The Blessed Highway to God: Psalm 84:5-7
Introduction: The Christian as Pilgrim
The Christian life is a journey. This is a truth so fundamental that we are in constant danger of treating it like a cliche and forgetting its sharp-edged reality. We are not settlers in this world; we are pilgrims. We are not residents; we are sojourners. Peter tells us plainly that we are "strangers and pilgrims" (1 Pet. 2:11), and our true citizenship is in heaven, from which we await a Savior. This world is not our home, and if you feel perfectly comfortable here, something is desperately wrong. If the ambient foolishness of our collapsing culture does not vex your righteous soul, then you have likely made a peace treaty with an enemy you were commanded to fight.
This psalm, Psalm 84, is a psalm of pilgrimage. It is the song of a man who is not where he wants to be, but who knows where he is going. His heart aches for the courts of the Lord, for the place of corporate worship, for the manifest presence of the living God. He is homesick for Zion. This is the native orientation of every true Christian heart. We were made for fellowship with God, and anything less leaves us with a holy dissatisfaction.
But this is not a psalm of morose complaint. It is a song of blessedness. The blessedness is not found in having already arrived, but in being on the way. The joy is in the journey itself, because it is a journey toward God, undertaken in the strength that God Himself provides. Our generation has a very thin, sentimental view of what this journey looks like. We think of it as a pleasant Sunday drive. But the Bible presents it as a rugged trek, a march through hostile territory, a pilgrimage that requires grit and grace. It is a journey that takes us through valleys of weeping, but it is a journey that gets progressively stronger, not weaker. It is a journey whose destination is sure: an appearance before the living God in Zion.
In these three verses, the psalmist unpacks for us the nature of this blessed pilgrimage. He shows us the source of our strength, the orientation of our hearts, the transformation of our trials, and the glorious progression of our faith. This is a roadmap for every Christian who has ever felt the pull of that celestial city and has set his face to go there.
The Text
How blessed is the man whose strength is in You,
In whose heart are the highways to Zion!
Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring;
The early rain also wraps it up with blessings.
They go from strength to strength,
Each one of them appears before God in Zion.
(Psalm 84:5-7 LSB)
The Source and the Road (v. 5)
We begin with the foundation of the entire enterprise, the source of all true spiritual movement.
"How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, In whose heart are the highways to Zion!" (Psalm 84:5)
The blessedness, the true happiness of the pilgrim, is located in a profound paradox. The journey is arduous, but the strength for it is not self-generated. "Blessed is the man whose strength is in You." This is the absolute death of all bootstrap Christianity. The pilgrim is not a rugged individualist who pulls himself up by his own moral exertions. He is a man who knows he is weak, a man who has despaired of his own resources, and who has therefore plugged into the only true power source in the universe: God Himself.
Our strength is not in our resolve, our discipline, or our religious performance. Our strength is in Yahweh. This means that the first step of the pilgrimage is the step of radical dependence. It is the confession that says, "I cannot do this. I do not have the resources to take another step. Apart from You, I can do nothing." This is why the apostle Paul could glory in his weaknesses, because when he was weak, then he was strong, for the power of Christ rested upon him (2 Cor. 12:9-10). The world believes strength is the absence of weakness. The Bible teaches that true strength is the honest confession of weakness that drives us to God.
And what is the result of this God-given strength? It creates a certain kind of heart. "In whose heart are the highways to Zion!" This is a marvelous picture. The heart of the blessed man is not a tangled thicket of conflicting desires or a muddy swamp of indecision. It is a place where highways have been built. A highway is a clear, direct, well-trodden path. It has a definite destination. For the pilgrim, that destination is Zion, the city of God, the place of worship and fellowship.
This means his affections are rightly ordered. His will is resolved. His mind is set. The road to God is not a footnote in his life's agenda; it is the very infrastructure of his heart. When a decision comes, he does not have to hack a new path through the jungle. The highway is already there. Does this path lead toward God or away from Him? Does it lead to Zion or to Babylon? The man whose heart is a highway to Zion knows which way to go. This is not a burdensome duty; it is the very grain of his new nature. He wants to go to God, and God has given him the strength and the road to get there.
Weeping Valleys, Unexpected Springs (v. 6)
This highway does not bypass difficulty. In fact, it leads directly through it. But the grace of the journey transforms the nature of the trial.
"Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring; The early rain also wraps it up with blessings." (Psalm 84:6)
The "valley of Baca" likely refers to a literal, arid, desolate place on the way to Jerusalem. The name itself is related to a word for weeping or balsam trees, suggesting a place of sorrow and hardship. Every Christian pilgrimage goes through the valley of Baca. This is the place of trial, of grief, of loss, of spiritual dryness. It is the dark night of the soul. It is the place where your prayers feel like they are hitting a bronze ceiling. It is the valley of weeping.
Notice what the text says. It does not say they bypass the valley. It does not say they pray for a helicopter to lift them over it. It says they pass through it. The only way out is through. But look at what happens in the valley. The world goes into the valley of weeping and comes out bitter, cynical, and hard-hearted. Their sorrow sours them. But the pilgrim, traveling in God's strength, does something remarkable. "They make it a spring."
This is a divine alchemy. In the very place of their weeping, they dig a well. Their tears, sanctified by faith, become a source of refreshment. How does this happen? It happens because the pilgrim knows his trial is not random. It is not meaningless suffering. It is a station on the highway to Zion, appointed by a sovereign and good God. And so, in the midst of the pain, he digs. He digs into the promises of God. He digs into the fellowship of the saints. He digs into the means of grace. And he finds water. He finds that God's comfort is not just for the mountaintops, but is especially potent in the lowest valleys.
And God honors this rugged faith. "The early rain also wraps it up with blessings." Not only do they find water by digging, but God sends rain from above. He meets their faithfulness with His own. The trial that was meant to crush them becomes a place of multiplied blessing. This is the promise of the New Testament in different language: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28). This includes the valley of Baca. For the pilgrim, the worst places become the best places, because they are the places where God's grace is most powerfully displayed.
From Strength to Strength (v. 7)
The final verse in our text describes the logic of the Christian life. It is not a logic of decay, but of ever-increasing vitality.
"They go from strength to strength, Each one of them appears before God in Zion." (Psalm 84:7)
The normal course of a long, arduous journey is from strength to weakness. You start out fresh and energetic, and by the end, you are exhausted and spent. The world's way is the way of entropy. Things fall apart. But the pilgrim's progress is precisely the opposite. "They go from strength to strength." How can this be?
It is because their strength is not their own. As we saw in verse 5, their strength is in the Lord. Because God's strength is infinite, the supply never runs out. Every trial overcome, every temptation resisted, every faithful step taken in the valley of Baca does not deplete the pilgrim's strength; it increases it. The spiritual muscle, when exercised, grows stronger, not weaker. Each act of faith becomes a foundation for the next. The grace God gave you to get through yesterday's trial becomes the ground upon which you stand to face today's. This is the miracle of sanctification. We grow. We mature. The path of the just is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until the full day (Prov. 4:18).
And where does this path of ever-increasing strength lead? The destination is certain. "Each one of them appears before God in Zion." Not some of them. Not the ones who were good enough. Each one. The one whose strength is in God, whose heart is set on the highway, who digs wells in the valley, will make it home. His arrival is not a matter of chance, but of divine guarantee. God who began the good work in him will bring it to completion (Phil. 1:6).
This Zion was, for the psalmist, the earthly city of Jerusalem, the location of the temple. But for us, it is something far greater. It is the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. It is the assembled church of the firstborn. It is an appearance before God Himself, in the face of Jesus Christ (Heb. 12:22-24). The pilgrimage ends in the throne room. The journey concludes with the beatific vision. We will see Him face to face.
Conclusion: Keep Walking
So where are you on this journey? Perhaps you are feeling strong, and the highway in your heart is clear and open. If so, give thanks to God for His grace, but do not presume upon it. Keep walking.
Perhaps you find yourself in the valley of Baca. The way is hard, your tears are many, and your heart is faint. The temptation is to sit down, to give up, to conclude that the journey is not worth it. But you must not. Take up your shovel and dig. Dig into the Word. Cry out to God. Remember that this valley is not a detour; it is the highway. And the God who is your strength is with you in the dust and the tears. He will provide the spring, and He will send the rain.
The logic of this world is a logic of decay, weariness, and death. But the gospel introduces a defiant new logic. It is the logic of resurrection. It is the logic of going from strength to strength. It is the logic of a journey that begins in utter dependence on God and ends in the unveiled glory of His presence.
Therefore, do not lose heart. The one whose strength is in God cannot ultimately fail. The one whose heart is a highway to Zion cannot ultimately get lost. The one who digs for springs in the valley of weeping will not ultimately die of thirst. Your journey is secure, your strength will be renewed, and your arrival is guaranteed. You will appear before God in Zion.