Can you say God is my dwelling place like Moses said?

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.” Psalms 90:1

Majority of Psalms are written by King David and of course, there is a lot to learn from his Psalms and other Psalms. But this Psalm 90 is written by Moses, the lawgiver of the nation Israel. It is through the mediatory role of Moses the old testament Law including ten commandments, ceremonial and judicial laws are given by the LORD GOD.
Psalm 90 is one of the very oldest psalms when compared to other Psalms in the Bible. This was written about 450 years before the time of King David. Moses who wrote the first book of the Bible (Genesis through Deuteronomy) wrote this Psalm as well.

A retrospective look

The first verse of the Psalm introduces the readers where they really dwell. Moses says, Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout the generations. This is true about all human beings in one sense because even the very source of human life comes from Him only. God gives the breath of life to live continuously. He gives the strength to think and act. Every day is His gift because God gives the ability to live, think and act.

Apostle Paul says in the Bible, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.  And he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.  God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being’. (Acts 17:24-28).

You see in a general sense all people live and move and have our being in the LORD GOD. God is the one who made the world and everything in it. He doesn’t live in temples built by human hands. He doesn’t need the service of anyone as though He needed anything. In contrast, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. You see, from one man (Adam) he made all the nations. He marked out their appointed times (the time you and I will live on this earth). He also made the boundaries of their lands. He did all these so that we would seek and find Him though He is not far from any one of us. He is near to all of us to call upon Him at any time.

However, in a special sense, God is dwelling place to those who chose to obey and live for Him in this world. Jesus asked a question to the twelve disciples when many of the other disciples withdrew from Him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Peter wanted to dwell on Him because Jesus has the words of eternal life.

Moses says in our Psalm 90 about the Lord, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout the generations.” In a special sense, the Lord our God is our dwelling place. We have our own living places like houses or apartments. But in essence, the Lord is our real dwelling place throughout our generations. When Moses thought about his life and the life of the nation Israel, this is a true statement – God was their dwelling place. You see, we build or buy a house to live in. However, when you really think about it, God is our real and true dwelling place throughout our generations.

When he was born, Moses couldn’t live in his home. The parents wanted to save this beautiful child from Pharoah’s decree. The pharaoh’s order was to throw every Hebrew boy that was born into the Nile river. (Exodus 1:22). The parents of Moses hid him for three months but they couldn’t hide him anymore. They made papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch and placed the child in it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. God’s providence was there for the child. The pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe and her servants were walking along the banks of the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. When she opened it and saw the baby. She felt sorry for the baby because it was crying. The rest of the story of how Moses grew up in the palace of Pharaoh can be read in Exodus 1. The daughter of Pharaoh names the baby Moses saying, “I drew him out of the water.” He got the best education from the palace in Egypt. One day, when he grew up, Moses had to flee away from the palace and all its luxuries and spend the rest 40 years of his life as a shepherd of his father-in-law’s flock. Then God appeared to him in a burning bush and called him to a big task of delivering the Israelites from the bondage in Egypt. He was the leader of the nation Israel whom God appointed to free them from the slavery in Egypt and lead them to the promised land.

In the long wilderness journey in the wilderness from Egypt to the promised land, the Lord was truly their dwelling place in all its sense. The Lord delivered them from their enemy, Pharoah and from his slavery by sending plagues on the land and on the firstborn of Egyptian families. (Exodus chapters 3-11). Not only God delivered them from their slavery in Egypt but also when Pharaoh and his army followed them to get them back to slavery after Israelites left Egypt, God miraculously led His people to walk in midst of the red sea by dividing the red sea into two parts and preparing dry road for them to walk to the other side. when Pharoah and his army went into the sea to walk through the dry land in the midst of the sea, God destroyed Pharaoh and his army right there in the midst of the red sea by flowing the water back and covering them and their chariots. God gave them guidance in the wilderness. The Bible says, “by day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light so that they could travel by day or night.” (Exodus 13:21). The Lord gave them heavenly food (manna) for their hunger. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day.” (Exodus 16:4). God gave miraculously gave them water in the wilderness to quench their thirst. God told Moses to “Take the staff you used to strike the Nile River.  I’ll be standing in front of you there by a rock at Mount Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” (Exodus 17:5-6).

Moses apparently was looking back in retrospection and wrote the first verse by recollecting how the Lord was the dwelling place for him personally and for the nation Israel as a whole. He can confidently say,” Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.” How true this statement is!

A prospective look.

My friend, Is the LORD your dwelling place? If the Lord is your dwelling place, you will have much peace in this peaceless world. You will have protection, deliverance, guidance, spiritual blessings, salvation, fellowship with Him and eternal security forever.

The very next Psalm, Psalm 91 begins like this -whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most high will have rest in the shadow of the Almighty, He will be your refuge and fortress. Then it continues to say other benefits of God being your dwelling place.
-He will save you from the fowler’s snare, from the deadly pestilence.
-He will cover you with His feathers, and you will find refuge under His wings
-His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart
-You will not fear the terror of night, not the arrow that flies by day
-You will not fear the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
-A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
-If Most High God is your dwelling place, He will command His angels to guard you in all your ways
-His angels will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone
-You will tread on the lion and cobra, you will trample the great lion and the serpent
-Because you love God, He will rescue you, will protect you because you acknowledge His name
-When you call on him in prayer, He will answer you
-God will be with you in your troubles, He will deliver you and honor you
-Finally, the LORD will satisfy you with a good and long life and He will show you His wonderful salvation.

Wow, How many supernatural benefits and blessings in dwelling in God!

Many people in this world don’t know this truth that God is their dwelling place. Because He is the one who provides for you and takes care you and protect you each and every day. Even though God does all these, the sad news is that many don’t acknowledge or thankfully remember Him in their lifetime.
Bible says in Deuteronomy 8:2-5 to remember and honor the LORD God. It says, “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.”

Bible says God has led you in the past, gave you food to eat even in the wilderness places and experiences, He taught you that man doesn’t live by bread alone but can live on the Word of God that comes from the mouth of the Lord (the Bible). In other words, God taught you can live in Him. You still have clothes to wear and though you walked all these years, you can still walk and your feet did not swell all these years. The LORD God disciplined you and still disciplines like a man disciples his own son.

How can we forget the goodness of the Lord? But listen, there are people who won’t remember Him or honor Him. That is very sad, isn’t it?

Bible says in Romans 1:21 although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him. But they let their futile and foolish hearts get darkened. They kept on suppressing the truth about God though the truth of God is evident all around them.

You see when a person continuously suppresses the truth about God and not honor or thank Him, then God responds to their unthankful attitude. Bible says in Romans 1:24 God gave such unthankful people or people who won’t acknowledge Him over to sinful passions of their hearts to destructions and total depravity. They started worshipping idols and other created things like sun, moon and other items. They didn’t want to serve or worship the true creator and they went after honoring and bowing down in front of other creations. What a dishonor to the living God who created all. The result is God gave them over to shameful lusts. They became filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They became gossipers, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant and boastful. God let them reap from their own destructive courses. The book of Exodus from the Bible teach us that When Pharoah hardened his heart against the truths of God, it resulted in his own eventual depravity and destruction.

You see this is what happens when people don’t acknowledge the living God. You can read about the downward spiral of not acknowledging and honoring the living God in Romans 1:18-31. This is the pathetic and horrible condition we see around us today- sinful passions, shameful lusts, all kind of wickedness, evil, greed, gossip, hatred mentality and arrogance.

Our weekly insight today is this – God is calling you and me to dwell in Him on an ongoing basis. Like Moses acknowledged in Psalm 90, may we acknowledge that God is our true dwelling place. May we make a continuous decision and determination to dwell in Him and in His truths.

What is dwelling on God looks like?

Bow down to the living and only God and acknowledge Him and tell Him that you want to dwell in Him. Many people’s hearts are already hardened and darkened by not acknowledging and honoring Him so far in their lives. Bible says in Ephesians 4:18, “Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him.”
But remember, It is never too late until the moment of your death to come back to God and acknowledge Him. At the moment of your death, it will be too late. Please don’t procrastinate. You may have a home to live in but understand your real home is not your house and your real home is God Himself. You and I are created to know God and abide in Him and until we come home to Him and abide in Him, our souls won’t have the real peace and rest. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 11:28-29, “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Christ is calling you to come to Him and he promises rest for your souls. Though you are weary and carry heavy burdens, He promises rest in Him.

How can I come Home to dwell in God?

Listen carefully what the Bible says about dwelling in God in 1 John 4:14-15, “This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.”

Two things are clearly stated in the above verse. Number one- the Father God has sent His son (Jesus Christ) to be the Savior of the World. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God and believe in Him as the savior, then God lives in them and they live in God. It is not rocket science. It is simple – you can dwell in God by coming to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and believing in Him as your savior and Lord. God has brought down only one lifeline or one road to come to him and that one lifeline or road is Christ Jesus who paid for all your horrible sins on the cross.
Second- When you and I believe and acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came down to this world and died and resurrected for our sins, God gives you and me His Holy Spirit to dwell in us until we reach home to live with Him eternally. He is our helper and advocate here on the earth.

Jesus promised the Holy Spirit of God the night before His crucifixion. This is what He promised, “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.  Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

Bible says when you accept Christ as your savior and Lord, then God freely gives His Holy Spirit (the advocate and helper from heaven) to dwell in you and your bodies become the temple of the God’s Holy Spirit. Bible says, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).

The Holy Spirit of God who dwells in you guides you, teach you, advise you, directs your steps, comforts you, leads you on an everyday basis. You can dwell in God on an ongoing basis. Like Jesus promised above, He will grant His peace inside you, no matter what happens in this world. The peace He gives is not like the world gives. The divine peace of God will be given each time by the one (Holy Spirit) who dwells in you. Your heart will not be troubled nor be fearful. What a blessing it will be!

You can make this decision to come home to God and dwell in Him by a simple prayer right now.

Please pray after me.

“God, I come to you in prayer. I know I was not thankful to you and I did not honor you in my life. Today I am repenting about my sins. Please forgive my sins. I believe Christ Jesus died, buried and resurrected for my sins. I accept Christ as my savior and Lord now. Please save me and grant me the sweet fellowship and eternal life with you. Amen.”

If you prayed this prayer, I will be thrilled to hear from you. Please visit www.teachbible.org and go to contact/prayer tab and send me a note. Thank you.