Psalm 84: Exhortation

Below is the exhortation which I will give prior to the confession of sins on Sunday morning, followed by the charge I will give after the Lord’s Supper, prior to the benediction.

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Our opening prayer was based on Psalm 84 which speaks of the loveliness of God’s dwelling place, his courts. Even the sparrow, the Psalm says, finds a home and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young, at the altars of the Lord of hosts. Didn’t our Lord Jesus Christ say that we are of more value than many sparrows? As we come to church each Lord’s Day, as we appear before God in Zion, to use the language of the Psalm, we and our young are to feel at home here. God has invited us into his house to bless us. No good thing does he withhold, say the Psalm. God has brought us here to speak kindly to us and so that we can sit at his table and eat with him. When we bring our children to the waters of baptism, when we keep them with us during the worship service, when they are fed from the Lord’s table, we are saying to them, “You are welcome, you have a place here, too.” Now where is it that the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest for herself and her young? At the altars of the Lord of hosts. It is because sacrifice for sin has been made that we and our children are welcome here. Our altar is the cross, where Jesus Christ shed his blood and offered up himself as a sacrifice once for all for sin, suffering and dying in our place, bearing the punishment we deserve. This is not an altar, this is a table, where we remember Jesus’ death in bread and wine. On the basis of his one sacrifice, once for all on the cross, the apostle John writes to Christians, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When we come into the house for dinner, it is good manners to wipe our feet and wash our hands. This reminds us, at the beginning of our worship service, of the need to confess our sins.

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We began with Psalm 84 and it speaks of those in whose hearts are the highways to Zion, who long and faint for the courts of the Lord; verses 6 and 7:

“As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion.”

We are being sent from here on a journey through the wilderness for another week before we return to the sanctuary. But as we travel through the wilderness, heading towards the place where we have seen God’s power, glory and steadfast love, and where we know we will see it again, praising God, singing for joy and trusting in him, the wilderness will stop looking like a wilderness before long. Go, and bring water to the desert, be like rain on the parched land, and make the wasteland fruitful.