For 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. For 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.
– Psalm 84:10–11
I feel like I could read all of Psalm 84, but these two verses back to back, just soak in what they’re saying. Psalm 84:10, “One day in the courts of God is better than a thousand elsewhere.” Just pause there. Do you live like this? Do you live to spend time every day in the presence of God?
Psalm 84:10–11 Teaches Us that There is Nothing Better than Being in the Presence of God
The picture here in Psalm 84 is talking about being in the temple where the glory of God dwells. The psalmist never could have imagined being the temple of the Holy Spirit. What we read in the New Testament about our lives for all who trust in Jesus, we don’t have to go to a place to spend time with God. We walk in the presence of God. His Holy Spirit lives in us. So to get alone with God and just be with him today, that’s better than anywhere else you could go today. Anywhere else in the world and not just today, you could spend a thousand days anywhere else in the world and one day in the presence of God would be better.
Many followers of Jesus, we almost have a hard time imagining this because we are missing out on the reward that’s found and just being alone with God. I exhort you. I encourage you prioritize spending concentrated time alone with just you and God. Just spending time with him, worshiping him, listening to his word, praying him. All the ways we pray, praising him, repenting sin, and asking him for things in our lives and others’ lives, yielding our lives to him. Just spend time with him. Better is one day, those moments alone with him than thousands elsewhere. I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tens of wickedness.
There is nothing in this world, no one in this world that compares to God. This is why I read verse 11 also, “Lord God is a sun and shield.” What a picture, a sun. God is a sun and a shield for you and me. He is light in our lives. Apart from him, there is darkness. He is a sun and a shield. He’s our protector, our defender, our guide, our deliverer.
Psalm 84:10–11 Reminds Us that God Favors Those Who Have a Close Relationship with Him
The Lord bestows favor and honor. You spend time with God. You’re experiencing favor and honor from God, and no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. All good things He pours out on generously gives to all of those who seek him, who worship him, who spend time with him and then who walk, who live out of the overflow of his presence in you.
God, we pray this over our lives. Lord, I pray especially for anyone who has a hard time understanding this verse and the sense that they don’t know or are missing out on the wonder of just being alone with you. God, I pray that you would give them grace. The discipline needed to get alone with you and to experience reward in you. A day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
This is a fact God, this is reality. So help us to live our lives seeking you, spending time with you, especially, God, with the privilege you’ve given us. Jesus, you’ve made it possible for us to experience communion with God all the time, anytime, anywhere. God, help us to seek you with all our heart, to experience the reward that’s found in being alone with you, being in your presence, and then to live out of the overflow of this with you as our sun and our shield.
God, we praise you as our light and our defender, our protector, our deliverer. We pray for your favor in our lives. We pray that you’d bestow honor upon us, not because we deserve, because you are gracious and God. Do not withhold any good thing from us today. That you would help us to walk uprightly out of the overflow of your presence in us.
Praying for the Baloch People
And God, that your fountain of good gifts would flow in our lives in ways that draw us closer to you. God, as we pray all of this in our lives, we pray this for people who don’t know you, don’t know the reward that’s found in you. God, help us to share the gospel today. Give us boldness to share the gospel, to make disciples of Jesus. We pray for disciples to be made among the nations.
God, all the peoples of the world need to hear this, especially unreached people who don’t know you’re a sun and shield and you bestowed favor and honor and Jesus. You’ve made the way open for relationship with you for us to be in your presence now and forever. God, we pray for the spread of that good news to the Baloch of Pakistan. Please God, that they might enjoy the goodness that comes from your hand and the glory that is only experienced in being in your courts. As your temple, God, we pray for disciples who made churches be planted among the Baloch of Pakistan. In Jesus name we pray all of this according to your word in Psalm 84:10-11. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
