Turn off the TV news. Put down your phone. For a few moments put your feet in the shoes of these faithful pilgrims whose goal and longing are to be in God’s presence (v 2). Together with the song leaders, cry out to our living God. Let yourself be overwhelmed by his loveliness (v 2). Even the birds find welcome and protection as they make their home close to the Lord (v 3)! Today, enjoy praising God with others who also yearn ‘for the living God’ (v 2).

Or maybe you see yourself as a pilgrim – on your way towards God, amid difficulties and sadness. As we look to him, we find strength in our weakness (‘Strengthen the feeble hands’, Isaiah 35:3). God is able to transform our places of adversity (Valley of Baka, v 6) into places of abundant fruitfulness and blessing (v 6). Today, be strengthened in your faith, confident of your homecoming in God’s presence (v 7).

Pause in your worship, remembering your relationship with God, and praying for your leaders (vs 8,9) whose own blessing brings peace. Turn again to your longing for God and communion with him which far surpasses anything this world may offer (v 10). Rejoice in the good things he brings to your life (v 11). Today, renew your trust in him and receive his blessing (v 12).

Consider how God is near you today. Think of some of the ways in which you can know his presence with you. Now take some time to praise him.

What a lovely focus the psalmist brings here, desiring to be close to God and recognising the incomparable blessings that come from God. Yet, there is a cry of desperation in these words, for the sparrow and swallow have a home in the house of God, but the author writes as one who is far off, yearning to be closer to God’s presence. The focus is on the pilgrim, the one who chooses to make the journey to come to Jerusalem, on this occasion through the dry valley of Baka. The word Baka is derived from the word to weep and the valley is sometimes referred to as the valley of weeping.

I once asked a dear Christian friend from India his views on alternative ways to share communion. Rather than enter into any controversy, he simply stated that whenever he approaches communion he approaches as one who is broken. He sees the agony of the cross in direct response to his own life and is deeply thankful and broken for the gift of God. I am encouraged to return to this thought whenever I become too familiar with any aspect of my relationship with God. 

I picture pilgrims coming through the valley with weeping, their tears soaking into the dry ground, making it a ‘place of springs’ (v 6). As we read elsewhere, ‘Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy’.1 Their journey leads them towards the presence of God, but the journey itself is transformational. Our walk with God can bring transformation through all the seasons we travel. Our weeping, our joy, our commute and our stillness can all bring transformation. Unlike those in the day of the psalmist, who travel to God’s Temple, we ourselves are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

As presence bearers, consider how God can use you to be transformational in even the most barren of places. Be encouraged to know that God chooses to use the broken. 

¹ Ps 126:5