Satisfied
with His love together
"We
have thought on your steadfast love, O God in the midst of your
temple." (Psalm 48: 9)
This
verse took a very powerful meaning to me many years ago. A family in
our church had a horrible car accident in which they lost their 5
year old son. A few months, I talked with his mom. She shared his
verse with me. She was tempted to stay home from church during those
first months of grief. But it was at church, in the house of God,
where in a very special way God reminded her of His steadfast love.
Sometimes
when life is hard it can be easy for me to want to miss public
worship and other gatherings of the church. I have definitely felt
the temptation not to be among the people of God now as a mom of two
little girls. Sleepless nights, long days and weary hearts can make
for very exhausted mommies. It is tempting to relish the thought of
staying home and sleeping in or having a few hours alone. But what
precious encouragement we find in Psalm 48 to go.
Psalm
48 is a hymn celebrating Zion because that is where God showed
Himself to be the Defense of His people. Zion was the place where the
temple was and where God dwelt among His people. Yet,
the temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. So, how does God
dwell with His people in the New Covenant? The NT explains three ways in which we see God dwelling with His people. For the sake of this article, we will only focus on two.
1)
Jesus is the temple. Jesus is the temple where His people
worship God. Jesus said: “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it
again in three days” (John 2:19). Later, after Christ's
resurrection, his disciples remembered this, and realized Christ had
been speaking about himself (John 2:21-22). John Piper explains what
this verse means:
"I
think [what] Jesus meant was: When I die, the temple dies... And when
I rise, I am the temple. I am the sacrifice for sins. I am the priest
and go-between with God. I am the presence and radiance of his glory.
The temple is finished."1
2)
We
are the temple.
Romans 8: 9-10 say this: "Anyone who does not have the Spirit of
Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the
body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of
righteousness." The Risen Christ is in US! Paul develops the
idea further in 1 Corinthians teaching that we are now the temple.
"Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit
dwells in you?" (1 Cor. 3: 16-17). As my pastor explained to me,
now in the New Covenant, the
temple is no longer a place--it is a people.
So
next time you or I are incredibly exhausted and the idea of staying
home from worship and other gatherings of the church sounds so
attractive, run
to the gathering. Run to Christ's people. Because that's where Christ
dwells. Let
us refresh each other in Christ and let us go back home having found
delight in His steadfast love because of His presence among His
people.
1http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/stephens-crime-jesus-will-destroy-the-temple
