THURSDAY 4th
Psalm 26
NIV (v8) – ‘LORD, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells.’
ESV (v8) – ‘O LORD, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.’
In this psalm before us today we see that David is summing up his relationship with the LORD thus far. In yesterday’s psalm he was asking to be forgiven and to be shown the ways of the LORD, in today he has been living out of that forgiveness and walking along the ways he had been shown. He had walked in integrity and he had trusted in the LORD without wavering.
It is important that we understand that David was not perfect, he had failed many times, he had sinned and done wrong, but he had sought the LORD with genuine repentance and the LORD had granted him pardon and a fresh start. We see something of his confession, repentance, and acceptance by God in Psalm 51.
And for each one of us, we are not perfect, we all fail in so many ways and even though we might not like to admit it, we falter and fail, we sin, whether in thought or deed, willingly or unknowingly, but thank God because we have an advocate with the Father, the man Christ Jesus, as we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And David continues to say that he has sought to avoid all appearance of evil by keeping away from anything that could cause him to fall. (vv4-5) there is a challenge for us all in this, that we should do our very best to avoid the places of falsehood, hypocrisy, evildoers and wickedness, we will remember that in the very first psalm, David had stated very clearly that the ‘blessed way’ is by ensuring that we do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:22 ‘Abstain from all appearances of evil.’ The NET puts it this way, ‘Stay away from every form of evil.’
But finally, in this chapter (in the middle v8 ) David says, ‘O LORD, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.’ He knew that rather than to be in the places where evil was to be found, there was a far better place to be, the place where the glory of God was to found, in the house of God. In another psalm David says, ‘How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs for the courts of the LORD; . . .’ he continues later with these words, ‘For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.’ (Psalm 84:1, 10)
In our immediate context today, going through this pandemic, I wonder how much do we long for the dwelling place, the house of God? But aside from the present situation, I wonder where we desire to be the most, do we desire to be found in the house of the Lord, do we desire to be in fellowship with brothers and sisters, do we desire to meet with God in the sanctuary.
The words of a hymn come to mind, ‘We love the place, O God, wherein thy honour dwells’. There is something valuable and precious about a place, which has been built for and dedicated to the honour and glory of the name of the Lord our God, a phrase I have heard so often during this pandemic is, ‘the building is not important, it is us who are the Church, and we can be Church without being together’. That is only partly true, yes we are the Church but God has specifically chosen to meet with his people, whether it was in the tabernacle, the tent, the temple, a house or a church building, and although God is with us and can meet us anywhere, he chooses especially to meet us in the place that has been built for his glory, the place where we can come together to fellowship together, to worship together, to seek his face and to proclaim his word, the place where life transforming business with God can be done, the place where his glory will fall and the place from which we enter with praise and thanksgiving and we leave having been fed, encouraged and renewed afresh as we walk through this world as pilgrims till we enter his eternal dwelling place and gather around his throne for eternity.