After twenty years of building, Solomon adds the “coup de grace,” the exclamation point, to his masterpiece. With great ceremony and sacrificial ritual, he brings the Ark of the Covenant to the temple, placing it in the “Holy of Holies.” At this moment something astonishing happens.
A cloud of luminous haze suddenly fills the house as the priests leave the “Holy of Holies.
Read More holiness, glory, God’s presenceAfter twenty years of continuous, arduous construction, Solomon dedicates the temple he has built for “The Name.” With pomp, circumstance, and thousands of blood sacrifices, he lifts his hands toward heaven in the midst of his people and prays a powerful prayer. Most powerful of all is what he says in the last few words of verse 27.
A literal reading in the Hebrew language says, “Behold the heavens and the heavens of heavens cannot contain you.”
Read More God’s presence, name, greatness
We all walk through seasons of our life which are stormy. We understand how the disciples may have felt in Matthew 8:23-27. While they were at sea a fierce storm rose and they were panicked. Fear gripped their hearts, though Jesus was right there! They thought he was not paying attention.
The writer in this portion of Psalm 119:97-120, while acknowledging his great love for the Word of God, is suffering terribly.
Read More suffering, prayer, trouble, God’s presence
Read Reflect The themes of forming and creating come up over and over in Isaiah. People in rebellion against God form and create idols. God, here, forms and creates Israel. When people create idols, they turn to them for salvation. When God creates his people, his people need to turn to their creator for salvation. […]
Read More trials, God’s presence, idols, forming, creating
Read Reflect This passage begins with the psalmist running to God in search of protection and ends with celebration, praise, and joy. Isn’t it interesting how often our own encounters with God work the same way? At times we run to him at the first sign of danger, at others, we treat him as a […]
Read More protection, fear, joy, God’s faithfulness, God’s presence
Read Reflect This passage ends with the thought, “You bless everyone who trusts you,” and the cool thing is, when you go back and re-read everything that came before it, you realize you’ve just been shown exactly what it looks like to be someone who trusts God, and what it means to be blessed by […]
Read More protection, salvation, blessing, God’s presence, God’s loveThe return of the glory of God to the Temple is, perhaps, the most dramatic scene in the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel’s vision mirrors in reverse his earlier revelation of God abandoning the temple (chs 8-11). Although the Jerusalem Temple continued to function for six years after Ezekiel’s earlier vision, the glory of God’s presence was absent.
Read More glory, God’s presence, climax, fellowship with God
Paul ends his plea for unity by bringing the people in the church at Rome to the Father. Paul quite naturally and easily slips into prayer. He could have ended the section with an appeal to his authority, but instead he simply and beautifully invites us into the presence of God, as if to say, “Okay, we’ve talked about important things.
Read More prayer, hope, Holy Spirit, joy, God’s presenceThis psalm was probably written by David to mark the day when the ark was brought into Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:12-15). As David joined in the festive procession, God helped him to see great truths behind what was happening.
Read More forgiveness, God’s presence, cleansingIt is with a great sense of relief that the returned exiles heard that God will restore the Temple and establish it in an environment of security and prosperity (1:16-17). But then, in a vision, Zechariah sees a building official with his tape measure, and he is surveying more than the footprint of the Temple. He is mapping out the whole city.
Read More God’s presence, God’s plans