Blessed are those who dwell in Your house, ever singing Your praise! —Psalm 84:4
The prophecy of Haggai is addressed to the generation tasked with rebuilding the temple, following the Israelites’ return from exile in Babylon. This duty of God’s people to cultivate the place He has given them is seen throughout the Scriptures—and in this morning’s service. Psalm 84, in which the psalmist longs desperately for the “courts of the Lord,” serves as the Call to Worship, the Scripture reading, and the Benediction. We’ll also sing a metrical version of the same passage, O Lord Of Hosts, How Lovely. In light of the “unfathomable grace” we receive in the forgiveness of sins, we pray using the words of Light Of The Anxious Heart that the Lord’s presence will be a “fount of love within [His] chosen place.” Both By Babylon’s Great Riverside—Psalm 137 and Jerusalem, My Happy Home use the language
of “land” and “home” to urge us not to forget God’s house and to look forward to the ultimate fulfillment of a place where the harmony of all the “blessed saints … in every street doth ring.” Having been reminded of our need to “consider our ways,” our duties to God’s house, we are sent out with an encouragement. Since “no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly,” we sing that where Christ is confessed, the city and land (as well as the homes and hearts) will be happy and blessed. —Henry C. Haffner