He Desires To Dwell!

“This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.” (Ps 132:14 AV)

 What a picture of God’s desire to dwell with the humble.  Let me explain the context.  The entire psalm is David’s desire to build a more permanent dwelling for the ark of the covenant and his vow not to rest until it is accomplished.  There is a back and forth between David’s desire and promise, and the LORD’s response.  In this psalm, the Davidic covenant is restated.  God promises David that his descendants will sit on his throne forever.  That is possible in that the Messiah, God come in the flesh, Jesus, will sit on that throne for all of eternity.  There is a great balance to be seen here.  That is, two desires coming together to create a beautiful thing.  David desired to honor God who had been so good to him.  And there was the desire of God to dwell with a man who was after His own heart.  What astounds me is the verse above.  God dwelled with mankind in the temple because He desired it.  He was not obligated to.  He desired to.  He was not forced to.  He desired to.  He was not manipulated, He chose to.  Mankind had not earned it.  God desired it.  The same is true when Jesus takes up residency in our hearts.

It takes a special kind of person to care for an individual who is high maintenance.  I am thinking of the disabled.  I have met many people like this along my life’s journey.  There is one young man who comes to mind and another who I met more than twenty years ago.  This young man of whom I am impressed cares for his needy mother.  He is in his early thirties and works full time.  But he bought a house and cares for his aging mother every waking moment when not at work.  He has no social life.  He has no girlfriend or potential wife.  No children.  He takes care of his mother because that is what he wants to do.  He could easily put her in a health care facility and visit with her once a week.  But he does not. Between him and his sister, they care for someone because they desire to.  Then there are the parents of an autistic boy whom I used to carry to school by bus.  These two people were amazing.  Just watching them with their son was a life lesson I will never forget.  They, also, could have farmed this young boy to a health care facility that specializes in special-needs children.  Autism is a horrible condition that is extremely taxing on the caregiver.  These two dwelled with him because they desired to.

Paul writes, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;” (Eph 3:17-18 KJB)  When we accepted Jesus Christ as the means by which we can gain forgiveness of sins with the Father, the Holy Spirit indwelled us at that point.  He did so because He desired to.  What a truth! We are not worthy, by any stretch of the imagination, the have anything to do with God.  Let alone Him dwelling with us and within us.  We have done all we chose to do to offend Him and go our own way.  Yet, He loved us enough to die for us.  We are the most unworthy of God’s presence.  To think that God desires to dwell with those who trust Him is a concept that is hard to understand.  But there it is.  He desired to!  He desires to!  I will never truly understand this.