Hearts set on the highway

I love this psalm. It is a beautiful psalm from start to finish. I could spend days meditating on it.

But here’s what struck me today.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

As they go through the Valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.

They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion. (Psalm 84:5-7, ESV)

So often, we forget a very important truth: this earth is not our home. Our home is in Zion, that is, Jerusalem. Not the earthly Jerusalem, but the heavenly one.

And so our hearts are not to be set on this world, on this life. Our eyes are always to be lifted to our true home.

In this world, we often go through the valley of “Baca,” that is, the valley of tears. But as our eyes turn to God, he fills us with the fresh and living water of his Spirit.

We don’t walk this path, this highway alone. The Holy Spirit walks with us, filling us with new strength day by day. And he will do so until the day we appear before God in heaven.

That’s how people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived. All of them suffered through pain, loss, and tears in their lives. (Genesis 23:1, 24:67, 47:9, 48:7).

All of them experienced times of silence from God. But they all remembered that they were mere foreigners, or at best, temporary residents of this world.

And so they kept walking the path God had given them, believing that he is good.

As the writer of Hebrews put it,

These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.

Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return. But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:13-16)

So through all our trials, all our troubles, all our fears, let us all keep walking down that highway, with the Spirit at our side, setting our sights on the city God has prepared for us all.