Longing for God

My soul longed even yearned for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.

Psalm 84:2

This verse heightens the psalmist’s longing for God expressed in Psalm 84:1. He expresses depth of person with the three-fold references to himself, my soul, my heart, and my flesh. The psalmist is piling up words in a poetic way to show the depth of person affected by this longing he feels. His longing didn’t affect only the spiritual part of him (heart and soul); this was affecting him physically, in his body as well. It is hard to say what exactly this looks like, but we could recognize neglecting God can affect our body’s health, not only our souls. The psalmist also expresses a depth of feeling here with the verbs that he uses, longed, yearned, and sing for joy. Yearn carries the meaning of wasting away. Spurgeon says, “[His soul] could not long hold out, but was exhausted with delay.” It shows the psalmist was at the end of himself and desperately needed God. The verb sing for joy is better translated cry out. The word generally points to a strong cry which can be either in lament or in joy. It usually appears in poetry and leans heavily on the words with which it is coupled for its meaning. Although it is often coupled with words of joy and singing, in this psalm it is paired with longing and yearning, so it serves to show the depth of that longing by intensifying it.

Until v2 we’d be excused for the thinking that the psalmist is focused on a specific geological or even spiritual place. He has talked about the loveliness of God’s dwelling places and the courts of the Lord. But the end of v2 draws our attention to the fact that the psalmist desires a who more than a what, for he says that he cries out for the living God. Here we see a distinction between people who attend church and those who follow and know Christ. Our ultimate desire, whether in attending church to worship publicly or reading God’s Word and praying to worship privately, is God. If we don’t encounter God, we have mere religion. But when we encounter God, we gain a relationship. The psalmist is talking about much more than chasing a feeling; he is speaking of knowing a person, a person who transforms.