What to do when you don't desire God (Psalm 84)

Larry Crabb writes about a good friend of his who was dying of cancer.  God had chosen not to answer this man’s prayer for healing.  God didn’t even relieve the pain that he was feeling.  The man didn’t feel God’s presence.  He became angry. 

One day several of the sick man’s friends came to pray with him.  They prayed for peace, healing, a sense of God’s presence, comfort and that God’s glory would be witnessed.  The sick man interrupted them.  He spoke honestly.  ‘God, right now I hate you.  I wish I had a deep love for you and deep gratitude for what for what you are doing.  But I don’t.  I am really upset and mad.  I don’t know of any way to come to you anymore but honestly.  I’m through playing games.  I just can’t do it.  I am coming as I am.  I know it’s awful.’  Then he stood up painfully with the help of his friends.  ‘I’m going to bed now.  I’m tired.’

A few weeks later as that man lay within minutes of death, he asked a friend, ‘will I love Jesus more when I see him than I do now?’  His friend said that he thought so.  To which the dying man replied, ‘I don’t see how that is possible!’

So how did this miracle happen?  How did someone go from honest anger to peaceful praise?  How did someone hang on when God said ‘no’ to his prayers?  How did he love God in the midst of his sickness and pain?  Let’s think about our passion for God.

Do we have as much of God as we want (1-5)?

In his book ‘The Pursuit of God’ Tozer writes, ‘Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God. They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking.’

Right throughout the Psalms we see a passion for God.  ‘Let the light of your face shine upon us’ (4:6).  ‘Apart from you I have no good thing’ (16:2).  ‘One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple (27:4).  ‘You are my God, earnestly I seek you, I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you’ (63:1). 

Are we actually seeking more of God?  Maybe we have as much of God as we want.  We’re comfortable, and would rather not be challenged!  But we don’t really believe that apart from him, this world has nothing to offer.  We haven’t yet realised that compared to him all pleasures are bland and all entertainment is dull.

In Psalm eighty-four, the Sons of Korah are a part of a pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem.  They sing, ‘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’ (84:1-2). 

Why are they so excited about going to the temple?  It’s not the architectural beauty of the place that enthrals them.  Rather it is because at that time the temple was associated with the presence of God.  The psalmists want to be with God’s people, in God’s place, enjoying God’s presence. 

The Sons of Korah see the temple as a welcoming place.  Even the humble sparrow and swallow find a home there.  How much more welcome are those who place the trust in God?  Elsewhere in the Psalms we read that ‘a humble and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise’ (51:17b).  God bids you to come to him.  ‘Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing … Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.  Give thanks to Him, bless His name’ (Psalm 100:2-4).  ‘The Lord is near to all who call upon him—to all who call upon Him in truth’ (145:18).

In John’s gospel Jesus teaches us that the temple points to him (John 2:21).  He is the focus of God’s presence.  We no longer go to a building to meet with God, we go to a person.  There is no other way to God but by Jesus (John 14:6).  And Jesus promises that he will in no way cast out anyone who comes to him (John 6:37).  In Jesus we are to approach the throne of God’s grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16). 

Would it be worth suffering to know him more (6-8)?

However, on their way to the temple in Jerusalem the pilgrims pass through the Valley of Baka.  The location of this valley is uncertain.  It seems to have been a dry place.  But they make it a place of springs—which may mean that they delight in the valley, even though it is dry.  Tim Keller says that times of dryness and difficulty are crucial for progress on the Christian pilgrimage.

So often we are more concerned about being made comfortable than being made holy.  We want God to rescue us from our pains rather than our sins.  Jesus knew his father’s good gift of grief.  He was a man of sorrows who was familiar with suffering (Isaiah 53:3).  The writer to the Hebrews said that even Jesus learned obedience through suffering (Hebrews 5:8).  Like Jesus, do we want to grow through suffering?  Would it be worth the pain to experience more of God?  Do we want to learn how to rejoice while in the Valley of Baka?  Is it God’s face that we seek, or are we simply looking for the gifts that he might be carrying in his hands?

One Sunday morning Caroline told me that she longed to know God the way she did when she lived in Belarus.  She was also struck that Belarus was also one of the most difficult experiences of her life.  Often it is pain that we know God most intimately.  He is close to those who are crushed and broken in heart (34:18).  Anne Graham Lotz talked of passing through a hard time in her life and them said, ‘don’t give me sympathy, don’t give me advice, don’t even give me a miracle, just give me Jesus.’  Are we willing to ask God to do anything that it takes to help us know him more? 

Do we value God more than anything else (9-12)?

So often we approach God like a child approaches Santa at Christmas time.    Could you imagine a child sitting on the lap of Father Christmas and upon being asked what he wants, replying ‘all I want for Christmas is you’?  That is exactly what the psalmists say to God!  God is the psalmist’s ultimate treasure.  Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.  I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than dwell in the tents of the wicked (10),

It is not wrong to ask for good gifts from our Heavenly Father.  God is kind beyond measure.  ‘The Lord bestows favour and honour; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless’ (11).  The apostle Paul explains that having given us his Son, ‘how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things’ (Romans 8:32).  Although look at the life of the only one whose walk was truly blameless.  Jesus was not wealthy—he had no home to lay his head (Matthew 8:20).  He was not always accepted and popular (John 15:18).  He died an excruciating death and tells us to take up our cross (Matthew 16:24).

I have told you before about a woman that was fondly known as Auntie Emma.  Dementia had stripped away Auntie Emma’s short term memory.  She could only hold a conversation for a minute or two before she was unaware of what you had said.  But what was left in the core of her mind was sheer joy.  Jesus satisfied Emma.  She would always quote a song of her youth.  ‘I would rather have Jesus than silver or gold; I’d rather be his than have riches untold.’  Emma had nothing, and yet I have hardly met anyone who was richer.

Conclusion:  How do we develop a passion for God?

Do you remember that dying friend of Larry Crabb?  In the midst of his pain he could not imagine loving God more.  There was a man ready for heaven.  ‘Who have I in heaven but you?  And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you’ (73:25). But how did he get to that point of loving God in the midst of pain?

He began with a raw honesty.  That is one of the first things we notice as we read the book of Psalms.  The Psalmists are happy to bring their ‘whys’ and ‘how longs’ to God (e.g. Psalm 13).  God graciously instructs us to put these questions on our lips.  Tell God how you feel!  Bring your cold heart to him.  Remember that the desire to love God is love for God.  Ask him to stir up your passion.  Allow the Holy Spirit blow upon the smouldering embers of your heart.

Secondly, confess that often you have wanted the gifts rather than the giver.  We have wanted to be saved from suffering more than being saved from sin.  Tozer prays, ‘I want to know Thee, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys.’  What do you call a child that is given everything they ask for?  We call them spoiled!  Spoiled children don’t grow.   It isn’t a loving thing to spoil your child.

Ask God to help you value him more than even the best things you want from him.  Ask God to help you believe that he knows best when he says ‘no’.  Ask him to become your greatest treasure.  That may be a struggle in this life, but we are on a pilgrimage to a New Jerusalem where there will be no temple because God ‘for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb’ (Rev. 21:22). 

Larry Crabb writes, ‘we cannot count on God to protect us from suffering of any kind or measure.  The worst evil can happen to the best Christian.  But we can count on God to enable us to draw near to him whatever happens and eventually, to experience deep joy when we do.’

The following prayer is taken from A.W. Tozer's, The Pursuit of God'.  "O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.  I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace.  I am ashamed of my lack of desire.  O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still."  

Think happy (Psalm 98)

David Murray writes an excellent book entitled ‘The Happy Christian—Ten Ways to be a joyful believer in a gloomy world.’  I normally steer clear of books with titles like that.  It sounds like a self-help book.  But this is a book written by a really sound theologian with a pastoral heart.

Murray points out that our world is wired towards negative thinking.  Look at the news we consume!  Tragedy sells.  We spend hours been told how awful things are.  I am not saying that we bury our head in the sand, but we need to balance all the bad news stories with some really good news stories.  Feed the mind on a diet of sorrow and you will end up felling sad.  As Solomon writes, ‘as a person thinks in his heart, so is he.’

Of course we can be our own worst enemies.  We like to gossip.  We are good at seeing the worst in people.  We have a tendency to put people down.  It makes us feel superior to criticise.  But talking that way about people is like living off junk good: the short term pleasure ultimate leaves us dissatisfied and unhealthy.  Do you ever find yourself in a conversation that leaves you feeling compromised and awful?

Perhaps the healthiest of all thoughts are when we praise God.  God, in his infinite goodness, has tied his glory together with the good of his people.  The Westminster Confession of faith states that the chief end of men and women is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever.  The eighteenth-century theologian, Jonathan Edwards, wrote that God made man for no other purpose by happiness.  John Piper teaches that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.  So let’s talk a psalm of praise and allow it show us the God-honouring path to emotional well-being.  

Praise the God who rescues you (1-3)

The Bible commands us to praise God.  I suspect that praising God is more important for us than it is for God.  He had no shortage of praise from choirs of angelic beings.  But because he loves us he values our praise.  In fact we are designed in such a way that our hearts will expand when we focus on God and sing of his greatness.  We are to praise God because he is good, and we are to praise him because it is good.  ‘Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant’ (Psalm 135:3).  The psalmist tells us to sing to the Lord a new song, for God has done marvellous things.

Three times in the opening three verses we hear the word ‘salvation’.  God saves his people.  The psalmist doesn’t tell us what saving event he has in mind.  The psalms often speak in general ways like this so that we can relate them to our own experiences.  In what ways has God saved us?  Obviously he has saved us through the cross of Jesus, which we will think about in a moment, but he actually has saved us in a whole variety of ways.

Spend time thinking of the ways that God has saved you!  He has saved you from loneliness by placing you in a family (you may not have much of a natural family, but he has given you spiritual brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters in the church).  He has saved you from an empty way of life that we see all around us by giving us meaning and purpose.  We pray each day, ‘give us our daily bread’, but we rarely give thought to the fact that it is he who provides us with the roof over our head and the food for our bellies.  He has saved us from being in dire need.  He is so kind to even those who refuse to acknowledge him!  We can thank him for good health, and thank him that he cares for us when we are ill.  Count your blessings, name them one by one.

Of course the greatest saving event in the Bible is focused on the death and resurrection of God’s own son for us.  What a focus for positive thinking that cross is!  Look at the cross and remind yourself that this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and gave his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin.  When conscience reminds you of past sin and failing, preach the gospel to yourself.  You are to honour God by living as a free person.  There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  When you fall for the millionth time to that besetting sin, bring it to the throne of grace, confess it before God and then accept the cleansing and forgiveness he promises.  It doesn’t please him to see his beloved children wallowing in shame.  He calls us to be happy and free. 

Praise the king who loves you (4-6)

At the end of verse six we get mention of God, the king.  What an amazing king we have.  Self-help books will tell us that we will improve our happiness as we love ourselves more.  But actually the real key to a positive outlook on live is to love and be loved by Jesus.

A friend of mine says that he keeps his mind on two things: the resurrection as proof that all this is true and the character of Jesus as proof that God is good.  What a king we have!  He is a king who leaves his palace to seek and save his enemies.  He is a king that little children felt safe to approach and embrace.  He is a king who serves his disciples as he washes their feet.  A king who prays for those who mock and spit at him and who called for his execution.  He is a king who will return in glory and heal this broken world.  In one of his hymns, John Newton writes, ‘Jesus! My shepherd, husband, friend, O prophet, priest and king.  My Lord, my life, my way, my end, accept the praise I bring.’

It will lift our mood and fill our hearts with positive thoughts to spend time meditating on the splendour of our king.  It will also help us to remember that he is the king who delights to save.  Indeed, while the gospel may seem to make slow progress in this stubborn and hard-hearted culture of ours, don’t fail to see how the church is blossoming in South America and China.  Jesus is establishing his kingdom and the gates of hell cannot prevent it!

Praise him with creation (7-9)

As we come to the end of the psalm we witness the whole of nature praising God.  The rivers clap their hands and the mountains sing for joy.  Romans chapter eight tells us that nature was made to be more alive than it presently is.  It looks forward to what it will be when Christ returns.  So should we!  ‘Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is’ (1 John 3:2).  We have the most amazing future to look forward to.  Pray that God would help us overcome our doubt and unbelief about the future and enable us to rejoice in what is to come!

Finally, look at the closing words.  Jesus is coming back to judge the world.  I must admit that I have struggled with the concept of Jesus coming to judge the world.  I have often asked, ‘how can a loving God send people to hell?’  The Bible marvels in the other direction, however.  It answers the question, ‘how can a holy God accept rebels as his children?’  The cross of Jesus gives us the answer to that question!

Notice that the coming king will judge the world in righteousness and with equity.  We can trust the judge because we know his character.  His judgement will be a positive for change.  When we see the suffering that people inflict on people, when we see the corrupt prosper, when we witness neglect and abuse, when the most vulnerable in our society are no longer protected, we may cry, ‘what are you going to do about this God?’  God answers by showing us that his king is coming to judge with righteousness and equity.  The judge of this world will do what is right!

Conclusion

God commands us to think good thoughts.  We are told to think about whatever is lovely, commendable, excellent and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:9).  But positive thinking is not just biblical, it is good for you.  Scientists who study happiness found that you could improve your mood by only ten percent through improvements in your circumstances.  In other words, that new car, house, job or body is only going to give you a minimal improvement in happiness.  However, how you think and act determines your mood by forty percent.  Heathy ways of thinking can have a really significant impact on the way you feel.

Remember that Solomon taught that, ‘as a person thinks in his heart, so is he.’  The apostle Paul commanded us to think about whatever is excellent and praiseworthy.  If your thoughts are always negative you cannot expect to have a positive emotional life.

There are things that you can do that will, over time, make a radical change on your mood.  Start seeing the positive in people rather than just the negative.  Speak well about your church, without being naïve about the things that need to improve.  Learn to compliment people and praise them.  Avoid gossip.  While I don’t want you to be uninformed, there is no need to spend hours obsessing over every detail of every tragedy.  Let your prayers be dominated by thanksgiving and praise.  Read Christian biographies and other good Christian books.  Learn to enjoy nature and music.  Spend time meditating on how wonderful Jesus is.  A friend told me to write a daily list of things I am thankful for—apparently this has proven to change people’s mood.  Most of all may God enable us to praise him.  May he enlarge our hearts and minds as we thank him for all that he has done for us!  May the many ways he has saved us thrill our hearts!  May we realise that he will bring an end to all that is wrong with this world!  May we be glad that no matter what direction our society is going in, he sits on his throne and remains in control!  May we grow the faith that can look beyond this world to the beautiful future that awaits us!