Coram Deo

“Coram Deo”

1 Chron. 16:11 Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually.

Introduction: First some context from Barnes Notes. He says: The Psalm here put before us by the Chronicler, as sung liturgically by Asaph and his brethren on the day of the Ark's entrance into Jerusalem, accords closely with the passages in the present Book of Psalms noted in the marg reff.

This Psalm is apparently, a thanksgiving service composed for the occasion out of Psalms previously existing.

I. Live in His Presence - living in the presence of

I remember Mama standing in front of me, her hands poised on her hips, her eyes glaring with hot coals of fire and saying in stentorian tones, “Just what is the big idea, young man?”

Instinctively I knew my mother was not asking me an abstract question about theory. Her question was not a question at all—it was a thinly veiled accusation. Her words were easily translated to mean, “Why are you doing what you are doing?” She was challenging me to justify my behavior with a valid idea. I had none.

Recently a friend asked me in all earnestness the same question. He asked, “What’s the big idea of the Christian life?” He was interested in the overarching, ultimate goal of the Christian life.

To answer his question, I fell back on the theologian’s prerogative and gave him a Latin term. I said, “The big idea of the Christian life is coram Deo. Coram Deo captures the essence of the Christian life.”

This phrase literally refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or before the face of, God. To live coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.

a. The Sovereign’s attribute

To live in the presence of God is to understand that whatever we are doing and wherever we are doing it, we are acting under the gaze of God. God is omnipresent. There is no place so remote that we can escape His penetrating gaze.

b. The Holy Spirit’s abode

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the action by which God takes up permanent residence in the body of a believer in Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, the Spirit would come and go from the saints, empowering them for service but not necessarily remaining with them (see Judges 15:14; 1 Chronicles 12:18; Psalm 51:11; Ezekiel 11:5). Jesus revealed to His disciples the new role the Spirit of Truth would play in their lives: “He lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). The apostle Paul wrote, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

These verses are telling us that the believer in Jesus Christ has the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, living in him. When an individual accepts Christ as personal Savior, the Holy Spirit gives the believer the life of God, eternal life, which is really His very nature (Titus 3:5; 2 Peter 1:4), and the Holy Spirit comes to live within him spiritually. The fact that the believer’s body is likened to a temple where the Holy Spirit lives helps us understand what the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is all about. The word temple is used to describe the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum in the Old Testament tabernacle structure. There, God’s presence would appear in a cloud and meet the high priest, who came once a year into the Holy of Holies. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest brought the blood of a slain animal and sprinkled it on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. On this special day, God granted forgiveness to the priest and His people.

c. The Savior’s assurance

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

ILL. On the first anniversary of 9/11, TIME magazine had a article about 31-year old Genelle Guzman. She was the last person caught in the debris of the Twin Towers to be found alive.

After the planes hit, Genelle was descending a staircase from the 64th floor of the North Tower when it all came crashing down around her. Her right leg was pinned under heavy concrete. Her head was caught between stacks of wreckage. But there was an air-pocket around her, & for 27 hours she lay there, trapped & seriously injured.

Genelle had recently started attending church, & had been wanting to get her life turned around. So while she was stuck in the rubble, she started to pray. She would pray for awhile, & then lose consciousness. Over & over again she would wake up & start praying, then trail off, & then wake up & pray some more.