Dwelling Place

Psalm 90:1

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.”

Thus begins Psalm 90 “A prayer of Moses, the man of God.”  The title and the first verse  reveal much about the Psalm.  

First, it reveals the Yahweh’ness of God.  “Yahweh”: the Lord.  The title for God that shows His ever constant care of His people.  His very near care as a person and place for God’s people.  Moses can say with honesty and experience that God has been His people’s shelter/housing ever since He has been their Lord.  God has demonstrated His care for them as they were delivered from Egyptian oppression.  He showed His favor towards His people as He parted the Red Sea and they crossed safely to the other side.  Now, as they are getting ready to cross the Jordan, Moses, the man of God, prays remembering God’s faithfulness in His closeness to His people.  

Secondly, Moses is described as “the man of God.”  He certainly was not perfect.  Yet Hebrews 11:23-29 calls Moses faithful for it was “by faith” that he walked because “He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.”  He looked not to his own faithfulness but to His Lord’s faithfulness on His behalf.  The Lord is the dwelling place in which Moses ultimately finds His eternal reward.  

In what ways do I contemplate and remember the Lord as my dwelling place?  Is He where I find my solace?  Do I run home to Him or do I find my significance, my respite, my identity in other things?  Where is the first place I turn?  Often, I find that I turn first to solitude.  I use my introversion as an excuse to escape the demands of any particular situation.  “If I can just have ‘me’ time for thirty minutes, half a day, a weekend, then I will be replenished and ready to serve others.”  In and of itself, alone time is not bad.  But, how do I use the alone time?  Do I meditate on the Lord’s work on the cross for me and trace its significant power to change me, or does the alone time itself serve as my strength?  More often than not, I depend on the time itself and not on my Lord, my Home, my Dwelling place who has proved Himself over and over.

Lord, Yahweh, my Home . . . forgive me for dwelling in other places and on other things that cannot and will not satisfy my soul.  When I seek other affections, please draw me away from them to sit on Your couch, in Your living room, with You.  Amen.