“My soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”  Psa. 63:1

My country is – spiritually – “a dry and weary land”.  So is the country we´ll be visiting again in November, D.V., i.e.  “God´s own country” with its bold motto “In God We Trust”.  And so is the secularized Israel once “flowing with milk and honey”.

 Is there a good answer to this need?  Yes, but it´s not a philosophical or theoretical one.  The answer is – God!  David says, “thus I have beheld Thee in the sanctuary, to see Thy power and glory”  (v.2), meaning that with his thirsty longing it´s possible to enter God´s “sanctuary” to see with the enlightened eyes of faith His power and glory.

Though there may often be no spiritual reality to see in the established “sanctuaries” (the churches), it´s still possible for you and me this morning to go into His presence with an open Bible (our true sanctuary!) to “see” something.  The psalmist in Psa. 73 was troubled, indeed, from what he saw in the “happy”, ungodly world enjoying itself, even unto death.  But he says, “until I came into the sanctuary of God” (v.17), and soon His soul was wrapped up in Him and His transcendent joy.  For us to enjoy too!

So let us “provoke” each other to be a people like that.  We are in a parched land all right, but at the same time let´s act as those constantly nourished by spiritual “milk and honey”, because of our glorified Lord Jesus Christ as the only source of our true and lasting joy.  -  Yes, let´s harp on Habakkuk´s great circumstantial “yet”:  “Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!”  (ch. 3:18)

For despite glooming circumstances, yet we´ve seen in His sanctuary His power and glory – and our cup overflows!

-jn-

Sept. 17, 2010