88. The Temple
R
How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORDAlmighty!
Psalm 84:1W
HENKing Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem to honor
his God, it was a place of great beauty created with stone,
cedar, silver, and gold. Solomon and the people of Israel consecrated
it with burnt offerings, grain offerings, and fellowship offerings. It
was a holy house where the people, through their priests, could meet
with the Lord and hear from him—a place where they would feel the
wondrous cloud of his presence (see 1 Kings 5–9).
No wonder the psalmist said of God’s temple, “My soul yearns,
even faints, / for the courts of the LORD; / my heart and my flesh cry
out / for the living God” (Ps. 84:2). In Solomon’s day there was no
higher calling than to draw near to the Holy of Holies. This is still
true, but many of us are confused about just exactly where the Holy
of Holies is.
When Stephen defended his faith before the Sanhedrin, he told
them, “The Most High does not live in houses made by men” (Acts
7:48).