Life will not be measured so much by what you encountered (or didn’t encounter) but how you reacted to it. Let’s take a quick look how to be a success in God’s eyes not only when times are good and easy, but also in harder times.
Ps 84:3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.
4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah. (there's a SELAH moment, don’t just pass over it)
Vs 3 and 4: Sparrows will nest anywhere and aren’t intimated. We can come in boldly into God’s presence just like the sparrow (the old “worm am I” mentality is for Satan’s bunch). God’s presence is your strength and dwelling (where you stay and yes, it is possible). It is a place of stability, refreshing and calmness.
Ps 84:5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.
Vs 5: when troubled or hard times come and you are used to operating only in your abilities/strengths you are in trouble (see Sun June 26th post). You’ll be struggling to find answers and the ability to not only survive but to come out ahead. It will be twice as hard because you are not only facing your current issue(with all its pressures and voices, you know like the ones that taunt you with the “You’re going to die” or “fail” routine), but also trying to stretch out of yourself and trying to reach and develop a deeper relationship with God (which is possible, but remember you’re also fighting your problem with this selfish my way attitude and abilities and the “voices”). It’s like heading for a cliff in a car and you haven’t even learned how to operate it yet (the learning curve is intensely quick…can you say pressure?) For those who are already trained in operating in His strengths (or yours that have been retrained and cultivated by Him) you are also led by a heart that is established and will follow after Him. (Quick note: I have seen couples and pastors go through hard and/or stressful times (including building projects) only to fall, leave or divorce and have come to realize that they probably survived in their own strength and when it is over they are beat physically ,mentally and spiritually and have nothing left to give to their spouse or congregation, so they leave.)
Ps 84:6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.
Baca =weeping. These people have already been established by practicing vs 3-5 so that when the hard time came instead of going inward and mourning and questioning they instead called up their strength (their relationship with the Father) and have now turned the place of weeping into refreshing (the well). Not only are they able to thrive in hard times they have captured God’s rain and have a place of refreshing for others even though they themselves are in a hard place. (note: that in the verse it says going through Baca not residing! HINT! HINT! HINT! Mark and celebrate the good times not the tragic and/or bad times. If you mourn a certain day for what hard or tragic thing happened in the past you are living in Baca and have yet to go through it!
Ps 84:7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appears before God.
Strength to strength (see Sun June 26th post)see they are becoming stronger and not bogged down by what they have been through. Why? The rest of the verse repeats the answer… they are often if not continually in His presence.
Don’t wait for trouble to come to be closer to the Father practice now …maybe even today!
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