A Word from Psalm 84

Do you ever long for God’s presence? I know that I do! And especially in times when there’s so much loss and brokenness around us, I wish there was somewhere I could go to find answers, and peace, and the assurance the God would make everything right. But if I could go to that place, what would I do on the way there?

That’s a question that comes to mind when I read today’s word from Psalm 84, in which one of God’s poets expressed his longing for God’s presence like this: “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty,” the psalmist writes. “My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (vs. 1-2)

And so, if only in his heart, the psalmist imagines the journey that would take him to Jerusalem, where he could stand in God’s temple. And about that journey, he says this: “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs.” (vs. 5-6)

Now, what I find interesting—at least in the commentaries I’ve read—is that nobody really knows where “the Valley of Baka” was! For all we know, it’s really just a metaphor—one that acknowledges the dry and barren wastelands that we sometimes have to go through before we get to stand in God’s presence.

And yet, here’s the thing. According to this psalmist,  those whose “strength is in the Lord” and whose “hearts are set on pilgrimage” are able to make “the Valley of Baka” a place of springs! They turn it from a desert into an oasis, where people can come together and be refreshed.

So, what “valleys of Baka” are you traveling through today? And how could you cooperate with God to make them into places in which living water flows?

May our longing for God bring blessing to both ourselves and others. Amen.