Psalm 84: Pilgrimage Has A Destination

In his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick probed the universal human tendency towards pilgrimages. In the novel, the religion Mercerism connects people together emotionally as they share the journey up an unspecified hill while pelted by rocks from unknown adversaries.

In exploring this aspect of many religions, Dick focuses on the sense of shared experience. Each of the participants in Mercerism does so through an Empathy Box, which links them together with fellow pilgrims and with the pseudo-messiah, Mercer. In the novel, his followers share together in a way that cannot do in real life; a sort of unspoken, mutual struggle against an apathetic or even hostile world. This sense o fthe journey together permeates the travelogues of pilgrims since the time of The Canterbury Tales.

Likewise, Dick attemts to evoke the sense that the pilgrimage itself is a test or a purification process. The journey is like life in miniature. The perseverance in the face of hostility strips away pretension, revealing who we are, stabbing pride and focusing us on what is important. Here, the author draws on existentialists, such as Albert Camus, whose short story The Myth of Sisyphus reflects a similar attempt to create meaning in a ridiculous universe.

But what is notably missing in this stripped-away version of the spiritual journey is a destination. Pilgrimages, by definition, are journeys to the holy. The pilgrimage journey is preparation to meet with God; to receive what He has and we do not. But in the novel, a series of revelations show that the vision shared by adherents of Mercerism was, in fact, crafted on a sound stage in a movie studio. There is no hill; there is no end; there is no arrival; there is no God. Just pixels of their imagination. In the end, this leaves the hero of the story locked in the metaphysical downstairs, wiser and yet, ultimately, pitiful. You are left asking the question (as Solomon did):

Then I thought in my heart, "The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?" I said in my heart, "This too is meaningless." - Ecclessiastes 2:15

The book of Psalms contains numerous pilgrim songs. sung by the travelers as they climbed towards Moutn Zion, approaching the city of Jerusalem, and the temple where God dwelt. Compared with the downward spiral of despair of the novel, these songs are filled with hope.

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.  Psalm 84:1-2

The journey is not an aimless one, but one filled with purpose--a chosen path.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,  who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.  - Psalms 84:5

The trip is wearying; stretches of difficulty as they traveled from one oasis of refreshment to the next, sustained by God himself.

As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength... - Psalm 84:6-7a

These pilgrims had a destination. It was both a physical destination (see vs. 3) but more importantly, it was the a meeting place: the arrival into the presence of God.

..till each appears before God in Zion. - Psalm 84:7b

What has God brought you through on your pilgrimage? Are you in the rough period of the journey or a period of refreshment? Do you long for the destination (God himself) or have you settled for the rest area?