Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
On Aug. 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. This speech helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement and brought the plight of the disenfranchised to a larger national and international audience.
Dreams that are birthed from the Father’s heart have the potential to change the course of history. I have found some of God’s greatest dreams in the Book of Psalms.
The Psalms begin with appreciating and uplifting the counsel of the Lord, the written word of God (Ps. 1:1-2), but immediately there is a divine shift. For the next 23 Psalms the focus is on the Person of Christ, the living Word. Psalm 2 begins with a declaration of the Son and the exhortation and counsel to kiss the Son (Ps. 2:7, 12)! This section concludes in Psalm 24 with the declaration of the resurrected Son as the King of Glory.
In Psalm 25 there’s another shift, not away from the Person of Christ, but a shift toward the spiritual house of God in the earth. There is a picture of the church in the Psalms. Jesus Christ being the Chief Cornerstone of this spiritual house (Eph. 2:20).
The Psalms reveal the key to the house of God is a revelation of the person of Christ. Jesus brought this out when He asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter’s answer that Jesus was the Christ led to a revelation of the Peter’s identity, the church and keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 16:13-19). Let’s not miss the fact that Jesus connected a revelation of Himself, our identity, the church and keys to the kingdom together. One leads to the other with Christ being the prerequisite for all true revelations.
Sprinkled throughout the Psalms are prophetic glimpses of what the church is to become. Here are some notable ones.
1. A place of where the glory of the Lord dwells. Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your glory dwells. Psalm 26:8
2. A place where the beauty of the Lord can be seen and prayers are answered. One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. Psalm 27:4
3. A place where there is no lack and where the Holy Spirit River continually flows. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. Psalm 36:8
4. A place where the atmosphere is full of the revelation of the Father heart of God. A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation. Psalm 68:5
5. A place of passion because of the Presence of the Lord. How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! 2 My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Psalm 84:1-2
6. A place of revelation, protection, grace, glory and every good thing. For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. Psalm 84:10-11
“A dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:22) This is God’s dream and our dream for the church. This is why we are doing church.
Many Blessings, BW