HEAVEN MY THRONE, EARTH MY FOOTSTOOL

‘Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable’, Ps. 145. 3. Indeed, how great is our God? No human mind can conceive of His greatness, neither can human tongue describe it. Is there a place in the entire universe that could contain Him? ‘Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee’, 2 Chron. 6. 18, were Solomon’s words to God. To approximate to our understanding the greatness of God, the Holy Spirit often uses figures of speech as ‘throne’ and ‘foot­stool’. Also, as a means of helping us know something of His majesty, the scriptures often attribute to God physical character­istics, yet He is a Spirit, John 4. 24. So we read of His eyes, His arm and His face; here in our text, it is His feet. Thus, the King eter­nal, immortal, invisible can be visualized by our spirits as sitting on a throne. Heaven, with all its glories, will be the only place fit for His magnificent throne, whereas our little planet earth can, at best, be fit just for His footstool.

This great God had always desired to dwell among His peo­ple, Exod. 25. 8. And when they had prepared Him a habitation, His glory filled both the tabernacle in the wilderness, Exod. 40. 34, and the temple in the days of Solomon, 1 Kgs. 8. 10, 11. ‘But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?’ This was Solomon’s question on the day of the dedication of the house. Is it possible that God would be content to dwell in places made with hands which are the figures of the true? He chose in the past to place His name in Zion where He built His sanctuary, but this was only a shadow of the true one.

When the blessed Son became flesh at His incarnation, He dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. But where does He dwell now? He dwells in His people who, by His grace, are made into living stones built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Not only so, but the bodies of individual believers are said to be temples of the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. 6. 19.

In the future, when God brings in a new heaven and a new earth, His dwelling with men will be in the new Jerusalem, where it will be truly said, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them’, Rev. 21. 3.