Dwell: To sit or circle?

Roses give off a beautiful aroma, don’t they?  Just last week I had a bouquet of roses in my hand…and life was just…well…rosy. J  Haha.  I realized that sometimes it really is good for the soul to stop and smell the roses.  Beautiful smells are comforting, aren’t they?  

Jesus tells us to consider lilies…if he cares for those, how much more will he take care of us?  But it is hard to smell the roses unless you stop.  It’s also hard to consider lilies unless you slow down enough to look at them. 

I would submit that the majority of our lives look like a mixture of marathons and sprints.  We are constantly running, doing, serving, working…  Busyness isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  But always being busy is.

So how do we stop?  Can we stop?  Where do we dwell? 

Here’s something God just taught me this weekend – and I hope it’s a blessing to you.

Psalm 84

“¹How lovely is your dwelling place,
    Lord Almighty!
² My soul yearns, even faints,
    for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
    for the living God.
³ Even the sparrow has found a home,
    and the swallow a nest for herself,
    where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
    Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
⁴ Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
    they are ever praising you.

⁵ Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
    whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
⁶ As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
    they make it a place of springs;
    the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
⁷ They go from strength to strength,
    till each appears before God in Zion.

⁸ Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty;
    listen to me, God of Jacob.
⁹ Look on our shield, O God;
    look with favor on your anointed one.

¹⁰ Better is one day in your courts
    than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
    than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
¹¹ For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
    the Lord bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
    from those whose walk is blameless.

¹² Lord Almighty,
    blessed is the one who trusts in you.”

 

Isn’t Psalm 84 encouraging?  I really love this psalm.  And as many times as I’ve heard the words of verse 10 – even in song form – I never really pieced together what it might have meant for those who wrote it.

The Bible tells us that David didn’t write this Psalm.  Instead, the sons of Korah wrote this song.  And I just happened to be reading about them in I Chronicles yesterday when a description of their work reminded me of this psalm.

I Chronicles 9:17-34

¹⁷ The gatekeepers:

Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman and their fellow Levites, Shallum their chief ¹⁸ being stationed at the King’s Gate on the east, up to the present time. These were the gatekeepers belonging to the camp of the Levites. ¹⁹ Shallum son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his fellow gatekeepers from his family (the Korahites) were responsible for guarding the thresholds of the tent just as their ancestors had been responsible for guarding the entrance to the dwelling of the Lord. ²⁰ In earlier times Phinehas son of Eleazar was the official in charge of the gatekeepers, and the Lord was with him. ²¹ Zechariah son of Meshelemiah was the gatekeeper at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

²² Altogether, those chosen to be gatekeepers at the thresholds numbered 212. They were registered by genealogy in their villages. The gatekeepers had been assigned to their positions of trust by David and Samuel the seer. ²³ They and their descendants were in charge of guarding the gates of the house of the Lord—the house called the tent of meeting. ²⁴ The gatekeepers were on the four sides: east, west, north and south. ²⁵ Their fellow Levites in their villages had to come from time to time and share their duties for seven-day periods. ²⁶ But the four principal gatekeepers, who were Levites, were entrusted with the responsibility for the rooms and treasuries in the house of God. ²⁷ They would spend the night stationed around the house of God, because they had to guard it; and they had charge of the key for opening it each morning.

²⁸ Some of them were in charge of the articles used in the temple service; they counted them when they were brought in and when they were taken out. ²⁹ Others were assigned to take care of the furnishings and all the other articles of the sanctuary, as well as the special flour and wine, and the olive oil, incense and spices. ³⁰ But some of the priests took care of mixing the spices. ³¹ A Levite named Mattithiah, the firstborn son of Shallum the Korahite, was entrusted with the responsibility for baking the offering bread. ³² Some of the Kohathites, their fellow Levites, were in charge of preparing for every Sabbath the bread set out on the table.

³³ Those who were musicians, heads of Levite families, stayed in the rooms of the temple and were exempt from other duties because they were responsible for the work day and night.”

 

Isn’t it interesting that those who had to spend their time at the doors/gates of the tabernacle wrote Psalm 84?  The psalm talks of the loveliness of God’s dwelling…the desire to be near the altar (and there were two of them – together they picture the finished work of Christ’s death and resurrection)…that those who dwell in God’s house are ever praising him (like the musicians day and night)…that it is better to be one day in God’s courts than a thousand elsewhere…that it is better to be a doorkeeper in the house of God than dwell in the house of the wicked.

Wow.

They were praising God for the opportunity to be with Him – even if their job by today’s standards was quite menial.  Baking bread?  Being security?

And a few things struck me:

1.      God names the security guards and bakers by name.  Their job might not seem important to us – but they were working for Him, and He recognized it.  Seemingly menial jobs are important.

2.      Seemingly menial jobs can bring blessing.   And sometimes that involves our choice to recognize where God has placed us.  These men worked in the tabernacle!  They were with God (just as we are – because He is always with us).  And these men wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else.  They wanted to dwell with Him. J

3.      The word:  DWELL.  I love words (as evidenced by my long posts).  But…I looked at the different times the English word “dwell” was translated from Hebrew.  And what I found surprised me.

a.       Psalm 84:1 – “dwelling place” – also translated “tabernacle” – from the Hebrew word mishkân, meaning residence.

b.      Psalm 84:4 – “blessed are those who dwell in your house” – from the Hebrew word yâshab, which means to sit down, remain, settle, etc.

c.       Psalm 84:10 – “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”

                                                              i.      Doorkeeper – Hebrew word sâphaph- “wait at the threshold”

                                                            ii.      Dwell – 2 Hebrew words

1.      min  minnîy or  minnêy - “a part of”

2.      dûr - to gyrate, move in a circle; to remain; dwell

 

I love this.  “Dwell” is the English word used for two seemingly very different Hebrew concepts. 

1.      If you dwell in the tents of the wicked, you are essentially moving in a circle. And let’s face it….moving in a circle is pointless.  You are going nowhere –  and you expend lots of energy doing it.

2.      BUT, if you are a doorkeeper in God’s house, waiting at the threshold, you are sitting.  You are resting.  And that Hebrew word seems to signify those who aren’t trying to do life on their own…but rather resting in the finished work of Christ.

This doesn’t mean that the people who sit don’t have jobs or responsibilities – but to me it seems that those who dwell with the Lord have lives characterized by “a sitting soul”…one that can rest amidst busyness…because that the work of salvation is done.

Those who dwell with the wicked are running in circles – always running, never being satisfied…because nothing can truly satisfy the soul except for Jesus.   

I want my life to be characterized as someone who sits with the Lord.

As someone who truly dwells in his presence.

And if I do, if all of us learn to dwell in the presence of Jesus, we might be just as comforting to others as a bouquet of roses.  J   

A Persian fable says: One day

A wanderer found a lump of clay

So redolent of sweet perfume

Its odors scented all the room.

 

“What art thou?” was his quick demand.

“Art thou some gem from Samarkand,

Or spikenard in this rude disguise,

Or other costly merchandise?”

 

“Nay, I am but a lump of clay.”

“Then, whence this wondrous perfume, say!”

“Friend, If the secret I disclose—

I have been dwelling with the rose.”