The Blessing of the Lord From Zion – Psalm 134

“May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!”

Psalm 134:3

The blessing of the Lord is that we may dwell with Him.  Zion is the Lord’s dwelling place, His blessing emanates from there, and those who receive His blessing respond to His call and come to dwell with Him in Zion.  “For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it;the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it” (Psalm 69:35-36).  The last line from this final Song of Ascent is not only a petition, “May the Lord bless you…”, but an awesome promise.  We have made the journey out of exile.  We have been welcomed into the dwelling place of the King (Rev. 21:3).  We have been adopted as sons and daughters of the King (Romans 8:14-17).  Now we are called to reign as priests and kings(Rev. 5:9-10), even though we were but dust and ashes (Gen. 18:27).  Now we are dwelling and reigning with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords(1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 17:14; 19:16).  The God who “made heaven and earth”, the creator of all things including the New Jerusalem and us as the people of God, has made us worthy to dwell with Him.  And He alone, therefore, is worthy of all worship, our King and our God.

Take encouragement from the words that the prophet Isaiah (30:18-21) delivered to those were taken into exile in Babylon.  “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.”  And the prophet Zechariah (8:3) encouraged those who made it back to Zion and were rebuilding the city.  He said, “Thus says the Lord: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain.”

Zion, the New Jerusalem, is our home!  God has prepared it for us, and He has prepared us to dwell with Him.  He blesses us from Zion.  His blessing is that we will dwell with Him in His dwelling place forever.

A Liturgy of Blessing – Psalm 134

“Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord.”

Psalm 134:1

Take a moment and read Psalm 134.

We have made it to Jerusalem.  We have entered the city, rebuilt the walls, and made Zion our home.  The Temple has been restored.  And the Lord has declared His blessing over Zion.  The congregation has come together in worship and praise, and now it is time for everyone to make their way back to their homes to find rest and refreshment with their family.  The Songs of Ascent have come to their conclusion.  And what could be a better conclusion than Our Lord’s benediction from Zion.

Psalm 134 is a liturgical psalm, once again in the form of a versicle and response.  Verses 1 and 2 are sung by the congregation.  Verse 3 is sung in response by the priests—a benediction emanating from the Temple.  The Lord is sending the worshipers to their respective homes after a fruitful day of praise and worship.  The evening has come and it is time for families to retire for the night.  St. Benedict called for this psalm to be said every night at Compline, the final service of the Liturgy of the Hours.  There could be no more fitting conclusion to a day of worship and walking with the Lord.  

“Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,” the people cry out to one another.  Some Christians have trouble understanding what it means to “Bless the Lord”.  Is it not, they say, the Lord who blesses us?  Yes.  But it is the Lord who is blessed when His people come joyfully together and celebrate Him and His goodness toward us.  It is like the joy of a proud parent seeing his or her children relishing life and sharing that joy with them.  For us to “Bless the Lord” means that we praise Him with words that declare His greatness and goodness.  He is richly blessed when His children rejoice in Him.  And so the Psalmist exhorts the people to “Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord!”  And the Psalmist, and many centuries later, St. Paul, exhort the faithful to pray with holy hands uplifted.  The Psalmist says, “Lift up your hands…and bless the Lord!”  And Paul instructs, “I want men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands…” (1 Tim. 2:8).  

As noted above, Benedict calls for this Psalm to be prayed every night at Compline.  And in the service of Compline in the Book of Common Prayer you will find this psalm as one of the psalms appointed for that office.  What better way to conclude a day than to put all of the events, thoughts, victories, and troubles of the day into the hands of the Lord.  In that relinquishment of the day we can find peace for the night ahead.

United Under the Lord’s Blessing – Psalm 133

“For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.”

Psalm 133:3

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was interviewed on the television show, Meet the Press, on April 17, 1960.  In that interview he made the following statement about the Church: “I think it is one of the tragedies of our nation, one of the shameful tragedies, that eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is one of the most segregated hours, if not the most segregated of hours, in Christian America. I definitely think the Christian church should be integrated, and any church that stands against integration and that has a segregated body is standing against the spirit and the teachings of Jesus Christ, and it fails to be a true witness.”  Divisions in the Church, though, go far beyond racial discrimination.  Sadly, the disunity of the Body of Christ is in great evidence throughout the world.  Here in Asheville, many attempts have been made to bring the various churches together for united worship.  At an organizational meeting for a pastors’ prayer summit, the divisions became glaringly obvious.  There was one pastor who said that there could be no praying in tongues or he would leave.  Another said unless all Scripture readings were from the King James Bible he would not come.  One pastor pointed at me and asked if I was Catholic, adding “I won’t pray with a heretic.”  There are liturgical churches and non-liturgical, sacramental and non-sacramental, infant baptizers and believer baptizers, Catholic, Protestant, and Messianic Jew.  And, sadly, never shall they meet under one roof.

The Psalmist said, “how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”  But how is that ever going to happen when we argue about and emphasize our differences.  Coming together in the New Jerusalem we can hear the words of this Psalm, “For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.”  So much of what divides us is cultural, not Scriptural.  We are afraid of losing what we think of as our unique identity.  We identify with the denomination instead of seeking our identity in the Lord Jesus Himself.  But what is the cure for this disunity?  Brian Zahnd, in his book Postcards from Babylon, says, “Those who feed on faith, hope, and love stand out in a culture characterized by fear; they are distinguished by the healthy glow of a robust peace.”  This is what the Psalmist is pointing toward in his call to worship in Psalm 133.  This Song of Ascent is calling to the returning Jews to focus on the Lord and worship in His restored Temple.  The One True God, and He alone, is the heart of our unity as the People of God.  It is not doctrine, but dominion that unites us.  The Dominion of God.  His dwelling place.  His Jerusalem.

It is in the New Jerusalem that the dividing walls of hostility between believers are broken down.  The Spirit unites, and the brotherhood of the faithful without schism or rivalries can come together in peace and unity.  This was the vision that St. John witnessed on the island of Patmos.  He said, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”  (Revelation 7:9-10).  Let us thank God that this is a present reality in the New Jerusalem.  And when we dwell there, we can know that joy and peace.

The Unity of the Body – Psalm 133

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”

Psalm 133:1

Take a moment and read Psalm 133.

Families can be difficult.  Living in close proximity with others, whether blood relatives or not, can test our patience.  Unhappy divisions can lead to discord, and sadly, to broken homes, divorce, or worse.  Even less dramatic conflict can lead to familial disunity.  I have been alienated from one of my two sisters for more than half my life.  It is a source of great sorrow for me.  But the Psalmist says in the opening verse of this Song of Ascent, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”  It is the goal for all of God’s people to dwell together in love and charity toward one another.  And the psalm uses two beautiful similes to describe the blessedness of Israel being true to her calling to be one people in communion with the One God.  The Psalmist describes this prized unity as “precious oil poured on the head,” and like “the dew of Hermon falling on Mount Zion.”

As was presented in Sunday’s meditation, our calling as God’s people is to worship.  When we come together in unity, we can worship the One who seeks to make us one.  When we argue, bicker, fight with one another, demanding our own way, we inhibit the worship that God so richly deserves.  The solidarity of the family and community is fundamental to our worship.  This is why it is important for couples contemplating marriage to be of one mind in their choice of faith.  The unity of a couple in their worship of God is crucial for the stability of the home, and by extension the stability of the Church.  As Andrew Greeley said, in his book Faithful Attraction, “prayer is the most intimate act in marriage. It is more intimate than the marital embrace. In prayer, we bear our innermost feelings to God and our spouse. There is nothing more powerful in binding a couple together in a life-long marital bond.”  

While in exile the Jews had nowhere to turn for a unifying symbol of God’s Presence.  The lack of the Temple as the dwelling place of God had a serious detrimental effect on families and the community of the faithful.  But now, with the restoration of the people of God to the Holy Land, and the rebuilding of the Temple, the dissolving of family structure during the exile is overcome by unity found in the Lord.  Corporate worship has been restored, and the practice of the faith is rekindled in the family homes.

How good and pleasant it is when the families can joyfully assemble with the larger family of the Church to praise and worship the One who has made us one in Him.  And how good and pleasant it is when families of the faithful come together to honor Him in their homes in worship as wholesome families. 

Clothing The Saints With Garments of Praise – Psalm 132

“For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place:  Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy.”

Psalm 132:13,16

I would be a lousy poker player.  My mother often told me that I wear my emotions on my sleeve.  As a youngster I didn’t understand what that meant, but over time it became clear that she meant that I displayed my emotions openly in public rather than hiding them from other people.  If I was angry, sad, happy, perturbed, whatever, you would know it.  I’ve been told I have not changed with age.  So, I never play poker.  In verse 9 of today’s psalm, the Psalmist prays, “Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy.”  And in verse 16 God declares that “Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy.”  The sense of these two verses is that the priests of the Temple will openly practice righteousness, which is a change from the practices of the Temple priests before the exile, and that the people will see this change and recognize the salvation which has come to all of the returnees to Jerusalem.  The priests will wear righteousness and salvation on their sleeves.  It will all be on display in the Holy City, and “her saints will shout for joy.”

As was noted yesterday, this is a liturgical psalm used in procession to the Temple.  The first half is sung on the way to worship, and the second half is sung once the congregation has gathered in the courtyard of the Temple.  The faithful have prayed for provision, and God has provided.  Now God promises that to the blessings of food, shelter, even life itself, He will add those blessings pertaining to godliness.  He, in essence says, “I will clothe My Temple priests with salvation, with My saving graces and blessings, and with the righteousness you have requested.”  This is the promise of renewal and fulfillment of the Davidic covenant hoped for in the early verses of the psalm.  And this fulfillment would be realized in the Person and ministry of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus visited the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth, he read the first portion of Isaiah 61. After reading that messianic prophecy, He handed the scroll back to the attendant and shocked everyone by saying, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).  That passage from Isaiah, which was prophesied to the exiles after their return, goes on to talk about how God will clothe His people.  The prophecy says, “to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit” (61:3).  Jesus boldly proclaimed that He was the One who would take away the spirit of despair and give the garment of praise.  And in Him the promises of Psalm 132 are fulfilled.

That is a reason for those of us who have come into the New Jerusalem to shout for joy.  St. Paul exhorts the Church at Philippi to “rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (4:4).  And to the Church at Thessalonica he says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (5:16-18).  Life in the New Jerusalem is life in Jesus, the Son of David.  “The Lord has chosen Zion… and her saints will shout for joy.”

Celebrating the Return to the Temple – Psalm 132

“Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool! Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy.”

Psalm 132:7,9

Take a moment and read Psalm 132.

The overriding theme of this royal psalm is God’s covenant with the house of David (2 Sam. 7:4-16) to establish the dynasty for the good of the people, and eventually, to bring the world into covenant with the Lord.  Most of the psalm expresses confidence in these promises, and the requests in the psalm are for God to carry out his purpose.  As a Song of Ascent, this psalm recalls how the dynasty of David was established to ensure the stability of the realm, especially stability for the restored Jerusalem. 

Psalm 132 is a liturgical song to be sung in procession as the faithful enter into the Temple of the Lord.  The first half of the psalm, verses 1 through 9, is sung outside the doors as the people make their way toward the Holy Place.  The remaining verses, 10 through 18, are sung after the congregation has made their way into the courts of the Temple.  This is a re-enactment of King David’s celebration as the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem and the king danced before the Lord.  The Psalmist is recalling the past in order to encourage and inform the present, and to pave the way for future generations to remain faithful to the covenant and to the worship of the Lord in His holy Temple.

But what about the Ark of the Covenant?  There is no record of what became of the Ark when Jerusalem was conquered, the Temple destroyed, and the Jews were taken into exile in Babylon.  The first book of Esdras (1:54) says that the Babylonians “took all the holy vessels of the Lord, both great and small, with the vessels of the Ark of God, and the king’s treasures, and carried them away into Babylon.”  But it doesn’t mention the Ark itself.  In Rabbinic literature the final disposition of the Ark is disputed. Some rabbis hold that it must have been carried off to Babylon, while others hold that faithful priests and Levites under King Josiah hid the Ark. Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Shimon state that the Ark was, in fact, taken into Babylon.  Rabbi Yehudah, dissenting, says that the Ark was stored away in its own place, meaning somewhere on the Temple Mount.  But the Ark of the Covenant had been taken captive before, by the Philistines, during the days of Samuel.  When the Ark was brought back from the Philistines, Scripture says, “As soon as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded” (1 Samuel 4:5).  It seems likely that after the return from exile, the Ark was restored to the Temple from wherever it had been hidden.  And the Psalmist is recording the celebration accompanying its return to the Temple as the “saints shout for joy”.

For those of us who have made our home in the New Jerusalem, we can join with the ones singing this Song of Ascent and “shout for joy.”  As Patrick Reardon summarizes for us in his book Christ in the Psalms, “The Church reads all such texts as prophecies of course, finding their fulfillment solely in Christ our Lord.  He is at once the new Temple and that very son of David who gives defining substance to God’s covenant sworn to the son of Jesse.  When we pray this psalm, it is entirely with reference to its fulfillment in Jesus, the Anointed One and the Temple” (p. 264).

Celebration and Worship

“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her.”

Isaiah 66:10

Worship!  Our unique calling as the gathered people of God is to worship.  When we come together as one body, the focus of our gathering is the worship of the One who has made us one.  This is our identity.  We are worshipers of the One True God.  In these Songs of Ascent we have witnessed our pilgrimage from exile to freedom in Christ.  We made the journey, entered Zion, and established our home here with Him.  But it was not by our own power.  God Himself has birthed within us the desire to come home.  He gave us the will to persevere, and He alone deserves honor.  This is His home, His resting place, and He has made the Way for us to live in Him.  The only appropriate response is for us to worship Him.

When the returning exiles had rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, and the Temple had been restored, Nehemiah the governor called for the people of God to come together and celebrate.  He said, “At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem we sought the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres…Then I brought the leaders of Judah up onto the wall and appointed two great choirs that gave thanks…So both choirs of those who gave thanks stood in the house of God, and I and half of the officials with me…And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away” (12:27-43).

As we come toward the conclusion of our Lenten pilgrimage and the final three Songs of Ascent, it is time to lift our voices in praise of the One who has delivered us from exile and brought us home to dwell with Him.  God has cared for us every step of the way.  He has provided for our every need.  Now it is time for us to give thanks.  The prophet Isaiah exhorted the exiles to rejoice together, and give thanks.  For if we make Zion our home, we will know the peace and comfort that comes from God alone.  He will be our God, and we shall be His people.  The prophet says:

Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her;
rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her; 

that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast;
that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance.  

For thus says the Lord:
“Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, 

and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream;
and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees. 

As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.  

You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass;
and the hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants, 

and he shall show his indignation against his enemies.”  (Isaiah 66:10-14)

Let us rejoice and give thanks with the Psalmists as we sing together these final Songs of Ascent. 

Hope in the Lord Forevermore – Psalm 131

“O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.”

Psalm 131:3

The Lord has set us free, and we have entered into the fulness of life in Christ’s Kingdom, the New Jerusalem.  But what are the demands upon us as we make our homes here?  Paul tells the church at Galatia (Galatians 5:24-25) that our passions and desires — our selfishness and self-will — must be crucified, and that we must begin to live and walk in the Spirit of God.  We must be different.  We are called to live our lives in Christ.  Our lives should look like the life of Jesus.  By the grace and presence of the Holy Spirit we are being transformed into the Image of Christ.  Jesus came to do the will of His Father.  He said, “I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 5:30).  We have been living and walking in the way of the world.  Now the challenge is to be like Christ—to wed our will to His.  We have been working hard to get here to the Promised Land, but that is only the beginning.  The goal is not to get to the New Jerusalem, but to live in the New Jerusalem.  

What the Psalmist is saying in today’s Psalm is that we are to “hope in the Lord”.  This is not hoping that the Lord will do something for us, but that we may become more and more yielded to His will for our lives.  That we may become like Him in righteousness.  The returning exiles’ lives have been totally disrupted, but now they have made their way to their permanent home.  And without the Lord, there would be no way to rebuild their homes and their lives.  They needed to let go of the past and move forward with their eyes firmly fixed on the Lord.

As has been noted throughout these meditations, our world, our situation, is not significantly different from the world of those singing the Songs of Ascent.  In the midst of the disruption in our world there has been a lot of noise about rights and freedom.  For most of those making the demands to exercise their “rights”, they are simply voicing their desire to do their own will.  But Jesus makes His own demands on His disciples.  To the rich young ruler He said, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Matt. 19:21).

And to the wider crowd Jesus said, “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).  And after prophesying His Passion, Jesus said to His disciples, 

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).  We are called to leave everything and follow Him; not just our possessions, but our past, our hurts, our prejudices, even our own will.  We are to put our hope, our very lives in the life of Christ.

In that leaving, letting go of the things of this world is our hope in the Lord.  The prophet Ezekiel, speaking to the exiles, gave them the Lord’s promise:  “I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.  And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:24-28).  That is our hope for life in the New Jerusalem.

Walking Humbly with Our God – Psalm 131

“O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.”

Psalm 131:1

Take a moment and read Psalm 131. 

In A.D. 476 the Roman Empire fell.  And into the chaotic morass that followed its fall St. Benedict moved to Rome.  He relocated there in the late fifth century in hopes of receiving an academic education.  But seeing the depravity of that fallen world he set about to live differently—to live his life in Christ.  Over time others were attracted to his way of life and he formed the community that became the Order of Saint Benedict.  Members of the Order live according to a simple rule based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And as the Rule of St. Benedict instructs, “Your way of acting should be different from worldly ways” (RSB 4:20).

Our lives are filled with potential worldly distractions.  There is the internet, the worldwide web, social media, and the 24/7 news cycle.  We carry the world on our hip or in our purse in the form of a smart phone.  We cannot imagine being without immediate access to unlimited sources of information—information which may or may not be accurate.  We have come to believe that the aphorism which Francis Bacon made famous in the sixteenth century is absolutely true:  “knowledge is power.”  But we are residents of the New Jerusalem.  The only knowledge that brings absolute truth and ultimate power is the knowledge of God.  Solomon said of God, “For to know you is complete righteousness, and to know your power is the root of immortality” (Wisdom 15:3).  Some would say that we NEED to follow the news, that it is important for us to know what is going on in the world.  But at what cost?  Following secular news will provide us with a secular perspective.  Our focus will be diverted from the heart of God to the mind of the world.  This preoccupation then becomes a source of stress.  It takes a toll on our hearts, minds, and bodies.  How much time do you spend on the internet?  How much time do you spend watching cable or network news?  How much time do you spend on social media?  And . . . how much time do you spend in the Word, prayer, and quiet time with God? 

The Psalmist recognized that preoccupation with matters beyond his control was detrimental to his well-being.  He recognized that his preoccupation must be in his relationship with God, pursuing God’s will.  “O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.”  The Psalmist might know what the governor’s decisions were, but he didn’t spend time questioning those decisions.  He relished participation in communal worship, but was not overly concerned about which scrolls were read or songs were sung.  He knew the walls were not completely restored, but he knew his part in that effort, and applied himself only to that work.  It is simply a question of humility, not worrying about things beyond his control.  When Micah prophesied to the Jews, he declared, “…what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (6:8).  

Dwelling in the New Jerusalem means that we are to live in the world, but not in worldly ways.  Our hope is not found in political decisions or technological inventions.  We find our hope in God rather than in things of this world.  Then we can say with the Psalmist, “But I have calmed and quieted my soul…”

My Soul Waits for the Lord – Psalm 130

“My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning…”

Psalm 130:6

There is a phenomenon called the overview effect which everyone who has traveled in outer space has experienced.  Once an astronaut has escaped the atmosphere and is able to look back upon the earth, his or her perspective is dramatically altered.  One common theme is, “there are no lines.”  The space farer cannot see the artificial boundaries that we create and draw on our maps.  Another is that the planet itself looks small and vulnerable.  When Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon and looked back at the earth he said, “It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.”  There is a sense among all of those who have shared this experience that things which we have considered important, even essential, to our lives, fade in the light of this new perspective.

As we make our home in the New Jerusalem, we all need a transformed perspective.  We need an overview effect so that we can begin to see the world around us, and those who live in it, from the perspective of God.  We need to see the lines that we have drawn between ourselves and others disappear, and see the other as God sees him or her.

One of the reasons it is important to take time to pause and immerse ourselves in quiet time with God, whether it is a spiritual retreat at a monastery, or simply a regularly scheduled silent time apart from the hectic busyness of daily life, is that it helps us get that perspective.  As I am writing this meditation, I am on a “retreat”.  But this retreat is VERY different from any other I have taken.  I am at home.  Because of the pandemic, the monastery is not fully open to guests, and it has been that way for two years.  Yet, I needed this time away, to get silent, to be with God and hear His voice.  I needed, like the Psalmist, to “wait for the Lord.”  It is not ideal, but it is quiet time with the Lord, a waiting upon Him.

In verses 5 and 6 of Psalm 130, the Psalmist is declaring that he puts his trust in God’s forgiveness.  He knows that help will come from the Lord, and from no other source.  Three times in those two verses the Psalmist declares, “I wait for the Lord.”  Dwelling in the New Jerusalem demands a transformed heart and a change in perspective.  That transformation is an on-going process, and requires patience and accountability.  We cannot see ourselves objectively, and so we need to be able to be held accountable to our brothers and sisters in Christ for how we are living our life in Christ.  And we need to wait patiently on the Lord as He works His change in us.

One of my prayers during this retreat is that, at this time in our history when tensions are high and those invisible dividing lines which we draw between our selves and our neighbors have become more numerous and distinct, God will give me an overview effect.  That I may see those around me with the eyes of Christ.  That I may see, with the eyes of Christ, the harried store clerk, the impatient driver, those who differ from me politically, economically, socially, even theologically.  God give me the eyes to see them with the Love that you have for them.  May the dividing wall of hostility disappear, and may I love them with the Love that you have shown for me.  Like the watchman who awaits the dawn, may my soul wait for the Lord to show His mercy.  In Him we can all put our hope.