Read Psalm 84:9-12. 9Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed! 10For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. 12O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!
I would imagine that most of us reading verse 10 can recognize the beauty of the sentiment, and yet also struggle to personalize it. What would you give for just one day with Jesus? One day to walk with him, and talk with him? One day to sit with him over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine? Would you give up a thousand days of good health? Go a thousand days without pay? Would you take a demotion at your job just to spend time with Christ? Jesus took the ultimate demotion for us – king to slave. Deity to doorkeeper.
These stanzas test our hearts don’t they? But so too does everyday life. It doesn’t take long for every Christian to face that day when they must decide if doorkeeper in God’s house is enough. Is one more day of struggle with Jesus better than a thousand days of stability without him? Do we want the problem to go away or do we want to know Christ? Like Paul, can we count everything as loss for the gain of knowing Christ? The gain of his favor and honor bestowed on us for our faith? The gain of every good thing?
To live is Christ is to have nothing withheld that is good. Union with Christ assures us of this. All that is his is ours. All his favor and honor. All his upright ways. Knowing this, we can now choose the presence of Christ over the absence of problems.
Prayer. Jesus, blessed is the one who trusts in you! Help me to trust you more and more, especially in the pain and suffering of life. Amen.
To Live is Christ 