“How lovely are Your dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! My soul (my life, my inner self) longs for and greatly desires the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.” Psalms 84:1-2 AMP
Reflection: where is the house of the Lord, the dwelling places of God, and where do you go to dwell with God?
After a quick count this morning, I am pretty sure that my wife and I have moved over 20 times throughout our marriage. That means we have moved out of and into around 20 apartments and houses, over a 40 year period. Some of these have been small and simple places, while others have been magnificent houses. But regardless, each one of these we have called our home, a place where we could “dwell”. We all understand the idea of a “dwelling place”, a physical building or structure, because we are as humans physical (and spiritual) beings. Our dwelling places give us shelter from the heat and the cold, from dangers of all kinds. We can rest after a long day’s work. But, perhaps one of the best aspects about our dwelling places is the ability to be together with people we love, to dine and fellowship with family and friends. If you think about it, some of the best memories are often made within our dwelling places.
The Bible also talks extensively about dwelling places, such as what we read in Psalms 84. But this is where it gets a bit complicated for us to understand. Because we might think in the same construct of God’s dwelling place to be a physical building, like some ornate temple, a beautiful cathedral, or even some old church building with a steeple and a cross. We might walk into one of these buildings, thinking that God is there somehow, or that the Holy Spirit is filling the physical space of our church building. But we so quickly forget that God doesn’t live in dead physical structures built my men. Jesus said, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”” John 4:23-24 ESV. And “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV.
As we see in focus verses from Psalms 84 today, God’s dwelling places are within His people. But, as we read on in this psalm, we also see some curious references to “the courts of the Lord”, the “alter”, and the “house of the Lord”. “Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah” Psalm 84:3-4 ESV. We also see a reference in this psalm to Mount Zion, the heavenly dwelling place of God, “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” Psalm 84:5 ESV.
The hearts being “highways to Zion”?
Let’s understand this a bit further. “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” Hebrews 12:22-24 ESV. In other words, not only do God’s people have the Holy Spirit dwelling within our hearts, but through the Spirit we therefore have a direct connection, a highway, to enter the presence of the living God. Even to be able to dwell there, in His courts.
Now, let’s try to connect a couple more dots here. Remember what Jesus said, ““If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” John 14:15-20 ESV. Jesus also said “I and the Father are one.”” John 10:30 ESV. And through the new covenant that Jesus Christ established in His blood, we have access to the same relationship; we in Him and Him in us.
So, let’s meditate on what this means to you and I today. Not a building, but that we are the dwelling place for God through the Holy Spirit. A place for shelter, fellowship and where memories are made. And, likewise, we can enter the dwelling place of the living God, through our mediator Jesus Christ. To dwell with Him there, for shelter, fellowship and where memories are made. What sort of memories are we making with Him today?