Read Psalm 84:1-4. 1How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! 2My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. 3Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. 4Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise!
Clearly the Korahites who wrote this psalm never got the memo that sacred music must be solemn and non-emotional. This is a passionate love poem full of deep desires, longings, faintings; the soul, the heart, and the body each affected by the beauty of God and his house. The composer wants nothing more than to be in the presence of God like the birds who nest in the temple courts.
For those who are in Christ we must ask ourselves what is the dwelling place of the Lord today? Is it not the church? The locally assembled body of believers? Do we love our brothers and sisters in Christ with such longing? Do we pine for fellowship? Do we cry out for the communion of the saints? If not, why not?
Could it be that we don’t fully trust in our union with Christ as the head and us his members? Christ the building, us the stones? Have we failed to see the beauty of Christ in the body of Christ? Have we learned how to live in God’s presence together, or has to live is Christ been for you a solitary, “personal relationship with Christ” to the exclusion of his true temple – the church.
Prayer. Jesus, let my deep love for you overflow into a deep longing for your body. Amen.
To Live is Christ 