anticipation

I like the idea of anticipation, meaning I look forward to something happening that has not yet arrived. I bring this up because my Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5) meditation today presented me with the notion of longing for the courts of the Lord. Rather than blab at you about the Psalm, here it is in its entirety. Read it three times: first time all the way through very slowly; the second time, think of yourself as sitting on a park bench in the dead of winter anticipating that Christ will come by and sit down with you; the third time, read it through with the thought that Christ has been seated next to you all this time but it is you did not open your heart to the heart of Christ.

Psalm 84

For the leader; “upon the gittith.” A psalm of the Korahites.

I

2 How lovely your dwelling,

O LORD of hosts!^a

3 My soul yearns and pines

for the courts of the LORD.^b

My heart and flesh cry out

for the living God.

4^*As the sparrow finds a home

and the swallow a nest to settle her young,

My home is by your altars,

LORD of hosts, my king and my God!^c

5 Blessed are those who dwell in your house!

They never cease to praise you.

II

Selah

6 Blessed the man who finds refuge in you,

in their hearts are pilgrim roads.

7 As they pass through the Baca valley,^*

they find spring water to drink.

The early rain covers it with blessings.

8They will go from strength to strength^*

and see the God of gods on Zion.

III

9 LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer;

listen, God of Jacob.

Selah

10^*O God, watch over our shield;

look upon the face of your anointed.^d

IV

11 Better one day in your courts

than a thousand elsewhere.

Better the threshold of the house of my God

than a home in the tents of the wicked.

12 For a sun and shield is the LORD God,

bestowing all grace and glory.

The LORD withholds no good thing

from those who walk without reproach.

13 O LORD of hosts, blessed the man who trusts in you!

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/84

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