Today's Scripture Reading (October 9, 2022): Psalm 132
Daphne Rademaker wrote these words for her song "Resting Place."
Heaven is my throne and earth is my
footstool
Where is the house you will build
for Me
Whom of you will hear the cry of my
heart
Where will My
resting place be?
It is a good question. I have to admit that I struggle with psalms
like 132 because it makes a statement that I am not convinced is true. Did God
choose Jerusalem as his permanent resting place? I am not sure. As I read the
story, I think that it was David who did the choosing, a choice that arose out
of his desire to build a brick-and-mortar house for
God that reflected the stage that Israel had entered. No longer was Israel a
nomadic nation that moved from place to place. They had entered into a stage of life where the
people had put down roots, built houses, and worked farms. David now lived in a palace,
and he felt guilty that his God lived in a tent. And so, David decided that God needed a house
instead of dwelling in a moveable tent. And the King chose his city to be the
home of that house.
Undoubtedly, after
Solomon built the Temple, God accepted the Temple and Jerusalem as his, and God decided
to be enthroned in that Temple. Still, I am not sure that God chose Jerusalem
specifically beforehand. And yes, God promised that David's son would build a house for him, but it seems like David interpreted
that promise to mean Solomon. I am convinced that God meant Jesus, not Solomon.
Some scholars argue that Jerusalem became the resting place for
the Ark of the Covenant, this symbol of God which once moved from place to place but now rested in one room of Solomon's Temple, reflecting the rest
mentioned in this Psalm. And that is a nice thought, but again, not really true. The Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Holy
of Holies, a place where only the High Priest was allowed to enter, and even then, only once a
year. But that becomes part of the problem. Once the Ark entered the Holy of
Holies, no one saw it, and the Ark
eventually disappeared from the pages of history. When did the Ark disappear? Some point to the destruction of the Temple in 586 B.C.E. Others believe it
was during the reign of Hezekiah that the Ark was lost. Still, others point to the reign of Solomon as the point where it was lost. The Ark found its
rest in the Temple, but only for a
relatively short period of history.
One question we need to ask is if God's resting place was not the Temple, then where
might that place be? And if Jesus was the answer to God's promise that David's Son would sit on the throne and build the Temple, then the
answer is us. God's presence,
his Spirit, finds his rest in our lives. God inhabits the lives of His people. Daphne Rademaker answers the
question she asks in the first part of her song with these words.
Here oh Lord have I prepared for You
a home.
Long have I desired for you to dwell
Here oh Lord, have I prepared a
resting place
Hear oh Lord, I
wait for you alone.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 1
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