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Blessed

"Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion."
                                                        (Psalm 84:5)

Those who walk uprightly, who love the habitation of His temple; to those who long, yes, faint, for the courts of the LORD--those people are blessed. They will go from strength to strength until they appear in Zion, before the God in whom they delight.

And even as such a man goes through the Valley of Baca--that is, the valley of weeping (emeq ha-Baka)--he asks but one thing of the Lord: "Oh LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer... Look on the face of your anointed one." (vv. 8-9) Nothing else. Nothing more, and nothing less, than for God to look at him in his distress and assure him of His presence.

So where does he go? To the courts of the Lord, where His presence is promised. To His holy temple, where His glory is sure to be revealed. A man of God holds on to nothing else but God.

And what does a man who long for God find out in His courts? That "the Lord is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor." (v. 11) That God, in His mercies, will never withhold any good thing to him who walks uprightly, but will instead ascertain that such a man will receive everything he needs to be given what is ultimately good for him.

What does a man who trusts God find himself to be?


Blessed.

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