Psalms 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
There are two kinds of people in this world. There are those who are focused on place, where they are, and those who are focused on position, what they are doing. Now, it doesn’t have to be completely one or the other. I myself feel that what I am doing and where I am doing it are pretty much together, hopelessly combined and intertwined.
However, let me give you an example. Here is someone who has a well-paying job in a place that is always gray and gloomy. It is not a particularly wonderful place to live, but they have a well-paying job and good benefits. When they turn seventy, they get to live for five years in the place of their choosing. On the other hand, you have a kid that you might call a “ski bum.” He loves skiing, the mountains, and a specific geographical location. So, he lives in the parking lot of the ski resort, works the ski lift, makes little money, and skis every week. Both these are exaggerations and neither are things we would probably aspire to, but it does show that most people tend to be more focused on either where they are or what they are doing.
In any case, there was a man named Korah who was of the tribe of Levi. He was a porter. His job, along with his family, was to transport the most sacred parts of God’s tabernacle as the children of Israel moved around. Numbers 16 tells us the tragic story of Korah’s discontentment and rebellion. Korah became discontent with who he was and what he was doing, and he became jealous of Moses. He reasoned, “Is Moses any better than I am? Why can’t I be the leader of these people?” He was jealous of Aaron. He thought, “Is Aaron better than anyone else that he gets to be the priest?”
Now, there is nothing better than doing what God has made you to do. Korah was bent on making a position for himself. He didn’t care about where he was in relation to God. He just wanted to be important and to do what he thought was important work. I don’t think that every ambition is wrong, but Korah had an ambition that was not of God. He wasn’t content to be near the tabernacle or near to God. He wanted to do what he wanted to do. Korah’s discontentment caused thinking and behavior that led to his destruction.
Psalm 84 is the exact opposite of that thinking. Verse 1 begins, “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longeth…,” and he talks about the blessings that come to those who are in God’s tabernacle. He seems to envy a sparrow who has made her nest in God’s tabernacle. He just wants to be at that place in the sense that he is close to God.
In the first six verses of Psalm 84 you find an emphasis on place. In verses 7-9 you find an emphasis on person. He says, “O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob.” So, instead of being consumed by his position, what he was doing, he was consumed with his place, where he was specifically in relation to God. Verse 10 goes on to say, “For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” He is saying, “I’d rather be nothing but a porter or doorkeeper in God’s house than live anywhere else, maybe even in the wealth of the wicked.”
Prior to verse 1 this psalm says “To the chief Musician… a Psalm for the sons of Korah.” Now Korah died for his wickedness, but Numbers 26:11 tells us that his descendants lived on and learned a lesson that Korah should have learned and that you and I can learn today: God will never hold out on a person who puts first things first. This involves both where I am and what I do. Verse 11 says, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” This is not a promise of health and wealth, but a promise that God will never hold out on a person who puts first things first. If my main desire in life is to be close to God in that position and place, then both my place, where I live, and my position, what I do, will be pleasing to God and to me as well.
Korah hated to be a porter, someone who carried things around and opened the door of God’s tabernacle, but his descendants came to the realization that they would rather be doorkeepers with God in that place than to live anywhere else.
Today, whatever your place and position, remember that God will never hold out on you as long as you put first things first and trust Him for His timing.