The House of the Lord

Psalms 122
Verse 1 is something that I seem to remember from my childhood; perhaps as a memory verse in Sunday school. “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” There is no greater joy for the Psalmist than to enter into the presence of God, to join with the community of God’s people in the act of worship and praise.

Zechariah 1:7-17
Verse 16 is a comforting word to the people of God. After years of hardship and the destruction of the temple God speaks of restoration. “Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion; my house shall be built in it, says the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.” The house of God, the temple, will stand again as a sign of God’s presence in the midst of God’s people.

Revelation 3:7-13
The members of the church in Philadelphia are commended for their “patient endurance” (verse 20) in the face of opposition. The writer of Revelation then encourages them with these words, “If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it.” Eternal joy is characterized as becoming a fixture in the presence of God. There are other uses of this sort of metaphor in scripture. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” says Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:16. 1 Peter 2:5 says, “…like living stones let yourselves be built into a spiritual house….” The community of faith, then, is the dwelling place of God in the new reality. Just as God appeared to Ezekiel by the River Chebar in Babylon, God now appears to us, dwells with us, in the places where we are.