“O LORD, I Love Your House!”
“O LORD, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.” – Psalm 26:8
Sometimes you might hear people describe going to church as going to the “house of the LORD.” There’s a sense in which this is right and a sense in which it would be wrong. It’s right inasmuch as the gathering of God’s people is referred to in the Bible as his house (e.g. 1 Cor. 3:16). But it would be wrong if we’re thinking of it in terms of the building. A church building is not “the house of the LORD.” It is a place where you worship, but it’s not as if you can go there later after everyone has gone home and meet with God in a special way all by yourself.
This is a key difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament, there was the tabernacle first, and then later on the temple. The first was a tent, a temporary dwelling. Then in the time of Solomon the temple came, it was built of stone and meant to be a permanent dwelling. For God’s people in the days of the Old Testament, if you said you were going to the house of the LORD, everyone would understand that you were going to a physical structure, the tabernacle or the temple. That was the place where the glory of God dwelt enthroned between the cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant in the holy of holies.
Psalm 26 was written by King David, who lived about 1000 years before Christ. In his days, there was no temple as yet. It would be built by his son Solomon. So when he refers in verse 8 to God’s house, he’s speaking about the tabernacle. But as we’ll see in a moment, the Holy Spirit speaking through David means more here than just the tabernacle.
Conflict and oppression form the background to this Psalm. David had those who were falsely accusing him. While the Psalm doesn’t tell us directly, we can think of what David experienced from Saul – how Saul regarded him as a traitor and wanted him dead. But David pleads in this Psalm for God to vindicate him – not to show that he’s perfect and sinless, but to show that he is in the right as far as these false accusations go.
It’s in this context that David writes about God’s house. But he doesn’t write about it in a detached way, speaking about it clinically as some abstract thing. Instead, he says he has an emotional attachment to God’s house: “I love the habitation of your house.” In the original context, David is saying here he loves the tabernacle, the place where God’s glory dwelt in those days. He’s saying that this is part of his integrity and how he has “trusted in the LORD without wavering,” as he says in verse 1. This is part of the faithfulness he mentions in verse 3.
What is God’s House?
When we consider how to take this into our world, we have to first answer the question of what is God’s house. Sure, for David, it was the tabernacle, but the tabernacle is obviously long gone. There are several different ways the Bible speaks of the house of God. But let’s just focus on one of those ways. It has to do with our Saviour.
The tabernacle and the temple were pointing ahead to Jesus Christ. John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory…” The word translated as “dwelt” in John 1:14 could also be translated as “tabernacled.” The Word, the Son of God, tabernacled among us. In the next chapter, Christ referred to his body as the temple, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Christ is God’s house because “in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,” as it says in Colossians 1:19. If you were alive when Christ walked on this earth and you looked at him, you were looking at the place where God’s glory dwelt. He may have appeared to be just another human being, and not an impressive or handsome one at that, but the reality was that he was God in the flesh, the God-man. Whatever he did and whatever he said was always a revelation of what God is like. Jesus Christ was and remains the glorious fulfillment of the tabernacle and the temple.
Why Love God’s House?
Why did David love the house of the LORD in his day? It had to do with the glorious presence of God dwelling there. In the time of the Exodus, that glorious presence of God, his glory, had gone forth before the people of Israel to guide them and protect them. There was the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. When David thinks about God’s tabernacle and the glory dwelling there, he finds comfort and strength. The same God who guided and protected his people in the past was the same God dwelling in the midst of his people in the days of David. David loved God’s house not because it was beautiful (though it was); no, he loved it because the God in whom he found comfort was there.
Now this takes on an even richer meaning when we remember how this was all pointing ahead to Christ. The same God who guided and protected his people in the Old Testament, whether with the Exodus or with David, that same God is with us today in Christ. His divinity, majesty, grace and Spirit are never absent from us. Every time we gather for public worship, we are in the presence of Christ. He is always there again and again to encourage us with comfort and strength, both with the Word and the Sacraments.
How to Love God’s House
How did David love God’s house in his day? There’s a close connection here between verse 7 and verse 8. In verse 7, David went to the tabernacle and he proclaimed his thanksgiving aloud and told of all of God’s wondrous deeds. So he encouraged his fellow believers with thanks and praise for God. It’s not really that complicated.
For us as Christians today, just taking our cue from Psalm 26:8 and limiting ourselves to that, there are two ways for us to love God’s house, to love Christ. One is by coming to Christ, like David went to the tabernacle. We do that first by faith. Resting and trusting in Jesus for salvation is coming to Christ in a spiritual sense. You show you love him by believing in him. But we can and should take this to another level.
For David, going to the tabernacle was a physical act and there’s also a physical component for us. Coming to Christ means also coming to where Christ meets with his people to bless them in a special way, in the worship service. We show we love Christ, when we love to be where he is with his people. So we show we love Christ by coming to church as often as we can, normally twice per Sunday.
The second way our passage teaches us to love God’s house, to love Christ, is to not only be present where he is, but then also to encourage our fellow believers with thanks and praise for God. Imagine for a moment if you were to come to worship and there were some 200 people present, but only 10 percent, only 20 people out of the 200 were singing. Would you be encouraged by that? Would you see that and hear that and think, “Hmm, Christ is being loved and praised by all these people, he is obviously worthy of that.” No, that would be so discouraging. You see, when we gather for worship and when we sing our praises, it’s not only directed upwards to God, it’s also always directed horizontally to each other too. We’re encouraging each other that we together value God and especially what he’s done for us in Christ. There’s not just me that loves Christ, there are all these other people too. It’s great to see and hear. Being part of a community that loves Christ cheers our hearts.
So there are two really practical applications coming from this:
First, show your love for Christ by coming to worship in person. You can’t encourage your fellow believers with praise and thanksgiving by sitting at home and watching a live-stream. Yes, there can be exceptional circumstances like when you’re sick or have a sick or tired child. But make it your normal practice to show your love for Christ by coming to where he is to bless his people.
The second practical application is this: when you come, lift up your voice in praise. Don’t be ashamed or shy to do it. You might be self-conscious about singing. Perhaps someone once put you down for your singing. Maybe someone said you’re tone-deaf and so now you protect yourself by keeping your mouth shut. But let the love of Christ compel you to open your mouth. Christ is worthy of your best effort. It doesn’t matter if you can’t sing well. You’ll show your love for Christ and God will be praised regardless. And the truth of the matter is that the more you do it, the better you’ll get. We all have to start somewhere. Christ is worthy of our loud thanksgiving and praises. And your fellow believers will be encouraged by that as well.
Like David did, we live in a world that’s often hostile to biblical faith. When you live in such a world, you need a refuge, a sanctuary. God provides us with that in Christ, in whom his glory dwells. He provides us with safety and comfort each time we come to meet with Christ in public worship. There you are reminded that your God is with you and for you. Now you know one good reason why Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
