I know many of you – yes, even you adults, get homesick.  Homesickness is that deep longing to be back home in the place you love and with the people you know love you.   I know some of you young people will experience that uncomfortable feeling in the pit of your stomach, almost a nauseas feeling, when you leave home and go off to college or your first job out of the area.   Some of you parents have shared with me how in the late hours of the night you have gotten out of bed to go pick up your little ones from a sleep over because they were homesick.   Just this past May when I went to my niece’s wedding in Pennsylvania , I joked with my sister-in-law who is going to music camp later this month for a week with other adults.  I asked her how long it would take her to call my brother to tell him she was homesick and to come get her.  I know the spring of 2007, when Richard and I left for our sabbatical, Richard was homesick before we even backed out of the driveway.    I have often thought there is something wrong with me.  As a kid when I went off to church camp, or Girl Scout camp or when I left my home in Pennsylvania and moved to California , never to live in Pennsylvania again, I never experienced the deep sense of longing to get me back home quickly.   Well, okay – maybe just a little.  I believe in one way or another we all understand that it is a very real feeling and experience to be homesick.   I believe to experience “HOLY HOMESICKNESS” is even more important.   The writer of Psalm 84 is experiencing “Holy Homesickness.”  Read Psalm 84.

So we hear this writer longing to get away from the bustling world to meet God inside the holy temple, God’s dwelling place.   If the author is one of the Korahite temple singers, these were the assistants who worked in certain areas of service in the Temple .   Lots were often cast for the different temple jobs.   Casting lots for a turn to assist meant the turns could have been on an annual basis.  Therefore, the longing is made all the sweeter.

The longing has a happiness or joy to it.  The psalmist expresses this longing as knowing what it is like to dwell in God’s house.   This is a deep passion that the whole being – soul, heart, flesh – is focused as a longing for the experience of worship and to meet God.  For God deserves all of us.  The desire is insatiable.   Some here have expressed this longing as wanting God to be in the flesh.  Others describe this feeling as “can’t get enough of God’s Word.”  Still others say, “I just crave time alone with Jesus.”  Whatever and however the feeling is manifested or described, it is at a depth that only God can know and fill.  

Now you and I know that we can meet God anywhere, any time.   Just like the psalmist we know also, that what makes the temple or the church so appealing is not the buildings themselves – although this one is not too shabby.  We know that coming into a church building can help us step aside from the busy-ness of life so we can quietly sit, meditate and pray.   We find joy and strength and guidance in the prayers, music, God’s Word read and spoken.   We also find that fellowship with other believers is part of that longing and joy in coming to church.   This is finding shelter in “the living God.”  

The psalmist says that even the sparrow and swallows find shelter in the presence of God in the Temple .  The temples were built open to the sky.  So the open beams would provide safe and peaceful nesting space for the birds. 

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus tells His disciples, and us, to consider the little sparrow.   In the scheme of things they are not worth anything.  Bird lovers everywhere need not call nor email me.  I love birds.  We have them in our back yard and we feed them.  As a matter of fact, Richard talks to them…so no calls please.  However, with their constant chatter and the mess they make on everything, people at the Temple probably want to get rid of the dirty little birds.  But Jesus says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?  And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father knowing it (Matt 10:29).”   Not one sparrow falls but the Father sees it.  Actually, the language is stronger than that.  Jesus says that the sparrow falls into the lap of your Father.  He knows all about it.  He cares what happens to the dirty little birds.  God takes note of them all.  And since God cares so much for sparrows, how much more He knows us and cares for us.  We are worth so much more to God than a whole flock of these birds.

Jesus uses the fact that even sparrows – or any other bird – do fall, as an illustration.  He says He knows that His followers will suffer physical harm, or other harm for His sake.   So He tells about the sparrow to assure us that God, the Father, watches over us in each situation and event, and He cares for us.  There are times when God rescues us from our situations.  Sometimes He even allows us to suffer with Him – and yes, to even die.  But He never lets us out of His sight and care.  Knowing this in our heads allows our hearts the longing to be with God.

The psalmist tells us people fulfill this longing as they rejoice in God’s presence at the Temple .   To be in God’s house was for the psalmist to be at home with God to experience a certain peace.  It has been said that, to be at home with God is to experience the highest good in life.  That doesn’t seem enough.  However, no matter what kind of valley we may have to walk through, we can find a restful nest, a restful place in God presence.

And so we join the pilgrimage to the restful, and safe, place in God.  I didn’t say it’s always comfortable – because spiritual growth isn’t always comfortable.   And the physical pilgrimage to the temple was certainly not comfortable but it was a major focus of Jewish life.    Even today Jewish and non-Jewish people make pilgrimages to Israel for faith reasons.  In this country we make less religious pilgrimages, but a pilgrimage nonetheless:  Washington , D.C. , Philadelphia , state capitols, battle fields of the Civil War, even Disneyland .  And thousands of school children trek to the different missions in this state for their school mission projects.   At the time of the writing of this psalm there were annual festivals like Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles to which people would go to join in the celebrations.   We could say that weekly we make a pilgrimage here to church, to celebrate and worship God.  There are some who make that pilgrimage annually or semi-annually…Christmas and Easter.  Some even make it a third time…Mother’s Day.  There are many who make the pilgrimage to church after a season of being physically ill or spiritually lost and seeking.

The ancient Israelites were the same.  They journeyed together in large groups partly for safety reasons.  But also the many families would band together with others at each stop along the way.   They camped in shaded oasis, drank of the sweet water, sang campfire songs each night, no doubt like Pastor Dave’s personal favorite, Kum-Ba-Yah.   Some might have had to stop and work to earn enough money to continue their pilgrimage.   Relatives reunited and got caught up on family news.   Some in the group made new and life-long friends.  All gathered happy memories which would never be forgotten.

As you probably know, quite a bit of Israel   is arid, desert territory.   Many of the people  had no choice but to pass through this area on their way to Jerusalem .   One of the arid valleys to be passed through was called “Baca”.  Literally this is the “valley of weeping.”  Many here have traveled that valley – or are traveling in that valley right now.   Your physical, mental or spiritual strength is depleted.   Spiritually you feel as dry and arid as the desert.   You wonder how or if you can go on.  You wonder if God is remembering that you even exist.   

And then you receive a phone call.  Or you receive a note or a card.  Or someone comes to your door with a smile, a prayer and maybe even better for that moment – a meal.   Your strength is renewed for you to continue on your journey.  You are reassured that in whatever situation and circumstance you travel – God travels with you.   Many times we must go through those barren places in our lives before we can begin to grow strong in God’s presence.    If you are walking in your own Valley of Weeping today, spend time with God.  Experience God’s faithfulness.  Ask me or perhaps the one next to you or one of the prayer team to pray with you about it.  Be sure your pilgrimage leads toward God, not away from Him.

 At this point in the psalm, verse 9, we hear a personal prayer for the king – the people’s shield.  Perhaps praying for the king was a regular focus of a pilgrimage festival or perhaps this was a regular prayer by those on their walk.   And if King David is at war at this point, he is not able to be present at the festival.  The people would know this and would be praying for him.   Whether present or not, the people’s earnest prayer and plea is that their ruler should remain in the favor of God.   And, therefore to pass on that favor and blessing to them.  For us today this tells us we are to pray for our leaders – in city, national, world government, business, and the church.  This also tells us we are responsible for intercessory prayer for people and situations.  We are not to hesitate in getting God’s attention.   For God is the one who is our protector and shield on our life pilgrimage.   One of the greatest blessings here at MPC is the important and growing prayer ministry.   Next month we resume our Monday Morning Prayer Hour.  The Military Prayer Warriors continue to meet the third Monday evening.  After each Sunday morning service we have a prayer team available right up here to pray for any of you and your needs.  This is so you can be brought into God’s presence.  You, the individual believer finds solace, strength, peace, rest and guidance in the living God – no matter where you may be.  The psalmist expressed this as “better is one day in the presence of God than thousands of days anywhere else.”   

And this is why the psalmist so much wants to be a gatekeeper at the Temple .  You see, the choice of being a gatekeeper in the house of God is preferred to living the good life in the home of the wicked.   A gatekeeper was a servant or perhaps even a beggar who stations themselves at the entrance of the Temple .   The psalmist feels this position served God by welcoming people into God presence.   Whether a servant or beggar, the psalmist prefers that job to life among those who cut themselves off from God.    Serving God there in the Temple was preferable than being served anywhere else.   We are each called to serve God – whether in this particular church or other service or ministry - whether in the larger Church or wherever He places us - to partner with Him in ministry.  No matter what else we do in life, He expects each of us to be His gatekeepers.  

We have gatekeepers here at MPC.  Yes, the many greeters and ushers are often the first people anyone sees, meets or talks to when coming into this sanctuary.   But each of us is to greet and welcome people here.   Other gatekeepers include the coffee team, the praise band and choir members, nursery care people, Sunday School and Celebration teachers, the sound and light people.  You are gatekeepers in the insurance field, or computers, or teachers, students, directors, secretaries, handy-fix-it people, people looking for jobs or retired, EMT’s firefighters, nurses, doctors, grandparents, moms, dads, sons and daughters…each brings people into God’s presence.   The gate-keeping task is for each of us as we travel on this journey at work, at school, on vacation, at the gym, at the grocery store, on the youth sports fields.   We are to be gatekeepers for God – bringing our story of what Jesus is doing in our lives to others – so others may be brought into life with Jesus and experience His life-giving power and strength  for their life’s journey.  Like in the drama some people feel the ache of longing for their old life – be it drugs, porn, the wrong group of people, alcohol – you name it.  You and I never know  when we will be needed to be a gatekeeper.    We don’t know when we will have the opportunity to tell someone of Jesus’ power and love.  We want to be ready and available.   Then we want to be a continuing gatekeeper to get that one – and ourselves - connected here so we can be on our deeper pilgrimage toward God.   There are different areas of ministry and service here as well as small groups.  Each is a connection to one another; but especially to God.  

That connect does not mean we get everything we want from God.  And our Holy Homesickness is not cured in getting everything we want.  It is receiving from God what is He knows is for our good for our pilgrimage.    But you and I must do the walking.  Because our Holy Homesickness is cured as daily journey on our pilgrimage toward to God.   That deepest of longings is met as we spend even a bit of each day in God’s courts – in God’s presence.  For how great is our God to be worshipped!