Dear Friends,
We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk. We give thanks to Rev. Dr Linda Stargel, Academic Dean and Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies and Biblical Language, for writing this devotional.
You are welcome to share this and include it in your church newsletters if you wish; we just ask that you please give credit to NTC and the author. Thank you!
Psalm 84 (NRSVUE)
To the leader: according to The Gittith. Of the Korahites. A Psalm.
1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
2 My soul longs, indeed it faints,
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh sing for joy
to the living God.
3 Even the sparrow finds a home
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my God.
4 Happy are those who live in your house,
ever singing your praise. Selah
5 Happy are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6 As they go through the valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
7 They go from strength to strength;
the God of gods will be seen in Zion.
8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
9 Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed.
10 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 live in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
he bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does the Lord withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
12 O Lord of hosts,
happy is everyone who trusts in you.
Devotional
Finding Our Home with God
Bec and Nick Stargel grew up as missionary kids in Haiti. From time to time, they were obliged to travel with their parents on home assignment, to various places in the USA, usually defined as home by one of their parents. During these times particularly, my kids had a hard time answering peoples’ question, “Where are you from?” Should they tell of the places they were born, of their Haiti-home, or of the temporary site of their home assignment?
Like the Stargel kids, the psalmist here seeks to define what it means to be home. As an Israelite, he likely made pilgrimages several times a year to the temple in Jerusalem for important festivals and celebrations. Because God dwelt there, the temple was one of the most beloved places on earth. But the reality was the psalmist only spent a few days a year there compared to the many days spent living far away. He expresses his longing to be in the temple courts (2), and he praises God for the times he arrives there and experiences the sense of being at home (1-4, 10). But as he reflects on the rest of his life far away, he realizes that the pathway of home is always engraved on his heart (5). He praises God for being present with all who are geographically far-away from the temple courts but who walk uprightly and trust God on their journey (5-8, 11-12). God’s strength is with them even in dry places, giving springs of refreshment. Home, the psalmist discovers, is everywhere that God is present.
During her home service travel one year, 5-year-old Bec was asked, “What is your favourite thing about living in Haiti?” Without hesitation, her response was, “My brother, Nicolas.” For her, whether she was traveling in the USA or back in Haiti, to be with her brother Nick was to be at home.
May we define home relationally as well, as we recognize God presence with us. God’s dwelling place is not geographical but with those who walk with and trust in him.
Prayer
God of endless ages, from one generation to the next you have been a refuge and strength. Before the mountains were born or the earth came to be, you are the eternal God. May you establish your kingdom and your home in us as we walk with and trust in you.
Shalom,
Linda M. Stargel (Academic Dean, Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies and Biblical Language)