Postcard from the Psalms
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! (Psalm 84:1). What did that mean when they penned those words in Old Testament times? What does it mean for us as we receive their words today?
This podcast demonstrates how to hear the Psalms as inspired Scripture, first in their setting, then in ours. Apply this example to the other 149 Psalms, and see the whole book come alive in its original setting and in light of Christ.
Delivered to Riverview Church on 26 October 2025, this message is available as a video on Youtube, or as an MP3:
The Text
Psalm 84 (ESV)
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 favour and honour.
No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
12 O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!
Related podcasts
For podcasts on Psalms 1, 2, 3, 22, 48, 72, 80, 89, 91, 97, 118, and 145, see Formed in God’s Story: Psalms.
Related posts
- The story of the Psalms
- Are the Psalms messianic?
- Reading Psalms in context
- Voice of an under-shepherd (Psa. 23)
Seeking to understand Jesus in the terms he chose to describe himself: son of man (his identity), and kingdom of God (his mission). Riverview Church, Perth, Western Australia View all posts by Allen Browne
