Day 081: Meditation on Psalm 90:1

90 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Psalm 90:1

God, we say heaven is our real home. But the truth is that you yourself are our true home. You led Moses, who came so close to the Promised Land yet was forbidden from entering it himself, to declare that You had been his dwelling place in all generations.

Moses had been home all along. There is no heaven unless you are there, and there is only hell where you are not.

If Belinda Carlisle was right, and “Heaven is a place on earth,” then it is only because “the Lord is there” (Ezekiel 45:35). For the 33 years Jesus walked on the earth, Heaven literally was a place on earth, because of Immanuel– God With Us.

In the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16), hell was hell precisely because “a great chasm had been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to [there] may not be able (v. 26).

Many postmoderns bristle at the idea that there is only one way to heaven. They are offended by Jesus’ proclamation that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). “All roads lead to heaven,” they scoff. “We are all on different paths up the same mountain. How arrogant of Jesus to claim that He is the only way to heaven.”

But notice: Jesus never said “No one comes to Heaven but through Me.” He said “No one comes to the Father but through Me.” Do you see now? Jesus isn’t talking about a place (although there is one, and thank you, Father, for the new heaven and new earth you will remake!). He is talking about a Person. And it is only through Jesus that we truly have access to the Father.

Moses was not allowed to step over the Jordan River. And yet, God had been his dwelling place for all generations. He never went to the Promised Land. But from the moment God spoke to Moses from the burning bush (see Exodus 3), the Promised Land had come to him.

So today, Lord, be my dwelling place. Let me find my rest in You today. That is heaven. And remind me that anything I attempt, any action I take, any thought I think that excludes you is, by definition, hellish.

I read five Psalms first thing every morning. That way, I can read through the entire book of Psalms every month. Each day, I try to pray through one of my daily Psalms, using a method Donald Whitney teaches in his book, Praying the Bible