Psalm 27:4
4 One ['echad] thing have I
desired [sha'al] of the LORD [Yahovah], that will I seek [baqash]
after; that I may dwell [yashab] in the house [bayith] of the LORD [Yahovah] all
the days [yowm] of my life [chay], to behold [chazah] the
beauty [no`am] of the LORD [Yahovah], and to enquire [baqar] in
his temple [heykal]. KJV-Interlinear
4 One
thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And
to meditate in His temple. NASB
From the time of Adam and
Eve until the time of Moses, God only had a temporary dwelling place, the first
of which was in the Garden with Adam and Eve, and then subsequent to their
eviction from the garden, God did not have a dwelling place until the time of
Moses when the tabernacle was constructed.
And even then the tabernacle
was a representation at best of a temporary dwelling place for God here on
earth.
That first tabernacle
traveled around with the Israelites from campsite to campsite, and then when
they crossed over the Jordan into the promised land, then the tabernacle moved
from village to village or from town to town until the time of David.
And then once David
became King, the tabernacle was finally brought to Jerusalem, but David was not
allowed to build a temple to house the tabernacle. God told David that his son
would complete the construction.
And when God mentioned
David’s son, there was a dual reference. His son Solomon, constructed a temple
a stone. But his spiritual son Jesus Christ, was the one that would build a
permanent temple, one not made with human hands.
Knowing this, and
understanding the nature of his own request, David desires to dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of his life, as well as being able to make
inquiry of the Lord, within the Lords Temple.
So, one might ask, how
would this be possible if the temple had not been constructed?
And the answer to that is
quite simple. Gods ultimate and final resting place will be within the soul of
each believer in Christ. The construction material for the spiritual building
within the soul, is Bible doctrine.
Learning Bible doctrine,
in effect, promotes the construction of the temple, fortress, palace, within
the soul of the believer. The repetition of that learning process, combined
with understanding of what it is you are learning, combined with using that
understanding in your daily life, which is the spiritual production of your
life, which leads to wisdom, and ultimately builds muscle for your real
spiritual strength, which is faith. These then are the finishing materials of
that building structure.
The house is not a home
until it is lived in, and you cannot live in a house until it is completed,
finished, decorated, landscaped, and so forth. Your spiritual production is
that finishing process that makes your spiritual home, temple, fortress,
palace, more and more complete.
And so, for David and for
all of us, by studying the Scriptures, and learning, and understanding, and
growing up in our spiritual lives, all the while being in fellowship as a
result of our continued daily and repetitious confessions as needed, then we
are living within God’s temple, which is in our soul, and furthermore when in
fellowship, we are face-to-face with the Lord, relatively speaking.
Today the world is filled
with churches and all sorts of temples scattered across the planet. All of
these of course were constructed with human hands from the building materials
that we have here on earth. None of them of course, are equivalent to, or can
compete with, the Bible doctrine that you assimilate into your soul.
Earthly churches, sooner
or later will go away. But, the Bible doctrine and spiritual production that
you accumulate within your soul, is permanent and eternal. It is your direct
connection and relationship with God.
That is why Bible
doctrine, and the learning process while in fellowship, combined with your
daily use of doctrine for spiritual production, are the most important things
that you will ever have in your life.
As goes your spiritual
growth, so goes your spiritual life.
