[This devotion is based on the sermon on Psalm 84 Jacob referred to on Resurrection Sunday 2026. It was preached November 10, 2019. The audio is available at this link – Coty]
Psalm 84:11: No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
Is that true? Has God withheld something good from you?
Or state the question this way: Haven’t you experienced loss?
We all have lost something we value and treasure, something that is now gone and unrecoverable. A serious example: a wife loses her husband to a rare disease. He is a good man, a good father; theirs is a good marriage. She understandably asks: Isn’t their future life together a good thing that God has withheld?
We also experience loss when we realize that some good thing we have desired and worked for is now unattainable. Our hopes are dashed. Here’s a trivial example from my life: I was a serious runner for many years, and ran personal best in the marathon at age 29. An injury at age 30 set me back; a set of more serious injuries at age 38 prevented me from running even 10 miles again, let alone a marathon. Running is good. Did God not withhold that good from me?
Most all of us can say: It sure seems as if God has withheld something good from me.
Now, perhaps the end of the verse gets God off the hook: “No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (or, in other translations, “have integrity,” “are blameless”).
So if I have suffered loss – am I the reason, not God? In my trivial case: If I had lived a more obedient life, would I have had decades more of serious, enjoyable running?
If we are to rightly understand Psalm 84:11 – or any Scripture – we must examine it in context: both the immediate context and the context of the entirety of Scripture.
Note that Psalm 84 is part of book 3 of the psalter, Psalms 73 to 89. These were all written during a time of trial, loss, and grief for God’s people. So our key verse cannot mean, “All is going wonderfully for us because we have been walking uprightly!”
Instead, we’ll see that the psalmist is saying: if we continue to walk in His paths, He will be our sun and shield, He will bestow favor, honor, all good things. So whatever loss you have experienced, whatever worries you many have, God will give you Himself – and that is the greatest good imaginable.
Let’s now turn to the psalm.
The Greatest Joy and Security: God’s Loving Presence (verses 1-4)
How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. (Psalm 84:1-2)
What is the psalmist’s desire in the midst of pain, loss, danger? Not the end of pain. Not the restoration of loss. His desire is for the living God. Indeed, God is his greatest joy; he longs for Him with all his being (soul, heart, and flesh).
So, because He longs for God, he longs for God’s courts, God’s dwelling place, saying it is “lovely”. For us, “lovely” implies primarily physical beauty. But the underlying Hebrew word emphasizes how much it is “loved.” Indeed, every other occurrence of this word in Scripture refers to God’s beloved people – and His people were so often not acting beautifully!
Thus, the psalmist loves the temple because it is a picture, a pointer to God’s great love for His people. He is present in midst of His people, and provides way for them to approach Him in worship.
Do you feel that privilege?
The equivalent for us is saying: “How I love worshiping the one true God thru Jesus!”
Verse 3 then speaks of security
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young, at your altars,
O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.
Sparrows are common. They are not worth much. But even such birds feel secure enough to make the temple their home. So if even sparrows are secure in God’s house, how much more His beloved people!
The psalmist underlines the security that is ours by then calling God “Lord of Hosts” – that is, the God who is Himself armies – and declaring that mighty God to be “my king and my God.”
Verse 4 then concludes the first section with the first of three “blessed” statements:
Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise!
That is, blessed or happy are those who are secure in Him, who praise Him, who are loved by Him and so love Him. They thus praise Him forever.
When God Seems Distant (verses 5-9)
So the temple reminds the psalmist of God’s presence and love.
What about those who don’t have such a reminder when they suffer pain, loss, weakness, or depression? This section of the psalm speaks to such people.
Verse 7 tells us they are travelling to Zion – that is, to His temple courts, and thus to God Himself. But verse 6 tells us to get there, they must travel through valley of Baca. We don’t know the specific location referred to, but the underlying Hebrew word implies it is a place of weeping. Thus the image is of traveling through a dry, bare valley.
So imagine that you are on a long journey on foot. You thirst, so descend into a valley hoping to find a stream. But you only find rocks and sand. Now your situation seems hopeless. If there is no water in the valley, where can you possibly find any?
The psalmist tells us in verse 5: Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
Why are these blessed and happy? Because their strength is not in what is around them, but in God Himself. Because of that strength from Him, the driest valley, the most depressing place, is refreshing. They know these hard paths are roads that lead them to God’s presence. And so they are refreshed along the way. By God’s indwelling strength they make the dry place of weeping a place of sustenance and joy – indeed, a place covered with pools.
The Lord Jesus exemplifies this. On the way to the cross, He is scourged and mocked; He stumbles and falls. He is nailed to the cross. He suffers God’s wrath for all our sins. This is the driest valley anyone has ever experienced. Yet His strength is in God. He knows He is on the highway to God the Father’s presence, to God the Father’s glory. So Jesus finished His work and entered into that eternal joy.
The psalmist knows that truth. And so in verse 7 he promises us:
They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.
Thru Jesus, God strengthens each one of us for the road ahead, and so we all make it! Not one is lost!
The Apostle Paul highlights the same truth in Romans 8:29-30: Exactly the same ones who are foreknown are then predestined, called, justified, and glorified. None are lost.
So realize: If you are in Jesus, whatever trial, whatever trouble, whatever hardship, whatever loss you may face, God will enable you to go from strength to strength by His grace. There will be weeping. There will be weakness. You won’t feel strong. But in Jesus, the Father will never let you go. He will bring you to Himself.
In verses 8 and 9 the psalmist, confident in God yet in pain, cries out to Him:
Hear mighty one! Give ear!
Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed
What does “shield” refer to?
God’s “anointed” is the king. So the psalmist identifies God’s anointed king as his shield, saying, “Bless us Your people, strengthen us, give us security through Your chosen ruler, the descendant of David.”
For us today, this has an even deeper meaning. We are weak, we are not blameless, we are indeed rebels. But we pray to God: “Look upon Your anointed One, upon Your Son, upon Jesus who suffered, who went through that dark and dry valley, for us. We are in Him by faith, and so, work for us His Bride, His Body, Your People!”
When God seems distant: In Christ go from strength to strength, and He will provide what you need in the valley of weeping, in the valley of hopelessness.
In Christ, We Don’t Lose (verses 10-12)
We have seen that in his sorrow, the psalmist cries out to God to hear him and to bless the people through their anointed king. He then says in verse 10:
For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere
Think about this: A thousand days is a bit under three years. Consider all the joys of the last three years. Food. Friendship. Family. Vacations. Gifts you gave or received. Kisses and hugs. Conversation and laughter. Accomplishment and worthwhile effort.
Now: Take God out of those three years.
The psalmist is saying: One day with God has more good in it than three years worth of good without Him.
Or put it this way: If you were to lose all the possible joys of three years without God and then had God for one day – you wouldn’t lose.
So the psalmist goes on to say in the second half of verse 10:
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness
A doorkeeper has little status. In our parlance, think “janitor.” For those who “dwell in tents” don’t think of campers! Rather, these are the most prominent, the most honored, those who live a life of ease.
So the psalmist is saying: “I’d rather serve You, Lord God, Lord Jesus, as janitor than to have a life of wealth and ease without You. I’d rather have a life devoted to You than to have all that I could possibly get through working 24×7 and having nothing to do with you.”
In effect, this is the question Jesus asks the rich young ruler in Mark 10. The man asks Jesus what he must to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments – that is, to walk uprightly. The man says he has done that.
Now, the man is mistaken. He has not loved God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength every minute of every day. But that failure is not what keeps this man from eternal life. Nor does that failure keep us from eternal life! So Jesus, rather than pointing out where he has failed, tells him to go, sell all he has, give the proceeds to the poor, and come, follow Him. Only in following Him will the man find eternal life.
You see, Jesus asks: “Is a day with Me worth more than all your possessions? Is even an eternity with Me worth more than all your possessions?”
The psalmist explains why that day with God is worth more in verse 11:
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor
- God is the sun – He gives brightness, light, love, an honor, shining through the darkness of life in this fallen world.
- God is the shield – providing protection and security.
- God grants grace and favor, honor and glory.
The second half of verse 11 then states the promise we focused on in the beginning:
No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
He concludes in verse 12 with the third statement of blessing:
O LORD of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you.
This psalm tells us: Do what Jesus did: Depend on the Father. Value Him. Follow Him. Trust Him. Be that janitor, or whatever God asks of you, because He gives you what is best: He gives you Himself.
In Jesus, you are conformed to His likeness. Jesus – your shield, your anointed one – will be glorified in your life, and you will get to bask in His glory. Jesus – through whom the God all grace grants favor – will give you strength to endure to the end, to become like Him. The Father will shine the light of His glory on you in the face of Jesus – and so you have all good.
You will experience loss. Indeed, eventually, you will lose all good in this world. But you have Jesus. You have God. In Christ You are welcome in the household of God. Not only as a guest, but as a beloved child. Your cup overflows.
Conclusion
Think of the rich young ruler again. Would he have lost if he had obeyed Jesus? If he had sold all and followed Him? By no means!
Now, you might respond: “Coty, the ruler’s riches were keeping him from following Jesus. In your trivial example in the introduction, running wasn’t in the way of your following Him. More seriously, the good husband who died surely wasn’t keeping the wife from following Jesus! It still seems to me that God withholds good things from His people.”
That’s an excellent question. What’s the answer?
In this life, from our perspective it often seems as if God is withholding good. Similarly, from a two-year-old’s perspective, it often seems as if her parents are withholding good. But parents are always doing more than two-year-olds can understand. And God is always doing millions and billions more than we can understand
He occasionally gives us glimpses of why we experience loss. But most often He does not.
Thus the psalmist concludes in verse 12:
O Mighty One, blessed is the one who trusts in you!
Trust Him for salvation. Trust Him with your issues today. Trust Him with your future in this world. Trust Him with eternity.
You will rejoice, today, in this life, in the presence of loss, and then in eternity when there will be no more loss.
Jesus trusted Him to the cross. Because of that cross, we too can go from strength to strength. Because of that cross, we have God’s unchanging love. Because of that cross, we have God Himself – now and forever.
And if we have Him, we have all things.
Blessed is the one who trusts in Him!
