Psalm 23:6 “I Shall Dwell”
You don’t chose God, God chooses you. How many people realize that God has chosen them? You can determine that by understanding that God knows you, God has called you, and that God embraces you.
If you have had an exilic experience, an exilic experience is one where you come out of bondage or have been released from sin.
In other words, you have come out of the wilderness. The Negro spiritual proclaims, “How did you feel when you have come out of the wilderness.”
Our faith should say to us that:
If God has taken the time to look beyond our faults and to see our need.
If God has kept his eye on us as he has kept his eye on the sparrow.
If God has made a way for us even when we didn’t realize it was God under girding us.
If God has shaken the very doors of our isolated lives and brought sunshine in the midst of our own cloudy days.
If God has protected us from dangers seen and unseen.
If God has done all that for you and me we can be assured that God has chosen us.
Therefore, just like David we should be able to proclaim that,
“I Shall Dwell in the House of the Lord.”
Unfortunately, some of us will proclaim, “I Shall Dwell.”
But our reality is that we see the church simply as a physical place and not a spiritual place.
In other words when we leave the sanctuary; we have left church.
That why the idea of church for some has been reduced to a place where people are hatched, matched and dispatched.
Hatched meaning babies are blessed and dedicated.
Matched meaning couples are married.
Dispatched meaning individuals are funeralized.
This idea of church as a physical place is also evidenced by people who come to church but when you look at their actions, attitudes or attributes you quickly witness that while they may have been to church; church did not get into them.
That’s one of the tragedies of the events of the past week is that one can be active in church, a confessor of faith; but demonic in life’s transactions.
You should not be surprised, the idea of church as a physical place is not new.
During the time of David we witness the Israel people perceiving going to church when they traveled to the foot of Mount Sinai.
Other times you see the Israelites understanding being in church while they are carrying the Ark of the Covenant.
Even later you will witness that Israel perceives of church being behind the veil in the temple and that is the place of the holy of holies.
Where do you see church?
Is it a physical place or is it a spiritual place?
I wonder.
Is it possible to live life in such a way that you carry church inside of you?
Can you say like David, “blessed are they that dwell in thy house…for a day in thy courts are better than a thousand. I rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
The truth of the matter is that church is a spiritual place.
It’s where people who are scattered beyond untied in the vision glorious with Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and become the church triumphant.
Church as a spiritual place means that you can pray right where you are.
Holy ground is the place where you take off your shoes and bow because you are in the presence of God.
Church as a spiritual places means that you understand that all life is lived under the scrutiny of God’s loving care; but also all life is lived under an observing God who seeks justice.
Therefore David in understanding that all life is lived under the scrutiny and observation of God implies;
that if one lives life as if they are dwelling in God’s presence then goodness and mercy shall follow them all the days of their lives.
Do you really know that God has a way for His angels of goodness and mercy to shadow your journey?
Have you ever experienced the feeling of life’s knockout blow? People, like doctors, standing over you counting to ten; but before they wave their hands and before the bell is rung – goodness steps in, mercy comes running; the count is stopped and you are able to struggle to your feet, enter into life again and people see you and wonder how did you get over and all you can say is – goodness and mercy!
David did something else for us. He transforms our understanding of God into anthropomorphic form; meaning that he gives God who is a spirit, human characteristics.
He communicates to us that God the Lord is a Shepard.
I could stay right there.
Savior like a Shepard lead us, much we need thy tender care, in thy pleasant pastures feed us, why because we can find solace there.
These ideas of goodness and mercy and God as a Shepard,
all circle through the mind of David and with emphatic emphasis that causes him to suggest,
“That I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
I would think that after all of the evidences that David has had of God’s favor upon his life. All of the blessedness he has experienced because he had a heart after God.
I think David should make statement more definitive than I will.
Will is a kind of customary or habitual action. It’s a kind of likelihood or certainty. Will is a capacity or ability or an intention or a probability.
But after all God has done for us.
You didn’t hear me,
after all God had done for us we should move from a probability to an expression of determination or inevitability with the force of a command – I Shall Dwell.
This transforms David’s statement into marching orders, into a committed directive, “that come what may from day to day I know that my heavenly father watches over me. I trust in God. I know he cares for me.” Therefore, I Shall Dwell!
Strom winds may blow, lightening may flash, thunder may roar, good intentions may be misconstrued; but nevertheless, I Shall Dwell.
Life may deal you disappointments. Our journey may even take us through the valley of the shadow of death. Nevertheless, I Shall Dwell.
Enemies may even come to eat up my flesh. But the God I know will make a table even in the presence of my enemies and therefore, I Shall Dwell.
Even when my bills are high, even when my provisions are low, I know that if I keep my hands in God’s hands my cup will run over. I Shall Dwell.
There are six reasons why you can make this statement with confidence, I Shall Dwell.
Three deals with the needs fulfilled by the place.
1. The Lord’s house fills the need for belonging.
Sin separates us from God and separation ultimately leads to rejection by God. The essence of our spirit is to have acceptance and to feel a sense of belonging.
We need God and God wants us.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in the time of trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, through the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved.”
2. The Lord’s house fills the need for worthiness.
It is God who gives us definition. It is God who gives us a sense of self-worth. It means that regardless of the situation. Regardless of the circumstances or regardless of the predicament, “I am somebody.”
Not because of what I have, not because of who I am; but because of whose I am.
I am somebody. You are somebody.
“A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people: that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: which in times past were not a people, but are not the people of God.” You are somebody!
3. The Lord’s house fills the need for competence.
In life you may get below average grades.
On the job you may get written up for your performance.
But in the Lord’s house, “if you are faithful over a few things, God will make you ruler over many.”
But don’t play with this thing, because in the Lord’s house, “if you put your hand to the plow and turn back, you will not be fit for the kingdom.” Competence in God’s house is defined by service. “For the greatest among you shall be your servant.”
The Last Three deals with the nature of the place.
1. The Lord’s house is a place of revelation.
Re velatio – the things that have been hidden are uncovered. In the house of God, His will for your life will be revealed.
“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained: what is man that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visited him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou has put all things under his feet. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.”
2. The Lord’s house is a place of regulation.
You need a place to learn the rules of God for your life. You cannot live life without checks and balances. “Show me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee I do wait all the day.”
“Your word O God is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”
In life you need boundaries. In life you need parameters. In life you need regulations and laws.
3. The Lord’s house is a place of restoration
In this house God can restore your soul. In this house God can restore broken relationships. In this house God can restore splintered lives. In this house God can restore. Restoration is being in right relationship with God. God is always willing to restore. All you have to do is to humble yourself, pray and seek God’s face.
David understood that dwelling in the Lord’s house met three universal needs: the need for belonging, the need for self-worth, and the need for competence.
David also understood that the Lord’s house was a place for revelation, a place for regulation, and a place for restoration.
Let me close, it’s one thing for David to understand; but do you understand that dwelling in the Lord’s house has benefits:
1. I shall dwell – because I need goodness
2. I shall dwell – because I need mercy
3. I shall dwell – because I desire to be with the Lord forever.
