Okay, on to Verse 2 of Psalm 84!

My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.

Psalms 84:2 NASB

At first glance a simple little verse, but ponder it a little, and it opens up a feast of truth for my soul and spirit! I hope it will do the same for you.

First, when the author says something in two ways he WANTS the reader to feel his emphasis fully. He starts out with “My soul longed… for the courts of the Lord.” But no, that’s not enough! He then adds, “….even YEARNED for, the courts of the Lord.”

Okay, it worked on me: when I see that second phrase I involuntarily tilt my head in the same way my dog does when I say something he doesn’t understand: What? What? What are you saying?

So I dig down into the Hebrew words in my nifty NASB Strong’s Bible app, and discover these are NOT mere synonyms, these words “longed for” and “yearned.” Not even close!

In fact, between them they cover the range of desire from “like” to “can’t live without it.” The first word quietly acknowledges some desire:  “Yeah, I want that.” But the second word actually means “to be consumed by, swallowed up in, done in by…!!” Wow.

In the process of writing, the author has an “aha” moment about his own desire for God. He essentially says, “I want you, God….. no wait, I want you more than anything! I can’t think of anything else. Wanting to be near you has eclipsed every other desire in me. I’ve got to get where I can be near you!”

And he doesn’t stop there. He goes on to tell us what happens as a result of that yearning, when he actually gets to the courts of the Lord where he can know God more: both his mouth and his heart are singing for joy!

An Awakening and a dilemma

As a new Christian, I had two reactions to what this writer penned about God.

First, I realized being where God is must be truly wonderful: to have your heart sing for joy — not because Daddy made you go to church and singing is what you do there — but because you are so full of joy you’ve gotta sing about it!

The second reaction was a sinking realization, “Gee, I don’t know how to get there. I don’t know how to experience God in a way that causes a spontaneous eruption of joyful song.”

I’ve witnessed the unbridled joy of writers in the Bible. I inhale deeply the Scriptures which speak of loving God, yearning for God, wanting him more than anything — and realizing, I don’t know how to make my heart do that…. I don’t know how to fill myself with passion for this invisible God.

I believe IN Him, I want to be that full of passion for him, but I honestly don’t know how to get there!

Of course, it didn’t help my dilemma to remember Jesus saying that the greatest commandment — the greatest requirement of any Christian — is to love God with all one’s heart and might.

I did all the right stuff — read my Bible, attended church, tried to live in a way to please the Lord. But in my heart of hearts I knew I didn’t love God like these writers did. And I didn’t know how.

How do you make yourself feel passion for God?

I didn’t know the answer when I first encountered Psalm 84, but today I do.

Today, I feel a deep love for the Lord that makes me yearn for him if I don’t feel his nearness. I enjoy my love relationship with the Lord so much — His loving me and me loving him — I can’t imagine ever living without it. Like the psalmist who penned Psalm 84, I must have this heart connection with God for life to be okay.

But not at first. This inability to love God wholeheartedly haunted me until I discovered the answer in prayer one day. While reading the Bible that morning it occurred to me for the first time that whatever God commands, the Holy Spirit has been sent to help us do and be.

The Holy Spirit is our helper, the one who enables us to live as we should. For the first time I thought, “What is He here to help us do, if not to love this God we cannot see, with all our might?”

For me, experiencing real passion for God began with simply confessing the truth of my inadequacy and crying out for the Spirit’s help. My prayer went something like this:

“God I want to love you like this, but I don’t know how. I don’t want you like David and the other psalmists did… but I WANT to want you like this. PLEASE HELP ME. Holy Spirit, fill me with this kind of love and yearning for God.”

The Spirit answered my prayer! Love for the Lord began to come and gradually grew as the Spirit filled my heart with longing for God in subsequent days and weeks.

It was not overnight; it was a process that combined the Spirit’s enabling with my own choices and obedience. (I describe this process in my books, The Woman God Designed, and Rooted & Established In Love.)

The point is, the Spirit WILL answer your prayers. I believe He especially loves to answer prayers like this.

Over the years, whenever my love has waned, I go right back to the Spirit, and offer my wandering heart back to Him to be filled with longing for God. Always, longing comes, fills up my soul and spirit, and leads to more intimate times with the Lord. And those always bring the joy.

Today I sing for joy because God is greater than my wandering heart, and my life with Him flows out of His power, not my weakness. His power and ability come whenever I knock, ask and seek for it.

Yep, singing for joy, not because it’s time for choir practice.