There
is a Jewish prayer called “Ma Tovu”
in Hebrew, which in English means “how good” or “how lovely.” This is commonly a prayer of reverence,
expressing thankfulness for the opportunity to worship God, usually together or
as one people. This prayer is made up of
different passages of Scripture from Numbers and the Psalms, and is a beautiful
prayer.
The part of this prayer that I would like to draw attention to comes
from Psalm 26:8; “O Lord, I love the habitation of your house, and the place
where your glory dwells,” (ESV). This
is, of course, referring to the Temple, God’s “house” so to speak, where His
glory was dwelling in order that He might be among His people, Israel. I read this part over a few times and it left
me thinking “Hey, isn’t that us?” As
believers in Jesus as our Messiah, don’t we believe that God’s Holy Spirit dwells in
us? Our bodies are now the Temple,
right? And as believers in Messiah Jesus, we are part of Israel. We
are His people, so He dwells with and in us!
So in saying this prayer, we are expressing our love for ourselves
and God in us.
To me, and I’m sure to many others
out there, this is sometimes a tricky subject.
I don’t always feel like I love myself, and I’m always finding new flaws
that make me less than perfect and, in my eyes, unlovable. But apparently, since I say this prayer, I do
love myself, because God is in me, and I love God more than anything. I just have to stop thinking of myself by
everyone else’s standards and remember that I am a vessel, and God dwells
within me.
I’ve been to Jerusalem, I’ve been to
the Western Wall which is all that remains of the Temple courts, and I loved
it. In fact, I got really emotional
thinking about how I was touching a wall that used to be a wall around the
place where God was. His House, where He
lived. But you know what? God doesn’t live there anymore. He lives in me, and He lives in you if you
let Him. So how much more should I love
myself? A lot more than I do, that’s for
sure. But God loves me; if He didn’t, He
wouldn’t be living in me! And that’s a
pretty good start!
