing for heaven, a longing for God verses one to four, a longing for heaven, a long longing for God. Now keep in mind what I said earlier that God's temple

in Jerusalem was a picture of heaven come down to earth. It was heaven on earth and microcosm. So keep that in mind as I read verse one and two again. How lovely is your dwelling place? Oh Lord of hosts my soul longs yes fis for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. The word lovely here doesn't mean that God's dwelling place is lovely looking though I'm sure it was if that's what the samist meant.

It's a bit strange. He doesn't go on to describe God's lovely looking dwelling place. There are no descriptions of the temple in this Sam. Rather the word lovely here means more something like lovable. Hi, lovable is your dwelling place. Oh hi. I love your dwelling place and the psalmist's love for God's dwelling place is expressed in his intense longing for it. Verse two, my soul longs yes fis for the courts of the Lord.

My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Two opposite descriptions of one intense longing. He faints for God's dwelling place. The blood rushes from his body and in a kind of craving for the place and then his heart and flesh sing for joy. Now the blood rushes back if you like because you can't sing if you're feeling faint too polar opposite experiences fainting and singing and together they capture the one intense longing

for the courts of the Lord. Being with God in his temple courts is this samist one consuming passion. It's why the psalmist says that those who get to live there permanently are blessed. Verse three and four, verse three. The sparrows are blessed because they get to find a home in the arches of the roof of the temple. The swallows are blessed because they get to make a nest in the eaves of the temple. She gets to have her young near his altars.

The birds have easy free access to God's home. They come and go as they please boys and girls. It's a bit like when you visit a farm here in Michigan and you see the sparrows and the swallows flying in and out of the barns. They just go in and out as they please boys and girls, have you ever seen them ask the farmer for permission? No. They just go in and out as they please and that's what this samist does because he's one of the sons of Cora.

He has constant access to God's temple courts. The cites were priests from the tribe of Levi and they had the responsibility of looking after the temple sanctuary. Samuel was from the line of Cora. The sons of Cora were known as the door keepers of the temple. And this samist views his privilege equal to the sparrows and the swallows because he can come and go into God's temple as he pleases with ease. The psalmist describes this privilege with a simple,

rich, biblical word. Blessed verse four, blessed are those who dwell in your house ever singing your priest. It's the picture of the sons of Cora standing in the temple singing Psalms with the swallows and the sparrows chirping away in the background.

Now I remember what the temple symbolized. It was a symbol of heaven on earth, which means there's a comfort and an encouragement for those of us who have lost loved ones in Christ, family and friends in Christ who have departed this world often too earlier, too much earlier than we would've expected or hoped. They leave a massive hole in our lives, don't they? One of the peculiar pains of death is the absence that death brings into our lives.

The empty crib, the empty bed, the empty space at the table, the empty shoes at the front door, the absence at Thanksgiving or Christmas. And when we feel the absence, what do we long for? We long for our loved ones in Christ to come back to us. Even just for one day. Just one more day to have the baby in the crib. Just one more day to have the child at the table. Just one more day to have the spouse in the bed, just one more day to have grandma

or grandpa for Thanksgiving or Christmas. But think about what we'd be asking of them. We'd be asking them to leave the courts of the Lord of hosts to leave their home in heaven where they get to praise God continually. Why would we want them to have to leave that? Yes, we're grieved by their absence, but they are blessed by God's presence. That's the comfort here.

Do you have a loved one in Christ who has departed? They're blessed. They have never been more blessed.

But there's also an encouragement here because when our loved ones in Christ depart from us, they encourage us to go and meet them on the other side on that eternal shore. Their departure makes us long for heaven. Remember when we said goodbye to our daughter Layla? She was stillborn at nine months and we spent a day with her on a Thursday and on the Friday we said goodbye to her and I kissed her on the forehead and I said, my sweet, sweet Layla,

we'll see you on the other side. Of course she was already there, but you know what I mean? And Jackie and I since that departure, have never longed for heaven more. That's what Layla's taught us. Come dad,

come away. Come, come to the happy land. Come and sing the praises of our king. That's what our loved ones do. They encourage us to go and meet them because they're not coming back to us. It's what David said when his son died, I shall go to him. Him he shall not return to me. The sad and grievous departures of our loved ones in Christ, they make us long for the heavenly courts. They make us long for God because that's who lives in the heavenly courts.

Did you notice how verse four ends? It doesn't end with a place but with a person. Blessed are those who dwell in your house ever singing your praise.

CS Lewis once said, heaven is Oxford lifted up and placed in county down Northern Ireland. Well you can hear from my accent. I'm from county down Northern Ireland, right? CS Lewis was a genius. Uh, I think the only reason he didn't say East Lansing is he just never got to visit. But uh, like old geniuses, he had his blind spots. He got the right county, the right country. He got the wrong city. Should have said Cambridge, not Oxford.

Uh, but I'll forgive him as a fellow countryman. But what was Lewis saying? He was saying that heaven is not just a beautiful place like county Dine Northern Ireland. No, for Lewis Heaven is a beautiful place because it's an inhabited place. When he spoke about Oxford being lifted up and placed in county dine, he was speaking of Oxford, the university city with the students and the professors and the towns folk and the libraries and the culture.

Lewis was saying that heaven is about the people as much as it is about the place. And that's what this samist is saying. Heaven is a praiseworthy place. It is lovable because of who lives there. It is praiseworthy because the God who lives there is praiseworthy. God is lovable and that's why, oh how I love your dwelling place. Heaven is only heaven because of who lives there. What's interesting in this Sam is that references

to God's dwelling place occur only six times, but references to God occur 14 or 15 times. The samist is not just longing for a place, he's longing for a person. He's longing for the God of heaven. 'cause heaven is only heaven because of who lives there. Blessed are those who dwell in your house ever singing your praise.

That's the first thing that this Sam shows us. A longing for heaven, a longing for God. Second, a longing for he, sorry, a sojourn to heaven, a sojourn to God, a sojourn to heaven, a sojourned to God. Verses five to seven. The last stanza ended with a blessing on those who live in God's temple. This stanza begins with a blessing on those who journey to God's temple. Verse five, blessed are those whose strength is in you.

In whose heart are the highways to Zion. In other words, blessed are those who are already in heaven. And blessed are those who have the journey to heaven fixed in their hearts who have pilgrimage fixed in their hearts. That's what the phrase highways Zion refers to. Such people says The samist are a source of refreshing comfort as the pilgrims travel through the valley of Bacca. On the way to Zion, we're not sure exactly where the valley of Bacca was,

but most commentators think bacca refers to balsam trees, which were in the valley of em, southwest of Jerusalem. It was the one pilgrim route for those in the south that involved walking through a valley. It was perhaps the most difficult route because this valley was dry in the autumn. It was dangerous because the Philistines uh lived nearby. But more than that, Bacca sounds like the Hebrew word for weeping. This is the valley of weeping.

Perhaps the balsam trees wept their gum. Isaac Watson, John Light in their versions of Sam 84 capture this with the phrase veil of tears, VALE, veal of tears. Yet notice what the samist says. Those who go into this veal of tears with their strength firmly rooted in God with pilgrimage in their hearts with the highways Zion in their hearts, they can turn a dry place into a place of springs. In other words, their lives become a blessing to those

who journey with them. I wonder if you've ever met somebody like that who's heavenly minded. Maybe you've also heard the saying that that person is so heavenly minded there of no earthly use. You heard that saying, it's a load of nonsense. Those who are so heavenly minded are of great earthly use because they remind us the destiny of our journey. They point us to heaven, they point us to God. They teach us to live loosely to this world

and longingly for another world. It was said of Richard Sibs, the Puritan after his death. Heaven was in him before he was in heaven. Heaven was in him before he was in heaven. I had a dear friend called Sam who went to be with the Lord at the beginning of 2020. He died just short of his 30th birthday. After more than a decade long fight with leukemia. He recovered from leukemia on a couple of occasions was in remission,

but for 10 years he suffered with the crippling disease of the graft versus host disease where the bone marrow transplant he had received that kept him alive, attacked his body, it attacked his organs, his skin, his whole body was plagued with this thing. And it robbed him of many of the basic comforts and joys that we all take for granted over the years. I would visit him in Sydney when we were back there. He was from Australia and then he moved to Oxford

and I would visit him in Oxford when I would be back in the UK. And every time I met with Sam, I would see this disease corroding his body. And yet I left my time with Sam every time

feeling more refreshed as a Christian longing for heaven more. Sam told me once, he said, I just lived for two days. 'cause he, there was no answer to his disease. There was no hope for him in this life. He says, I just lived for two days. I lived for today. And that day, heaven was in him before he was in heaven.

And because heaven was in him, he was a refreshing spring to those around him. That's why he was of great earthly use. If you have a copy of Be Thy My Vision, you'll see that it's written in memory of him and that's where our lives are heading to heaven to God. Verse seven, they go from strength to strength. Each one appears before God in heaven. Interestingly, in this second stanza, all talk of God's dwelling places disappeared.

Did you notice that we're now just focused on God. We're just focused on getting to God on journeying to God in Zion because that's the destiny of our earthly pilgrimage. Not so much to a place, but to a person, which is what the psalmist then prays for in verses eight to 12, which brings us to our third point, a prayer to reach heaven, a prayer to reach God. We've seen a longing for heaven, a longing for God, a sojourn to heaven, a sojourn to God.

And now third, a prayer to reach heaven, a prayer to reach God versus it to to 12. Oh Lord God of hosts. Hear my prayer. Give ear, oh God of Jacob Sayah, behold our shield, oh God, look on the face of your anointed 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 tense of wickedness for the Lord God is a son and shield the Lord bestows favor and honor.

No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly, oh Lord of hosts. Blessed is the one who trusts in you. It is a prayer to reach heaven, a prayer to reach God. But out of nowhere, the psalmist begins talking about Israel's king. Did you notice that in verse nine? In the Old Testament, a shield was a metaphor for Israel's king and anointed one was the title of Israel's king. So this is a prayer for Israel's king,

but what is the king got to do with the courts of the Lord? Well, quite a lot because the prosperity of God's people and the protection of God's temple in Zion was dependent on the prosperity and security of God's king Israel's shield. If Israel's king was disobedient, then God's curse fell on king and priest and people. And if God's curse fell on them, then they became vulnerable to the surrounding nations. Just think ahead to the exile.

When Judah went into exile, it was because her kings had fallen into sin and God brought the curse on them, and that curse took the form of the Babylonians coming and destroying the temple. And as a result, God's people no longer had access to his house. They could no longer make their pilgrimages up to Jerusalem to God in Zion. Now they were off in Babylon as slaves because of sin. He could no longer be a shield to his people.

The king had failed. And so this samist praise behold our shield, oh God, look on the face of your anointed with favor because the psalmist knows if the king prospers, then access to God's place remains open. That's what the word for is doing in verse 10. Behold our shield, oh God, look on the face of your anointed show favor to the king because I want to be in your courts for a day and your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tenths of wickedness. There are two comparisons in that verse. The first is temporal. A day in God's courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. That's one day to three years. The second comparison is spatial. Being on the edge of God's temple courts on the threshold is better than being inside the tents of wickedness with all their seeming pleasures.

This picture of standing on the threshold of God's temple courts came home to me a number of years ago when we were leaving Cambridge to come and live here in the United States. It was our last Sunday before we were leaving the next week. And I said to Jackie, let's go down to King's College Chapel to an even song and to hear those beautiful voices of the choir boys sing one last time. And so we went down on a crisp, cold winter afternoon in December,

and we got there too late. The doors were locked, but I heard something and I said, well let's, let's go and stand at the door and see if we can hear them. And we pinned our ears against this ancient wooden door of King's College Chapel. And in the freezing cold, we stood there for an hour or an hour, as you say here, we stood there for 60 minutes. Why? Because we were listening to the sound of angels singing. We were gripped by the beauty

of these voices singing god's. And so we stood there on the threshold and we would rather have stood in the cold on the threshold than back in our house in front of the fire because God's courts are so wonderful. And that's why the Samist wants God to look with fever on the king because if he can get access to the courts, a day in those courts is better than three years anywhere else. If he could just stand on the threshold of the courts and

and listen to the sons of Quora and the birds singing in the temple, he'd rather do that than be off partying with the world in their tenths of wickedness. And why? Why are the courts of God incomparable? Well, verse 11, another four, for the Lord God is a sun and shield. Why is one day in heaven better than a thousand elsewhere? Why is standing on the threshold of heaven better than dwelling in the tense of the world's pleasures?

Because God is in heaven

in that heavenly country. Bright need they know created light, thy it's light, it's joy, it's crown, thy it's sun, which goes not dying. Why is heaven incomparable? Because God is there and God is a son. It's a picture of life and light, and he's a shield. It's a picture of protection and safety. God is our life. He is our light. He is our protection, he is our safety. And that is why his courts are incomparable.

And look what he gives. He bestows favor. That's grace and honor. That's glory. And he does not withhold any good thing from those who walk uprightly by faith. What is this good thing that he does not withhold? Well, the word good in verse 11 is the same word in Hebrew as the word better in verse 10, for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. In other words, ultimately the good thing that God does not withhold from us is being

with him in his courts. God does not withhold heaven from us. God does not withhold himself from us. What God gives us in the gospel is not just the benefits of the gospel, forgiveness, the spirit. No, he gives us the benefactor of the gospel. He gives us himself in the gospel.

And because of this, the samist praise that God would show favor on his anointed. One, because the only access to God is through the king. The only access to God is through the king. And for us, that king, that shield, that anointed one is Christ Jesus. Christ our king. And the good news of the gospel is that God has shown him favor. He has looked upon our anointed one. All through the Old Testament. There were kings who gave us hope, but then they failed.

David wrote Sam saying hi. He longed to dwell in the house of the Lord and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord all the days of his life. And then he went and slept with another man's wife. David couldn't get us into those heavenly courts. It was great. David's greater son, Jesus who lived the perfect life under the law and who embodied in his life perfectly, the desires and sentiments of this Sam, he was the great singer of the Psalms.

Jesus sung Sam 84, which means that the desires expressed in this psalm were met fully and perfectly in him, our great high priest who lives in the temple courts of God. But just think about his earthly life. He was the son of man, born of Mary on earth, but he never forgot that he was the son of his father in heaven during his earthly ministry. He never put a shovel in the ground, never bought a house, didn't even have a tent to pitch.

Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests. But the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. He lived like the patriarchs, a sojourner for 33 years, a pilgrim just passing through because this world was not his home during his earthly ministry. Where did he love to be at? The temple, which symbolized God's presence. His one consuming passion on earth was to glorify his father on earth and then return home to those heavenly courts.

When he died on the cross, that's exactly what he did. He opened the way up to go to those heavenly courts. Remember what happened, boys and girls, when Jesus died on the cross, the temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom. It was symbolizing that this is the anointed king who has opened the way to those heavenly courts. And then after his resurrection, he ascended up into heaven, blasted through the clouds and sat down in those heavenly courts at

his father's right hand.

Jesus, his whole life embodied the desires and affections of this samist. And he did it perfectly.

But do you remember what he said to his disciples before he left them? If I go away, I go to prepare a place for you. In my father's house are many mansions. And if I go away, I will come again. So that where I am, you might be also. I love that American folk song. I have a home beyond the river. I have a mansion, bright and fair. I have a home beyond the river,

and I will dwell with Jesus there.

The question is how do we get there? Boys and girls? How do we get to that heavenly court through God's anointed king? Which brings us to verse 12, oh Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you. It's the third blessed in this Sam. Blessed are those in heaven. Verse four. Blessed are those with the journey to heaven fixed in their hearts. Verse five. And now blessed are those who trust in the Lord as they journey to heaven.

Verse 12, boys and girls, that's how we get to heaven. Trust in the Lord that is in God's anointed king Jesus. Because in his life death, he opened up the way to heaven. That temple curtain was torn in two, and it's never been stitched back together.

And when Jesus, the king does bring us to those bright courts of heaven into that mansion, bright and fair, we are gonna find out that Cs Lewis and Augustine were right. We were Made for another world. We were made for God because those longings that we experience now, partially they are going to be met then fully and finally, not simply in a place, but in a person they will be met in God himself. And then he will be all and all to us.

And so we pray, come Lord Jesus and take your people home. Let us pray.

Father, so often our hearts, our cold and stony cold, our warmest thought of thee. And yet we pray today that by your spirit and your word, you would warm our hearts, stir our affections for you, the living God, and give us renewed desires on our journey to Zion, on our journey to you, that we might love you all our days and long for that day when we will gaze upon you and see your beautiful face and your son, the anointed king

who made it all possible for us. And we ask this in his strong name. Amen.