My mother was a great cook, but of course when I was a child I didn’t always appreciate the food she served.
I remember one meal in particular when I was about 8 years old. My mother brought the food out to the table, and among the other dishes was a plate of zucchini squash. I’m sure it was wonderfully prepared. I love squash now, but I didn’t like it one bit when I was 8 years old.
My mother asked me, “Why don’t you want any zucchini squash?” I told her, “It’s not good. I don’t like it.” She laughed and responded, “You don’t know what’s good.”
She was right, of course. My senses weren’t fully developed. I wasn’t yet able, at that early age, to discern what was good.
Why You Need to Grow in Your Faith
This is true in the Christian’s life as well. We all must have our senses developed to learn what is good. Even those who have received the gift of the Spirit and are heading toward resurrection fulfillment are not yet fully restored. The image of God has been obscured in us ever since the Fall of man in the Garden of Eden, but it has not been obliterated.
We are told in the New Testament that Christ is the very image of God, and that by faith in Christ that image in us is gradually being restored. We receive Christ into us, and by the gift of the Spirit we are being transformed into His image.
The author of Hebrews refers to the fact that we are not yet mature enough to have solid food (Hebrews 5:14). We’re like infants who can only digest milk. We have not grown enough to have our senses trained to discern good from evil. Part of the process of growing in the Christian faith is learning this discernment.
What’s good for us? What are the things that we ought to want, but don’t yet fully desire? What are the things that we ought to love, but don’t yet fully love as we ought?
Finding Joy in Worship
The author of Psalm 84 is not in Israel, but he longs to return. Wherever he is, and whatever the historical circumstances, we know that he is separated from Jerusalem and from the temple. He longs to travel the highways that lead back to Jerusalem, to the beauty of the temple. He longs to be in the Lord’s presence in the temple of God:
My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. (Psalm 84:2)
When I read this I have to ask myself: do I long for the worship of God? Is there something in me that finds entering in to the presence of God a labor and an agony? Most of us have times like that.
For an explanation of Psalm 84, read this post.
Most of us also find that there are times when, once we break the inertia of our alienation, once we enter in to the presence of God, we experience what the Psalmist must have felt when he sang, “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).
We are meant to find joy in the presence of God, in the goodness of God, and in the work of God. This joy begins to shape us so that our moral tastes, our full humanity as really intended, our resurrection pilgrimage, is furthered and advanced. We’re becoming more nearly conformed to the image of God, which is Christ the Lord.
Goodness and Beauty
The Psalmist speaks of a connection between goodness and the beauty of the temple:
How lovely are Your dwelling places,
O Lord of hosts! (Psalm 84:1)
Sometimes we don’t know what is beautiful. We need to have our senses trained to respond appropriately to beauty. The question of beauty begins with the heart, with submission to God.
The Psalmist relates the beauty of the temple with the beauty of the presence of God. Our pilgrimage to the heavenly city begins with the beauty of holiness, and it will end with a resurrection body.
The author of Psalm 84 sang of the beauty of the house of the Lord and of his longing to be there:
My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. (Psalm 84:2)
Remember that the temple was the place of the Lord’s presence. He was not confined to the temple, of course, but we know that His presence was unusually powerful in that place.
When the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the temple for the first time, the Scriptures tell us that the glory of the Lord filled that place. Everyone was forced to leave because the Lord’s glorious presence was so overpowering that no one could stand it.
Ezekiel tells us that when judgment was upon Israel, the glory of the Lord left the temple. He saw the Lord’s throne lifted up out of the city and that terrible word was said: “Ichabod,” which means, in Hebrew, “the glory has departed.”
When the temple was destroyed, the Lord God no longer inhabited the city of Jerusalem in the same way. One day, the prophets predicted, the Lord would be king again and would send His anointed one, a son of David, to reign as king with him.
You may enjoy this blog about the purpose of art.
Transformed by the Presence of God
The New Testament tells us the rest of the story. The long awaited king has come. He is Jesus, who rode into Jerusalem on the back of the donkey’s colt. He is the one who, though He suffered, has now been raised and exalted, enthroned at the right hand of God, and declared king.
To the extent that our hearts do not long for the presence of God, our hearts don’t know what’s good for us. Our senses have not yet been fully trained. Our spiritual taste buds are immature.
To refuse to worship God is to refuse to be human; it is to try to make ourselves something that we are not. We try to make ourselves the creator instead of the created.
We become truly human again when we come on our knees to the One who is the very image of God: Christ Himself, the Son of God. We are transformed by His powerful presence.
The preceding was adapted by Rachel Motte from a sermon Dr. Robert Sloan delivered on July 7, 2013, at Kingsland Baptist Church.
Robert B. Sloan released book two, Hamelin Stoop: The Lost Princess and the Jewel of Periluna, from his young adult fantasy series in February 2017. Learn more about the series at HamelinStoop.com.