UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

READ PSALM 81-85

SUGGESTED PATTERN Read Psalm 81-85 with your spouse or household then re-read Psalm 84 again with spouse or household, then spend 2 mins in silence focussing on  Psalm 84:1,2,5,6,7,  asking the Lord, the question “What does this text mean?” then 2 mins in silence asking the Lord what He is saying to you personally through Psalm 84:1,2,5,6,7  and then share together with your spouse or household what the Lord has been saying. Finally one person reads out loud the devotional below and then pray for one another.  

PSALM 84:1,2,5,6,7 “ How lovely is your dwelling place,  Lord Almighty!  My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God…. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.

(1)John Wesley, the Father of Methodism,  rode 250,000 miles on horseback for 65 years in ministry preaching the gospel around this country until he died on 2 March 1791. I have just completed a Christian heritage tour visiting John Wesley’s house in London and yesterday I was standing in the bedroom where he died and his last words were, “The best of all God is with us.”

 “If you don’t know where you’re going you will probably end up somewhere else.” John Wesley knew where he was going. His heart was set on pilgrimage. In Day 16, I referenced Revelation 21:3, “The dwelling of God is with man and he will live with them they will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God.” Moses in Exodus 33:15, said to the LORD, “If your presence does not go with us, don’t bring us up from here.”

In this beautiful Psalm , the psalmist focuses on this goal of the believer, to dwell with God. Each year pilgrims from all over Israel made their way to Jerusalem for the great festivals this is one of the songs the pilgrims would have sung on the journey and reflects their impatience to arrive, (Psalm 84: 2). The Valley of Baca, means the valley of trouble. This passage makes me think of the gift of tears and trouble. The Lord transforms the place of tears, into a place of springs on our earthly pilgrimage if we yield it to him. Benedict, the father of Benedictine monasticism, that over the centuries Christianized Europe, said  in his “Rule”,(2) “we must be aware that he will only listen to us if we pray not so much at length but with purity of heart and tears of compunction.”

In John Wesley’s en-suite prayer closet, in London that I visited last week, the custodians have positioned a large bible and a copy of the Methodist covenant. Reading it, I am challenged by John. Wesley’s commitment to the Lord and the Scriptures , on his earthly pilgrimage (3) “I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing.I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.”

In his book “Scripture as Real Presence,” Hans Boersma says, that he is convinced that (4)“everything around us is sacramental in the sense that everything God has created both points to him and makes him present.” Baptism and the Eucharist have been viewed as Sacramental in the Catholic Church, but the church fathers often used the word sacrament regarding the Scriptures. For Augustine (5) “Holy Scripture too is a sacrament inasmuch as it renders Christ present to us.”  In our earthly pilgrimage, a fresh understanding that the Scriptures are sacramental, is of the utmost importance, as the Scriptures render Christ present to us.

Prayer

My strength is in you, I set my heart on a pilgrimage to Zion. My heart and my flesh cry out to you Lord Jesus, the living incarnate ascended resurrected Son of God.

References

(1) Pollock, J. Wesley: The Preacher, 257-260.

(2) Benedict, The Rule Chapter 41, 20.

(3) The Methodist Covenant. https://www.methodist.org.uk/about-us/the-methodist-church/what-is-distinctive-about-methodism/a-covenant-with-god/#:~:text=Methodists%20hold%20an%20annual%20Covenant,lives%20and%20choices%20to%20God.

(4) Boersma, H. The Scripture as presence, 1.

(5) Boersma, H. The Scripture as presence, 2.