Where is your favorite place in the world? The place where you feel whole, connected, safe, and fulfilled? For the writer of Psalm 84, it was in the temple– the place where God and man commune. He uses such intense language that he makes it sound like he’s going to die of thirst if he doesn’t make it back to the temple to meet with God. He loved it so much that he was jealous of the birds because they could make their nests to live there!
“Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young…” (84:3)
The author moves on from a comfortable, rich, fulfilling location to one that is more uncomfortable. The Valley of Baka is understood to be a dry valley, and in this case it is spiritual rather than literal. The author recognizes that when a person is going through life with God as their strength, even the dry seasons are made wet. And not just wet, but covered with pools (v. 6). What do our lives look like when we are going through a dry season spiritually? Do we languish and suffer, just waiting to get out of it? Or is Christ our strength, so that regardless of the season, we are walking through pools of His grace and blessings?
We move back to the temple for a well-known verse that deserves to be noted:
“Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked (v. 10).”
He didn’t even have to go into God’s house to be fulfilled– just a glimpse from the door into the glory in God’s house is more fulfilling than the riches that the world has to offer. It reminds me of this hymn:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth with grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace
How would our lives change if we needed Him with this kind of desperation? Would we rather live amongst the temporary, flashier riches of the world, or would we be content to be humble servants for our God? And yet how much more access we have to God the Father than just being doorkeepers! Romans 8:17 says, “Now if we are {God’s} children, then we are heirs– heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…” We are co-heirs with Christ, invited to feast richly on all the blessings God has to offer. Don’t limit yourself as a doorkeeper outside the feast when you have a seat at the table full of God’s abundant blessings!
Take every opportunity to experience Him as your sun and shield; experience His favor, honor and good (v. 11).
Note verse 11, “No good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” Yes, His house is good, His favor and honor are good, but remember that dry place earlier in the psalm? If we follow the psalmist’s logic, the Valley of Baka must also be good! God does nothing that isn’t for our good. Even if the place isn’t necessarily good (i.e. sickness), He only takes us there for our good, to show us our insufficiency and His sufficiency. I’ve been reading a book called Suffering is Never for Nothing by Elisabeth Elliot, who argues that when walking through a “Valley of Baka,” a Christian should be marked by acceptance and gratitude. We accept the cup that God gives us, even if it isn’t the one we want, and we thank Him that He is working to make us more like Him, for His glory.
My final challenge is to dwell with Christ richly today. Steep yourself in Scripture, worship, and His creation, and look for Him in those places. Then write them down and keep them somewhere easy to find– when you later find yourself in a dry Valley of Baka, go back to those notes and remind yourself of every blessing you experience in Christ, whether past or present. Use those to strengthen yourself, going from His strength to His strength (v. 7) every day until you find yourself standing before Him one day not just as a doorkeeper, but feasting with Him as a co-heir with Christ.
Love, Cate