“Blessed are those whose strength is in you…
As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs…
They go from strength to strength.”
~ Psalm 84:5-8
This year he had an idea for a garden fountain and we worked together to find just the right color and size. It’s now happily installed in the garden just outside our front door so we can enjoy it when we come and go. I love it and I think it’s the perfect birthday present.
I don’t recall ever setting a fountain in motion before, but now I understand the process with the hidden pump, the tubing and the reservoir. This particular fountain has three tiers, so it looks like the water is effortlessly flowing from the small bowl on the top, down to the next one, and ultimately into the largest. Then secretly, behind the scenes, it’s being recycled and pushed back up to the top.
Coincidentally, my Bible reading this week was Psalm 84 which was about water as well — springs and pools. Having recently been fiddling with my new water fountain, I may have read with a bit more interest.
Here is the full text to Psalm 84:5-7:
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.
Two things caught my attention:
— where these people’s strength came from
— the transformative effect these people had on the place they traveled through.
First of all, this Psalm is really about a pilgrimage of the ancient Hebrews to Jerusalem. Along the way they had to travel through a difficult place called the Valley of Baca. This valley was obviously a waterless wilderness, but their presence through the difficulty turned it into a place of springs. I am intrigued by the idea that you and I can travel through a dry and/or difficult place in our lives and leave that place so much better than we found it — we can have a transformative effect on the people in the difficult places we travel through.
Are you the type of person who lights up a room? I’ve never thought of myself that way and maybe you don’t think you have the right personality for that. We might not. But, if we possess the light of Christ, we do have the potential to significantly change any place we travel through. The next time you lament at how difficult your path may be (your Valley of Baca), you might consider that you have a distinct purpose in that valley to turn that dry wilderness spot into a place of refreshment for others. But how, you might ask. That’s where the word strength comes into play (which is mentioned three times in these three verses).
The Psalmist blessed these people with that statement, Blessed are those whose strength is in you. Their strength was in the Lord — not in themselves. Here comes the link with my three-tiered fountain. If I relied only on the water in the upper urn flowing down to the next bowl, my fountain would last about seven and a half seconds. BUT, with the strength of the hidden pump, water is continually moving back to the top to refill that urn and spill out to the next urn and the next to make it a place of springs.
The obvious reality that I’ve been contemplating is my reliance on the strength of the Lord as opposed to my reliance on that little bit of resource I possess in myself (represented by the water in the upper bowl)! Relying on God’s strength doesn’t happen automatically — even Christians can rely on their own strength — we can have the power to the pump switched off.
You might also ponder this mental picture this week, and in your conversations with the Lord, ask Him to power that spiritual pump system in your life that allows His abundance of living water to flow through you. The Psalmist describes it as going from strength to strength so that you can transform a dry and difficult place into a place of springs.
Here are a few verses on the strength of the Lord that you might also appreciate:
Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually! (1 Chronicles 16:11)
It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high place. (Psalm 18:32-33 NIV84)
I can do all things through him who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13)
To conclude with my update — I have nothing much to report, except that I really do hope, in some small way, as I travel through my own Valley of Baca that I'm able to make it a place of springs! That’s my goal for the final four train stops that remain!
My Love,
Sue