September 30 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Psalm 76:2:

²In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion.

Devotional:

Salem is the shortened form for Jerusalem. "In Salem is his tabernacle," means in its first, literal sense, that the Tabernacle which first was carried about from place to place in the wilderness, and since had tarried now here, now there, had finally been removed to the top of Mount Zion, and that thus the dwelling place of the Lord God was within Jerusalem's walls.

There is something strange in this to us, and the question arises of itself: How can our God be omnipresent, and at the same time dwell in one particular city, on one particular mountain-top, in one tent or temple? And then, no less this other question: If in the old dispensation God in the earth had His tabernacle in Salem and His dwelling place in Zion, was not Israel under the old dispensation richer than we are now? Have we, then, not gone backward, instead of forward? Is the Gospel that has no more knowledge of Jerusalem on earth not poorer in that case, than the ritual of shadows, that could point to the place of God's Presence on earth?

Especially, when in the Psalms we read of "praise" that waiteth in Zion, and of a "doorkeeper" in the house of the Lord, clearness of insight on the part of every child of God is here greatly to be desired. Though one begins in early youth to learn these sentences and recite them half thoughtlessly, with the advance of our years the consciousness demands increasing clearness.

This clearness is not furnished by the study of history. Here everything depends upon your personal, your intentional communion and fellowship with the living God; upon the heart of all religion, upon the urgent effort of the soul to be more and more in continuous touch with God.

And here you always face an antithesis which you never can or shall solve with your understanding, and before which all science stands helpless, to wit: the all-dominating antithesis between the Infinity of the Lord and the finiteness of every creature.

In two ways it has been tried to put a bridge across this gap.

It has been tried by man in vain, but it has been brought about by God.

In vain it has been tried by the heathen, in that they have confined the infinity of the Almighty to the finite forms of an image; and the result was spirit-deadening, and, at length, petrifying idolatry.

But it has been brought about by God in that He has reversed all polytheism and idolatry by centralizing His worship originally in one place, by barring from His Temple on Zion every image of Himself, and by maintaining the spiritual character of His worship. It has been performed by God in that, in the end, after the dispensation of shadows had fulfilled its calling, He gave us His Temple in the Incarnated Word, and, on the day of Pentecost, extended this Temple to His whole congregation, even the Israel of the New Covenant.

Along this wondrous way of our Lord the end has been reached, that now, without in the leastwise weakening the sense of God's Infinity or Omnipresence, God's children know full well that in Christ they must seek to have contact with their God; that in the Communion of the saints they can enjoy His fellowship; and that through the Holy Ghost they see their own heart fashioned more and more into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

The clear idea to which this leads is that in no single place, in whatever darkness and amid whatever trouble, is the child of God ever grieved by the vexing thought that his God is far distant from him, and is not to be found in his immediate presence by prayer.

Wherever God's child kneels down, he knows that God is there, that He is close by, and listens to his prayer, that He sees and searches him, knows his way in every particular; and that no heart-string can vibrate with sorrow or with joy but God knows in advance what sound it will emit. "There is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways (Psalm 139:3).

But also, on the other hand, the child of God is constantly under the sense of the Lord's Majesty and loftiness. The glory and the holiness of the Lord must not be lost from our idea by His descent to us. And to this end He has so appointed it, that we realize that this selfsame God Who is ever close to every one of us is enthroned in the heavens, that there alone He unveils His Majesty, and for no single moment is lost in the smallness, insignificance and finiteness of our human life.

The life above and the life here on earth, are to our perception distinctly separated, and not here, but only when we shall have passed through the gate of death, shall our eye see Him in the fullness of His glory in the Jerusalem, that is above.

But between these two lies the transition. The transition in Christ, the transition in the congregation of saints, the transition through the indwelling of the Spirit in our heart; and this is now the Tabernacle in Salem, this is His dwelling place on Zion, this is His Presence amidst His Israel.

This operates back and forth.

In Christ our flesh enthroned in heaven, and the Spirit descending into our heart, and, as well as in Christ as in the Holy Ghost, God Himself worshiped by us.

Here is the mystery.

The Son of man, one of us, our Brother, near to us, and in our nature entered into heaven, not standing outside of God, but Himself being God, and thereby realizing the most intimate fellowship, which is conceivable between God and the children of men.

And, on the other hand, as Christ is for all, the Holy Spirit descending and taking up His abode in the heart of every child of God, separately, and thus founding a Salem in the hidden parts of our own soul, where God Himself indwells, where His Divine life inspires us, the Source of all our holier and higher emotions, sensations and impulses.

And these two continually operate upon one another and mutually complement each other.

So that there is no fellowship with Christ without the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and, conversely there is no indwelling of the Holy Ghost without the foundation of our fellowship with God in Christ.

Our nature in Christ in heaven, and the Holy Ghost indwelling in our heart on earth.

Thus the bridge of the holy life is laid by God Himself, with one terminal anchored in the heavens, the other resting in the center of our own human heart.

But even these two points of support need in turn a point of union, and this they find in the congregation of the saints.

Every one feels for himself that when he is in touch with the saints on earth, the fellowship with God becomes of itself more real, and how this fellowship loses in clearness and serenity, when he has no other human contact than with the people of the world.

The deep joy of the sacrament of Holy Communion comes to him from the focus of this fellowship. This sacrament testifies to him the glory of the Christ, but in the congregation of believers, not outside of it. And, therefore, no higher and holier institution could have been given to man, than when in the night in which He was betrayed, Christ brake the bread and poured the wine, and called His holy Supper into being.

Here is the center, here is the confluence of all the lines along which fellowship is established between our soul and God.

Nothing, therefore, is more heinous than the sinful doing of those, who by dissension and by passionate contention for the right of their own particular views, cause this fellowship of God's saints in and outside of the Church to weaken and to grow faint.

A new commandment our Savior gave us, that we should love one another. This new love which He recommended to us, is the most tender love imaginable on earth, since it is in the stream of this new love that our God will draw near unto us, and will lift us up to Himself.

And he who fails of understanding this new love, and uses the Church and the holy fellowship of love to propagate his own particular views, achieves no other end than the breaking down of Salem. He puts to naught the tabernacle of God, and, as far as he is able, impedes the fellowship with Him.

This devotional classic offers 110 meditations on a single thought from Psalm 73: "As for me, it is good to be near to God." The author states, "The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality ... it must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence."

The meditations reflect the blending of spiritual vigor with doctrinal loyalty so consistently expressed in the life of Abraham Kuyper. These are devotions with true substance, avoiding the extremes about which Kuyper adds a word of caution: "Stress in creedal confession, without drinking from the Living Fountain, runs dry in barren orthodoxy, just as truly as spiritual emotion, without clearness in confessional standards, makes one sink in the bog of sickly mysticism."

Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was a Dutch political leader and Calvinist theologian. Elected to parliament in 1874, he became Prime Minister in 1901 and served in that capacity until 1905. As a theologian, he revived a systematic, orthodox Calvinism. He founded the Free Reformed Church and the Free University of Amsterdam. His other works include Principles of Sacred Theology, Lectures on Calvinism, and The Work of the Holy Spirit

Further information about Abraham Kuyper's life can be seen in the translator's "Biographical Note"; further information about To Be Near Unto God can be Abraham Kuyper's "Preface" to that book.