Psalms 84:1-2. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Perhaps the psalmist would never have said, "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!" if he had not been detained from them so long that he could truly say, "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord." It is very sad, yet it is all too true, that we often need to be deprived of a mercy in order to be made to value it aright. Would it not be wiser, on our part, if we prized our privileges while they were yet spared to us? Still it is a good thing to have our love to the assemblies of God’s house increased by temporary absence from them. See how fervent was the psalmist’s desire. His longing turned even to fainting at the very thought that, perhaps, he would never go there again: "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord." And his very "flesh" also joined in the intense longing of his soul. You cannot often get your flesh to do anything that is good, or to desire anything that is right; yet, sometimes, even our very body seems to be so swayed by the Holy Spirit that it is compelled to go it the right way.
Psalms 84:1-2. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Perhaps the psalmist would never have said, "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!" if he had not been detained from them so long that he could truly say, "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord." It is very sad, yet it is all too true, that we often need to be deprived of a mercy in order to be made to value it aright. Would it not be wiser, on our part, if we prized our privileges while they were yet spared to us? Still it is a good thing to have our love to the assemblies of God’s house increased by temporary absence from them. See how fervent was the psalmist’s desire. His longing turned even to fainting at the very thought that, perhaps, he would never go there again: "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord." And his very "flesh" also joined in the intense longing of his soul. You cannot often get your flesh to do anything that is good, or to desire anything that is right; yet, sometimes, even our very body seems to be so swayed by the Holy Spirit that it is compelled to go it the right way.