Here are some principles from Psalm 132 that have deeply influenced me, and I pray they will also benefit you.

Principle 1: The way of the pilgrim is the way of passion.

For you and I to enter into the fullness of God’s presence and power requires both a passion for the divine and the divine passion within us.

The Bible describes God as jealous. The Jewish Publication Society translates jealous as passionate; Yahweh is passionate. He is a God intensely engaged with his people; it matters deeply to Him what happens to them.

Therefore, if you and I are to make the pilgrimage into His presence and experience His power—if we are to grow up in Christ and be conformed to him—it will not happen by some apathetic, laid-back, intellectually distant attitude. It requires passionate commitment and engagement, an intensity of seeking and serving the things of God.

We want a heart after God like David of old.

David was not a perfect man; his faults were numerous. But he loved his God and pursued Him with passion. He could dance before Him with unbridled rejoicing and humble himself when confronted with his sin. But most of all, as Psalm 132 reminds us, David glimpsed into the mystery of God’s desire to dwell with His people and labored unceasingly to see that promise realized.

To most Protestants, it seems a little strange to get passionate about the things of God. I think we are somewhat fearful of the body, emotions, and intensity. We have developed an attitude that to be spiritual means to be quiet, reserved, almost detached—as if our soul is removed from this body and floats around in the spiritual dimensions. But that is not the biblical picture.

None of us are strangers to passion. Whether it’s a hobby, a pastime, or a sporting event, we’ve all made our throats sore, yelling enthusiastically at one time or another. How many times have you made yourself hoarse from shouting and singing the praises of God?

Most of us ministers wouldn’t dare humiliate ourselves before our congregations, so lost in the presence of God that we cared nothing about what others thought. We wouldn’t dare make fools of ourselves. Rather than disrobing like David, we drape ourselves in fancy garments. Rather than speak plainly out of humility, we affect haughty, sacred-sounding speech designed to impress.

I ask myself, how many times have I lost sleep worrying about God’s welfare?

What about His reputation, saving activity, and people in this world? Trust me, I have lost plenty of sleep worrying about myself, my ministry, my family, and my loved ones. But how often am I uncomfortable because of a heavy heart for what this world is doing to profane His holiness?

To be a real pilgrim means you have to burn with a holy intensity. You have to burn—not with emotions artificially generated and hyped up by some Pentecostal preacher or fancy musicians. You have to burn with a holy fire that does not consume, just like the bush that Moses stood before. Emotional passion will exhaust you, but spiritual passion will energize you.

We need to pray for that fire. John Wesley spoke of it as a heart strangely warmed. All God’s great men and women come into that burning presence where their hearts are deeply stirred and nothing satisfies but God himself. I pray we become passionate about pursuing God’s purposes, like David.

I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah. (Psalm 143:5-6)

Principle 2: As pilgrims draw nearer to God’s consuming fire, His priorities become increasingly their preoccupations.

Though I have touched on this principle, I wish to focus on one particular aspect. From a New Covenant perspective, we know God is still building a house suitable for himself. Our Lord Jesus said when kingdom people gather to worship, he would be there amidst his church.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Eph 2:19-22)

The apostles and prophets remind us here that the church of the Living God needs the whole Word of God—both Testaments.

When he says, a dwelling place for God by the Spirit, Paul is using imagery from the Hebrew Scriptures. God cares passionately for his church, so much that he gave his Son up that it would be built up. And because he cares, we should care. The state of the church and the state of the church in the world matters to God.

When David came into his kingdom, his top priority was establishing a suitable habitation for God. Likewise, when we come into the kingdom, our first priority should be to have the same heart for God—a burning desire to prepare His people as His holy temple, a suitable dwelling for His presence in the world.

Pilgrimage is not a matter of the lone rangers, each going their own way. We are not engaged here in Buddhism or Hinduism in which you turn within and begin your ascent into the spiritual realms. No, that is not the way of the Lord God of Israel. You go with others on pilgrimage; you must care for others; what happens to them must matter to you. The church is not perfect, but it is important.

A friend called me some years ago; he was distraught with the church and gave me a whole list of things in which the church was wrong. I pointed out to him that the church was also partly right on every one of those issues; it depends on how you look at it. It is like a glass that you pour water in until it reaches the midpoint—and when you look at that glass, what do you see? Is it half empty, or is it half full?

It depends on whether you are looking for emptiness or water.

The church is not perfect, but it matters to God and should matter to us. We should be reluctant to criticize and eager to build up. Jesus wept over Jerusalem before he offered himself up for her. He laid his life down for the church. How could we, his disciples and fellow pilgrims, do otherwise?

We need to travail over the state of the church; we need to lose sleep over it (I’m speaking metaphorically). It matters to us because we are God’s dwelling place in this fallen world. We should work to build it up and make it suitable.

But also keep in mind the text in Ex 25:8, let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst, means both “I will dwell in your midst” and “I will also dwell in you.” You must realize that you are individually and that we are collectively a temple for the Holy Spirit. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Cor 6:19-20)