To wrap up our study of Psalm 132, we’re working through four principles that encourage us as we follow Jesus. I highlighted how the pilgrim’s way is the way of passion and how, as we draw nearer to God’s consuming fire, His priorities increasingly become our preoccupations.
Principle 3: The pilgrim cares about how they treat their body.
Our bodies are to be suitable habitations for the Spirit of God; therefore, we should have a passion for spiritually building up ourselves and one another.
“This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.” (vs 14)
We are to keep ourselves blameless and humble, to live holy and godly lives, worthy in every way of our high calling. We are to be robed in righteousness so that others may see our good deeds (our acts of obedience) and give glory to our Father in heaven. I pray the Lord would purify his temple, purify us from selfishness, greed, criticism, and individualism, and propel us into his service.
I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.
Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy. (15-16)
To enter into the presence and power of God is to be abundantly provided with peace, prosperity, and power. He alone is sufficient; we have security, shalom, and so much more in Him. When we are in God’s presence and power—when He dwells in our midst—we can care for our neighbor. As we seek to live in His presence, the power to be right and do right increases.
We desperately need the power of God that comes when He dwells in our midst.
Here is a great and especially wonderful
We can say it this way: as your will merges with His, His will becomes your will. As you make your will His, He graciously makes His will yours.
Principle 4: The pilgrim rejoices over a kingdom that is both present and future.
We know that Jesus was the promised Son of David and that he inherited David’s kingdom. The Son of Man has established a dominion that will never cease.
There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine. (17-18)
His kingdom is a present reality.
This precious truth provides us with many reasons for rejoicing. What was lost with the first Adam was restored with the second Adam!
From the beginning, God has desired to fellowship with his people, to dwell in their midst. Think about it: Him in the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, dwelling with Abraham and Sarah, even sharing a meal, dwelling with Moses on Mt. Sinai, the sign of His coming down to dwell in the Tabernacle among His people.
But then the Messiah came, and as the sacrificial lamb, he offered himself up as a perfect sacrifice. The result? God’s sovereign action tore the veil in the temple that hid the ark (so to speak)—the dwelling place of God in the Holy of Holies—from above to below, from the top to the bottom. And now, not only can we enter in, but more importantly, God has come out.
Where does the Living God dwell?
King Solomon rightly asks, But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him? (2 Chron 2:6). In response, Israel’s sages comment that no house on earth can be built big enough to contain God. The human heart is the only place large enough.
My dear brothers and sisters, God dwells in you by His Spirit. The suitable dwelling He designed is your inner place, His holy of holies.
This and this alone is why you should cleanse yourself from all unrighteousness, why we should lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. When we make a mistake, we should eagerly repent—confess, be cleansed, and seek restoration. You are the dwelling place of the Most High God.
And so Paul can proclaim, the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. The glory that departed because of sin’s separation has now returned in the person of Jesus, and that glory resides in those redeemed and reconciled—the mystery revealed.
The Ark of the Covenant is not hidden in the vaults of the Vatican; it is in your heart. God’s Law, His Torah, is inscribed on the flesh of a repentant heart, and God’s holiness dwells there. The secret place of the Most High is in you.
As grand and glorious as this reality is today, it is but the down payment until the Messiah returns.
The Son of Man will return in glory; when that happens, it will be marvelous. What happens when Messiah Jesus returns? New Jerusalem!
Thus says the LORD: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain (Zech 8:3).
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Rev 21:1-2).
Our Lord is returning, and the great eschatological hope we share is that, in the end, God triumphs. The prophets foresaw it; John’s Revelation pictures it for us. Paul says it this way,
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. […] And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. […] If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness (Rom 8:18-26).
Peter uses supernatural imagery to describe an incomprehensible transformation of spiritual and physical reality. This world will be consumed in great heat, and the heavens and the earth will roll up like a scroll and vanish, but a new earth will emerge. And what is the point of all this?
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Rev 21:3).
Hallelujah! Maranatha!
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen.
