The Highways to Zion (Psalm 84)

Yesterday I wrote about the catalyst for this series: God meeting me in the depths of exhaustion with the phrase, “Blessed are those whose strength is in You.”  From that one little snippet, I started studying Psalm 84.  In the writer’s song, I identify: I’m longing to be in God’s presence.  I need the peace and refuge of His temple courts.  

Thankfully, I have access to the Lord spiritually, that the psalmist didn’t have. When he wrote—whoever he was—he only knew of God’s physical dwelling with mankind: the Temple on Mount Zion.  That was where all of Israel went to worship, because God’s “glory” dwelled there.  Two thousand years later, we know that God’s glory took on human form and came as Jesus Christ, and then after His death and resurrection, God’s glory was shed abroad in our hearts as His Holy Spirit, a universal Comforter and Guide in the hearts of those who have reconciled their lives with God.  

So for me, reading this psalm generations after the original song, I can apply the truth to my spiritual life, while not doing everything literally.  For example, this psalm is talking about those making physical pilgrimage to Zion, and I’m not going to do that literally.  For one, I lived there already. And for two, ain’t nobody goin’ nowhere anytime soon (Thanks, Covid).  Even if I can’t make a physical journey to Zion, I can understand the passage figuratively.  

Psalm 84:5  says, “Blessed are those whose strength in in You, in whose hearts are the highways to Zion.”

When we make any journey, we have a “here” and “there” in mind.  From a starting point, we have a desired destination, and a map shows us the route or the process to get where we want to end up.  Yesterday, I read that first part, “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,” and it helped to identify my current location: Exhaustion Desert.  But I want to get to Strength Mountain.  I want to arrive in the Presence of God where I have total peace and access to His unfailing strength.  I want to get to Zion.  

The highway to God’s Presence is not unknown. It’s not hidden from us.  He reveals Himself over and over, and His Word is the guide that shows us every step to get closer to Him.  But there are some who know those ways so familiarly that they’re written on their very hearts.  That means that they’ve traveled the highway to God enough to know the route by heart.  It means they’ve paid attention and cared enough to remember and mark the way.  

Part of my job requires travel, and some of my trips can be quite long.  Since I’m in unfamiliar territory, I use a GPS nowadays to guide me; I learned as a child to use road atlases.  Either way the concept is the same: the desired route will lead me to the destination.  But on those long trips, eventually I return home.  Using my maps, I leave out of a motel parking lot in some town in the mountains of West Virginia, and I start driving toward home.  But there comes a point where I turn off the GPS, or toss the map in the backseat, because I know how to get to my destination, without a guide.  These roads are written in my heart.  Because I’ve traveled them over and over, because I’ve paid attention to those landmarks, I can greet that route with certainty (and even emotion!) because I’m on my way HOME. 

Nothing will hold back the pilgrim headed to Zion.  He’s not side-tracked with lesser things; he’s pursuing that destination with purpose.   Not half-hearted or listless, he has one goal in mind: to reach the target he has set in his heart.  

Those who make the Lord their strength have His highways in their heart.  They get emotional to return back to His presence.  They long to reach Zion, to take refuge in Zion, to be renewed in Zion.  

Many folks messaged me after yesterday’s post, saying that they too identify with my confession of exhaustion.  So I ask you, soul-weary friend, where are your highways headed?