Psalm 73: 13 - 17 - NKJV
13 Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, And washed my hands in innocence. 14 For all day long I have been plagued, And chastened every morning. 15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,” Behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of Your children. 16 When I thought how to understand this, It was too painful for me— 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood their end. (Italics added)
My great-grandfather only
had an eighth grade education that I know of. He was a
carpenter by trade, and a farmer by necessity.
And though he was neither wealthy, nor “well educated”, he was a wise man. I remember as a 10 year old boy full of pride
telling him that I had figured out that I didn’t have to bow to pray, because God
could hear me from a standing position just fine. Pappaw took me by the hand and led me out the
back door to survey the corn rows he had planted on the land behind his house
and taught me a lesson that I have never forgotten. “You see those stalks over there? The ones up top that are standing straight
up? They’re empty. But the ones that are full and have good ears
bow under the weight. Son, if God’s
filling you up, you’re gonna naturally bow down.” I don’t know if Pappaw came up with that gem,
or if someone had taught it to him and now he was passing it on to me… but it
had an impact on me that has lasted.
The
beginning of wisdom for Pappaw started with realizing our limitations as human
beings. Foolishness began with our
forgetting that God has none. Worship
was, for him, the place that allowed wisdom to grow. And for the Psalmist, I think the same is
true. The book of Psalms is an anthology
of songs, poems, and prayers that have been spoken, sung, and prayed by
individuals and communities in a wide variety of social and historical
settings. Their mood moves back and forth
between assurance and doubt… between joy and despair, and then back again. As
people address God in the midst of varying circumstances, they can find
themselves overwhelmed by those circumstances or surprised by the overwhelming
gifts of a bountiful God in them. The
fact that God stands outside of those circumstances and chooses to speak into
them fills us up and allows us to understand a hope that we could not have
otherwise. The 73rd Psalm is
an example of just that realization. The
proclamation that entering the sanctuary of God creates a refuge for God’s child
and a restoration of faith, leads me to believe that there is a correlation
between holy spaces in worship and the gaining of wisdom that allows us to
actually believe in and then “tell of all [God’s] works” (v.28). The centrality of temple life (or worship) as
the foundation of (and formative power for) the Psalmist’s hope is shown in
Psalm 73 in a couple of ways:
1) God’s heightened presence in sacred space (or
spaces set apart from the profane world); and
2) the relationships between God
and God’s people.
There
is a strength found not only in communion with God, but also in fellowship with
one another that both empowers and encourages (hopefully) more righteous
choices to be made by God’s people.
Being both built for and by the relational aspect of covenant life leads
us more and more to take on the image of our Refuge (and maybe even become
refuge for others in the process). We
are recipients, and participants… heirs, and workers… sinners made into saints
by the receiving and responding to grace offered freely. Living a new life made worthy out of
worthlessness, dying to our old self as the new self is raised in its place,
because the God of creation seeks to be in constant relationship with us… and
gives us the ways in which to do it.
This
realization points to a strength in a covenantal communal bond that is
interconnected to and interdependent with the community of faith and our
Creator. If we are to experience any
success in our endeavors we need to be communing with the giver of all blessing
to make sure that we are seeking to align our will with God’s rather than
trying to bend God’s will to ours. In
those places, spaces and times we are being prepared to receive anew the loving
gift of our Heavenly Parent’s mercy and kindness which become a refuge against
the wickedness that seems to constantly assail us. But beyond that we are filled with strength
for what we are called by God to do at the end of Psalm 73 (and then is echoed
throughout the Gospels from the Great Commission in Matthew, to the Epistles,
et al), to “tell of all [God’s] works” to the end that God’s people and
creation are restored in the presence of their Creator.
I pray that you find a Holy place to get wiser in this week... And that through that experience you can be the salt and light that Jesus proclaimed you to be.
Your servant in Christ,
Chris
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