Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today I am in Portugal after a great time in Angola, Africa. The hunger of the people in Angola and the willingness of God to meet us was wonderful. I look forward to seeing all that God is going to do in the future there. I will be returning home tomorrow and I will be blessed to see my family. Life is full, but life is good.
Let’s continue our look at the 84th chapter of Psalms. The next verse in Psalms 84 is one that has been greatly misunderstood in the Church. I believe that a poverty mentality and a twisted view of the blessings of God have caused many to miss the point of this verse.
Psalms 84:10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
I have heard this verse translated in ways that are far from its truth. There is a song that has been around for some time in the church that says, “a day in the house of the Lord is better than a thousand on the outside”. The song continues to say, “I would rather stand at the gates of the house of the Lord than to live like a king in the tents of the wicked”. Where do we find that? First of all the word thousand, is the Hebrew word “eleph” and it means: “hence (the symbol is an ox’s head being the first letter of the alphabet, and this eventually used as a numeral) a thousand”. It comes from the words “eleph”, meaning: “a family (from the sense of yoking or taming) an ox or cow” and “alaph”, meaning: “to associate with; hence to learn (and caus. to teach)”. The implication of this word is one of an endless journey of slavery or labor, since it is associated with a word for ‘dwell’, it is not a place of resting but a place of things being heaped up upon you.
As for the part of this verse that has somehow been misconstrued to become something of living like a king in the tents of the wicked, that is far from the truth. The wicked do live in “tents”, but they do not live like kings. They may live in the deception that they are kings, but those in the world are bound as slaves in a world of aimless wandering. The word for dwell is the Hebrew word “duwr” and it means “to gyrate (or move in a circle) i.e. to remain.” It has an implication of ‘aimless conduct’. This is the only place in the Scripture that this word is used for dwell and it is not a ‘dwelling’ as in ‘residing’. It is a ‘dwelling’ as in perpetual circling without being able to get anywhere. This verse is implying that if you have not found the courts of God, you are left in the bondage of an endless journey of aimless conduct. You are searching, but never finding; desiring, but never finding fulfillment. Those who have found life in Christ have ended their life of ‘aimless conduct’ (1 Pet. 1:18) and embarked upon a sojourn of destiny. The righteous find a purpose and a future, while the wicked are left in the cycles of aimless wandering.
This verse also clarifies that those who have not found the courts of our God are left in the unstable condition of living in tents that are always wrong (a condition of wickedness). These tents are very obvious and ‘showy’ as the Hebrew word implies. They are very ‘surface’ minded and never find the true meaning of life. Like nomads, they are on a journey of tent-to-tent and place-to-place dwelling. They never find the place of destiny. They never find the place of rest and full purpose.
The true context of this verse is that of being a doorkeeper in God’s house. The word for “doorkeeper” is the Hebrew word “saphaph” and it means, “to snatch away, i.e. terminate”. It implies “to wait at the threshold” in the sense of a vestibule (a large entrance or reception room or area).
It could be thought of in the sense of being a dish holding blood or wine as the Hebrew word “saph” implies. It is the place where you invite others to end their life of aimless wandering and begin a covenant relationship of life with God as their Father. It is the place where you are inviting others to come and experience the goodness of dwelling in the presence of God as you do.
Because we know what it is to be a dwelling place of God’s presence, we live our lives in a place of inviting others to come and experience the same. Because we are an altar of God’s presence, our lives shine as in invitation to those who are bound in darkness. We find our strength in God, and we bring life to the weeping places of our world. We have God’s favor and His countenance shines upon us so we can be a witness of Him to our world.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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