By Elisabeth Hinze
When it comes to heroes and heroines from the Bible, King David is one of my all-time favourites. Why? Well, I find him one of the easiest characters to relate to. The book of Samuel introduces him as Israel’s mightiest king, whose legacy still lives on today. But the real man, the one behind all the victories and the triumphs, is found in his psalms. Here we see someone who is highly emotional, completely honest and utterly vulnerable. David rants and raves, praises, pleads, begs, worships and weeps. He is restless, anxious and terrified. And in his God he finds rest, contentment and peace. David is not embarrassed to show it all. In fact, he seems to share his highs and lows with everybody. He is unashamedly honest about who he is and what he is capable of. And God calls him a man after His own heart.
But there’s one thing about King David that I’ve always found a bit hard to understand. Actually, it’s something I felt more than a bit guilty about a couple of years ago. See, David is quite vocal about his longing to spend time in God’s house. And for the life of me, I could never muster that same enthusiasm about going to church. There, I’ve said it. Oh don’t get me wrong. I truly enjoyed church, loved my congregation, looked forward to the worship, learnt from the teachings. But that heart cry of David’s in Psalm 27 about dwelling in the house of the Lord being the one thing he asked for? Well, in all honesty, if I had only one thing to ask of God, I doubt whether it would be to go to church. And little religious me felt terribly guilty about it.
And then, one day, I found the answer. It’s in Exodus 25:8, where God says to Moses, “They are to make a sanctuary for Me so that I may dwell among them.” And my guilt disappeared. The Temple, the place where David so longed to go, was where God’s presence resided. David’s longing had nothing to do with a place. He longed to be where God was. He longed for God’s presence.
Because throughout the history of ancient Israel, we read about the presence of God being shielded behind a veil in the Holy of Holies. First in the Tabernacle, then in Solomon’s Temple and finally in Herod’s Temple. That was His dwelling place here on earth amongst His people.
So let’s pause for a moment at the last Temple in Jerusalem, the one that Herod the Great built. Because apart from the Temple, Herod also built some impressive walls to surround and shelter the Temple. Seventy years after the death and resurrection of Yeshua, the Roman Empire destroyed Jerusalem and burnt the Temple to the ground. Yet the outside walls, the outer walls that surrounded the Temple, were left partly intact. In fact, the western section of the outer wall is the only remaining structure of the Temple still standing today. The western wall section of the wall… Or rather, the Western Wall. The most significant spot, the most sacred sight in the Jewish religion today. The Western Wall… Where millions flock to pray, where soldiers swear allegiance to the Israel Defence Force, where Bar and Bat Mitzvah’s happen on weekday mornings and where thousands dance joyfully to welcome Shabbat.
But what does that have to do with the presence of God? A lot actually. See, looking at maps and drawings of the way in which Herod built the Temple show clearly that the western section of the wall that surrounded the Temple would have been the part enclosing the Holy of Holies. Which means that the presence of God would have been right behind the Western Wall.
I think of that when I see the throngs of families making their way to the Wall on Friday afternoons, the excitement evident in every step. When I see the emotion, the heartache, the yearning and the tears poured into prayer in the shadow of the ancient stones. Because I know. This is far more than a trace, a remaining structure of the Temple that was. At dawn and at dusk, at midnight and midday, in the sweltering heat and the freezing chill of Jerusalem’s winter. The prayers never seize at the Western Wall. Because like the great king who came before them, the decedents of David continue to long for the presence of the God of Israel.
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