A devotional of Psalm 132
1 Remember, O Lord, in David’s favor, all the hardships he endured,
2 how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob,
3 “I will not enter my house or get into my bed,
4 I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids,
5 until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Who cares?
There wasn’t a physical place for the Ark of the Covenant to dwell. All saw that. One man cared about it. Not only did he care but that matter struck his heart. He felt so deeply about it that he vowed that he would not enter his house or get into his bed; he would not allow sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids till he found a suitable dwelling place for God’s presence. That’s determination!
Many issues surround us today. Who cares? Holy Spirit would you give us hearts that care enough to be burdened about specific issues so that we deprive sleep from our eyes and slumber from our eyelids until they are solved? What do you care about, believer? What do you desire?
If you care about something, it may soon consume you as zeal burns within you. The matter will become your obsession. This is a matter of the soul/heart/mind and the concepts of WIE -the Will, the Intellect, and the Emotions. Your desires will be to see the matter fixed. Your thoughts (focus, attention, planning, imaginings, meditations, etc.) will constantly be about it. Your emotions will orbit the matter. What is that for you, my friend? Anything? Ask Holy Spirit to make you passionate about something that he’s impassioned by, then put feet to that mission.
If nothing comes to mind, remember that your goal is to align your heart with God’s heart. In Psalm 69, David lamented, “Zeal for the house of God consumes me.” His son Jesus would pick up that lament in John 2. Start with caring about God’s house; about the gathering of believers; about the activities that happen when we assemble together at God’s feet; about the state of our hearts when we do so.
Keep in mind that this zeal may not be shared by others, including fellow believers. Your passion may very well be your undoing. Like Jesus and David, you may endure scorn, derision, and mockery for your fervor. That may be another way to think of your zeal consuming you.
Further, think of your heart as God’s dwelling place. Upon salvation, Holy Spirit is deposited in your heart and it becomes his new home. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” 1 Cor. 3:16. “What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 2 Cor. 6:16.
In other words, Holy Spirit moves into our desires, our intellect, and our emotions. This results in a major renovation, and we become new people. We gain or access new passions, new thinking, and new emotions than we did before.
6 Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of Jaar.
7 “Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool!”
8 Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.
In the Wilderness, whenever the Israelites were ready to move on to their next camp, Moses would raise his staff and pray, “Rise up, O LORD! Let Your enemies be scattered and let those who hate You flee before You.” Numbers 10:25. At that time, God indwelt a tent, a temporary place. Likewise, Holy Spirit’s presence temporarily indwelt various people in the Old Testament but only as a camper. He came and went. Only in the New Testament do we see him permanently indwelling the believer. We become his dwelling place, his resting place.
9 Let your priests be clothed with righteousness and let your saints shout for joy.
“Or 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,” 1 Cor. 6:19. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Rom. 8:11.
Moreover, we are called priests of God. We can get passionate about being intermediaries between God and man. “For you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9. We are called to be holy priests, clothed in righteousness. This concept is repeated in verse 16 below.
As priests, we are set apart. We are different from others. We are different from what we used to be. We are holy. We do not avail the members of our body as instruments of unrighteousness but as instruments of righteousness. Paul says, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:17-24.
10 For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one.
11 The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back:
“One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.
12 If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them,
their sons also forever shall sit on your throne.”
13 For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place:
14 “This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.
15 I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.
16 Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy.
17 There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed.
18 His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine.”
Father God, we bless and praise you. Thank you for choosing us as your dwelling place. We do not deserve it and are honored. Light us up with holy passion for your body. May we take responsibility for appropriating the precious blood of Jesus so that our priestly garments are spotless. Help us hate sin and its stain. Help us choose holiness every time. Help us love each other for we are members of one another. Help us help each other. Help us spur each other on to good desires, good thinking, and right feeling. Arise O Lord, in your dwelling place!
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