The reason Psalm 84 resonates so deeply is because I have the same programming. That I too would consider the dwelling place of God “lovely” (v.1), that I would feel what the songwriters felt when they sung, “My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD” (v.2) is because we have both had the same coordinates internally implanted. To sing along with sincerity and gusto that a day in the courts of the living God is better than a thousand elsewhere (v.10a) and to belt out at the top of my lungs that “I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin” (v.10b MSG) happens only because I have the same internal, Spirit-powered GPS installed as was in the Sons of Korah. Their song my song because of highways in the heart.

Blessed are those who dwell in Your house,
       ever singing Your praise!        Selah
Blessed are those whose strength is in You,
       in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

(Psalm 84:4-5 ESV)

Blessed are those . . . in whose heart are the highways . . . That’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

Chewing on the reality that there is something planted in the depths of those who are redeemed that ignites a desire for their Redeemer. Something woven into the fabric of those who have been delivered that compels them to want to be in the presence of their Deliver. Something sown within the saved that longs to be watered by the Savior. The psalmists call it highways in the heart.

All roads leading to His house. Every path a way into His presence. Even when we take a wrong turn or yield to the temptation to go down the wrong path, there’s a “Home” icon programmed within the GPS of a new creation in Christ (2Cor. 5:17) which shows the way back to the place where even “the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest” (v.3). Highways in the heart leading to havens of rest and places of worship.

Can’t help but think that one of the most worn of those highways is the way back to the cross. That well-worn and deep rutted road that leads to Calvary, the place where the depths of God’s love was shown and the place where my freedom was forever won. The road of confession and repentance leading to an ever-flowing and overflowing fountain of washing and renewal — washed in His blood, renewed by His Spirit. Oh, what a blessed road! Oh, what a holy highway! A highway in the heart.

By His grace. For His glory.