Psalm 84
October 18, 2026 Lord Almighty, you are the living God! How blessed we are that we gather today not because of some dead god, some god of our own invention, some lifeless, worthless idea. We lift our prayer this morning to the living God—and to the God who is our God and our King. You are the Lord Almighty, ruler of all things, victorious in all your purposes and plans and actions.
And you are the attractive God. Your dwelling place is highly desirable. Being in your presence, having a close relationship with you, knowing you truly, is something we can and ought to long for. Forgive us, Lord, for sometimes making our relationship with you something cold, dutiful, external, reluctant. Where needed, Lord, reawaken and deepen in us a simple desire for you and your presence. May we long for you and enjoy you in our personal life of prayer; in our gathering together as your New Covenant temple, the church; but most of all in anticipating the age to come, when we will be with you up close in ways we cannot now imagine. Forgive us, Lord, for clinging so tightly to this present world and life that we are half-hearted about being with you in your dwelling place.
So strengthen us, God, on our pilgrimage toward you. This week, from Monday to Saturday, may we go from strength to strength. Do not insulate us from valleys; make the valleys places where we know you better. May we experience you this week as our sun—our illumination, our warmth, our source of life—and our shield, our protection. May we be convinced that the most blessed life is the life of trusting you. May we be confident that you will not withhold any ultimate good from us as we live that life of trust and obedience.
Heavenly Father, how glad we are that the cry of this ancient psalm, that you look with favor on your anointed king, was answered in your Son, Jesus, the Messiah, the anointed King. Truly you looked with favor on his perfect life and his sacrificial death. You raised him from the dead and seated him at your right hand in decisive kingly victory and rule. You thus ensured that our pilgrimage will continue safely, all the way to the end. We praise you that we are pilgrims united to Christ. And as we see the works of Christ and hear the words of Christ from the Gospel of Matthew, Sunday to Sunday, align our lives with him. Show us his path. Raise him in our esteem and appreciation and praise and allegiance. Praise be to you, Lord Jesus, for being a friend of sinners, for calling not the righteous but sinners, not the healthy but the sick. What a Savior you are to us! Show us your new way, and keep us from trying to put your new wine into old wineskins.
This pilgrimage, Lord, is too good to keep to ourselves. We pause and think of others within our spheres of influence who are not now on pilgrimage to you. We long for them to join us. We ask you to open their eyes to that road. We ask you to keep shaping us into pilgrims whose lives and words bless those around us and attract them to pilgrimage.
Amidst our society’s present heated political season; amidst headlines of yet another shooting tragedy; amidst news of a tragedy closer to home—the death this week of Pastor Stephen Clayton of one of our sister churches, Becker EFC, and his three-year-old son, David, in a highway accident, and we are remembering before you just now Katie and her severe injuries, and eleven-month-old John, and the baby growing in Katie’s womb, and their families, and their church family—in this valley of weeping, amidst all these numbing realities of life, may we your people cherish and display and keep to your alternative path, your better destination, your unsurpassed beauty, you the living God.
This prayer we lift to you together in the name of our King, Jesus, and all God’s people said, “Amen.”