Another Favorite Story

The following story comes from James Montgomery Boice’s commentary on the book of Psalms. May you be blessed by it as much as I was.

Psalm 84 is a psalm of longing, longing for God’s house, and it is by the sons of Korah, as the title indicates. This is very important, as we will see. Psalm 84 is one of the four Korahite psalms found in book three of the Psalter (Psalms 84, 85, 87, 88). There are seven in book two (Psalm 42, 44-49) When Donald Grey Barnhouse, one of my predecessors as a pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church, was in seminary early in this century, he knew a student who seemed unable to take anything spiritual seriously. This student was with him at a prayer meeting at which the leader asked each person to give a Bible verse that has been a special blessing. When his turn came this student said quite solemnly, “First Chronicles 26:18.” There was a pause while the others looked it up. Then, just as they were finding it, the young man blurted it out so rapidly that the words almost ran together: “at Parbar, westward, four at the causeway, and two at Parbar” (KJV). Everyone was a bit puzzled. Then the seminarian quipped, “If you believe in the inspiration of the Bible, find some inspiration in that verse.” Fortunately he later dropped out of seminary and took a secular position.

Years when by, and from time to time Barnhouse remembered that remark. Then one day, when he was study the Bible and came across 1 Chronicles 26:18, Barnhouse decided to find out what the verse meant. He looked at the context and found that it was a record of the assigning of the sons of Levi to various places of service in the Lord’s house. Aaron was of this tribe, and his sons were divided into twenty-four groups to maintain the sacrifices at the alter (1 Chron. 24). The descendants of Aaron’s cousins Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun were divided into similar groups to conduct the music that was to be sung at God’s house, “accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals” (1 Chron. 25:1). The next chapter, from which this strange verse had been lifted, was a record of the assignments given to a third branch of Levi’s tribe, that of the Sons of Kore (Korah), who were called Korahites. These men were chosen to be “gatekeepers,” or doorkeepers – janitors, if you like. It was humble work, but the Bible takes approving notice of it, saying, “They were very capable men… men with the strength to do the work” (1 Chron. 26:6, 8). The chapter then goes on to record where each should serve. Some were stationed to the north, others to the east, south, and west. It is at this point that the verse concerning Parbar and the causeway occurs.

Parbar is merely the Hebrew word, of course. It is uncommon. So when the translators of the King James Bible came to render this into English they had no way of determining what the word meant and so transliterated it, taking it as a place name. It turns out that Parbar was the name for the temple’s western colonnade, which is how the newer versions render it. For example, the New International Version says, “As for the court to the west, there were four at the road and two at the court itself.” What this chapter teaches is that God took pains to appoint specific men to be the gatekeepers or janitors of the temple and honored them for rendering that service. Here is where Barnhouse’s story has bearing on the psalm. Those who were appointed gatekeepers were the Sons of Korah, among others, and in time they wrote our beautiful eighty-fourth psalm as an expression of their joy in their work. Read it now in this light.

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. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young- a place near your altar,

O Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you… Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. (1-4, 10)

Years later Barnhouse wrote, “Many times I have thanked God for the cynical twist in the mind of that fellow who tossed a seemingly nonsensical verse into the midst of that prayer meeting. He meant it for confusion, but the Lord meant it to me for good. For I learned later, as I probed into the depth of the Word of God, that God is interested in the simplest tasks of the simplest men.