「良いものを備え、与える神」 二月第二主日礼拝 宣教 2026年2月8日
詩編 Psalms 84編2〜13節 牧師 河野信一郎
Good morning. Welcome back to church. After waking before 4 a.m. and offering a brief prayer in bed, the very first thing I did was check the conditions outside. I was worried whether everyone could return to church with the snowfall, but I thank God that, protected by His love, we have been gathered here in the chapel and given the blessing to offer worship.
Last week’s morning worship attendance was 28 people, but about 10 regular attendees, including children, were absent. This means that if everyone gathers, we can offer worship with 38 people. Including those worshipping online, we could reach over 40 people. Since our goal for morning worship attendance is 45 people, let’s first aim for 40 attendees. To achieve this, let us pray to God for further blessings. And when we receive His grace, let us respond to God accordingly.
We, Okubo Church, confess that “the Lord’s Day is the starting point of our daily lives.” The Lord’s Day is a day to love God and Jesus through worship. Because we are loved unconditionally, we also love God with all our hearts. Because we love God, we listen together to His Word. Through prayer and fellowship, we encourage one another, and through worship, offerings, and service, we build up the church together.
This month, I’m sharing messages under the theme “God’s Provision.” This morning, Psalm 84 came to mind, and particularly the latter part of verse 12: “The Lord withholds no good thing from those who walk in his ways.” As I shared with the children in the children’s message, God generously gives good things to those who love Him and obey His Word. He becomes our sun, shining upon us, guiding us, and giving us the strength to live each day. He becomes our shield, protecting us daily from various spiritual battles. He bestows His grace upon us, grants us the glory of being His children, and fills us with joy. How blessed are those who know through Jesus Christ that they are loved by God, and who live in gratitude within His love and mercy.
In such circumstances, what matters most for us is to always seek to “walk the perfect path.” Last week, we focused on Abraham as one who walked the perfect path. Abraham was a man loved by God, and he loved God. To love God means to place complete trust in Him. To trust God means to obey His word. To obey means to believe that God is the most important in life and to follow Him. God observes our faith through trials. God commanded Abraham, “Offer up your beloved son to me.” Yet Abraham obeyed this seemingly merciless word from God. Seeing his faith, God was pleased with Abraham. God provided a ram in place of his son, and Abraham offered that ram as a sacrifice to God.
We do not possess the strong will to obey God like Abraham did. We feel it is absolutely impossible to “walk the perfect path.” Yet, this does not mean we should simply give up on ourselves. Instead, it is vital to bring our weaknesses before God and rely on Him. God knows full well how weak we are. That is why He sent Jesus as our Savior and even promised that Jesus would walk with us. To such an extent, we are loved by God—and that is truly astonishing. Yet that is Amazing Grace, God’s astonishing love and mercy.
Psalm 84:13 says, “How blessed are those who trust in you, O Lord Almighty.” To make us blessed, God gave us Jesus Christ as our Savior. This Jesus died on the cross as the atonement for our sins. The cross clearly reveals the love of God and Jesus. Therefore, what we need is to live each day trusting in God, who loves us so much that He gave us His Son. The Lord walks with such people.
Psalm 84, this morning’s Scripture passage, is a hymn of praise from pilgrims who journeyed to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. They may have sung it during their pilgrimage, or perhaps after completing their journey, recalling the precious time spent at the temple in Jerusalem. That pilgrimage was not necessarily smooth sailing. They likely faced various challenges: being at the mercy of the weather, falling ill, becoming too exhausted to move, or accumulating unnecessary expenses.
This morning, I imagine everyone gathered in this chapel has made various arrangements and sacrifices to come to church, or to return. Just getting to church in this snow may have been difficult. Bringing young children back to church is surely challenging. Even when you do attend worship, caring for children might prevent you from properly hearing the message, or your heart may be preoccupied with responsibilities in service. I cannot know what is in your hearts, but the merciful God knows everything.
The pilgrim who sang Psalm 84 declares in verses 2 and 3: “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” My soul and body cry out to the God of life.” They offer their innermost feelings to God. They praise the Lord with wonder and gratitude. Moved by the joy of being able to come to God’s sanctuary and place both body and soul before Him, they express their happiness sincerely. They give thanks to God who has protected and guided them on their journey thus far, and they utter words of awe at how wonderfully comfortable and peaceful this holy place is.
This morning, God has invited us to this church, desiring to fill our hearts with emotion and joy. Yet, even though we have been graciously invited to this place of grace, our hearts may still be held captive by the past, or overly preoccupied with what lies ahead. Our hearts may not be fully turned toward God, not completely open, and thus unable to receive His blessings fully.
So what should we do? The answer is simple. We should simply surrender those thoughts to God. As verse 4 says, “Lord, the birds have found a home on your altar; the swallows have built their nests and laid their young there,” make the church the dwelling place of your faith. Even if you have your own dwelling place from Monday to Saturday, on Sunday, return to the dwelling place of your faith, back before God, and rest your wings there.
Jesus invites us, saying, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Verse 5 says, “How blessed it is to dwell in your house, to praise you forever.” A blessed life is dwelling in God’s house.
How blessed are those who find courage in you and see the broad path ahead! Even when it seems like walking through deep fog, those who rely solely on Jesus, taking each step, living each day, grasping the hand He extends—the hand of the Lord bearing the marks of the nails from the cross—and following His guidance, they are the ones who receive the Lord’s blessing.
When we live with the Lord Jesus, verse 7 says, “Even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the Lord provides for us and turns it into a spring. The Lord God sends rain to refresh our parched hearts and covers us with blessings.“ Verse 8: ”We are filled with God’s love, given strength to press forward, and nurtured in the faith to place ourselves before God and trust in the Lord. God embraces those who place themselves before Him and speaks intimately with them.
In that conversation, in that fellowship, God hears what is in our hearts. The prayers in verses 9 and 10—“O Lord God Almighty, hear my prayer; listen, O God of Jacob. Look upon us, O God, our shield; give us victory for your anointed one”—are fully answered through Jesus Christ. What we need is faith that grasps Jesus’ hand and never lets go.
The first half of verse 11 states, “A day spent in your garden is better than a thousand days.” It confesses that a single day spent in God’s presence is far more fulfilling and valuable than a life filled with anxiety, dissatisfaction, and anger—a life lived without knowing its purpose or meaning, without understanding where it is headed.
“I would rather stand at the door of my God’s house than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” Here, “dwelling in the tents of the wicked” means living in hopeless darkness, in sin. A blessed life is not lived according to the world’s values, but within God’s love. This psalmist declares, “I choose to stand at the door of my God’s house.” That is, he confesses that it is blessed to live relying on the Lord God, praising Him, choosing that path by faith, and walking in it.
Verse 12 states, “The Lord is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” God generously gives good things to those who hold fast to the hand of the Lord Jesus and follow His guidance. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord.