Psalm 84 says, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts.” The words “dwelling place” refer to God’s tabernacle. The tabernacle was the place that God had chosen to come down and meet with his people in the wilderness. The God of heaven and earth had descended to meet with his people that they might call upon his name and worship him in the beauty of his holiness.

Notice the fervency of the psalmist; he is describing his love to come to worship. Deep within his being he longs, even faints, to think about the worship of God.

Worship in the Old Testament was filled with joy!

We often think of Old Testament worship as full of requirements, laws, and sacrifices so that there must have been no joy in coming to worship. But here the psalmist is rebuking the idea that the worship of God was some sort of chore, or some hard demand God put upon his people. That is not what it was at all.

The psalmist is describing that he found coming to the Lord’s house as the exact opposite, it’s lovely. How lovely is your tabernacle! It’s as if he says, “The worship of the Lord thrills my soul; it is my greatest passion, to be where God dwells. The worship of you, O Lord, is the most satisfying thing I have ever done with my life.”

This isn’t the only place such a description of worship is given. Psalm 27 states,