Devotions Based on Hymns from Glory to God and Their Scriptural Allusions

I Kings 8:27 

 It’s not quite Advent, and so I am not yet listening to Christmas music. (I ordinarily don’t’ play any of my Christmas CDs until the day after Thanksgiving, but as we are moving into devotions in I Kings 8:27, the hymnal index suggests a connection with “In the Bleak Mid-Winter. I guess Christmas music comes calling!)  

In this scripture, Solomon has built the Temple, a fabulous, long-awaited house for God. And yet, Solomon, for all his faithful work on this project, is wise enough to realize that God does not need a house to be present with the people. 

27But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built.  

1 Kings 8:27 

We come to the house of the Lord for worship. It’s good to have a place where we can assemble as God’s people to praise our Maker and Redeemer. But God is not “kept” in any building. God is our God everywhere.  

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Incarnate,
Jesus Christ. 

Christmas and Christmas music is coming soon in the mid-winter. And so is the good news that God is with us in our world and in our lives. 

Prayer 

Thank You, God, for invading our world in the person of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. And thank You for the life You give us in Christ. Amen.