Longing For GOD's Dwelling Place

 "Make justice, O GOD, and defend my cause

against an ungodly people;

deliver me from the wicked and deceitful.

YOU are my GOD, my stronghold,

why have YOU cast me out?

Why should I go about mourning,

oppressed by the enemy?

Send forth YOUR light and YOUR truth;

let them be my guide,

let them take me to YOUR holy mountain,

to the place where YOU reside.

Then will I go to the altar of GOD,

to GOD, my gladness and delight.

I will praise YOU with the lyre and harp,

O GOD, my GOD."

- Psalm 43:1. 2. 3. 4

(The author of this psalm recalls with nostalgia, the Temple in Jerusalem and the splendid ceremonies of past times.  He is now living in a foreign land, where his words, his culture, his faith, mean nothing to anyone.  'Where is your GOD?' they say, and he asks himself: 'Who am I?'  A fervent call to GOD and cries of hope are features of this psalm, like a refrain repeated three times.  Who among us would not be able to personalize this psalm?  Human progress, be it ever so great and salutary, brings new problems and stirs up in us new desires.  We are at times mindful that we have been created for something greater.  Nothing of that fully gratifies us, and death is always at the end.  How can we revive those moments when we knew true joy?

This psalm is very appropriate to experience the felt absence of GOD and ardently desire HIS presence.)

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