A PLACE FOR THE LORD

Here we find king David’s earnest and dominant desire to find a suitable place for the ark as the sacred symbol of the presence of the living God among His people, vv. 1-10. Then comes the equally earnest pledge of God to find a resting place among them for ever, vv. 11-18. This promise must yet be fulfilled.

What is the most important object to have before us in life? In David’s case he swore, he pledged himself, to take no rest till he had found a suitable dwelling place for God amid His people. This, indeed, is the ultimate object of God Himself. In the new creation, “the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people”, Rev. 21. 3.

This single-heartedness marked our Lord Jesus Himself. “I must be about my Father’s business … I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day”, Luke 2. 49; John 9. 4. It marked His apostle Paul, “this one thing I do … I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”, Phil. 3. 13, 14. It marked David, “One thing have I desired 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 behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple”, Psa. 27. 4.

To bring the ark to its place of honour caused David real trouble. At the first attempt, God’s instructions about carrying the ark were ignored and Uzzah was smitten for his irreverence; at the second David danced with delight to see his ambition fulfilled, but Michal his wife met him with scorn and contempt; 2 Sam. 6 gives all the details. So he prayed, “Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions”.

We, too, will have opposition if we seek to give the Lord Himself the pre-eminent place that He should have in our private life and also in our church life. Sometimes, as with David, opposition comes from those from whom we least expect it. This should move us to prayer, and with John the Baptist, we say, “He must increase, but I must decrease”, John 3. 30.

“That in all things he might have the preeminence”, Col. 1. 18.