How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!

Psalm 84:1

When you read this verse, do any pictures come to mind? If we think back to the instructions for building the tabernacle, we may picture the fine twined linen, the blue and purple yarns, and cherubim skillfully worked into the curtains (See Exodus 36). Those things were indeed lovely and costly. Gold, silver, and bronze covered various pieces of tabernacle furniture, and the clasps, bars, and frames of its structure. God himself gave two craftsmen, Bezalel and Oholiab, special skill to make all these things. In addition, Moses is instructed to have those filled with skill to make the priests’ garments in such a way that displays beauty and glory (See Exodus 28).

The Lord is certainly beautiful and glorious beyond our comprehension and the place in which he has chosen to dwell – the tabernacle in Israel’s case – is designed to reflect that. I think we would do well to meditate on the beauty of God and how that relates to his glory. If we did, maybe our hearts wouldn’t be so tethered to this world, but rather, filled with eager anticipation for the next.

But when understood in the original language, this word ‘lovely’ points to something beyond outward aesthetics. The word in Hebrew is an adjective meaning well beloved, very dear. The closely related noun form of this word is used 19 times in Song of Solomon to refer to ‘my beloved’.

What makes the dwelling place of God beloved? What makes it very dear? The King of covenant love dwells there! His loyal and steadfast love has opened the door into his presence for those upon whom he has set his special affection. They are his beloved people. And now that we have been brought in, we enjoy and delight in all that our Beloved is for us.

This is why the psalmist expresses his longing for the dwelling place of God with language of yearning and fainting. You don’t respond in this way to a place that is merely pretty to look at. And indeed he goes on to clarify the object and terminus of his affection when he says, “My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.”

I have loved learning Hebrew and am grateful for the tools to dig deeper into the original languages. But one of the challenges of seminary is to take what you are learning in class and have it transform your heart. So we must go beyond the Bible nerd phase of digging for the original meaning of the word ‘lovely’ in Psalm 84. We must go beyond that exciting point of discovery and ask how that piece of information should affect my worship this Sunday and how I go about the rest of my week. For me I think it is beginning to transform how I see the weekly gathering of believers. Have you ever said this, “I didn’t get anything out of the service/sermon today.”? That question may reveal that you are looking at the weekly gathering of believers as a consumer. But what if you and I entered worship with the expectation that we are about to meet our Beloved Lord? That this is a place where he especially dwells with those upon whom he has set his special affection? What if we looked forward all week long to this day of days not as a way to get our spiritual ‘fix’, or to check off a box, but as a day that is set apart to enjoy his presence and cultivate a greater longing for the last Day when he will come back and take us to himself, and all our soul’s longings and faintings will be satisfied?

It’s not the outward, tangible details that make God’s dwelling place so beautiful and glorious. It’s who he is as our King of covenant love. Do you know this King? Are you longing for his return? For when he returns, all will be consummated and he will make his final dwelling place with his beautiful Bride, and all of us will cry, “Glory!”