Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Musing on a Psalm

I wash my hands in innocence 
     and go around your altar, O Lord, 
proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, 
     and telling all your wondrous deeds. 
O Lord, I love the habitation of your house 
     and the place where your glory dwells. Psalm 26.6-8

David now talks about worship. While he hates the assembly of evil doers (verse 5) he loves meeting with his God. When he is able to do this he gives a hearty and very public declaration of thanks to God. And for what? David loudly proclaims his thanks for God's 'wondrous deeds' - or to translate, for the amazing things He has done to rescue His people time and time and time again, from the days of their slavery in Egypt to his own day. And while David spent time having the equivalent of what we might call 'personal devotions', he knew that there is something different when it comes to entering God's house. What is different is that it is the place where God's glory dwells. God is there in a way that is unique. And David loves being there. And that captures what David is about. He isn't about worship as this thing that he's supposed to do. He's about his God. And being there in His special presence is the point of life for him. It is a taste of heaven. And that's why, elsewhere, he wrote,
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
When the saints gather in the house of God to proclaim thanksgiving and to recount His amazing works of rescue, there is something different going on. God is there and that in a way that is unique. David knew that and relished it.