I’m finding the exile metaphor I wrote about yesterday helpful. Not everything about life is what we would want, and we should expect that. Years ago, a single Air Force officer friend of mine talked about living with unbelievers in the barracks. “Of course they don’t live the way I would be comfortable with! Why would I expect otherwise? They’re unbelievers.” A good perspective. If I were exiled to England, for example, it would do me little good to complain that “They talk funny and drive on the wrong side of the road!”

Before David became king, when he was in exile, he was still seeking to live in God’s presence. And this is precisely what God promised the exiles in Jeremiah 29: “I’ll show up and take care of you…when you call on me,…I’ll listen…when you come looking for me, you’ll find me…” David wrote:

Here’s the one thing I crave from God, the one thing I seek above all else: I want the privilege of living with him every moment in his house, finding the sweet loveliness of his face, filled with awe, delighting in his glory and grace. I want to live my life so close to him that he takes pleasure in my every prayer. (Psalm 27.4, Passion Translation)