There are two passages assigned for today!
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 61
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Let me live forever in your sanctuary, safe beneath the shelter of your wings! [Psalms 61:4]
Does David mean this literally – to actually live in the temple every day of His life?
My guess is that he is referring to the experience of being in God’s presence – something that he felt when he was in the temple – and is praying that he could feel this way all the time, no matter where he was or what he was going through.
The purpose of the sanctuary was not to take people out of the world into a sacred escape, but to remind everyone of how life should always be.
The physical temple in Jerusalem at that time was designed to remind people of how life was to be in God’s world (God’s sanctuary is the world, not just the physical temple).
We are to live in His presence, immersed in His love, safe in the shelter of His wings – everywhere and always.
Our sinful rebellion ruined this experience for us – we became separated from God – so He set up a symbolic reminder in the temple to help people reconnect to Him everywhere, always!
He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.” [Mark 11:17]
Prayer is the love relationship between God and His people, it is the experience of the temple that David spoke of, and longed for.
It is something we can feel and experience all the time, not just in a sacred building.
Unfortunately we make the mistake – like the Jews did in bible times – of turning the temple into an idol for self-fulfillment or self-gratification.
It was not about connecting with God, it was about getting what I want, what I need, for me – it was all about me!
People still build such self-serving temples today; for many this is all that ‘church’ is for them.
But God’s design has always been to reconnect our hearts to His, and to enable us to experience His presence and power everywhere and always, wherever we are and whatever we are going through.
God is not looking for fancy buildings, and He does not expect us to “escape” the world by hiding in man-made sanctuaries.
God wants us to experience Him everywhere in His world, which He created for us as His sanctuary.
This is what prayer is – our hearts and God’s in loving, personal, conversational relationship.
And in this sense, the whole planet is a house of prayer, a place to experience and relate with God.
Is this your desire, is this your prayer?
Let me live forever in your sanctuary, safe beneath the shelter of your wings! [Psalms 61:4]
PRAYER:
Lord, I do want to experience You – and the Father and the Spirit – everywhere and always! I want prayer to be more than an occasional moment here and there, I desire prayer to be my life with You. Let me live forever in Your presence!