Psalm | Psalm 84 (with Nick Locke)

Opening Song:
Psalm 84 (I’m Home) by Shane & Shane

Lyrics:
How lovely are Your dwelling places
Your Holy Spirit here in us
Oh how I love to sing Your praises
One day with You would be enough

When I bow down before You
I am richer than all kings
When I stand in Your presence
I am free
When I sit at Your table
I am right where I belong
In the doorway of my Father's house
I'm home

If all this world was for the taking
And every treasure known was mine
Not one of them would ever sway me
I'd choose my Savior every time

When I bow down before You
I am richer than all kings
When I stand in Your presence
I am free
When I sit at Your table
I am right where I belong
In the doorway of my Father's house
I'm home

Passage:
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O LORD of hosts!
2 My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and 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 Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise! Selah

5 Blessed 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;
each one appears before God 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 dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11 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.
12 O LORD of hosts,
blessed is the one who trusts in you!

(Psalm 84:1–12 ESV)

Musical Reflection:
I Need Thee Every Hour (NEED) by Robert Lowry

Reflection Notes:
Each stanza of this familiar hymn was written by Annie Hawks as part of a poem. When she showed the composition to her pastor, Robert Lowry, he added the refrain and set the text to music for their congregation to enjoy. The musical lines always tend upward before falling back down, an apt parallel to the textual pleas reaching up to God.

Prayer:
Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.