Journal entry from:
December 1, 2015
Worship: Blessed by Hillsong
"Blessed"
Blessed are those who dwell in Your house
They are ever praising You
Blessed are those whose strength is in You
Whose hearts are set on our God
We will go from strength to strength
Until we see You face to face
Hear our prayer
Oh Lord, God almighty
Come bless our land
As we seek You
Worship You
For You are holy
For You are holy
For You are holy, Lord
They are ever praising You
Blessed are those whose strength is in You
Whose hearts are set on our God
We will go from strength to strength
Until we see You face to face
Hear our prayer
Oh Lord, God almighty
Come bless our land
As we seek You
Worship You
For You are holy
For You are holy
For You are holy, Lord
Video: https://youtu.be/SB6A0umDrjQ
Witness: The sun is shining again. It has been rainy and cold for the last few days. A slight breeze tickles the wind chimes outside. It's 53 degrees, but it is supposed to go down to 31 tonight. The ground is blanketed with leaves still damp with the recent precipitation. Nights are getting longer and the days shorter. No matter how old we are, we never quite get used to the change. I recently saw a cartoon of a man and his wife. The wife is frantic. She is pacing and saying “It’s dark outside… what time is it?” ... “is it midnight?” ... “I think it must be midnight”. The husband replies, “It’s 5:50 pm honey”. It’s the same when darkness creeps into our lives. When the cold winds of late autumn and approaching winter blow upon our lives, we are prone to become melancholic and anxious. I read a devotional this morning by Spurgeon (yeah I only got about 4 hours of sleep) that speaks to this very thing. As usual, I began this section with just a jumble of thoughts, but my Lord directed my ways as is promised in Psalm 23. Here is the devotional I read (I left a link to the devotional web page in case you would like to use it in your devotional life, just hold down the Ctrl key and click on the word DEVOTIONALS):
Winter in the Soul
My soul, begin this wintry month with God. The cold snows and the piercing winds all remind you that He keeps His covenant with day and night and serve to assure you that He will also keep that glorious covenant that He has made with you in the person of Christ Jesus. He who is true to His Word in the revolutions of the seasons of this poor sin-polluted world will not prove unfaithful in His dealings with His own well-beloved Son.
Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it is upon you just now, it will be very painful to you: But there is this comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds of expectation. He scatters the frozen dew like ashes over the once fresh green meadows of our joy. He dispenses His icy morsels, freezing the streams of our delight.
He does it all; He is the great Winter King and rules in the realms of frost, and therefore you cannot murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty and a thousand other ills are of the Lord's sending and come to us with wise design. Frosts kill harmful insects and restrain raging diseases; they break up the clods and sweeten the soul. O that such good results would always follow our winters of affliction!
How we prize the fire just now! How pleasant is its cheerful glow! Let us in the same manner prize our Lord, who is the constant source of warmth and comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw near to Him, and in Him find joy and peace in believing. Let us wrap ourselves in the warm garments of His promises, and keep working, unlike the lazy man who refuses to plow because it is too cold; in the summer he will have nothing and will be forced to beg for bread.
Devotional material is taken from “Morning and Evening,” written by C.H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg. Copyright (c) 2003, Good News Publishers and used by Truth For Life with written permission.
WORD:
Ps 23:6
6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. NIV |
Ps 23:6
6 Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
as long as I live.
(from Holman Christian Standard Bible® Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005 by Holman Bible Publishers.)
|
It would seem that most commentators keep this verse on earth. It would seem logical, after all, David didn’t have Hebrews 8:5 to read:
They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven.
This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle:
"See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you
on the mountain." Heb 8:5 NIV
Yet we know he meditated on the law daily (Psalm 1:2). Did he understand Exodus 25:40 in the way the author of Hebrews did? He certainly had Spirit inspired insight as seen from Peter’s declaration in Acts:
But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that
he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was
ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned
to the grave, nor did his body see decay. Acts 2:30-31 NIV
In the end, it really doesn’t matter. What David was trying to say was that he always wanted to be in God’s presence, worshiping Him.
The Pulpit commentary puts it this way:
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever (comp. Ps 27:4,
"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after; that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the
beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple"). Such passages are,
of course, not to be understood literally; they express the longing of the
soul for a sense of the continual presence of God, and a realization of
constant communion with him.
(from The Pulpit Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright © 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
In those days the presence of God was especially localized in the tabernacle. Yet David knew that God was not confined to an earthly tent. If we read psalm 139 we would see this truth:
O Lord, you have searched me
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O Lord.
You hem me in — behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Ps 139:1-12 NIV
Nevertheless, the tabernacle was the special place to offer tithes and offerings, thanksgiving and praise, and sacrifice and offerings. David wanted that close fellowship with the Lord. Should not that be our desire also? The wonderful thing is that we don’t have to go to a tabernacle or temple. We can have that kind of presence anywhere our hearts are open to worship Him. Our Lord said to the woman at the well:
Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will
worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You
Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do
know, or salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now
come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and
truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit,
and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:21-24 NIV
However, this is not to promote only private worship. Our Lord would have us worship with our lips and our lives, but also in league with others. Notice how He brings presence and prayer together in Matthew 18: 19-20:
"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you
ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two
or three come together in my name, there am I with them." NIV
I am not ready to get into all that this verse means. We must consider the context and compare it with other scripture. However, I believe the principle of corporate worship, or at least prayer, is implicit in this passage.
So whether alone or with other believers, our desire is to be in God’s presence. Is this not the same as desiring to be in His house forever? To be in His presence by faith now, and in His presence by sight when we die.
Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a
building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,
Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,
because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we
are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be
unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is
unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is
mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for
this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing
what is to come.
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at
home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by
sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body
and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether
we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for
the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
2 Cor 5:1-10 NIV
Therefore, we can say confidently that we will “dwell in the house of the Lord forever”. I shall leave this Psalm now and move on to the next. When I began this Psalm I wondered if I would have much to say on the Psalm. It is a familiar Psalm to many and I wondered if I needed to take much time in it. That was 3 months ago! I came across something written by Spurgeon (I like to quote from him a lot, don’t I?). It’s brief but powerful, and I believe, will end this adventure in this Psalm beautifully.
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. "A servant abideth
not in the house for ever, but the son abideth ever." While I am here I
will be a child at home with my God; the whole world shall be his house
to me; and when I ascend into the upper chamber, I shall not change my
company, nor even change the house; I shall only go to dwell in the upper
company, nor even change the house; I shall only go to dwell in the upper
storey of the house of the Lord for ever. May God grant us grace to dwell
in the serene atmosphere of this most blessed Psalm!
(from The Treasury of David, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights
reserved.)
No comments:
Post a Comment