Psalms of Ascent - Psalm 132

[0:00] One of the great things that we've been able to do here in this series is to see how a journey develops from start to finish for God's people. And if you're here and you're new to the lampstand, one of the things that we hold dear is the Word of God. We treasure His Word. We devote our time together to seeing God's Word, to applying it, and to obeying it. So we believe that that is the path of life in this life. So what we do is we like to read through a passage and explain it and understand it and be edified by it. And what we're going to do this morning, we're going to read Psalm 132 again. We're going to study through it, but we're also going to be in a whole nother section of Scripture. Because I believe that as we work through this text together, we have to see how everything fits together as it was written in Psalm 132. But I want to just, before we jump into these different passages and really soak in God's Word together, we're going to read a lot together,

[1:06] I want to just recount the journey. We're in the Psalms of Ascent, which is a series that we're calling Ascend to God Together. Because the Psalms of Ascent were written for Israel as one collective group to travel to Jerusalem in anticipation of the feast that they would hold to honor God and remember what He had done. And as they would travel from all over to Jerusalem, they would sing these songs. It's a playlist, if you will, of God's people as they go and prepare themselves to worship in Jerusalem. So we saw in Psalm 120, which is the start of the Psalm of Ascent, where we're at. We see in Psalm 120, it says, Woe to me that I sojourn in Meshach and dwell among the tents of Kedar. Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. In other words, the journey, the sojourn starts in a land that is foreign, far from where God can be found. But then we see as we progress along in Psalm 122 where we need to go. And we saw in that Psalm that the people say, I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. We're excited to go worship God. And then from Psalm 123 all the way through 130, we saw all these different snippets of what it would look like to make that journey, to climb the mountains, to mourn wrongdoing, to plea for deliverance from enemies, to adore God and His greatness, all while traveling. But here's the great part. We are in Psalm 132. We have three more Psalms until the Psalms of the Center complete. Today we will do 132. And next week we'll do both 133 and 134 because they're real short and they're very similar. But here's what I want us to know as we get into the text today.

[2:49] Psalm 132 is about arriving at our destination. The journey that Israel has made, the people to Jerusalem in order to worship God. They finally have made it. And so too as we've gone through this series, I want us to recount the ways in which we've learned to go to God together and worship, to travel to where He can be found. And here we see a text that is all about the joy of finally arriving where God dwells. I remember as a kid, my parents would take us on a trip. Every summer we would always go down to California. Every single summer. And where we would go in California would always be, would always differ. But my favorite place to go in California, arguably my favorite place on this good green earth, is Yosemite National Park. If you've been there, you're already resonating with, oh I know why He loves that place. You come into Yosemite and it is this unbelievable portrait of all that God has made. But here's the thing about that journey.

[4:00] From where I grew up in Southern Oregon, to get to Yosemite National Park is roughly an 11-hour drive. And for my parents, I don't know about y'all, but my parents were loading up in a 12-passenger van and my parents were like, we will start at 5 a.m. and we will be there before sundown. And my dad would drive and we would go all the way in one setting to Yosemite. But we would sit in the car, seven kids. My parents, I still, I'm like, you guys, I don't know how you did this. And what would we say in the back of the car? Are we there? Yeah, I see like five people mouthing it. Okay, you're, Dad, how far is this? It's so far. And we love to go to Yosemite. But man, I'm gonna tell you, that journey sometimes, we're not, guys, we left 15 minutes ago. We would ask and ask and ask. But let me tell you, you're coming into Yosemite from the north. You come through a bunch of banks.

[4:54] You go around all these mountainous ravines. And finally, you come around this bend and you see the valley. And I remember every single time, every single time you would loathe the journey. But when we came around that bend, it was, oh, that all was worth it. This is amazing. Psalm 132 is kind of like that. We have made it to the journey. We've come around the bend. And now Israel, in this picture, they're gonna see the glory of where God dwells. And they're gonna take joy. So that's where we are today. We're gonna break up today. It's a longer psalm. So we're gonna break it up a little bit.

[5:36] We're gonna be in verses 1 to 10 to start. And then we'll move on to two more sections. 11 to 12 is another. And then 13 to 18. But let's do 1 to 10 together. I'm gonna read this all at once. And then we're gonna kind of break down what's happening here. So again, Psalm 132, verse 1.

[5:51] Remember, O Lord, 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.

[6:10] Behold, we have heard of it in Epaphtha and found it in the fields of Jair. Let us go to the dwelling place. Let us worship his footstool. Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. Let your priests be clothed with righteousness. Let your saints shout for joy.

[6:27] For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one. Something interesting is happening here in verses 1 to 10. Has there ever been a time in your life where you were so dead set on accomplishing something that you essentially swore to yourself, I will not sleep until this is done?

[6:53] Something important that happened, usually spontaneous. Something came up in your life and you said, I have to get this done. This is super important. Well, this is what we see from David here.

[7:03] You see this language in verse 3. He says, I will not enter my house. I won't take any rest. I won't sleep. I won't allow my eyelids to drop until I've done this thing. And what is that thing?

[7:18] Verse 5, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob. What is the context here? What's going on? What was David so desperate to do?

[7:34] He was desperate to return the object of God's presence back to its rightful place, Jerusalem. So we have a context here in verse 1 to 10, and it is the Ark of the Covenant.

[7:44] Now, when I say the Ark of the Covenant, a lot of things are probably popping through your brain right now. And if we're honest, there's a lot of smiling faces, Indiana Jones comes into view, okay?

[7:56] I just embrace it. That's me too. When I hear that, I still think, oh, it's Hollywood, right? But maybe for some of you, you think of the Ark of the Covenant and you think of, you know what?

[8:06] I made it at one point when I was a school project or a Bible church project, I made a golden replica ark. I know kids in my classes did that when growing up. I saw it done in one of my churches. We made a replica ark, and it's so cool, and we spray painted it gold. It's a box, right, with angels on top.

[8:24] Regardless of what you may view, what comes into your mind when I say the Ark of the Covenant, we need to understand it. Literally, to understand this psalm well and truly, we have to understand the purpose of the Ark of the Covenant. What is it?

[8:40] Well, literally, the Ark of the Covenant is a box. It is a box that was designed to hold some objects, but it's way more than a box. The Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament was the item, the symbol that brought about the presence of God in Israel. In other words, the Ark of the Covenant contained the Word of God, the tablets and a few other items, but it also represented the presence of God.

[9:12] We have some images that show us the presence of God was in view with the Ark of the Covenant. It's made of gold. Gold, a picture in the Bible of purity, holiness, righteousness.

[9:23] At the top of the Ark are cherubim, angels, which symbolize, again, the presence of God, where God dwells with His angels. But then again, on the top, you have something called the mercy seat, which is where the presence of God would come down and take seat, if you will.

[9:44] God's presence is the center point, the focal point of the Ark of the Covenant. And in the Old Testament, when Israel had the Ark of the Covenant, they had God's presence.

[10:00] But in order to understand what's happening in Psalm 132, we actually have to take a quick journey, the journey of the Ark of the Covenant, to see how important this is and where we're at.

[10:13] So here's what I'm going to invite us to do. I'm going to trace the journey of the Ark of the Covenant up to this point in the Psalm. And I think it will help us understand what this Psalm is about. So follow along with me.

[10:24] I'm just going to kind of read some points off here of a bullet list of all of the happenings of the Ark of the Covenant. So first of all, the Ark of the Covenant is in the possession of Israel.

[10:35] We'll just start with there. They've got it. Everything's great. God's presence is within them in their camp. The Ark of the Covenant was supposed to be in the tabernacle, in the middle of the camp, symbolizing God's presence that centers Israel and goes outward to all the people.

[10:48] But here's what happened. There are enemies of Israel called the Philistines. And the Philistines were mighty, mighty enemies in this day. And here's what the Philistines do.

[10:58] They conquer Israel in multiple different battles. And they end up finding the Ark and saying, this is the Ark of the Covenant. I'm paraphrasing. This is the Ark of the Covenant.

[11:09] This is the same Ark that has driven away armies and caused mass panic at the enemies of Yahweh. What do you think they did? Eh, let's just leave it there.

[11:21] No. Here's what the Philistines do. They attempt to take it and use its power. And they set it up in their own country that they might turn it into one of their many gods and gain the benefits of the Ark.

[11:35] So here's what happens. They move it to a city called Ashdod. Tumors and terror breaks out in this city. So they move it. Well, that was terrible.

[11:45] Get this thing out of here. Okay, what do they do? They move it to a new city called Gath. You know what happens at Gath? Tumors and terror breaks out. So they move it. They move to a city called Ekron.

[11:58] And once it gets to Ekron, terror begins to break out. And the people of Ekron recognize the pattern. They're smart enough to see what's happening. And they say, get this thing out of here.

[12:09] We don't want this mess. So they take it and they move it to a place called Beth Shemesh. And at Beth Shemesh, they're afraid of it. They stand off. What should we do with this thing? Let's just get rid of it. It's dangerous.

[12:20] It's potent. But when it's sitting at Beth Shemesh, 70 men come and they look at the Ark and instantly die. This is the craziest.

[12:31] What is going on here? Well, then the Ark is lodged at a place called Kiriath-Jerim and is left there for 20 years during the time of Saul. Why?

[12:42] Well, 1 Samuel 7. Let me listen to this real quick. And the men of Kiriath-Jerim came and took the Ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Admonadab on the hill. And they consecrated the son Eleazar to have charge of the Ark of the Lord from the day the Ark was lodged there at long time past 20 years.

[13:00] And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. Look with me in Psalm 132 at verse 6. We see this. What have they found in the fields of Jair?

[13:16] Ark of the Covenant. Psalm 132 is remembering when Israel reclaimed the Ark of the Covenant. Found it once more. But here's the thing.

[13:27] Epaphrath and Jair, these two cities that are mentioned in verse 6, are reference to the same region of Kiriath-Jerim. So here's what's happening.

[13:38] During the reign of Saul, the Ark is taken and it's left in some random city and forgotten for 20 years. What does that mean? Well, here's what we know.

[13:53] David in 1 Chronicles 13 comes on the throne and he recognizes there's something deeply, deeply wrong with Israel. What is it? Something's wrong. Let me read this.

[14:05] 1 Chronicles 13. David consulted with the commanders of thousands and hundreds and every leader and David said to all of the assembly of Israel, If it seems good to you and from the Lord our God, let us send abroad to our brothers who remain in the lands of Israel as well as the priests and Levites and let them be gathered to us that we may again bring the Ark of our God to us.

[14:28] God's Ark, His presence, is not here and that's a problem. So let's bring it to us that we might have His presence again. So David's saying. But listen to this next line.

[14:40] 4. Here's why this is important. Those 20 years that it's left and abandoned.

[14:53] During the reign of Saul, Israel had been turned away from the Lord. They gave in to pride. They gave in to their own ways. They gave in to the lust after a king instead of God.

[15:04] We want a human king, not you. Israel rebelled from Him, rejected His commandments, and rejected His presence even to the point where they put the very object that contained the presence of the Lord, they put it somewhere else and just forgot it.

[15:18] We don't really need God's presence. We can do this. Here's what David says. What are we doing? God's presence is the very essence of our identity.

[15:29] Let's get the Ark and bring it back. So here's what happens. David grabs a bunch of people.

[15:39] They go to the place, carry after him where the Ark is, and here's what it says. And David and all Israel went up to the Kiriath-Jerim to bring up from there the Ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord, who sits enthroned above the cherubim.

[15:52] There's the picture. God's presence. And they carried the Ark of God on a new cart from the house of Abinadab, and Uzzah and Aho were driving the cart. Stop. If you know the story, what happens?

[16:04] It's a big, long narrative here, but here's what happens. It says the oxen bumped and moved. The Ark started falling off the cart, and Uzzah steps out to push it. Probably with good intentions, and he dies immediately.

[16:16] So here's where the story gets a little grim. They stop the journey. David gets depressed and even upset at God for, Why would you do that? Why would you kill him?

[16:27] I don't understand. We want your presence. We're trying to bring it back. Paraphrasing again. You can read 1 Chronicles 13 if you want to see this more play out. But here's, oh, tell me what happens.

[16:37] Why did God do that? Why did he strike someone down for touching the Ark? Well, because David had great fervor for the Lord. But the obedience was not there.

[16:51] Because guess what the Lord had said a long time ago to Moses and Aaron? When my Ark is transported, four men from the tribe of Levi, from the clan within the tribe of Levi of the Kohatites, they are the ones who are trained to carry my Ark because I have set them apart, they're consecrated, and I've made them holy.

[17:16] Only they can hold this Ark and bring it to Israel. Now, David realizes this, that he put the Ark of the Lord on the back of a cart driven by oxen, did not obey the Lord's command, and because an unconsecrated, unset-apart person touched the presence of God, that's the symbol, the Ark, immediate consequence is what?

[17:42] Death. Why does God stipulate these things? To symbolize his holiness and his presence, that when we interact with the holiness of God, it is not a small thing.

[17:55] That Israel was to respect the holiness of their God. Because any unholy substance that interacts with the divine, awesome, holy presence of God will not survive.

[18:09] So here's what David does. This is the rest of the story. In many ways, he repents of what he did. I recognize that we did not carry this the right way. So now there's a big section where he is super intentional.

[18:23] He spends tons of time, tons of communication, tons of resources to get the Levites to where it's sitting, and they carry it the right way with all the right rituals, consecrated people.

[18:35] God has consecrated them, set them apart. They're now qualified to hold the Ark because they are set apart, and they carry that thing all the way to Israel. That is the backdrop.

[18:46] There is a reason we're spending so much time on this. Let us bring us to the text now where we see in verse 8. Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the Ark of your might.

[19:00] Let your priests be clothed with righteousness. Let your saints shout for joy. For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away your face of your anointed one. Let the saints shout for joy.

[19:12] We saw in verse 1-5, David worked so hard. He dedicated himself. We're going to get the Ark back to Israel, back to Jerusalem. He slipped up. They all slipped up and not doing it the right way.

[19:23] But God still had mercy to let them bring it back. And here's what the text says in the Old Testament. When David brings the Ark across the threshold into the house, the city of David, where it belongs.

[19:35] Finally back where it belongs. In 1 Chronicles 15, we are told that he danced. And here's that often seen verse in the Bible, that picture where David is dancing with joy, with reckless abandon.

[19:52] He's just dancing and dancing as the Ark comes in. Why? It's not weird. He's not being crazy. He's not being weird and strange. And that's not something that he did, but we can't do. No. Here's why David dances.

[20:04] Because God's presence, which has been gone for 20 years, has now been fully restored to the people of God. And now his presence, his joyful, life-giving, amazing presence is finally back with his people.

[20:21] So here's what David does. He rejoices and dances. And when we see in verses 1 to 10 that David worked hard, the hardships, the hardships refer to getting the Ark back to Jerusalem, how he swore to the Lord.

[20:32] We heard of it. We found it. We brought it back. Verse 7. Let us go to the dwelling place. Let us go to where God can be found, because his Ark is finally back within us. Arise, O Lord.

[20:43] Rest on your Ark. Come within us. Live among us. All of these great pictures. Verses 1 to 10. Here's the backdrop. The presence of God has once again been restored to his people.

[20:59] But I want us to notice verse 7 again. Let us go to his dwelling place. Let us worship at his footstool.

[21:11] A beautiful image of the desire to worship. But I want us to notice that in this day and age, Israel literally had to go to a specific place to find God and worship him where he may be found.

[21:29] Brothers and sisters, how blessed are we to be able to worship God in his presence anywhere, at any time. And this is the great privilege of the spirit-dwelt soul.

[21:42] That God has taken residence in our hearts. Dwelled within us. We need not a mountain to worship God. We need not to enter the right building, play the right instruments, follow the right rituals, wear the right clothing to worship God.

[21:59] The Lord can be found and experienced in worship at any moment. And the Holy Spirit that dwells within us gives us perpetual access to this God.

[22:11] Jesus made this reality clear when he spoke to the woman of the well in John 14. The woman says, Sir, hey, you say Jerusalem's the place where people ought to worship. And Jesus says to this, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither worship on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, but you will worship the Father.

[22:30] And then he says this, The hour is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Jesus literally just said, You will not have to climb a mountain or go to a city, even Jerusalem, in order to worship me anymore.

[22:46] An hour is coming where my people will have my presence in all places at all times and I will be with them. Literally dwelling in their hearts.

[22:59] Which leads into verse 11 and 12. How is that possible? They had to bring the ark all the way across the plains just to get it to a place where they could actually have God's presence again.

[23:14] How is it possible that God could dwell within us and bless us with the gift of his presence in all places, in all times? Well, let's look at verse 11 and 12.

[23:25] The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back. One of the sons of your body, I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on your throne.

[23:44] This is the Davidic covenant. The people, as they, in Psalm 132, as they rode into Jerusalem, went to where the ark was, saw the glory and the presence of God dwelling in the city of God.

[23:59] They sing this psalm to remind themselves about how when David brought God's presence back, how great was it to have your presence again. But now in verse 11 and 12, they're not just content to remember that the presence of God is now back within them.

[24:12] What are they doing? The people, Israel, here, as they travel, they journey to Jerusalem to do these feasts in the Psalms of Ascent. In 11 and 12, here's what they say, but as great as it is to have his presence here with the ark, we know that there is someone who's going to come, the Messiah, who will reign forever, who will establish a kingdom that will never end, who will bless and honor the people of God by his loving reign.

[24:48] And that Messiah is going to do something great. And when you notice again in verse 11, it says this, God swore enough to David for which he will not turn back, and listen to this, one of the sons of your body.

[25:01] It's specific all the way until there is going to be one individual son of David who will sit on that throne. They are chanting together, the Messiah, the Messiah, God promised the Messiah to David.

[25:17] He promised that he would come. He promised that he would reign. The one that brought the presence of God back to Jerusalem was the King David that we love. We just sang about it in 10 verses. But now, the focus has shifted not just to David who brought the presence of God back, now the focus has shifted in this psalm to this.

[25:35] Not just David, but the Messiah who will bring the presence of God forever. This is Jesus. Straight up, fully.

[25:49] Jesus is in Psalm 132 verses 11 and 12. And I pray that we would have the same realization today.

[26:02] That as Israel longed for the eternal presence of God, they wouldn't have to travel, they wouldn't have to go, they wouldn't have to follow the right rituals that God set up to point to Jesus, that they could just have God fully forever.

[26:17] And they recognize that the Messiah will do that. How do we know that? Let's read the rest of this Psalm. Verse 13, for the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for His dwelling place.

[26:29] This is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provisions. I will satisfy her poor with bread. Her priests I will clothe with salvation.

[26:40] And her saints will shout for joy. There I will make a horn to sprout for David. I have prepared a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame. But on him his crown will shine.

[26:52] What's happening here? Verses 13 and 18 are the effects of the Messiah coming. This is the realized, the anticipated kingdom of God here on earth in which the King is reigning, the Messiah has come, and the people of God experience all of the perpetual blessings of God forever.

[27:15] forever. That's why we see these amazing benefits. When God dwells in this place forever where there will no longer be any temporality, he's ours forever.

[27:28] Verse 15, he will give us provisions. He will satisfy us. The priests will be clothed with salvation. We will all shout for joy. That is the reality of when God's people have his presence fully.

[27:42] God meets our needs. He satisfies us. He fulfills our longing and desires. He clothes us with righteousness and he showers us with joy. Those are the fruits of abiding in the presence of God.

[27:59] And here's what Israel knew. The Messiah will bring it. Verses 17 and 18 are amazing in that they specifically anticipate the promise of verse 10.

[28:14] In verse 10 we see that David, the promise to him will not be turned away that the Lord will bring an anointed one through him.

[28:25] And in verse 17 and 18 you have specific images here. There's three. There's a horn, a lamp, and a crown. And one commentator said this about these three images. The three terms horn, lamp, and crown scarcely need comment with their evident implications of strength, clarity, and royal dignity.

[28:49] These verses anticipate the heavenly kingdom come to earth. A time when all justice has been dealt. All pain and misery have suffered and suffering have ceased.

[29:00] The faithful have been glorified. The rebellious have been punished. The king of glory has been crowned and placed on an eternal throne of splendor. The light of the newly restored universe emanates from the face of the Messiah.

[29:12] I would argue that Psalm 132 is a alternate anticipatory picture of Revelation 21. And in Revelation 21 we see a picture of God's kingdom coming to earth and the light of the kingdom is only shown through Jesus' face.

[29:33] He exists forever with his people in this heavenly kingdom. But what's so amazing about this is that our God is a promise keeping God.

[29:47] I can tend to over promise and under deliver. Ask my wife. I'll be home in 15 minutes. 30 minutes later. But there are even times where in my best intentions I try to under promise and over deliver.

[30:03] And that's a better option I would argue, right? Like, oh, you surprised me. You said you were going to be home this time but you're actually home 20 minutes early. That's a better option. But here's what I love about God. God does not over promise and under deliver.

[30:16] He also doesn't under promise and over deliver. Here's who God is. God perfectly promises and perfectly delivers.

[30:26] the exact nature of what he says he will do he does to the fullest. And here's what he told Israel. I know you've got my ark.

[30:37] I rest on it. My presence is with you. That's how you have my presence with you. But through the Messiah that I will send my presence will be with you eternally.

[30:50] It will never leave again. The ark of the covenant is really cool guys. I think it's awesome. People wonder today where is it?

[31:01] Some people claim they have it in Ethiopia. They claim they've got the ark. Everybody wants the ark. It's cool. We talk about it in movies. But here's the reality. Indiana Jones can have the ark. Any other nation they can go ahead and search for it.

[31:14] I personally think it will never be found. I think it's gone. But here's the reality. We don't need that ark. We don't need it. Why would we need it? God has already come and rested in our hearts the person and work of Jesus.

[31:27] What the ark aimed to make possible God's presence resting with his people has been fully realized in a person and that's Jesus. And when we repent of sin and trust in Jesus Christ the Savior of the world alone he takes residence in our hearts.

[31:44] We see that in Colossians. He does this through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The glory of the ark of the covenant is realized fully in the wonderful person of Jesus Christ.

[31:57] Now and forevermore there is no longer any fear of judgment. One day brothers and sisters we will reach out as Uzziah did and we will touch the presence of God as was symbolized in that story.

[32:11] But unlike Uzziah who touched that presence of God and was not consecrated apart from his own sin we will not die when we touch the glory of God.

[32:24] But instead we will reach out to touch Jesus and we will be embraced with loving arms and find full acceptance. The ark of the covenant brought about God's partial presence to his people.

[32:37] The Messiah brought about God's perfect presence to his people. And one day when the Messiah returns and brings about his eternal kingdom he will bring about God's perpetual presence with his people.

[32:51] Here's what I have for us this morning. As we look at this psalm and we see the joy of the people that they get to go to Israel and they get to take courage that the Lord's presence is there.

[33:05] Imagine being on this trip and they get to Jerusalem and as soon as they walk through the gates the people say someone stole the ark God's presence is not here. How much of a buskill that would have been.

[33:17] But no they get to Jerusalem and they are filled with joy. And the word I want us to notice as being repeated in Psalm 132 is dwell dwell dwell dwell four times it's used.

[33:34] David asks the Lord to dwell again in Israel. the people after the Messiah has been realized in verse 13 talk about the Lord having a dwelling place among them.

[33:46] So here's what we have this morning. Savor the presence of God in your life. He has chosen to dwell with us and we must respond by dwelling with him.

[34:00] a major application from this text is that we would never take for granted the immediate access we have to God through the indwelling of the Spirit and the intercession of the Son.

[34:14] Psalm 16 says this you make known to me the path of life in your presence there is fullness of joy. In your presence when I am with you God I have fullness of joy and that fullness of joy lives within our hearts every moment because the Holy Spirit has claimed us.

[34:36] In 1 Corinthians we're actually told Paul uses an analogy and he actually literally talks about the temple of God and how we no longer have a temple we don't need a temple we don't even need an ark anymore here's what he says to the whole congregation of the Corinthians do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells within you all because of Jesus.

[34:58] Israel had to physically go to the temple cleanse themselves and offer literal sacrifices in order to meet with God and enter his presence but we brothers and sisters have already been cleansed by the gospel already been atoned for through the sacrifice of Jesus and are already in the temple because the temple is within us.

[35:19] When Jesus died that veil was torn and when that veil was torn God's presence left the temple and every time we gather together we dwell with God right now we are dwelling with God his presence with us and within us.

[35:45] So encouragement to us this morning is that we would savor his presence. In Revelation 3 there's a picture of Jesus standing at the door and knocking. this is to a church that he's speaking to and it says this if anyone hears the voice and opens the door I come into him and eat with him and he with me.

[36:05] But here's something about this verse that's interesting. I've always understood this verse to be an evangelistic verse that Jesus is knocking on the door of unbelievers hearts and if they would just open he would save them.

[36:19] What does the context tell us of this? He's writing to a church. Jesus is knocking on the door of those that have forgotten how amazing his presence is.

[36:30] I'm here I'm already dwelling within you I'm already taking residence within you by my gospel and by this power of the spirit I want to fellowship. So I pray that we would not treat God as like an unwanted roommate because the reality is he's within our hearts the Holy Spirit has already taken residence but if you're like me there's so many times in life that I know he's there I know you're dwelling with me that we're sharing this temple you're inside of my space but I'd rather you just do your own thing and I'll do my own thing.

[37:04] I was convicted by that. Sometimes I treat God that way but Jesus is still there knocking. Let me in. I want to fellowship with you and bless you with my presence and the number one way that we open up that door is by responding to his grace.

[37:21] It looks like opening up our word taking the Bible and seeing the glory of what God has said that we might experience his fellowship. Jesus said abide in me.

[37:32] That looks like depending on him daily communing with him daily through prayer through reading of his word. I'm not saying that reading your Bible is always easy but I will say it is always life giving and I want to compel us today to take the word of God and see it as a channel to joy.

[37:50] That as he dwells within us and we have his presence fully now through what Jesus has done we renew that fellowship every time we read his word and come to him in prayer.

[38:03] Brothers and sisters we get to worship God in spirit and in truth. We have an eternal cleansing of the soul through what Jesus has done. God's presence is always within us.

[38:14] In the times where we forget that he is always with us is where we find ourselves troubled, discouraged, and distressed just like Israel when the ark was taken away from their camp fear set in.

[38:25] Here's what I want to leave you with. But just as Israel found the ark returned it to Israel saw the presence of God once more in their lives they were filled with joy and that's what Psalm 132 is about.

[38:42] Rejoicing in the presence of God. So too when we recognize what we have in Christ that there is no longer any distance between us and God we are filled with joy.

[38:59] The ark of God has come to dwell on our hearts permanently and his name is Jesus. Savor the presence of God this morning. Let's pray.

[39:09] Lord we pray that as a church and as your people that you would forgive us when we take for granted your presence.

[39:25] When we fail to remember Lord how incredibly blessed we are that you would dwell with us in every moment. Lord remind us of the goodness of the gospel the great work of Jesus to bring God close.

[39:45] I pray Lord as we go this week that we would be encouraged to see your beauty and prayer in the word and fellowship Lord to choose every moment the opportunity that are given to us that you are knocking that we get to enjoy your presence and enjoy your fellowship.

[40:03] Lord may we be a people that savors your presence and never takes it for granted. Let me pray. Amen.