Have you ever thought about the secret place of the Most High? It’s supposed to be the dwelling place for God’s people.

The bit of real estate you occupy is not your dwelling. At least, not in the biblical sense. Psalm 91:9-10 says, “If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent” (all quotations NIV unless otherwise noted).

In this day of “name it and claim it,” Christians who live in the path of a hurricane or other natural disaster might try to put faith in that passage to preserve their house or apartment. But that’s not what it’s talking about. According to the first verse, the entire psalm is addressed to those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High.

But before we consider what the Bible means by dwelling, we need to consider the differences between our earthly dwelling and anywhere else we might go.

Dwelling vs visiting

You’re not home all the time. Among the places where you might go, you can visit someone else’s home.

I have the key to my home. I keep my belongings here. Whatever I want to do, I have complete access to everything in every drawer, cabinet, or closet. And the fridge. If I want to get rid of something, it’s my choice what to do with it. I’m at home.

If I’m visiting in your home, I don’t have the key. I can go in only if you invite me, and then only into whatever rooms you give me permission to go to. I can’t just help myself to your food or your clothes or your personal papers without your permission. I’m not at home.

You can probably think of all kinds of other things we do regularly at home that we can’t appropriately do in someone else’s home.

Children dwell with their parents. Parents limit what children can do, but children can still do all kinds of things at home that they can’t do when they visit their friends.

When it comes to considering our spiritual dwelling, we can’t think of ourselves as independent adults. We are immature and often disobedient children, subject to our Father’s discipline.

 God’s dwelling in the Old Testament

God has the key to his dwelling (the entire universe). He made everything in it and has authority to do with it whatever he chooses.

Isaiah 35:3 declares that God dwells on high. According to Psalm 33: 13-14, “From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth.”

And yet the Bible frequently refers to God’s earthly dwelling. God chose Abraham’s family as his own, and when he led them out of Egypt, he commanded them to make a sanctuary so he could dwell among them (Exodus 25:8).

So they made the tabernacle. Wherever they camped, they set up the tabernacle in the very center.

But even before that, in the song Moses sang after the Red Sea crossing, he said, “You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance—the place, Lord, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, Lord, your hands established” (Exodus 15:17).

Eventually, that mountain turned out to be Mount Zion, the same place where, under the name Mount Moriah, Abraham had gone to sacrifice his son Isaac. The Hebrew people did not occupy that land until David conquered it (2 Samuel 5:7).

After David built a house for himself in Jerusalem, he felt ashamed that God still dwelt in a tent. He proposed to build a proper temple. If God had wanted a proper temple, he would have commanded one long before (2 Samuel 7:6). Nevertheless, God allowed Solomon to build a temple on Mount Zion.

God’s dwelling in the New Testament

All the while, God was interested less in a particular piece of real estate than his desire to live among his people. John 1:14 describes the birth of Jesus as the Word of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us.

According to 1 Corinthians 3:16 and Ephesians 2:22, believers’ bodies are the real temple of God.

The one Solomon built, the one Zerubbabel built to replace it, and the one Herod built to be more magnificent than the previous ones? They have all been destroyed. And we, as temples of God, all die.

But what does it mean that we are temples?

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus announced the new covenant that would supersede the Mosaic law. In the process, he said, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23). Or, in NASB, “make our dwelling with him.”

Revelation describes the ultimate destruction of the earth itself. With evil forever purged, God will make a new heaven and a new earth.

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. – Revelation 21:1-3

God cannot dwell with us unless we dwell with him. So he wants us to dwell with him.

Our spiritual dwelling

Remember Psalm 91:1. “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the almighty.”

The word for “shelter” in Hebrew is cether (Strong 5643). It means a covering, hiding place, secrecy. In fact, the King James renders it as “He who dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High.” The same word occurs in Psalm 27:5: “For in the day of trouble, he will conceal me in his tabernacle; he will hide me in the secret place of his tent . . .” (NASB).

Both the tabernacle and the temple had a Most Holy Place, where only the high priest was allowed to enter, and that only once a year. And that only after making atonement for the sins he had committed over the previous year. But the Most Holy Place is the secret place where, in spirit, God invites his people to dwell.

But not just any people. Psalm 15 shows the qualifications:

Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent?
Who may live on your holy mountain?

² The one whose walk is blameless,
who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from their heart;
³ whose tongue utters no slander,
who does no wrong to a neighbor,
and casts no slur on others;
⁴ who despises a vile person
but honors those who fear the Lord;
who keeps an oath even when it hurts,
and does not change their mind;
⁵ who lends money to the poor without interest;
who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things
will never be shaken.

And who really qualifies?

No one.

Sin and God’s choices regarding his dwelling

Let’s not forget that God never lived only in the Most Holy Place, or even only on earth.

Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple includes these words: “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27).

In pronouncing judgment on his sinful and rebellious people, Micah wrote, “Look! the Lord is coming from his dwelling place. He comes down and treads on the heights of the earth” (Micah 1:3).

Just as humans’ houses can be destroyed and rebuilt—and just as humans sometimes deliberately tear down their houses to rebuild—God has let his earthly dwelling suffer destruction.

• The sanctuary at Shiloh was destroyed sometime after Eli refused to honor God over his worthless sons. (“Now go to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel” Jeremiah 7:12)
• The Babylonian army under Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon’s temple.
• The Roman army under Titus destroyed Herod’s temple.

And yet God never changed his mind about dwelling with his people.

“Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations,  but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name’” (Nehemiah 1:8-9).

“This is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the Faithful City, and the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain. (Zechariah 8:3)’”

God in us and us in God

I used to be confused when Jesus said things like, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” That is, until one night I thought of it while washing dishes. I picked up a glass and put it in the sink. It filled with water. The glass was in the water and water was in the glass.

If he had said, “I dwell with the Father and the Father dwells with me,” I would have found it clearer.

If we love God, we can dwell in his secret place, someplace more intimate and personal than a tent or building made with human hands.

God still doesn’t tolerate sin. He sometimes gives his people the silent treatment, and sin is one cause. Whoever does not love him—or ceases to love him—will be sentenced to destruction at the judgment.

But Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15 NASB). Take it not as a measuring stick but a promise. Love God. Dwell with God and he with you. Everything else will take care of itself.