DESIRING GOD
Opening Prayer
Gentle Shepherd, banish despair from my life and speak to me about hopeful and hope-filled living.
Read PSALM 132
A song of ascents.
1 Lord, remember David
and all his self-denial.
2 He swore an oath to the Lord,
he made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:
3 “I will not enter my house
or go to my bed,
4 I will allow no sleep to my eyes
or slumber to my eyelids,
5 till I find a place for the Lord,
a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
6 We heard it in Ephrathah,
we came upon it in the fields of Jaar:[a]
7 “Let us go to his dwelling place,
let us worship at his footstool, saying,
8 ‘Arise, Lord, and come to your resting place,
you and the ark of your might.
9 May your priests be clothed with your righteousness;
may your faithful people sing for joy.’”
10 For the sake of your servant David,
do not reject your anointed one.
11 The Lord swore an oath to David,
a sure oath he will not revoke:
“One of your own descendants
I will place on your throne.
12 If your sons keep my covenant
and the statutes I teach them,
then their sons will sit
on your throne for ever and ever.”
13 For the Lord has chosen Zion,
he has desired it for his dwelling, saying,
14 “This is my resting place for ever and ever;
here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.
15 I will bless her with abundant provisions;
her poor I will satisfy with food.
16 I will clothe her priests with salvation,
and her faithful people will ever sing for joy.
17 “Here I will make a horn[b] grow for David
and set up a lamp for my anointed one.
18 I will clothe his enemies with shame,
but his head will be adorned with a radiant crown.”
Footnotes
- Psalm 132:6 Or heard of it in Ephrathah, / we found it in the fields of Jearim. (See 1 Chron. 13:5,6) (And no quotation marks around verses 7-9)
- Psalm 132:17 Horn here symbolizes strong one, that is, king.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?’1 Reflect deeply, meaningfully, and effectively, as you read God’s Word today.
When visiting historic places – temples, churches, palaces, castles – our minds naturally turn to the great figures who dreamed up or designed these structures. On pilgrimage to God’s house, it’s natural for pilgrims to reminisce about the history of that house. Their plea that God ‘remember David’ (v 1), however, is not nostalgia but a plea for action. With God, to ‘remember’ is to act, and God’s remembering is frequently connected with His covenants: it was when ‘God remembered Noah’2 that the flood waters began to recede, taking the story surging forward to God’s covenant with all creation;3 in Exodus, it was when ‘God heard their groaning and he remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob’4 that Operation Deliverance was launched.
To ‘remember David’ was also to remember the Davidic covenant.5 The psalmist begins by recollecting David’s all-consuming desire to honor God with a house truly fit for a king (vs 1–5). God, however, has even more grandiose plans! He vows to build a different kind of house for David – not a temple made of stone but a dynasty made up of living stones, one that will endure forever (vs 10–12). Why does David so ardently desire to build a ‘dwelling’ for God? The words ‘dwelling’ or ‘resting place’ – which occur five times (vs 5,7,8,13,14) –represent the presence of God. David yearns, thirsts, pants to be in God’s presence because he is a man who delights deeply in the Lord.
Desires that are shaped by delight in God will always be fulfilled! The cry of verse 8 is realized in verse 14; the prayer of verse 9 is answered in verse 16; and the plea in verse 10 is gloriously fulfilled in verses 17 and 18.
Apply
‘Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.’6 Ask God to shape the desires of your heart in accordance with His will.
Closing prayer
I thank You Lord, that if our desires are honoring to You, You delight to give us these desires. Thank You for being such a generous God.
1 Ps 42:2 2 Gen 8:1 3 Gen 9:8–17 4 Exod 2:24, emphasis added 5 2 Sam 7 6 Ps 37:4
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