Where God Dwells
O Lord, I love the house in which you dwell and the place where your glory abides. – Psalm 26:8 (NRSV)
When I was a little girl, I really loved going to church. The Romanesque Revival sanctuary of my childhood congregation felt holy to me, the sunlight filtering through its late Victorian stained glass to cast a rosy glow onto dark wood pews and gleaming organ pipes. In a classroom in the education building, I sat on a little chair and learned that Jesus loved me. This verse from Psalm 26 expresses how I so often felt.
I really love going to church.
And…
I spent this past summer seeing God’s glory in oceans, lakes, and rivers, experiencing God’s presence in trees, sky, and clouds. I missed the church I think of as home now, but the outdoors also felt like the house in which God dwells.
The psalmist no doubt referred to the Temple in Jerusalem as the house in which God dwelt. We date the Psalms to the Babylonian exile, so these words of love and praise evoked a place that felt both lost and lively in memory. The feeling goes beyond nostalgia. It’s yearning for community gathered in a familiar place where God can be experienced with others. The psalmists used words to create an emotional space that sustained their relationship to God and one another.
The story of the psalms’ development in exile reminds us that the real house where God lives is not only a physical plant but an energetic body of prayer and praise, indoors and outdoors, with others or simply with God. The house of the Lord is a sanctuary for connection, wherever we find it.
Prayer
Thank you, Holy One, for all the places and ways you wait for us to show up and see you. Amen.
About the AuthorMartha Spong is a UCC pastor, a clergy coach, and editor of The Words of Her Mouth: Psalms for the Struggle, from The Pilgrim Press.