Chosen to Draw Near
We used to live in a California city with a Cuban bakery seating 451 people inside. The patios outside accommodate even more people. The place was usually packed with a line out the door. It was the place for people watching, and it was here where so much of the human façade is witnessed. People in their wide array of costumes, rich and poor, come from every race of people and endless varieties of ethnicity. They were all there. This is a kind of temple that draws all nations, for the savory and sweet breads of life. Parking was a bit of a problem, but it did not deter the faithful. Everyone loved going there.
Adam and Eve were the first people, and the first people to try and avoid Almighty God. Their names are forever linked to rebellion against God. As we know, the register of rebels has grown significantly since those early days of defiance. Avoiding God is what sinful men do with their lives. They labor in pretension during the day, and they convince themselves of their escape from God’s scrutiny at night.
Man has mastered the art of drawing a crowd of worshipers. Sunday morning finds innumerable masses of humanity in the churches of Costco, Ikea, and Wal Mart. The gods of materialism are thriving with throngs of homage payers. The Lord’s Day is defiled by all but Chik-Fil-A, which seems to thrive without Sunday trade. Who is their God, I wonder?
He is the God of heaven and earth, the Creator of everything, the architect and builder of all that has been made. He has spoken to humanity, but the nations rage against Him (Ps 2). There is a remnant of people that speak of Him, and they are too peculiar for most people to take seriously. Although they do not wear costumes, as do other religious people, they do make bodacious claims about their Lord. If what these Christians say of their God is true, then the great mass of humanity is in dire trouble. This is the reason for all the avoidance. God is our judge, and we are very guilty before Him.
Man has avoided the God the Bible for six thousand years of his fleeting existence. Man has gone his own way. He has done what is right in his own eyes. At times, he has pretended that the God of the Bible does not even exist. This is easy to believe if you have crafted your own god, in the image of man or beast. If one suppresses the truth about the one true God, then he or she finds little resistance from others. One of the remnant may approach and say, “Come let us reason together,” but this does not draw a large crowd. It often invites hostility, by those who do not wish to draw near to God.
Sin separates man from the Holy God. Sin is lawlessness. Sin is the very nature of the fallen progeny of Adam and Eve. Rebellion against God is a way of life for rich and poor from every nation, tribe, and tongue. The remnant have warned every generation of the consequences of avoiding God, but in declaring His righteous judgment against sinners, man tried to hide himself, all the more, away for the omniscient, omnipresent God.
Left to himself, sinful man has no interest in drawing near to God. Sin is so pervasive that it actually renders man unable to draw near to God. Man fears God, and hates the truth about God’s holiness and one’s own filthiness. God must intervene in this hopeless situation of avoidance if any man is to have communion with God. The good news is that God has interposed His only begotten Son, as the one Mediator between God and man. Some men learn this, and they draw near to God.
In Psalm 65:4, we learn much of this drawing near to God, who was previously avoided at all costs, “How blessed is the one whom Thou dost choose, and bring near to Thee, to dwell in Thy courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, Thy holy temple.”
First, the one who draws near is blessed. He is happy to be near his Maker and Redeemer. This is the essence of the difference. The Mediator is Jesus Christ, who has redeemed us from captivity to sin, which separated us from God. In Him, we have redemption. The separation between us and God has been removed by His blood sacrifice granting us forgiveness of sins. God’s wrath is no longer directed at those who are in Christ Jesus. The joy of the Lord is now ours, and this baffles those who remain dead in their trespasses and sins. Truly blessed are the redeemed people of God in Christ.
Second, we learn from David, the psalmist, that God has chosen this blessed person to draw near. This is the election of God (Ps 65:4b). From before Creation, God chose a people for His own glorious purposes (Rom 8:28–30; Eph 1:4–6; 2 Thess 2:13). He planned to redeem them from slavery to sin. He sent Jesus Christ to pay their debt of sin. The Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit to bear witness of this cancelled debt, and the remnant elect believed the report. Upon receiving a new, spiritual life, the regenerate remnant rejoice in the God of their salvation.
Third, God’s salvation of His chosen people permits them to draw near to Him, without fear of His wrath against sin (Ps 65:4c). Where avoidance of God was indicative of daily life, now every thought is held captive to Christ, in love for Him. These people only wish to speak of their Savior. They love the One they previously hated. They talk of Him, as one gloats over a highly cherished lover. When they are away from their lover’s house they long to be home with Him (Song of Songs). The vanity fairs of the world no longer hold any allure for the one chosen to draw near to God.
Fourth, the elect believer in Jesus Christ even wishes to dwell in the courts of God’s house (Ps 65:4d). It is better to enter His courts with joy and to dwell there one day than to dwell a thousand days anywhere else. She is blessed in her adoption into the family of God. She is a child of the Most High God, who she calls, “Abba, Father.” God’s house is a pleasant place. It is ripe with godly pleasures. It is pure and clean. There is order, and there is true love in His courts. His people cry out, “Come, let us go up to the house of the Lord!”
Fifth, we will be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house (Ps 65:4e). One notes the plural pronoun “we” here. There is enough of God to go around. He is infinite in every attribute. Sinful man searches the earth for goodness, but he only finds sour grapes. The epitome of man is that he is never content with the fabricated goodness of the world. Everything here promises satisfaction, and nothing delivers satisfaction. The remnant invite the rebels to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” but the unrighteous prefer forbidden fruit.
God’s people in the world often have less of the world than the people of the world. The reasons for this are: believers have less need for the things of the world; and they have less want for the things of the world. Christians do not wish to labor in vain, for things which will not last. There is an ever-lessening ambition for position and power over others. Once a Christian learns that worldly things cannot satisfy the longing of the soul, these are no longer pursued. “Just give me Jesus,” is their collective request. In Him, are found all of the spiritual blessings. Contentment in Christ is a good and blessed benefit.
The goodness of God’s house stands in contrast with the earthly goodness. We have noted the fleeting nature of worldly possessions. There is also the reality of people arriving into life with nothing; and it is all too apparent at funerals that men leave this world with nothing. Blinded rebels miss this fact above all facts. They fight with one another, even killing one another, for the perceived scarce resources of the earth. Ironically, the rich accumulators of the earth have no greater happiness than the poor accumulators of the earth. The rich, and those ambitious to be rich, miss this fact, too. Still, they build towers and try to make a name for themselves (Gen 11).
God’s goodness is God Himself. God is Spirit, and the more of God’s Spirit manifested in a regenerated soul, the more blessed a person is with the attributes of God. God is perfect peace, and He gives peace to His people on earth. God is love, and His love abounds where He is present. God is forever joyful, and His joy is the source of strength for the remnant. The wayward wretched begin to experience God working His own goodness in and through them. It is good for us to give thanks to God for all of these things that were not in us, until God dragged us to His Son (Jn 6:44, 65).
Finally, God’s temple is God’s house (Ps 65:4f). God wants His people to stay, to dwell, to abode in His presence. Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence of God in the Garden of Eden. Their offspring made temples to demons with their hands. They were deceived. Sinful men love the temples of demons, but God’s people love the temple of God. God chose Israel and gave them a blueprint of a temple they could build on earth, but this only served as a type of the real place of communion with God. It taught the people of Israel about right approach to their Holy God.
In the same manner, God’s communal presence was real, when Christ was incarnate on earth. He was the temple of God, filled with the Holy Spirit. Upon His ascension, the physical temple in Jerusalem was rendered useless. The blessed, chosen, remnant could now worship God the Father in Spirit and in truth, wherever they found themselves. The temple of God in the world, today, is the temple of the Holy Spirit (Eph 2:11–22), which is the church of Jesus Christ. Christians are living stones positioned in a spiritual temple, where God has communion with His people in the Spirit. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone and the prophets and apostles are the firm foundation.
In summary, we have acknowledged the active habit of sinful man to avoid God. We witness man’s avoidance of spiritual conversation and resistance to the work of the Holy Spirit (Rom 1:18–32). The psalmist, David, grants us a beautiful picture of a redeemed people delighting in the God of the Bible. Psalm 65:4 shows us God’s blessed ones, whom He chose to come near Him, and who are satisfied in all that God is in His house. All of this is captured in the phrases, “communion with God” and “union with Christ.”
Are you delighting in God, today? Do you love to be with His people on Sunday morning, as they gather locally and around the world? Is Jesus Christ in your thoughts and a frequent name upon your gracious lips? If yes, then ponder the goodness of God, again, with much thanksgiving. If no, then you must turn around on the wide path leading to destruction.
Our God is holy, but He is approachable. You must draw near on the narrow path of Jesus Christ, who is the only way to communion with God the Father (Jn 14:6). You must change your mind about God and Christ. Consider yourself deceived by Satan, about the goodness of God and the satisfaction you will find in the house of God, which is not a physical structure upon the earth. God’s house, His temple of worship, is a Spirit-filled group of people, scattered abroad but in every place. If God has chosen you and is calling you to them, then go to them. They meet on Sunday, and they have communion with open Bibles and through the Lord’s Supper. God is near. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
David E. Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
December 10, 2020
