Greetings friends. Thank you for traveling along with me on this journey; I am quite glad you're along! I am thankful you've made your way here, Joyelle, and I hope your first wedded months have been bliss!

I am experiencing that kind of restful felicity that comes from delight in God, the unfolding of His will, and the charitable endowments of grace received from the savoring of His word. If possible, open and marvel at Psalm 84.

It is presumed that David penned this Psalm, and surely the ardency of his person is perceived in this work. Longingly, he considers the swallow (whose voice is always praising!), and reckons the nest which is afixed to the place of his love, and he yearns to be there. Surely, the building is not his love alone, but representative of all that is loveable and beautiful; God Himself and His holy presence amongst His people. The Psalmist longs to be there--to worship, and to be consumed with his praise and the presence of the godly. Verse five says, "How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion! "

Consider this with me, for the man in whose heart lie the highways to Zion is the man who, by dogged practice has rutted heartpaths that lead tirelessly to the Fount Everlasting. Continually that heart pants and rests never until it reaches and makes its praise in Zion, the holy habitation of God. He sees the duties of religion as the sweetest on earth, and to be perched in a nest on the eave of God's sanctuary would be sweeter than the head of the finest table at any king's court. His reflection turns also to those making pilgrammage to Zion for the yearly feast, and how their desert wandering is blessed with rains deposited into their hewn pits, and figuratively how the Lord causes the life of His followers to flourish in the covenant of His love.

The psalmist swells as he considers his longings and his repository of praise is amplified as he concludes. "The Lord is a sun (life-giver, sustainer, beautifier) and shield (protector, conqueror), the Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withold from those who walk uprightly." Consider this lastly with me, for, these words are to crescendo in sweetest refrain to the heart that belongs to Him. "No good thing does He withold..." Child of God, grace is to be traded with grace, and greater good is given in plenty to the heart whose paths lead to Him.

"Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere..."