The Source of Grace & Glory!...... Wk:5 Monday, Psalms 84, esp. vs. 11-12

So the post I haven't finished for last week (just one for last week)...... has to do with the EXULTATION!!! - - - that remains after victory........

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But what comes next........ you know....... when the battles are all finished, and the victory is finally sealed with peace...... peace from grace (for there is no peace without grace......, which is important to remember when the people cry out, "Peace, Peace......" but there is no peace......)?

Oh, what comes next is the best part:  Going Home!

How many warriors, following their king wherever He leads them, are willing to follow Him anywhere......

But....... how many warriors, still long for home.........


And that is how it is for those of us who follow The Mighty Warrior - - - the King of Kings - - - !!!!!


Do we not also long for home, even though we have not yet seen our true home....... even though we still bivouac........ yes, bivouac............  in these temporary tents of ours........ ?

But where is that home?????

"How lovely are Your dwelling places,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
The bird also has found a house,
And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,
Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,
My King and my God.
How blessed are those who dwell in Your house!
They are ever praising You!"  (Psalm 84: 1-7)

So many people long for a lovely dwelling place...... a safe retreat from the world.......

And is that all wrong?

Absolutely not!

God made us with a yearning for peace, beauty, comfort, a safe place....... a place we can call Home!

But we must remember that the yearning He put in our hearts cannot be fully satisfied by anyone, or anything or any place on earth........

So while we may be home, or long for home as we know it - or merely dream of it....... is there no place we can call 'home' for the spirit of our new life here in this world????

Looking back to the psalm again....

Here we see that the swallow, in her nest, lays her young......where?  'His' altars! And finding themselves at home there, they know they are so very blessed........ so they are ever praising Him!  Singing His glorious praise..... accompanied by the rhythm of the trees clapping their hand....... what a glorious altar..../!!

Without His altars, both the altars which are their homes, and the altar which Jeshua haMashiach made effective?...... even the birds could not hope of finding escape from the struggles and corruption of this world...!!

But because of The Mighty Warrior's work on the cross...... fulfilling the work at the altar necessary to provide blood for the mercy seat????....... even those of us who brought this corruption into this world.... can find themselves 'at home at His altars.........'

O, sing His glorious praise!

Yes, we still long for the fullness of all that Home means to us....... we still yearn for more than the comfort of the shadow of 'home' that our childhood and/or dreams of a better life could ever offer........  we still yearn for more than the comfort of the shadow of the cross........

We still yearn for His dwelling place........ Home!

But like Dorothy with her ruby slippers, we have the way Home already with us.......

"How blessed is the man whose strength is in You,
In whose heart are the highways to Zion!
Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring;
The early rain also covers it with blessings.
They go from strength to strength,
Every one of them appears before God in Zion."  (Psalm 84:5-7)

Did you catch that?  What is more powerful than Dorothy's ruby slippers?

The highways to Zion, yes, Zion! ........ where His dwelling place is being prepared for us!

And where are those highways?  They are in our heart!

Those highways move through valleys empowered by life-giving rains, which refresh both living things and the springs that refresh them!

And those of us who have these highways in our hearts?

We have our strength in Him!  How securely will He guard that strength for us?

So securely that we will go from strength to strength!

And one day, we will all have the strength to go Home to His dwelling place......

O my soul!  What an incredible love He has for us!

...........

So, yes, it is a fine thing to rest at His altar... to rest in the shadow of the cross......
To sense the highways in our hearts........ to sense the refreshing rain there......
And the strength that comes thereby.......
But perhaps most of all......... it is a fine thing to think of finally arriving in His dwelling places......

.......

But.............

.......

Today, my flesh is sometimes weak........ and the darkness of this world looms ominously towards us....... and sometimes it even seems that I'm alone........ and His dwelling place seems so very far away....... and perhaps sometimes, it feels that it may as well not even exist..........

But at those times........ the Lord gives us something amazing!

"O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
Give ear, O God of Jacob!
Behold our shield, O God,
And look upon the face of Your anointed.
For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside.
I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God
Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
The Lord gives grace and glory;
No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts,
How blessed is the man who trusts in You!"  (Psalm 84:8-12)

What amazing thing does the Lord give us?

Yes, He has given us the Light of Life!
Yes, He is a shield and buckler for us!
Yes, He lends us His ear!
Yes, He seeks *our* face!
Yes, He dwells in this tent with us, that we do not need to dwell in the tent of the wicked!
Yes, He gives every good thing.......

BUT THERE IS MORE!!!!!

What can be more than that?

He gives.............

Grace and Glory!

Glory!

Glory for us!?!

Glory be to God!

O, my soul praise Him!

For how blessed is the man who trusts in Him!

Yes, my soul, you are..... so, so, so loved!