The Blessed Man - May 24th, 2026

Well, if you're able, uh, if you could rise and for the reading of God's word. And today we're gonna be going through Psalm 84, but just for our Bible reading purposes today, we're just gonna read from verse 10. And this is the reading of God's word. For better is a day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would choose to stand at the threshold of the house of my God, then dwell in the tents of wickedness. For Yahweh God is a son and shield. Yahweh gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk blamelessly. O Yahweh of hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in you. Let's pray. Lord, we just want to thank you for your goodness in our lives. And as we come before you today to hear your word, we approach you with fear and trembling, with awe.

Knowing God, what you have done in our lives and what you continue to do. And Lord, as we reflect upon the salvation you have given us through your son Jesus Christ, and just the indwelling of your Holy Spirit, may we just come before you with worshipful hearts, that we would seek to glorify and honor you. And as we hear your word today, we ask, Lord, that you would just open up our hearts and our minds to the things that you would have to speak to us. I pray, Lord, that this time for myself, Lord, would be less of me and more of you, that just your proclaimed word would go forth. And so, Lord, we commit this time unto you. We thank you, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, please be seated.

Back in the early 2010s, and continuing to today, the popular social media hashtag blessed was used to convey gratitude for things that people had or experienced. For example, when one received a car or a job promotion, they would post a picture to social media and then tag it with blessed. This seemingly humble post would more often than not actually be a humble brag to show off lavish vacations or extravagant extravagant gifts that one would receive. This is just a small example of what the world considers as being blessed. So today, I wanted us to us to help us to understand biblically what it means to actually be blessed. Jesus addresses this in his Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5, verse 3 to 10, where in rapid succession, he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the lowly, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on and so forth.

Similarly, today, the author of our psalm addresses what it means to be blessed in three of his own beatitudes. We're gonna be looking at all three of them, but as you'll see, we're gonna look at it from the first four verses, and then the last four verses, and then we're gonna conclude in the middle. And so this is our outline for today. It's how uh of Psalm 84, 1 through 12, how blessed are those who dwell in your house, and then two, how blessed is the man who trusts in you, and we'll look at that from verses 8 through 12. And then lastly, we'll conclude in the middle: how blessed is the man whose strength is in you. So, with that, we're gonna jump into it. I'm gonna read us the first four verses, and it says, How lovely are your dwelling places, O Yahweh of hosts.

My soul has longed and even fainted for the courts of Yahweh. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the bird has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself where she sets her young. At your altars, O Yahweh of hosts, my king and my God. The blessed man is the one who is near to the Lord. We see this in verse four, and you can see it there, how blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are ever praising you. What comes to mind when you guys think of the dwelling place of God? Where do you think that is? And what makes it so lovely? Well, these first, these questions are elaborated on in the in the first three verses. So look at it with me in verse one, and it addresses why it's so lovely.

It says, How lovely are your dwelling places? The author asks this rhetorical question of how lovely are your dwelling places. But the word how here, it's not used in the traditional sense of a question. Here it's exclaimed to convey the absolute loveliness or the belovedness to be in the place where Yahweh dwells. The how here intensifies the description of the loveliness of the dwelling place of Yahweh. This expression is similar to seeing something that's so amazing and so grand that you can't help but just exclaim, Wow. It's like hiking strenuously up to the Grand Canyon, and to finally reach the peak, and then to look down and behold the sight of the beautiful valley below. You can't help but just to say, Wow.

And so the how in these verses again is not used as a question, but it's an expression of wow. When thinking about the dwelling place of Yahweh, the author cannot help but to be wowed. He's blown away, and he cannot help but marvel in the courts of Yahweh. So the question is, what is he marveling at? What makes the dwelling place of God so beautiful to the author? What causes such a stir in his heart that he can't help but exclaim, How lovely the dwelling place of Yahweh is.

But for the author of this psalm, it's not about the command or the obligation to go and worship God. What we see is his posture and his attitude of the author as he's in full anticipation and joy to be able to go and worship God. Look at that, look at it with me in verse 2. He says, My soul has longed and even fainted for the courts of Yahweh. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. When was the last time that you felt such exuberance to worship the Lord? When was the last time you were so excited to worship God that you could not contain your joy? And here, the author speaks of three things his soul, heart, and his flesh. What he's conveying here is that every fiber of his being, every beating of his heart, every strand of his soul is longing and fainting to be in the presence of Yahweh.

But why? It's because the author longs to worship God in his presence. It was literally what we as humans were created for. We were made by God, for God, to glorify and worship him. Well, for us as believers, this is the type of attitude that we should have as we get to corporately worship God each and every Sunday. So let me ask again. What comes to mind when you think about the dwelling place of God? Where is it? Well, for us today, we don't have to go on a pilgrimage to be in the presence of the Lord. Today, the dwelling place of God is literally in ourselves. God's word says that his sanctuary is our bodies. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19, it says, Or do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own.

But the reality of knowing that the Holy Spirit dwells within us should make us more excited to worship him that much more.

Blessing was being in God's presence. And for us, we're already blessed, but we neglect that truth. The author says that his soul has longed and even fainted for the courts of Yahweh. But we're in a position that we don't have to long or faint, because we're literally united with God through the sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ and through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit. I think the problem for us is that we get so distracted by the busyness of life or the pleasures of this world that we take for granted how good we actually have it. Again, we are more blessed today than the author of this psalm who had to pilgrimage to the temple. We have the Holy Spirit. And yet, I would be the first to admit that there are times when I neglect to spend time with the Lord, whether that's in prayer, whether that's in reading his word.

But brothers and sisters, we're beyond blessed. And that's because we have God's presence in our lives. Now, the Bible also says that the dwelling place of God is the church.

But it's the people of God that makes up the church. And that is literally the dwelling of God in the spirit. In Ephesians 2, verses 21 to 22, it says, in whom the whole building, being joined together, is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit. If we are to apply this to our corporate worship today, if the gathering together of believers constitutes the dwelling place of God, then a question is why are we not as excited and joyful as the psalmist? I believe that this is because we don't have a proper appreciation for the object of our worship, that being God.

It's reflected in the ways that the choices that we make throughout the week. Are we preparing for corporate worship each and every Sunday? Are we in prayer? Are we in the Word throughout the week? On Saturdays, are we staying up so late that staying awake during service is a struggle? Or are we preparing our hearts throughout the week, just like the psalmists journeying to the temple to worship God. Now again, the Israelites may have had to pilgrimage to worship Yahweh, but thankfully for us, Jesus says, but an hour is coming, and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people, the Father seeks to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

That time has now come. No longer do we need to pilgrimage to a temple to sacrifice. Today, because of Christ's shed blood on our behalf, the Spirit of God dwells within us and in his church, and we can worship him in spirit and in truth. Now take a look at verse three with me. The author transitions here and gives us the benefits of being in his presence. Here the author gives us a picture of those receiving the benefit of being in the presence of Yahweh. He says, Even the bird has found a home, and the swallow, a nest for herself where she sets her young. At your altars, O Yahweh of hosts, my king and my God. Now these birds have providentially chosen their home to be at the temple. And so by extension, even the birds find refuge in the Lord.

They receive divine protection from God. Now, our Lord said something very similar to this. In Matthew 6 26, he said, Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. But then the Lord gives a caveat.

How blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. The principle here is that the Lord will provide for those who take refuge in him. But there's an even greater benefit that we're gonna see in verse four. And here it says, How blessed are those who dwell in your house, they are ever praising you.

And it's right there, they are ever praising you.

Uh protection or keeping them safe from enemies. The reason why those who dwell in his dwelling place are so blessed is because they get to fulfill their divine God given purpose. They are ever praising you. They get to constantly worship God in that place, and that's why they are so blessed, and that's why the author is in such a state of longing to be in the presence of God. Now, a question I have for you is this.

After all, how much nearer can God get when he's literally dwelling within you? Well, it's kind of like marriage. I'm married to Sarah, and I'm already one with her, but there are times when we can feel distant from one another. But that still doesn't change the fact that we're married and we're still considered one. It's in those moments where we feel distance, we have to make an effort to spend time with one another, and in a sense, to draw near to each other. For the believer, it's very similar. God's already indwelling in you, but in our flesh, there are many times where we feel distant from him. But God reminds us and he calls us to draw near to him.

And also in Hebrews 10 22, it says, Let us draw near with a sincere heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. And so here's a question How do we as believers draw near? And I think there's two ways we can do that. First, we can seek him in faith. In Hebrews 11 6, it says, and without faith, it's it is impossible to please him, for he who draws near to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. So first, seeking him in faith, and then in the second, we're also called to keep God's word. Jesus says in John 14, 23, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

The answer is clear. If we are to draw near to God, we need to go to God in a faith that causes us to repent, to pray, to read the word, and to worship. And that's what it means to be near to God and to be blessed. Next, we're gonna skip ahead to verses 8 and 12. And this addresses, how blessed is the man who trusts in you. And then after this, we'll meet right in the middle for the final point. But here we're gonna look at two concepts which seem similar but are distinctive and interconnected. And so let's read it together. It says, O Yahweh of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob. See our shield, O God, and look upon the face of your anointed.

And then in the middle, for better is a day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would choose to stand at the threshold of the house of my God, then dwell in the tents of wickedness. For Yahweh God is a son and shield. Yahweh gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk blamelessly. O Yahweh of hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in you. Now, as I was studying this, I had to ask myself, how is strength in God related to trust in God? And we're going to look at strength in God in our final point. But those two concepts seem very similar. And so I want to flesh that out. And in verse 9, as we will see, it says that trust is to choose to stand at the threshold of my God.

So strength then is what God gives you because of that choice.

So Psalm 84 shows us how strength and trust are actually interlinked. It shows that a blessed man has both trust and strength. It's a heart anchored in trust of Yahweh and a life marked by God supplied strength along the way. So to put it another way, trust in Yahweh is about the posture, about the posture of one who's truly repented. A person who trusts in Yahweh will orient his whole life towards God. Why? Because God will supply him with strength. God will truly save, protect, satisfy, and meet him. This strength in Yahweh is what is given to those who trust him. Essentially, trust or faith in Yahweh is what gives us access to God given strength, power, and protection. So that's the distinction.

In moments of hardship, this man trusts in the Lord because though the circumstances seem helpless, God protects.

And this is an intense, unbearable and inescapable wrath, except that God has protected us from his own wrath through his Son Jesus Christ, who is our shield. Now, to get a better idea of this, I think it's important that we get a glimpse of how powerful and mighty that Yahweh is. I think in our minds we have a tendency to reduce the all-powerful and mighty God into a tame and unassuming one. But the reality is that depending on which side you're standing on, you'll either be at the receiving end of his unbearable wrath, or you'll stand protected behind the unstoppable force of his strength. And that can only be accessed by trust in him. Again, it's easy to reduce or underestimate the power and holiness of God in our minds.

But the author of this psalm makes it clear that he's trusting in an almighty, all-powerful, omnipotent God. And the way the author expresses this is by utilizing the name Yahweh of hosts. I think that understanding who Yahweh of hosts is will one, it'll give us more confidence in who we're trusting in. And two, it'll help us understand that he is shielding us from himself. So take a look at verse 8. It says, O Yahweh, God of hosts, hear my prayer, give ear, O God of Jacob. Now, here in verse 8, and three other times in the Psalm, the psalmist calls upon God as Yahweh of hosts. I put them all up there for you to see. It's a covenantal name of God. His name translated here in Hebrew is Yahweh Saba Of or Yahweh of hosts.

Saba'oth is not to be confused with the word Sabbath, which means rest. We know that. Here, Sabaot is distinctly the word for host. This word used in conjunction with the name of Yahweh appears almost 250 times in scripture, and it's translated Yahweh of hosts. But what exactly does it mean? In English, we may confuse it to mean like a game show host or a host of a party or to host a bunch of people. But none of these definitions do the word justice. Sabaoth has the connotation of a multitude in the context of armies and war.

And that's how you spell it. So for example, in Numbers 1, 3, Moses takes a census of Israel to count the number of men able to fight in war in Israel. And it says, from 20 years old and upward, who is whoever is able to go out to war, Saba is that word, war, in Israel, you and Aaron shall number them by their armies. And again, that's that word, Saba. Now, when we attribute this word Saba to Yahweh or God, he's referred to as Yahweh of Sabaoth. It's important to note here that Saba is singular, or sorry, it's important to note that Saba is singular, while Sabaoth is plural. This is because God is not Yahweh of one host or one army, but a multitude of armies and hosts. God is Yahweh of hosts of multitudes of heavenly angels.

He's sovereign and he's almighty. And this is who the psalmist takes trust in. That's who he gets his strength in. He delights in him and takes refuge in him. There's safety and joy and security and provision and protection for those who live in the presence of God. But also included in this is a Yahweh, God of hosts who fights for his people. Take a look at Joshua, who trusted in the Lord to deliver his people into the promised land.

Rather, I indeed come now as commander of the host of Yahweh. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and bowed down and said to him, What has my Lord to say to his slave? The commander of the host of Yahweh said to Joshua, remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. In this passage, Jesus appears to Joshua in his preincarnate form. And this is called a Christophany. The commander of hosts, whom Joshua bows down to in this passage is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And this is important to remember because this is the same Yahweh of hosts, Jesus Christ, who we believers place our trust in. Joshua, he was faced with a humanly impregnable fortress, but he had Yahweh of hosts fighting for him on Israel's behalf.

Which means that the walls of Jericho and the king and its inhabitants stood no chance against Joshua. The fortress itself was overtaken by Yahweh Himself, who fights for his people. Yahweh of hosts is an unstoppable force.

And it's never by man's implements or weapons, but by himself.

And I will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen. God does not need to defeat with military prowess. He is the ultimate power. And likewise, our safety does not lie in the military might of our country, missiles, fighter jets, laser-guided bombing systems, or superior firearms. These are all illusions of power. Genuine power and strength is in God alone. And this exact same power is attributed to our Lord, Jesus Christ. That's why in the New Testament, Romans 831, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? So now I have a question for you. Which side of Yahweh's power do you want to stand on?

Do you want to be at the receiving end of God's divine wrath? Or do you want to stand shielded behind his unstoppable power? And that's the point that the author of this Psalm is trying to make.

What then does this trust look like? God commanded Israel not to multiply horses, and God wanted Israel to rely on him and not in their own power, wealth, or strength. And likewise, God wants us to trust in him and not in any illusion of our own strength or power. He doesn't want us to trust in any strength or power that is outside of him. Proverbs 3, 5 to 6 says, Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. He wants us to trust in Jesus, the commander of hosts, who has all power at his disposal. Trust means that we do not have to manipulate our own circumstances for a favorable outcome.

But rather, we can let go of our control and trust that God will take care of things in his own way and in his own time. That's trust.

If you guys remember, in the garden of Garden of Gethsemane, Peter slices off the ear of the high priest's servant, and Jesus says to Peter in Matthew 26, 53, or do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? Brothers and sisters, Jesus is an absolute control, and he is also the commander of the hosts of Yahweh. This is who we are to put our absolute trust in, and this is who we are shielded behind. Now take a look at verses 9 and 11, which fleshes out this truth.

And a chiasm, it's a literary device that's used in Hebrew poetry that sandwiches a main point in the middle. And actually in Psalm 84, we'll see there's actually a few of them. And here is one that we're going to look at in verses 9 through 11. If you look at it, it says in verse 9, see our shield, O God, and look upon the face of your anointed. You see that shield. And then in verse 11, it says, For Yahweh God is a son and shield. Yahweh gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk blamelessly. And so if you look at it, verse 10 is in between those two shields. As we think about this shield, who can that be? Who can be considered our shield? Who else in verse 9 is considered anointed in verse 9, if it wasn't for King Jesus Himself?

If we go back to verse 3, which we had already looked, it says, At your altars, O Yahweh of hosts, my king and my God. Who's this king that the author is referring to? It certainly wasn't any of the human kings of Judah or Israel, as they committed failure after failure and sin after sin. Only the divine kingship of Jesus can be seen here. And in verse 11, it says that Yahweh God is the shield which the author stands behind in verse 9. And that shield is none other than King Jesus. Romans 9 29 says, unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and would have resembled Gomorrah. In this verse, Apostle Paul writes about God's sovereignty and choice as only a king would have over his subjects.

Paul, writing about how God had also called Gentiles into the sheepfold. Here the Lord of hosts has left a remnant whom God would redeem alongside the Gentiles. These would be shielded from God's divine wrath by the power of Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus Christ is the one who bore God's just wrath that we were supposed to receive. Now, verse 11 also says, no good thing does God withhold from those who walk blamelessly. Brothers and sisters, none of us can walk blamelessly unless, as verse 11 puts puts it, God gives grace and glory. And this is God's sovereign choice of election, in which the one who actually walked blamelessly, walks for us and shields us. Jesus walks boldly before us and shields us from God's divine wrath.

This is Jesus who we are to put our absolute trust in. Putting our trust in Jesus gives us access to the strength that God provides and shields us from the wrath that we deserve. The one who trusts Yahweh, who has truly repented, will orient his whole life towards God, because he believes God will truly protect, satisfy, and meet him. Again, trust or faith in Yahweh is what accesses his strength, power, and protection for the believer. They're truly blessed. And that's exactly why, in the middle of that sandwich, is verse 10. And this is the author's life claim. He says, For better is a day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would choose to stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in tents of wickedness.

Because Yahweh of hosts is his shield, the author can confidently declare that he would choose to stand at the threshold of my God. This is a conscientious choice to be near to God, even if he couldn't stand inside.

Brothers and sisters, the tents of wickedness of this world, have much to offer by way of comfort, pleasure, wealth, and power. Yet these are all distractions that will pass away. Nothing this world offers can satisfy man. And like the temporary design of tents, the momentary distractions of this world will fade away. Nothing in this world can truly bring fulfillment to man because we weren't created to worship the created things of this world. We were created to glorify and worship the creator himself, Yahweh of hosts. The psalmist here, he's not exaggerating or using a metaphor when he declares that one day in God's presence is better than a thousand days elsewhere. The very least of the benefits of God are far better than any benefit of this world.

But in practice, it doesn't always feel like that. But again, that doesn't make the statement any less true. The problem is not with God, but the problem is with us who think that God has given us because our stomachs are so full of the earthly treasure and comforts and distractions that this world has to offer us. The true value of what God has given us is that he spared us from himself. Yahweh, God of hosts, who was once our enemy, is now our shield. God who held nothing back and gave us Jesus Christ Himself, has spared us from the eternal wrath of God, and now fights on our behalf when we are lured by our flesh, drawn to the things of this world, and attacked by the satanic influences that are all around us.

Brothers and sisters, the author says that he is blessed because his trust is in Yahweh, and as a result, he's been given divine strength. Likewise, for us, when we feel helplessly lost in sin or completely distracted by the things of this world, we can go to him. Is Jesus your shield? Can you confidently declare him to be your trust in all aspects of your life? If he isn't, repent and trust in him.

Again, verse 12. O Yahweh of hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in you.

And let me read it for us. It says, How blessed is the man whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. Passing through the valley of Backah, they make it a spring. The early rain also wraps it up with blessings. They go from strength to strength. Each one of them appears before God in Zion. Again, trust is what accesses strength in God. So here we're going to look at what strength looks like, particularly when it comes to repentance. This beatitude is talking about those who are blessed because their strength is in Yahweh. Now, a blessed man is not strong in and of himself.

It's not the man's ability or capacity to be able to endure, but it's their reliance on God who gives them the capacity to keep going. The blessed man is able to move toward God because of the strength that Yahweh provides him. Now, interestingly, in verse 5, it says that the blessed man who strengthened the Lord will also have a heart in which are the highways to Zion. What does that mean? Well, Zion, in the context of this verse, is the city of God. It was Jerusalem, and that's where the temple was. It was where worshippers would go to worship God and atone for sin. So to have a heart with highways to Zion means that the author's heart is always being led to repentance and to the worship of God.

Take a look at verse six. And again, we talked about what a chiasm was, and here we see that chiastic structure again. Verse six is between two verses that talk about strength, right? How blessed is the man whose strength is in you. And then verse seven, they go from strength to strength. And then right in the middle, we see verse six. And so what's even more is that this is actually at the center of the entire psalm itself. Because verse 6 is sandwiched between the thought of, blessed is the man whose strength is in you, and they go from strength to strength. Verse 6 is what it means to have strength in the Lord. So first, the author says, passing through the valley of Bacca, they make it a spring.

Now, the valley of Bacca, it only appears once in the entire Bible. And it's right here in verse 6. It was probably an actual place that the worshipers would have to pass through on their journey to Jerusalem. It would have been a very extremely dry and arid area. And interestingly, the word Bakka has a connection to the word, the Hebrew word with a K, Baca, which means weeping. So in some Bible translations, the valley of Bacah is actually translated as the valley of weeping. The valley of Baca was literally a hardship for those who are making their journey to Zion. But it's also figurative for repentance as they go to make repentance for their sins. As the worshippers were passing through these death valley-like conditions in the valley of Baca, the connotation is that they were weeping over their sins.

As they were journeying to meet God in his dwelling place, they were repenting of their sins, which would ultimately be actualized when they finally arrive in Zion, and then they give burnt offering in atonement for their sins. And so, in their repentance as they go, they make it a spring, knowing that there is faith, that in faith there is forgiveness for sin. This is further evidenced by the phrase, the early reign also wraps it up with blessings. The word rap here in the Hebrew is the word ata, and it means to wrap envelope, but as in covering your beard in mourning. And when it's used as a participle, meaning a verb that's made into a noun, it's actually translated as mourner. Now, where else do we see mourning as a blessing?

In Matthew 5 3, it says, Blessed are those who mourn, because they will be comforted. Jesus is talking about mourning in the context of your sins.

And so we see here that the blessed man whose strength is in the Lord is a man who's repentant so that he can receive God's strength. Acts 3, 19 to 20. It says, Therefore, repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Now, repentance is not feeling sad about sin or feeling regret or sorrow. Sure, there's some element of that, but genuine repentance is turning away from your sin and then towards God, as the psalmist is doing here in this passage, as he journeys towards God and mourns over his sin, he's actively going toward God and asking for his strength to fight against the sin that he's repenting of. And that's exactly the attitude that God calls us to have when we repent.

We're to turn away from our sin and go towards God who will provide us the strength to fight the sin. God is the source of that strength. And here, as the author receives that strength, he's refreshed. And that refreshing is exactly what we see in verse 7 as they go from strength to strength. As they approach God and they get closer and closer to his dwelling place, they're reinvigorated, they're refreshed and strengthened in their journey to go worship God. The author's strength and blessing is in God.

After all, why would we want the blessing of God's strength when the majority of us live such self-sufficient and comfortable lives? Why would we need anything from God when we're hashtag blessed in a worldly sense? This attitude of self-reliance and self-strength is what happens when we don't go to God in desperation or prayer. This is what happens when we're caught in habitual sin and do not go to him in repentance. This is what happens when we fail to acknowledge that every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above. Brothers and sisters, as we learn more about who God is, or as we spend more time in prayer with God, as we go to him in repentance, we too can be refreshed and reinvigorated in our spirits.

But unless we deny our pride, our self-reliance and self-worth, we will never receive God's strength. So go. Go to him in repentance and go to him as your source of strength. Now, as we wrap this up, John 14, 1 to 3 says, Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Brothers and sisters, the world's idea of being hashtag blessed is rooted in earthly comfort and treasures. But true blessing comes for those who have put their trust in him.

True blessing comes for those who draw from Yahweh of hosts' strength. And true blessing is for those who dwell in his house. Again, if you're a believer, you are his temple. If you are a believer, the church, the gathered people of God is his dwelling place. And as you draw near to him, be surprised and thrilled that he's already in you. How much closer can he get? You're blessed. Now, if you haven't placed your trust in Jesus yet, go to him in repentance and ask him to be your trust, your shield, and your strength. And so let's close and reflect on these truths as I read the last four verses again. For better is a day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.

I would choose to stand at the threshold of the house of my God, then dwell in the tents of wickedness. For Yahweh God is a son and shield. Yahweh gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk blamelessly. O Yahweh of hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in you. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for your word and just your continual work in our lives. We thank you for your presence and just the truth that your Holy Spirit dwells within us. God, may we not take your presence for granted, but Lord, as we've been encouraged to do so, that we would draw near to you. And in that sense, Lord, help us to be a people whose absolute trust is in you in every aspect of our lives, whether that's here at church, in our workplace, at home.

May our trust be in you in every circumstance. And God, would you give us the strength to endure just the attacks of this world, the devil, and even our own flesh. Give us the strength really to live a life that would bring glory and honor to your name. And Lord, again, we just pray that we would live lives that would bring glory and worship and honor to you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.