Psalm 84:10
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Well, if we were to time travel back to the late 90s, early 2000s, Wednesday night, 7 p.m., you would find me in a dark, smoky room. Of course, I'm talking about youth group. You know, I grew up in a, you know, mini mega church, Southern Baptist Church, and every Wednesday night, as a teenager, I would be at that church during youth group. One of the things we did at youth group was sing songs.
And one of the songs that we sang hundreds of times was a song called Better is One Day. And it's our verse tonight. The song just kind of repeats, better is a one day in your courts, better is a one day in your house, better is one day in courts than thousands elsewhere. And I still like the song. I actually sang it. I still remember how to play it on the guitar. I sang it a couple of weeks ago with the kids around the table. But, you know, I've sang that song hundreds of times, and it comes straight out of this psalm.
And I always, when I sang that song, I always thought about heaven, almost exclusively. But it's been interesting. As I've studied the text, our text tonight, over the last couple days, I think our text has just as much to say about earth as it does about heaven. So let's look at our text. It's Psalm 8410. 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.
So our verse is pretty simple tonight, and I think it has a pretty simple meaning, which is, in this life and the next, nothing compares to knowing and worshiping God. In this life and the next, Nothing compares to knowing and worshiping God. The verse kind of gives us two contrasts that both help us to see the same thing. That for all human beings, no matter who you are, the best life is a life lived worshiping the God of the universe.
So let's look, we're going to look at those two contrasts and those are going to be our two points. So our first point is this, knowing and worshiping God is better than anything else on earth. So the psalmist in Psalm 84 is either on his way journeying to the temple, or he wants to be in the temple of God and is not able to be there for some reason. In verse 1, he says, How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts.
Verse 2, my soul longs, yes, faints, for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Verse 4, blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise. So he has this desire, you know, maybe he's going to the temple, maybe he wants to be there, he can't. He has this desire to be in God's temple. What is it about the temple that made the psalmist's desire to be there? Well, the temple was where God's presence was manifest among his people.
It was where the people's sin was atoned for. It was where the high priests interceded for the people to God. It was where God's people truly worshipped God. To cut straight to the point, Christian, all those blessings are more than ours in Jesus Christ. He is the Word of God made flesh. He explains God to us. In him, our sins are forgiven once and for all. He intercedes for us to the Father. When we put our faith in Jesus, we are sealed with God the Holy Spirit. He puts, he gives us our spirit. And Jesus has said to us, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age. So we have all these blessings, the blessings of knowing God and worshiping him through Jesus.
They're all given to us. Okay, so back to our verse. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. The first thing I want us to do is stop, take a breath, and realize this is true. This is true. This isn't an emotional thing. This isn't something that we have to work ourselves up to believe that's true. This is something that we have to get ourselves into a certain state. It's true. It's objectively true that to worship God truly is better than anything else in the entire world.
It's not just a little better, it's not just a lot better. It's not just better in the sense of like a cold, you know, a cold bowl of unflavored oatmeal versus a fresh steak. Okay, I'm talking, it's incomparably better. Anything that the world has to offer, 1,000 days doing the best thing you could ever imagine versus one day with the Lord. What I want you to do is to put that idea on a billboard in your mind.
As you're racing through thoughts, every single sign on that road says this. That there is nothing, there is nothing in this world that compares to knowing God through Jesus. There is no life better than a life spent worshiping God. We were made to worship the Lord with our lives. And so there is nothing better than doing what God has made us to do. So, cancel the vacation, burn down the house, fill the pool with concrete, sell the car, put the kids' toys in the attic.
We're good to go, right? Okay, just kidding. No. The psalmist doesn't want us to go like, you know, sit on a pole somewhere and just like think about how great God is. We are to live in the world that God has put us in and we can do that while this is still true, right? We can glorify God. We can worship him living in the world that God has put us in, enjoying the things that God has given to us. So I think this means at least two things for us. I'm sure there's lots more. But one is we ought to emphasize, we ought to prioritize the things of God in our lives. So we ought to ask ourselves, is this choice, is this act, does it show that I believe that the highest good for me, the highest good for those around me, is knowing god there's endless applications of this there's it applies to everything in our life
it applies to everything that we do maybe it means my my child shouldn't be on this sports team that stops them from being stops our family from being able to come to church on Sunday maybe I shouldn't take this job promotion that's going to pull me away from my church community and pull me away from my family. Maybe I shouldn't spend all my time with friends that aren't encouraging me in godliness. Maybe I shouldn't buy this thing that's preventing me from giving generously to my church and to others. The point is not some kind of new law that we're making for ourselves. The point is that we ought to consider our lives. We have to consider the choices that we make and ask ourselves, do these choices reflect this idea that to know God, to worship God with our lives is better than anything else? I think a simple thing to do is, and easy things to take stock of in our lives are our time and our money, because we can look at what we do with them. We can
look at what we do with our time. We can look at what we do with the money that God has given us, the resources, and we can say, do these two things, the way I spend them, do they reflect this idea that worshiping God is better than anything else in this world, that knowing God is better than anything else. So the first thing is, look at your life. Say, does my life reflect that? And the second thing is, we can enjoy the thousands of wonderful things that God gives us in this life for what they are.
Good gifts that God has given us. So vacations are great, but when, you know, we save up all these years, and we go, and it rains every day, and everybody's sick, and it's just worst case scenario, it's okay, because that's not an ultimate thing. We're not putting our whole hope in that. You know, new health ideas and habits, these things are great, but they aren't something that we build our lives around, right? We implement, can implement things, we can enjoy them for what they are, but we don't place our hope on those things. When we live this way, we are free, not placing pressure on things of this world to satisfy us in a way that only God can. The second thing that we see in this passage is that knowing and worshiping God is better than embracing sin.
So let's look at the second half of this verse. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. So again, we have this contrast here. And the contrast is between being a doorkeeper in God's house or dwelling in the tents of wickedness. So say you're on this journey, you've got all your earthly belongings on your back and you're, you know, walking.
Okay, it could be in the desert, that's fine. And someone comes up to you and they say to you, would you rather live comfortably somewhere right now or would you rather be a housekeeper somewhere? Most of us would probably say, I'd rather live comfortably somewhere. That's what I'd want. Well, the psalmist would first ask, who's there? In whose presence am I going to be? Is God there? Because being in his presence is better than anything else.
It's not circumstances. It's not circumstances that are the highest thing in the psalmist's life and in ours either. What it is, is knowing the God of the universe who's created us. Sin is deceptive. It promises us the world. Another contrast that I didn't mention is this idea versus a tent versus a house. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
Sin is fleeting. It doesn't last. It blows over. We can't live there forever. So, specifically, teenagers and college students in the room. don't be deceived, don't be deceived into thinking that there is any value in trying out the things of this world. There is no value in that. It will not bring anything good into your life. The Lord can redeem things, the Lord can use things, but trying out sin, going, walking down the road of sin, it will not bring you anything good. You will find nothing there except for death and destruction.
It may seem good in a moment, but it will not lead you anywhere. Believe the Lord in his word when he says, it is better to be with Jesus. It is better to worship the Lord. This also means for all of us who are Christians. We ought not hide our sin. It's not good for us. Confess your sin, and by doing so, you proclaim that knowing God is better than embracing sin.
If you aren't a Christian, please know that what this passage is saying is true. Sin will not bring you joy and life. It's fleeting. It's always a moving target. Ultimately, sin brings death. It brings separation from God forever. But God did something for us. He sent his son to die for us while we were still sinners. If we turn from our sin and turn to Jesus, put our faith in Jesus for salvation. He will save you. He's worthy of our worship.
For all of us here, Jesus is better. He's better than anything the world has to offer. You know, thinking back to this psalm and what I have thought about it in high school and now, I was right about it, though. I was right about it. It is also about heaven. what is true now is true for all of eternity. In heaven, we will know this is true finally and fully. We'll see Jesus and we will desire nothing else because there will be nothing better than knowing him. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the truths that we find in it. And I pray that you would help us all here to embrace Jesus and that we would grow in that each day.
And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.