Breakfast at Tiffany’s: From strength to strength

They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth. Psalm 84:7

Last week, we uncovered the meaning behind the often misinterpreted the biblical phrase, ‘from glory to glory.’ There is a growing trend among the evangelical community that takes this phrase out of context to support a popular, yet delusional belief system that demands from God a life of total prosperity and health on earth. 

While I am one of the strongest advocates for speaking and applying scriptures accurately to our daily lives, I also feel the duty to warn people not to do so without knowing their full context and original meaning. A great rule-of-thumb is a phrase my husband uses frequently when he teaches: Our doctrine (what we believe about God) must come from Scripture only, taken in context, compared to other passages of scripture. Beware of any doctrine that cherry picks certain verses and changes their meaning to fit a specific agenda. It is vital that we let God’s word be the catalyst for the change in us rather than changing God’s word to support our humanistic ideals.

That is what brings us to another biblical phrase that is grossly misinterpreted to support a prosperity gospel: ‘from strength to strength’ in Psalm 84:7 which says, “They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth.” I have heard countless prosperity preachers wrongly imply a similar meaning as the often misinterpreted ‘from glory to glory’ phrase. They will brainwash you into thinking that if you would only believe and speak this over yourself (and their many other misinterpreted scripture phrases) exactly the way they preached it to you, that your life with God will only be made up of mountaintop experiences. And if you don’t follow their exact prescription for utopian bliss on earth, you are bringing death and destruction upon yourself and those you love. They will tell you that admitting to any kind of trial or affliction means you are speaking fear and doubt and that you should never expect anything good from God.

Under the guise of faith and fearlessness, followers of this toxic doctrine fail to recognize that they are actually being controlled and manipulated by the very same fear they claim to reject. Their life with God is a constant dance on eggshells—terrified to say or do the wrong thing as though that in itself is what the God of the Universe hangs all of His goodness and/or wrath toward humanity upon. In reality, this creates entitled, unapproachable Christians who live in a constant state of denial. 

Here's the problem with building a doctrine (or financial empire in some cases) upon misinterpreted, feel-good phrases. The scriptures directly preceding Psalm 84:7 completely annihilate the prosperity lie about what it actually means. Verses 5 and 6 say, “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.” A simple Google search will tell you this about Baca: “In Psalm 84, the Hebrew word baca (בְּכָא) means “weeping” or “tears” … The phrase "Valley of Baca" (often translated as the Valley of Weeping or Valley of Tears) describes a dry, barren, and difficult place that travelers pass through on their pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem.”

In the typical, word-picture fashion of the Psalms, the psalmist paints the picture of a weary traveler inundated with life’s difficulties to point of weeping and tears. A valley. We know that he is a follower of God because the surrounding verses speak of his deep longing for the presence of God in His holy temple. But wait… if the prosperity interpretation of verse 7 is to be believed, wouldn’t the devoted pilgrim be miraculously soaring from mountaintop to mountaintop?

On the contrary, his journey to be nearer to the God he loves so deeply has brought him to a valley full of pain and confusion. However, it is there that the cooling rains of God’s presence gently fall around him until there is enough to fill, not one, but several life-sustaining wells. Had the pilgrim believed the lie that God’s favor and blessings only came on the mountaintop, he would have totally missed the truth of what God was teaching him in that moment. The Christian pilgrim’s strength is not determined by his denial that pain and suffering exist in the life of a believer or in demanding God to perform his word so the suffering will end.

Instead, as verse 5 says, the pilgrim’s strength is found when he looks within his heart and remembers the God who dwells there with him. The pilgrim’s ultimate destination is to be with the God he loves, in heaven, where all that is wrong will be set right. But it is here in the Valley of Tears—when all of his human strength is failing and everything feels painful and wrong—that a peace, love, and joy that surpasses understanding fills his heart and mind, refreshing and strengthening him for inevitable mountain climb ahead. And it is in the valley that we, too, find the greatest blessing we could ever imagine: the presence of the Living God.