Dwell and Delight
Dwell in the Delight of the Lord
We are going to read through 2 Samuel 7:1-16. We are going to talk about God wanting to dwell with us and why should we make time for that. Let’s start with a few questions to get thinking about what that even means.
Do you spend time with God? What does that look like? When was the last time you sat in a room by yourself, with your phone out of reach and on silent and your smart watch off your wrist, and just asked God what He wanted to say to you?
Maybe you make it to church on Christmas and Easter. You always go with your mom. In between though, you pray in the car and generally are nice to people. Is that a relationship? Is there any significant person in your life who would be happy with your involvement in your relationship on that level? Say I only ever speak to my husband on our anniversary and birthdays. Maybe I write him notes from time to time and leave them on his desk or in his car. I think about him all the time. The wedding memories sustain a general appreciation for him but I haven’t made any new ones lately. From time to time I may attend a marriage seminar to learn how to be a better wife. After that conference, I come home and spend a few minutes a day with my husband but after a month or so, I go back to not speaking to him. Is that a good marriage?
We see over and over throughout Old Testament and New that God is after a relationship with us. He delights in us and wants to dwell with us. Let’s talk about what it means to dwell. I don’t know about you but “dwell” is not a word I use in my day to day vocabulary. To dwell means literally to live or be in a particular place. I say “I live in Antioch” not “I dwell in Antioch”. It’s clunky, it’s weird. However, “dwell” is used over 275 times in the bible. In 2 Samuel 7:1-16 “dwell” is used 5 different times.
When I think of what dwell means, I think of the beach. My favorite place to “dwell” is at the beach. There isn’t anything to do there. Maybe you enjoy a good picnic or sunset over the mountains. For me, it’s the beach. I sit on the sand and stare out at the waves. As each wave comes to the shoreline, I watch it grow and then splash over. I watch how the sun reflects off the waves and disappears over each crest. I listen to the birds and the kids playing all around me. I watch as sand becomes drenched in each wave. Looking out to the horizon, I ponder on just how far it goes. To the left and to the right, I notice how the waves come in at different angles and wonder what is under the sea to make it so. I smell the salt in the air and in the wind coming in off the ocean. I hear the beauty of crashing chaos with each and every wave. I dwell there and feel content. I have nothing to produce; I have nothing to accomplish. I find joy and delight in the dwelling.
I know what you are going to say though: “I can’t sit at the beach everyday! I have children, someone better work so we can pay the mortgage.” Fair enough but we all know what moments of dwelling in peace can do for a person and their well being. What would life be like without the beach? Or whatever slows your own heart rate, mountains, playing games with friends, reading a book.
We can’t dwell all the time but most of us forget to do it at all. It is human nature to want to move forward. We want to work hard and get going. Many of us can’t even sit still well for a few minutes. Human drive is how we left the caves! It isn’t an all together evil notion. We strive for the next, for the bigger, for the new. It is against our nature to sit and dwell. This serves us well in some areas and not so well in others. We want to do better at our jobs and get promoted. We strive to the next step. With our families, we dream about children and grandchildren to play with. We save up for them and their futures. Whenever our expectations aren’t met though, human ambition and striving can take from us more than we gain. Sometimes, we see other moms on Facebook making coordinated lunches and feel “less than”. We see our friend get opportunities that they didn’t ask for and that we have dreamed of. Our co-worker gets the promotion over us. Our younger sibling gets married before we do. Comparison is the thief of joy- this we know. Maybe in the inverse of that is to delight in the dwelling. What it would like for you to be content with where you are because you stop and dwell on how far you’ve come? Could that prevent the urge to look at the grass on the other side? Would that help you focus on your path and not look at others?
Does God dwell? I believe so. We see God taking a pause to see what He has done way back at creation. We see God dwell with His creation and then take delight in it. Genesis 2- the world is made and it is “very good”. What does God do next? Does he start at work right away at another massive project? No, God blesses the day and rests. He dwells in the new creation. He delights is what has been done and brings closure to the last 6 days. God walks through the garden and alongside the new people. He spends times with Adam and Eve. He must have delighted in their presence since He was there in the first place. God moves, he creates. Then He spends time- He dwells- He delights in the dwelling.
2 Samuel 7:1-16 tells us about King David and his desire to move on and do more things.
David seems to be feeling that he has done quite a bit but it is God who has moved. God has rescued David from his enemies and God has given David rest. Good King David is dwelling in a house of cedar with nothing to do, nothing to produce, trying to sit still and twiddling his thumbs.
Have you ever felt like this? Has there been a huge change and then nothing? Have you seen a season where everything seems to move lightning fast and then stop on a dime? The quiet is eerie right? We get antsy…
So David tells Nathan, his prophet on hand, that he is going to build a house for God. Plot twist, God says “no thanks and by the way, I never asked for that. If I wanted a house, I would have a house.”
Have you ever thought God was waiting on you?
God says “I have been with you this whole time in a tent. I took you from the pasture and raised you up. I planted my people where I wanted them. I gave you rest and I gave YOU a house.”
God’s response is to remind David of everything that He has done for His people and for David. God is going to ask David to trust Him and He does that by reminding David of what came before so David can trust what is coming up. Sometimes we need to remember that it is God who has done all the things. If he is capable of doing all the things, then isn’t He capable of taking care of His own house? David’s intentions were good. He wanted to honor God as he himself had been honored. I would think that David is feeling a little let down about now. He has been faithful, for the most part, and wants to pay it forward. Who doesn’t like the feeling of helping someone out? Have you ever paid for the person in front of you at Starbucks? It feels GREAT! “I did something for someone else, hooray me!” Here is David saying, “I want to do God a solid. I’m going to build him a house.” Sometimes our good intentions aren’t actually in God’s plans.
Seeking Nathan was the best first step. Nathan could ask God if that is what David should actually do next. Good thing, because it wasn’t. God wants to establish David’s kingdom and have his son build God’s house, not David. We know that eventually the kingdom of David leads to Jesus Christ. But David could not possible understand what God had in store for his lineage. God tells David to trust Him by reminding him of the past and what God has already done. This is how you build trust. Look to what has been done to feel confident in what will be coming. Remember what came before to trust what comes next.
We see at the beginning of this passage that the “Lord had given him (David) rest”. God wanted to bless David not by letting him build God’s house but to rest. To dwell. To be at peace and look at what has been done. Why couldn’t he just chill out? Sometimes it’s anxiety, sometimes it’s pride. When was the last time you said “no thanks” to someone trying to help you or give you rest? I have definitely turned down offers out of pride before. We think we can’t let anyone know how much we are actually struggling. If I accept that dinner from a friend, they will drop it off and see how bad the house is and how sunken in my eyes are.
What about anxiety? Have you ever been at the end of a huge project or a big move? As soon as you get in the house, then it is unpacking and finding where everything goes. Then you need to coordinate new colors or chairs. Once the house is good, then you need to find the kid’s school or the best route to work. And on and on. How often do we forget to stop and dwell in has been done? We miss out on a huge blessing to sit with God and say thank you. To dwell in what God accomplished and delight in Him. To worship Him. To dwell in delight with the Lord is worship! God did everything for David and told him to rest. God is always after relationship and what better intimacy than to sit after a huge season of movement and just dwell and delight with the Lord? David just couldn’t stop going. He had already been through so much, running for his life, living on the lamb from Saul, fighting all kinds of enemies. Once God delivered David from his enemies, he didn’t know how to just stop. In that hurry, David was missing a huge opportunity to praise God for what He had done and worship Him. To dwell in delight.
This passage can seem far away and unrelatable. Building a house for God isn’t on my agenda, how about you? 2 Samuel is a narrative. It tells the story of what happened. Like a history lesson, it can feel bigger than my day to day. It feels like something that happened then and not relevant to what is happening now. The application can be easier than you think though. Action, Dwell, Delight
If we look at all the verbs, the action words in the passage, they are being done by God. The only action attributed to a person is that David will eventually lay down and die and his offspring will commit iniquity or sin. What God does: gives, dwells, moves, commands, speaks, makes, appoints, plants, declares, fulfills, establishes, and disciplines. This is not a dead God. This is not an inactive or passive God looking down at us like a bully with magnifying glass looking at ants. This is a God in action- that rolls His sleeves up and works with us and for us. He seems like the right person to ask when it is a good time to stop and dwell.
Dwell with God. Pray. It sounds too simple, because it is. He is a giant cosmic God that we cannot touch or understand. It feels like we need 10 different books, definitely 20 different colored markers, maybe a priest and absolutely more time than we have to reach Him. That is because we are always looking for something bigger and better. Paul tells Timothy in his 2nd letter to him to “guard the good treasure” and to “continue in what you have learned”. We know Jesus, we only need to guard that good news so we can remember that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we can just open our hearts and our mouths and say “God! I am here! Be with me”.
Sometimes, this is journaling. Write down prayers and leave a space for when they are answered. That book will become a beautiful story to read on and dwell. Maybe it is turning on worship music and just praising who God is.
To remember what He has done is to find joy and delight. First and foremost, God took you from a walking death sin machine to a new creation, born again and in His image. God’s image you were made! That is something worth taking delight in!
Logistically what can this look like? Many people remember God’s work in their lives in different ways. Some tell their testimony, some volunteer and mentor, some lead small groups. Some people journal or write and others sing. We tell others in some way. We spread that good treasure around to others. When do you feel at peace with what God has done in your life? Looking at old photos? Listening to music? Remember what that thing may be in the next few days and sit with God. Dwell with Him and remember where He has been with you. If even the thought of not being busy is causing anxiety in you, pray for rest. Ask your pals in small group to pray rest for you. Sometimes we exalt the term “rest” or “sabbath” to unrealistic models of peace and meditation in a perfectly clean house with volume levels well below daily life. What if you just turned your phone off in the car on the way home and talked with God? What if while the kids are doing homework, you sit down at the table and journal a time when God really surprised you? These littles moments can cause more delight than you know. Ask God to move, Dwell with Him when He does and Delight in the dwelling.
