How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!

 

Monday, June 5, 2023


Psalms 82; 84

1 Samuel 1:1-20

Acts 4:5-22


Observance: Boniface of Mainz, bishop and martyr (d. 754)


How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!


Recently we were thinking about the fact that heaven seems to not just be a state of mind, but an actual place in space and time, somewhere crafted and created by God, invisible and undetectable to our senses the way they currently are. It is the place where Jesus told the disciples He was going after their Last Supper, where He would prepare a place for them each in the Father’s house of many rooms. It is also the place that was revealed to Stephen, the first martyr, as the stones rained on him and he looked up and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father, welcoming him home.


But Jesus also spoke about heaven as somewhere here and now; or to be more precise, the kingdom of heaven being among us. Paul seems to secure the point when he taught us that the physical body of the Christian believer is the place where the Holy Spirit makes His home.


Heaven, or, the dwelling place of the Lord of hosts, is not somewhere up in the sky, or off across the other side of the waters of physical death. Heaven is the place where God is: and God is with His people.


It is a lovely dwelling place indeed. Hannah had a special and close connection with God, and she found her life turned around completely. Peter and John were bold enough to stand up to authorities and say “are we to listen to men, or to God? You be the judge!” If this earth is an old black-and-white film, while heaven is a movie in 4K high-definition, that difference in quality is the difference we have as believers. The kingdom of heaven is here, now. God has made us His dwelling place. And the Christian life lived hand-in-glove with God is nothing short of lovely.

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