Blessed Are the Longing

I often find gaps in what I long for versus the situations actually dealt to me.

My human heart frequently struggles to see disappointment, pain, or scarcity as blessings given by God for my good and His glory.  Psalm 84 has been a balm to my soul during adulthood for every season but even more during the ‘not so blessed’ ones. 

The Psalmist longs to be able to go to the temple of the Lord, even acknowledging the sparrows that get to build their nests in the rafters of the temple courts. The passage does not tell us why the Psalmist was unable to make the trip, but it makes one thing clear…where the Psalmist is, is not where he wants to be. 

I’ve seen myself here and I wonder if you ever have too. Perhaps, when we experience the death of a loved one, loss of a job, sickness, barrenness, longing, or any other tough thing, I can confidently say that most people would agree that experiencing the hard stuff is not where they prefer to be or what they prefer to be doing. 

In today’s culture, to be blessed, we are told to “follow our hearts” and to “do what makes us feel good.” Scripture says the opposite. Jeremiah 17:9 says ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?’ Thankfully, Psalm 84 redefines what it means to be blessed, by giving us three separate descriptions of what a blessed person looks like:
 

1. Blessed are those who dwell in Your house (v 4)
2. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose heart is on the highways to Zion (v 5)
3. Blessed is the one who trusts in You! (v 12)

A blessed person is someone who is with God, who seeks God, and who finds strength in walking with God. 

Reframing my idea of blessed from ‘being given easy and desirable things’ to ‘I have God’ changes the way that I walk through really hard seasons. When life is a slow grind, outcomes are against me and tears stain my pillow, my soul can rest in the blessedness of being covered, loved, and led by a faithful God.

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