The Lord is in His Holy Temple

Read Habakkuk 2:18-20 …

There are some memories of church that never seem to fade, no matter how old one might become. One of those memories for me is carrying a pillow to church with an eagle on it, I might have been 5 or 6 years old; apparently at that time my mother was more willing to let me nap than to fight me during the services. Who can blame her? I was #3 of 3 and most times ‘off the chain.’ My dad, all through my childhood, was one of the song leaders wherever we went to church, and I remember him, often, being on the stage just before services and starting a song to get everyone quiet. The Lord is in His Holy Temple was the most common one he would start from the “Deacon’s Bench.”. It’s a simple little one liner but it worked every time, people got the message, “Shhhhh, time to start.” It wasn’t till many years later that I found out that the line, “The Lord is in His holy temple” is a direct quote from the Scriptures.

The line comes from the writings of the Prophet Habakkuk who prophesied between the destruction of Israel in the north and Judah in the south, maybe around 640-609 B.C. The little book is not so much written to a particular group but is more a conversation between Habakkuk and God and in that conversation, God says He is raising up the Chaldeans to be an instrument of His wrath. In chapter 2 God describes the wicked person (likely a metaphor for Babylon): proud, arrogant, thief, covetous, drunkards that put the bottle in the hand of their neighbor, violent, lascivious, and idolaters. Then in the last verse God declares, “But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him” (Hab. 2:20).

The nations will rage as humanity sinks deeper into sin and self-abasement, yet the Lord sits high in His temple – not a fabric and wood tent, not a building made from hewn stone, not even the Church which will last till the coming of the Christ – but the very throne room of the Lord Himself (Psa. 11:4; Micah 1:2; Rev. 20:11). The Lord sits in His throne room as the Sovereign of all the earth. The Lord is the Creator and worthy of being praised (Rev. 4:11). What has He created that does not belong to Him, even unto humanity itself? As Habakkuk might have said, “Babylon may appear great, strong beyond belief, and a consuming wave washing over the earth, but even they rise and fall at the command of the Lord!”

SILENCE! Whether a person recognizes the Lord as God or not, HE IS! Let silence be observed in His presence; let all above, on, or under the earth bow in the deepest reverence and respect; there is none above Him, the Lord God is to be feared! Listen to the four living creatures around God’s throne saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come” (Rev. 4:8).

One wonders if this wasn’t part of the reason that Jesus appears to seek times to be alone. After He starts His ministry, one often reads about Jesus surrounded by people: teaching from a mount, feeding the multitudes, walking thru the streets of a city or in the Temple courtyards. Yet Luke tells us, that as Jesus’ popularity increased, Jesus “would often slip away to the wilderness and pray” (Luke 5:16). As Jeremiah said,

^“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the person who seeks Him.
It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.
Let him sit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him” (Lam. 3:25-28; NKJV).

Back to those Sundays as a child when my father would start The Lord is in His Holy Temple. The Church was coming together to offer worship and praise to the Great King of the Universe and were being called to silence, to reverence, so that they might commune with the Great Spirit in prayer and the Lord’s Supper. A group offering songs and words of adoration for the sanctification, for the justification, and the pure washing of water. A group of the redeemed offering sacrifices of their time, talent, and treasure – their very hearts – to support the work and worship of God. The called-out of God, each congregation of the Church of Christ, exhorting one another to greater heights of love and devotion as they pass thru this life.

The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.