O LORD, remember in David’s favor
all the hardships he endured;
how he swore to the LORD
and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob,
“I will not enter my house
or get into my bed;
I will not give sleep to my eyes
or slumber to my eyelids,
until I find a place for the LORD,
a dwelling-place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
(Psalm 132:1-5)
I’m willing to bet we can all better identify with David in this psalm now more than we could have nine or ten months ago. The context is that David and his band of merry men are carrying the Ark of the Covenant around because there is not yet a Temple for it. God does not have a home. David’s life is big and full of scores of amazing and interesting stories, but if the entirety of his purpose on earth can be summed up in one thing, it is in building the Temple, the place where God will dwell with God’s people. The Temple will also be the God-ordained place of the right worship of God (keep in mind, this was all taking place long before the synagogue system took root in Israel, meaning there is only one “church” Israel can worship in and that is the Temple). And it is here, in this yearning for a place of established worship of God, that we find a deep resonance with this passage.
I’m writing this devotion nearly a month out from the date of its publication and so I have no idea where Union County, Ohio, or the United States will be in our struggle to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 infections. All indications and projections, though, signal that things won’t be great when you read this. Here’s hoping I’m wrong. I’d happily have that egg on my face! But if things are still dire, then we will have eclipsed eight months without regular worship of God in our regular place. I do still hope that you’re availing yourselves of the worship videos, for I truly believe that our God accepts with great pleasure the worship we give Him from our homes. He knows what we’re going through and even if, hypothetically, He agrees that in-person is better than in-home, He’s not a tyrant that demands we risk ourselves and our community for His worship. In fact, the history of religion reveals the exact opposite – it is always the false gods and idols that demand human sacrifice. Our God became the human sacrifice on our behalf. From this, we can safely infer that any worship that requires human sacrifice is not the worship of the One True God, our Father in heaven.
But back to David and his – literal – tireless pursuit to create the right worship of God. This is the holy goal of his life, just as it is a goal for our lives now. And yet, it will be years upon years before this goal is met (and, we assume, he probably caught at least a nap during the intervening time). And this brings us to the real point of this psalm. It isn’t about David at all (even if it does begin “O Lord, remember in David’s favor”). No, this is a psalm about God’s promises that have yet to be realized but will be realized. It is a motivational psalm. It is meant to keep spirits up and keep eyes focused on the goal. And so, in the power of the sacred words of Psalm 132, I promise that we will worship our God in church again. We may have many weary, tired nights before us before this happens, but it will happen. Hold fast. Have faith. And bless God in the meanwhile. Amen.
