Where do you think God lives? What comes to mind as you consider the location of His dwelling place?
This past Sunday, the call to worship in our service came from Psalm 84:1-4. The opening verses read: “How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord…” (verses 1-2a, ESV)
Stop for a minute and think about how you read these verses. As you read them, in your mind, where are you picturing God’s dwelling place?
I realized Sunday that I still read these verses as I did when I was a child—picturing God’s dwelling place as a far-away, someday place in Heaven that I could not yet see or get to. His dwelling place sort of looks like a glistening white castle in my childhood imagination…which is apparently still active at times.
As an adult, I know that the Gospel reveals God’s dwelling place also to be in the hearts of every believer in Christ Jesus (John 14:17, Romans 8:11, 1 Corinthians 3:16, Galatians 2:20, and Ephesians 3:17, among many other passages, affirm this).
Yet I caught myself reading that verse Sunday as if God were only far away and not yet accessible, because that is how I read it for such a long time. The lens I looked through while reading was: God lives in a “after-I-die-and-go-to-heaven” place. That’s not entirely wrong. The Bible affirms that, too.
But there is more. I was a little shocked at how my Sunday experience with Psalm 84 pulled me over into thinking of God as only distant, in spite of what I know to be true of experiencing His nearness and His Spirit within me.
One way of reading Psalm 84:1 creates a sense of distance from God. But reading it with the fullness of the Gospel in view awakens worship for the experience of God, of intimacy and fellowship with Him.
This is major “shift your gaze” territory.
It matters how I approach God’s Word, and it matters that I recognize things that can impact the way I read it. This is one of the great benefits of reading and discussing God’s Word together in community. I am always amazed at the way hearing others’ perspectives brings me into richer understanding. So that’s important.
Here’s another game changer: Shifting your gaze from the “not yet” of God’s dwelling in Heaven to the “now” of Him dwelling in your heart through faith. That shift makes the difference between living in fear OR living in confidence, between focusing on what you lack OR living in the bounty of God’s gifts to you. It is the difference between doubting God’s character and power OR living in His power and trusting His unending love for you.
Resilience and robustness in our Christian lives on earth depends on us recognizing how real and present the unseen realm of the Kingdom of God is. God is alive and active in each of our daily moments. He is at work in our world, even if we cannot see it fully. Because we cannot see fully, shifting our gaze daily towards the power of the Holy Spirit living within us is an act of faith. This feels increasingly imperative to me.
But how to shift your gaze in the midst of busy life or a burned-out heart, you may ask?
A starting place, it seems, is to recognize places we are programmed to “presume God’s distance” like I found out about myself in my Sunday morning experience reading Psalm 84:1.
This weekend, can you set aside some time to consider shifting your gaze to the reality of God’s presence with you? If so, here are some things to try:
Ask God things like: Where do I presume you are distant? Are there specific areas in my life I struggle to believe you care about?
Read and reflect on passages about His nearness to you. Some to try are Psalm 90:1, Psalm 91, John 14:17, Romans 8:11, 1 Corinthians 3:16, Galatians 2:20, and Ephesians 3:17.
Meditate on exhortations to stand firm in hope found in passages like Romans 5:5, Romans 15:13, Colossians 1:23, 1 Timothy 6:12, Hebrews 3:6, and Hebrews 10:23.
Spend time in prayer asking the Holy Spirit to help shift your gaze more and more to the reality of His unseen Kingdom and His life within you.
May you experience more of the nearness and reality of Him!