Beloved,
As I have been working through the psalms in my Bible reading, I’ve been noticing a consistent theme. David’s favorite place in all the world is the tabernacle. Just listen to this sampling from Psalms 26-29:
• “O LORD, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells” (Ps. 26:8).
• “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple” (Ps. 27:4).
• “Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary” (Ps. 28:2).
• “The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, ‘Glory!’” (Ps. 29:9).
David loves the tabernacle for one simple reason: the God who inhabits it. It is the place where His glory dwells (Ps. 26). It is the place where His beauty shines (Ps. 27). It is the place where His ear hears (Ps. 28). It is the place where His voice thunders (Ps. 29). For a man in love with Yahweh, what better place to go than the tabernacle? Where else can one encounter Him in such a multifaceted and full-orbed way?
And if this was true of the dim shadows of the old covenant, how much more so is it true of us who enjoy the better-ness of the new covenant? God’s special dwelling is no longer on a holy plot of real-estate in Palestine, it is wherever His people gather, especially their gathering for corporate worship on the Lord’s Day. That is where His glory dwells, His beauty shines, His ear hears, and His voice thunders. And that is why, with David, we ought to declare our love affair with Christ’s church!
But admittedly, the affectionate longing and looking of David can at times seem foreign to us, and the church can at times seem less than the exciting, glorious, thundering place it is supposed to be. Is it safe to assume we all struggle with this, either occasionally or chronically? I think so.
So how do we get a heart like David’s? It won’t happen by avoiding the tabernacle. It won’t even happen by reading books about the tabernacle (though reading books on the church or biblical worship is a wonderful thing to do!). It will only happen by getting off our rears and prayerfully going to God’s house, looking and listening and engaging with expectation. That is the path to saying with David, “O LORD, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.” For it is only as we experience soul-satisfying communion with God – seeing His holy beauty and hearing His thunderous voice – that His house, with all of its admittedly ordinary elements, will be seen for what it truly is and cherished accordingly.
May God see fit to gather us and dwell among us this coming Lord’s Day, causing us to see and hear Him with Spirit-filled hearts so that we might grow to love His house. See you Sunday!
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Nick