The Glory of God Fills the Temple
11 When the priests came forth from the holy place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without regard to divisions), 12 and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps and lyres, standing east of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets 13 in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the Lord saying, “He indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting,” then the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, 14 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.
Short of Jesus himself coming as a man, this is likely the closest God ever came to his people, and we see that it was so overwhelming that the priests could not even continue ministering. I had the privilege last week to help out at our local kids camp, and it was an amazing experience that reminded me of the incredible presence of God that is unleashed when we worship him with our whole hearts.
There is something special about that environment and attitude, and I don’t think it’s because God needs our worship to make himself known. Rather, it seems that it is the condition of our hearts that dictates how much of God we can handle, and God will not bear down on us with more of himself than we can take at any given time.
We should continually seek God, to know him more and to know his presence, and to know his voice. But we will only find him when we seek wholeheartedly and with sincerity. He asks for nothing less than our whole hearts, and that is the way to find his heart for our own lives.