From Strength to Strength
April 24, 2017
Between times of strengthening, what shall we do?
We go. We go. We go.
"They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.''
(from Psalm 84)
There are times and places of meeting, encounter, and refreshing in our spirit lives which energize, revitalize, and inform every dimension of life. For those who could go to the house of God in the days of psalm singing pilgrimages, the longing for renewal was very real and vivid. Absence and fainting are described in the same breath. From strength to strength, we move, longing, hoping, reaching, living, breathing, panting, wondering, reminding ourselves of the goodness of God.
How lovely is every place where You dwell.
Even the sparrow knows.
Let me linger and open doors.
In the desert, I am comforted, encouraged, and hopeful.
From strength to strength, I go.
I go. I go. I go on.
We cannot be there every moment in the house of God as place, among the people of God as sacred space, in corporate worship face to face, nor awe-inspired by majesty, yet ... grace, grace, grace, keeps us and moves us from strength to strength.
No good thing does He withhold and we go on.
Sing with us, the psalm of longing and join with others in and as the house of God this weekend to be refreshed by the fellowship and living presence of living stones of His living temple.
"How lovely is your dwelling place,
O LORD of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints
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, O LORD of hosts,
my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise! Selah''
''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.''
''O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
Behold our shield, O 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 tents 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.
O LORD of hosts,
blessed is the one who trusts in you!''
(Psalm 84 ESV)
Here is a 15 minute place of encounter: