April 21st

My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Psalm 84:1

A yearning soul is a deep and longing aching for a missing loved one. The person’s thoughts and emotions are consumed by the missing loved one’s absence. In this case, the psalmist is writing about his longing soul for his God. He wants so intensely to be in God’s presence always. To him, the earth is a cold and barren place of rejection and struggle.

The psalmist longs for the warmth and welcoming presence of his loving and tender Lord. He ponders the delights of being in the courts or house of the Lord forever, where all is safe and secure from pain, grief and sorrow. The writer is most likely very tired of the wearisome battles with his adversaries and enemies. His flesh cries out for the peace and rest of being in God’s presence.