Live Like Christ
How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. – Psalm 84:1-2. The Psalmist puts us on a good path: desire for the presence of God. In verses 10-12 he goes on to say, For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you.
How might one enter the courts of the Lord? By trusting in the Lord and living out righteousness. We see this elsewhere in Psalms, Psalm 24:3-4: Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. In other words, those who live in obedience to God. We see something similar in Psalm 18:20: The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. In the light of the New Testament we would say it is those who live like Christ that will enjoy the blessings of God.
The difficulty is that none of us on our own can live the kind of righteousness that gains God’s favor. None of us have cleanness of hands. For that matter, nor did the Psalmist. In Psalm 18 the Psalmist goes on to add in verses 31-32: For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God? — the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless.
Serve the Lord in holiness and know that your holiness and righteousness come from him. He has covered you in the righteousness of Christ, making you pure. He is the one who equips you and strengthens you each day to live for him. It is he who cleans your hands, he who makes your way blameless. Follow him, trust in him, rely on him.